Visa

Sponsorship & Assistance for Non-Immigrant Business Visa
The teachers enrolled for the TESOL Certification Program with American TESOL are expected to bear the entire cost involved in acquiring the Non-Immigrant B Visa.

Teachers enrolled for the special TESOL and teaching project with ATI are allowed to enter Thailand on a free 30 day transit Visa. But in order to acquire work permit, it is necessary to obtain the Non-Immigrant B Visa. The best option for the teachers is to collect Non-Immigrant B Visas back home, issued by Thai consulate or embassy, shortly before departure. Alternatively, the South Africans need to visit Malaysia and others, Laos to bag a Non-Immigrant B Visa through visa run, while in Thailand.

ATI will also assist those TESOL trainees who could not land in Thailand with a Visa. to secure a 90 day single entry Non-Immigrant B Visa from Laos. For a Visa trip to Laos, a teacher is expected to cough up about 5000 – 6000 (approximately) baht that covers transportation, accommodation, Laos Visa, and Thai Non-Immigrant B Visa. It is necessary to pay the cost to ATI in advance and also follow the set schedule prepared by ATI.

ATI aims at sending the entire set of relevant Visa papers to the respective Thai Embassy / Consulate for processing, 1 month in advance, before the ESL teachers land. Therefore, those who have travel plans elsewhere before landing in Thailand may not get the Non Immigrant B visa from the third country with the papers sent for the Visa! (If you are traveling in Asia before landing in Thailand). The alternative is to enter Thailand with 60-days Tourist Visa (30 days Visa on arrival is not recommended) and eventually get it transformed in Thailand, else appear for a Visa-run. The charges involved would approximately sum up to 5000 – 6000 baht.

Important Note:-

* The Phuket Group starting from 29th September, please note you are going to teach in a school group called Sri Siam School; this school operates as ESL providers to Thai Government & Private Schools all over Thailand. This Group will also give you a specialized 5 days training in Bangkok after the TESOL in Phuket. Recently we have noticed that when you apply for the Non Immigrant B visa in your country and also get the same, in your visa the school name is mentioned where you are going to teach. This means you are bound by law to teach in the same school and that school location only. If you are not doing that after landing in Thailand then you need to go for canceling the visa and apply for fresh visa again from the nearest Thai embassy. This is a big hassle, and to avoid this hassle we have worked out a solution from last semester.

You are requested to apply for a simple 6O day's tourist Visa from your home country Thai embassy or any other country where you are presently traveling. The School will convert your visa from Tourist Visa to Non Immigrant B visa in Thailand itself. This will not only solve the problem of canceling visa, but will also allow you to convert in country instead of again going out of Thailand. Secondly the cost factor also. The cost of Tourist Visa and conversion comes to much less!

To know more about Visa please click here.

Work Permit
Work Permit can be applied for, only after the teacher has secured the Non-Immigrant B Visa. Application is forwarded, approximately after 2 weeks of teaching. The TESOL trained teachers assigned for ESL teaching in local schools pay for the copies of educational documents, passport pages, health certificate and photographs, whereas the school clears the processing fee in fetching the work permit.

*In the case of shifting to a different school (different province) once the work permit has been arranged for, the teacher is responsible for bearing the cost of a new work permit.