Thinking of emigrating - advice welcomed pls

ruggedtoast

bendix wrote: »

While, i concur in general that the vast majority of the expat scene in Thailand is dodgy, it most certainly is not easy to get in there. Their visa regulations are tougher than those in the UK and Australia.

The expat scene in Thailand is very diverse. There are the executives and diplomats and genuine family people at one level, but under that are the so- called English teachers, eking out a living on a few hundred pounds a month because of the sex scene, and under them are the hordes of losers, wastrels and low-life who slip through the net somehow.

Having to eke out a deprived existence on less than £4000 a month no doubt.

You can enter as a tourist then send your passport down to Singapore for £30 to get stamped every six months. Not exactly difficult, you dont even have to go with it.

Or the esl brigade seem to bump along by buying a fake degree on the Khao San Road and then "working". In any case it most certainly is not at all difficult for a westerner to move to Thailand if they want.

Cornball

You'd both need degrees or a strong trade to get decent work in Canada. It's very difficult for a school leaver to work their way up the same way you can in the UK. You can't even get in the door for an interview.

cpdc1030 wrote: »

No thoughts about returning at all (it has only been 3 years). We're happier here and can actually save for our future - which was very difficult in Canada with the lower salaries. There is a glut of people in IT and Accounts in Canada - much more so than in the UK so we earn a lot more here. Also we enjoy the extra annual leave and cheap/easy travel to Europe and Asia, and generally we find people are friendlier than in Canada. But we're youngish professionals and don't have kids.

I would have to say that Canada is probably a better place to settle down and raise a family. I'd say the education system is also a bit better than it is in England.

I can't really concur about the wages being lower in Canada, it depends where you live really. London (UK) pays well because everything is more expensive. My 22 yr old Sis-in-law just bought a 3 bed detached house on a nurses wage. She'd never be able to do that in the UK.

I would definitely agree with the Holiday though. I am considering returning home when I get citizenship but can't bear the thought of only 2 weeks!

bendix

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Having to eke out a deprived existence on less than £4000 a month no doubt.

You can enter as a tourist then send your passport down to Singapore for £30 to get stamped every six months. Not exactly difficult, you dont even have to go with it.

Or the esl brigade seem to bump along by buying a fake degree on the Khao San Road and then "working". In any case it most certainly is not at all difficult for a westerner to move to Thailand if they want.

Utter nonsense, and you obviously have no experience of it personally, or if you do, then not recently.

Here are the facts:

You can now enter without a visa, and you get a 30 or 60 day right of stay. You can then go to a border and get a visa (the cost depends on which border you go to, how friendly the border people are, and a variety of other considerations), but the usual cost is around £40-£50. You will likely get a three month extension.

However, the new regulations are that you can only do that two times in a twelve month period, effectively closing a loophole which allowed tourists to stay indefinitely.

Get your facts right.

Re ESL teachers, there are two types. Those working in real international schools, none of whom will accept fake degrees (dont you think they check?) and the small independents for whom a degree has never been required anyway. It is the latter which pay £400-£500 a month, a difficult sum because while it will get you a work visa for a year, it is not enough to get a renewal (minimum salary requirements apply for foreigners wanting long term work visas).

Of course, your knowledge may be better than mine. After all, I've just returned from living there for 4-5 years.

I repeat - it is NOT easy to live there legally.

ruggedtoast

Goodness me, well I stand corrected.

You're wrong about the fake degrees though. Thai immigration officials have been rubber stamping Khao San University certificates for years.

http://www.ajarnforum.net/vb/the-staffroom/40071-fake-degrees.html

bendix

It's a moot point. As I already mentioned, degrees - either real or fake - have not been required for teaching ESL in Thailand, except in the highest quality international schools, and those schools will have their own systems to root out fake degrees. Whether or not Thai immigration - either through mistakes or, more usually, with a bribe - 'stamp' them is completely irrelevant.

And, for the record, Thai immigration has no interest in degrees. They only issue entry visas, and there are no education requirements for that. It is the Thai Dept of Labour which issues work permits, a completely different process.

As for citing, ajarnforum . . ...in the Thailand expat community it is universally derided as a forum for idiots, most of whom don't have a clue what they are talking about. Myths such as Khao San Road degrees proliferate on there - I'd be wary about using it as a source of fact.

Much more accurate - and grounded in fact - visa information is available on thaivisa.com/forum

mrposhman

credit_crunch wrote: »

hi i don't know if this is posted in the righ place - so if it isn't please feel free to move it!

i know the economy worldwide isn't great at the moment, but I have started to think about emigrating. it is ver very early days on my part - if i did decide to go it would probably be around this time next year

i would need to decide whether to rent or sell my own house, and more importantly decide where to go!! i would prefer an english speaking country - so usa or oz would be the top2 or else spain - as i know a little spanish and wouldn't find the language such a barrier

there are hundreds of thoughts going through my head at the mo, but what i would like advice on is:
how to whittle it down to a few areas of definite interest
how to look at properties available to buy/rent
how to search for jobs - at this moment in time my oh is a greenkeeper/landscaper gardener, and i work in admin so pref in these areas rather than casual bar work etc

hope someone can point me in the right direction, or offer some advice on how to start looking into emigrating in more detail

thanks in advance and sorry if its a bit higglty pigglty!

I'm leaving for Oz in a little over a month (its creeping up very fast, but the quicker it does the sooner I get to see my 1 year old again) and went on a spouse visa (not married but been with her for more than 12 months - lived together) and this was very easy to get, took less than a month to get all the paperwork off and returned.

Obviously, that option may not be open to you but seriously check out the points system, if you qualify then you should seriously consider it. If only one of you and your b/f can get a visa this way, I think you can take family / partners on the same visa, but be careful as if you split up then the "added one on" may not be legal to stay in the country any longer.

Have you been to any of these places to decide where to go, as Oz is very different in all its major cities. All have completely different characteristics.

If you want to look for jobs check out. www.seek.com.au

House prices seem fairly high (their prices) but are still way cheaper than the UK.

Don't be clouded by the income tax view, its true that income tax is less pleasing to the eye than the UK system but remember that their version of NI is far cheaper (check out medicare) and their goods sales tax is also cheaper than ours so what you lose in income tax you gain elsewhere.

I know nothing about canada or NZ as have been to neither, though I know some about the US and its incredibly hard toget into as others have stated. I would love to eventually end up in Florida but whether or not that happens I don't know. As someone has stated you need a full sponsorship from a company in the US to even be considered for a visa. My cousin currently lives their with his wife, who got a job on a new visa (2 years ago) using her degree that she got in Oz. He went on her visa and they are both worried as if she loses her job, they both lose their residency status and have something like 10 days to get out. They both work in hospitality but are good at their jobs so should be ok.

Hope this helps and I'm on my 35 day countdown now ;)

mrposhman

ruggedtoast wrote: »

I added up my wife and Is potential points for an Aus emigrate once , her dad was born there and she has family there, which helped a bit.

My wifes job in HR counts as an actual profession which earns her points, mine in sort of marketing sort of recruitment sort of sales in the public sector, doesnt.

I think I worked out that if I did a Masters degree and she got a promotion and we both got a payrise, and job offersmlined up, then we might almost make the minumum number of points.

NZ was a lot more lenient.

Can you wife not get citizenship through descent?

My daughter could as my girlfriend is australian and my daughter has both british and australian passports.

If she can then you can gain entry on the spouse visa route. Cheaper and easier. :D

Generali

mrposhman wrote: »

Can you wife not get citizenship through descent?

My daughter could as my girlfriend is australian and my daughter has both british and australian passports.

If she can then you can gain entry on the spouse visa route. Cheaper and easier. :D

I got a type 100 Spousal visa and it was pretty straightforward if a little intrusive. They wanted to see evidence of shared holidays for example so we had to send in holiday snaps!

mrposhman

Generali wrote: »

I got a type 100 Spousal visa and it was pretty straightforward if a little intrusive. They wanted to see evidence of shared holidays for example so we had to send in holiday snaps!

I've got a type 309 visa which I think is the pre-curser to your visa (ie. yours is permanent and mines for 2 years) so it leads to your visa.

They didn't go into quite as much detail as with yours, no holiday snaps or anything but we had rental agreements, bills and our little girl is obviously ours and I think that helped a lot.

My mate who went out on that visa last year though had to provide a lot more than we did as he owned his house and couldn't provide as much documentation as to their living arrangements so I think he had to provide things similar to what you had to provide.

seven-day-weekend

Unless you speak fluent Spanish (or one of the regional languages), your chance of getting ANY employmentt, other than casual amongst expats, are virtually none in Spain.

Your areas of experience would not be too sought after either. I dont think they are much into greenkeepers, especially down south, where it is largely desert (although there are golf courses ). Likewise your admin skills would require fluent Spanish .

Do remember also that Spain has the one of the highest unemployment rates in Europe - and that's for Spaniards!

One thing you may be able to do, if you are prepared to live near a large city, is teach English as a Foreign Language, although even these positions are thin on the ground. You will need the TEFL Certificate. I did the Introductory course in the link below before I came out here (You'd then need to do the full course, I think its about £1000). I didnt carry on with it because I'm in a very rural area of Spain - there is no work. and no-one can afford to pay the fees anyway.

http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/GenerateContent?CONTENT_ITEM_ID=2977&CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE=0&MENU_ID=125

Hope this helps.