Ama Rylls

Thank you all for your contributions and helpful suggestions. I will do the needful on my part. Your help was greatly appreciated. 

Hi Everyone,

Does any kind soul know if foreigners can renew a Thai Driving License without a work permit or non-immigrant visa here?

I'm here on a visa on arrival that will expire next Tuesday the 21/06/2022. 

I'd be very grateful if you could guide me on where to go, what documents to prepare and timings in BKK to make it all happen if it's at all possible.

Thank you for your kind support,

Ama

19 hours ago, JHolmesJr said:

If you had good relations in that company you could type up the letter

and they will like sign it....as long as your title and salary and duration of service is correct

you could probably state your reasons for departure in favourable terms even if they weren't.

This is probably the best way forward, I did leave on good terms. Also, if I let them write it there are bound to be grammatical errors.

Dear Forum,

Today I wanted to seek some counsel on an employment letter after termination of my employment contract at a Thai company in Phuket. 

I've heard that by law, the company is required to provide me with a letter confirming my job title, salary, start & end date, and an official company stamp. The company may not state the reason I'm no longer at the company, whether I left by choice or it was a dismissal etc.

1. Is this true? 

2. If so, by when is the company obligated to provide me with this letter? 

3. What should the contents of this letter include? 

Any useful links to official pages would go a long way.

Thank you for taking a moment to reply, your support is greatly appreciated.
 

Hello,

I would be very grateful for some counsel.

I was let go from my company yesterday with no formal warning or one month's notice. Additionally, I was sacked 7 days (5 working days and two weekend days) after the salary cut off point. I was due to complete my full year in 2 weeks from the day I was sacked.

I was promised two months' severance, 1 month for letting me go, another 1 for no prior notice. That seems fair seeing I didn't see out the year.

Should I also be paid some form of severance for no official warning, and the 7 extra days I worked after the salary cut off point? 

Thank you for your advice.

Many thanks to all who have pitched in, I spoke to my HR manager who said I should leave it with them if I'm worried as well. I would urge anyone who is worried about losing their WP to keep it at work if their HR department is reliable and trustworthy. 

I will certainly sleep sound at night knowing it's not my responsibility! 

10 hours ago, sanmyintmaung said:

has a warning to keep it either on yourself or at the place of work.

 

Thanks for sharing this, that was very helpful!

5 hours ago, MarcB said:

by law I have 4 days time to go to the police station.

Very interesting, I had no idea this was the law. I'll tell them the same thing if this every happens to me! I agree with your concern completely, it's kind of the end of the world if you lose your work permit. It helps me sleep sound at night knowing my WP is secure, I think I'll probably leave it with my HR department.

2 hours ago, edwardandtubs said:

Why would anyone want to hand over essential documents to their employer like some trafficking victim? It's very thin and lightweight so why not keep in whatever bag you carry to work?

Thank you for sharing your opinion, I do appreciate it. My concern is precisely that it is very thin and lightweight meaning it can be easily misplaced! Could you please elaborate how it makes me a 'trafficking victim' if I hand over my WP to the HR dept? I can access it whenever I need as I did in the past. I only work at once office everyday as well ????

3 hours ago, varun said:

If I remember correctly, WP should be physically located at the place of work.

Either you can keep it with you or give it to HR - your choice.

 

 

Yea I recall being told the same thing, thank you for your input. Would be great to hear other thoughts/opinion! 

Hi All,

I work in Phuket, my HR department held on to my Work Permit (WP) for me for  5 months. They recently gave it back to me to hold onto since I moved to a new office just down the road - they said it's better if I keep it in case the Immigration Officer comes to check.

I nearly had a bit of a scare the other day because I thought I had lost it, so I would really like to leave my WP at home. I've also been told if the immigration office comes I should tell him to speak to the HR manager first before showing him or saying anything. 

Would it be better to leave my WP with HR in the office close to mine or can I just leave it at home? 

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! 

23 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

Immigration does not issue work permits and has nothing to with them other than checking you have a valid one when applying for an extension of stay.

The DOE of the Labor Ministry issue work permits.

Thank you to everyone for your help!

I checked with a lawyer who tells me that I can have one work permit with two employers. But if the first company that hired me is the one that let's me go, then regardless of having a second employer on my work-permit, I still need to re-enter the country.

In this case my question is, will I face any issues at Suvarnabhumi Airport immigration when re-entering the country? 

23 hours ago, FritsSikkink said:

The new work permits don't mention your employer or address anymore. You don't get a book but a digital on your phone now.

Thank you for your response! I got my work permit in Phuket over a month ago, it's still a book. I believe it's digitised in Bangkok now.

Hello Everyone,

Wishing you all a very good morning from Phuket. I wanted to ask if it's possible to obtain two work permits from different companies in Phuket? 

I'm an Indian passport holder and I currently have a job with a company in Phuket, but if they let me go then I basically have 24 hours to get out of the country. 

This is why I want to have a second work permit as a back-up plan. Does Phuket immigration allow this? 

Alternatively, I have heard that I can have an extra address added to my current work permit, so that I will have two addresses from one company. This would mean that if one company lets me go, I don't have to leave the country because I still have my other work-permit. 

Apparently the work-permit is owned by immigration and not individual companies. Is this possible?

I would be very grateful if someone could clear that up for me.

Warm regards!

Thank you all for your helpful tips, much appreciated.

Best Wishes.

12 hours ago, JackThompson said:

Is this an "extension of stay" from immigration?  If so, it becomes invalid the day your job ends.  If it is permitted-stay from a "Visa" issued from from a Thai consulate, you can stay until April 15th on it, even if your current work ends sooner.

 

Thanks Jack,

It was not an extension of stay from immigration, that would be a work permit I believe. I acquired a non-immigrant business visa before coming to Thailand and that is a 90 day period I am about to see out on April 15th.

12 hours ago, JackThompson said:

Did they give you a debit-card with a Visa or MasterCard stamp on it?  Perhaps this can be used in ATMs abroad (mine from Bangkok Bank worked in Cambodia), but best if someone with a debit-card from that bank could confirm.

Krungsri bank gave me a debit card, I spoke to them and they have told me that if I pay 500 baht I can withdraw money in my country, subject to overseas charges.

Thanks again for your help.

Hi All,

I would appreciate some advice and clarification regarding my current situation.

Im and Indian national currently here on a non-immigrant business visa due to expire on April 15th 2019. 

I have recently found myself a new job at a different company than the one through which I got a business visa in Bangkok.

This new company is in Phuket, they are asking me to leave and return on a tourist visa to allow them enough time to process my work permit. They have said that once I return on a tourist visa, they can convert that to a work permit without me having to leave the country. 

My nationality only gets me 7 days visa extension, and a 15 day visa on arrival. None of these will offer HR at my new company enough time to process a Work Permit in Phuket. 

So I have a few questions:

1. Will i need to get my current business visa a void stamp before leaving Thailand when I do the visa run?

2. How likely am I to run into trouble with immigration at the airport/have my tourist visa application rejected because I just left Thailand on a business visa?

3. The company can arrange an agent for a THB 8-9k fee, who will help me get through immigration at the airport if needed - how likely is that to work?

4. Whats the cheapest/best way to send and access money overseas from my Thai Krungsri bank account?

Any suggestions are much appreciated, sorry if that's too many questions.

2 hours ago, Dnyy said:

Seems high, I thought a WP is somewhere around 3,000 THB.

 

https://www.interactivethailand.com/corporate/thailand-work-permit/

not what I'm told - I will look into it, thank you for your help.

5 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

Perhaps you should go to the work permit office and ask about the purported requirement.

Even for those working that did not cancel there extension had no problem getting the work permit application done. It is immigration that has stated it had to be canceled.

The work permit office does not care about your past visas or extension of stay only a work permit from before that was not canceled.

 

sure that is a good idea, I will give it a shot.

1 hour ago, Dnyy said:

Can't you just apply and if they reject your application you can proceed with plan B? 

The HR person is unwilling to make the application on my behalf as they are strapped for money already, and they won't want to spend THB 12k++ supposedly knowing the application will be rejected. 

Thanks ubonjoe, 

I appreciate your help!

I ran your points by my HR person, who told me that they don't care what type of visa it was anymore. Every visa needs a void stamp, regardless of employment visa or not, and everyone has to go to chaeng wattana before it is expired. 

Now since I did not do this, HR is saying that they will not accept my work-permit application.

According to HR - there was a case in my company with another person of the same nationality not having a void stamp on a previous non-immigrant visa, albeit it wasn't a dependent visa, and the case was rejected. 

So the options recommended to me are - leave the country and come back with a new business visa on an entirely new passport. 

Or try to pay a consultant who can't guarantee helping me even for a fee of 60k+ baht. 

Any truth to this?

Hi All,

I would be grateful for some advice in this matter. 

I am currently in Thailand on a business visa, I had a non-immigrant dependent visa last year through my dad's company. 

When I left the country last year to return with a different visa, the immigration officer at the airport did not stamp my visa with the infamous void stamp (see example attached) - A regulation that came out in July 2018 when I left the country so it applies to me.

I spoke to the HR person at my BOI company, who told me that my application for a work-permit will be rejected because my old non-immigrant visa does not have a void stamp, even though it has a used stamp.

I am also told that the void stamp needs to be acquired before the visa expires, and since the visa expired last year there is no way of getting it now at chaengwathana. 

My options are to leave the country and come back with a fresh new passport so they cannot see the previous stamp was not voided. 

The other thing is that my HR person told me in the past they had to use an external immigrations consultant for roughly THB 60,000 to get the old visa void stamped.

This rule seems ridiculous to me because I left the country before that visa expired, and came back with a different visa - nothing illegal. The immigration officer simply did not render the old visa void with a stamp - their mistake! 

Any ideas how I can get a void stamp?