heretostay

There is no longer a need to return the WP. Instead your employer has to inform labour of the termination of your contract and you have to go immigraiton with a letter from your boss stating your employment has been terminated today. Then immigraiton cancels your permission to stay. If you just leave the country, no need to go to immigration.

Immigration only cancels an extension of stay, not the initial 90 days or a valid multiple entry non-B. Those remain valid.

Thanks for that, Mario.

Trouble is, I will come back to LOS later for a new job, and my new employer's lawyer says they will need both the letter from my previous boss AND a TT10 from the employment office confirming the return of the previous work permit... (They are having me leave the country and come back on a 60-day tourist visa which they will then have converted to non-immigrant B... )

Any further advice or information would be appreciated.

Ubonjoe,

Thanks for this good - and quick - help.

Just for clarification on your answer: do I give them the dates of my last trip to LOS according to a.) or to b.) below?

a. in the other passport (back from a break in April of this year, on my non-immigrant B visa extension/re-entry permit)

- or -

b. in the passport on which I am applying for a tourist visa (last trip to LOS about six or seven years ago, without a visa, under visa exemption)

Sorry to seem dense, but I think you understand that I want to minimize the risks in Singapore...

Thanks again!

Hello again,

I am leaving my job and preparing my departure from LOS (non-immigrant B visa, work permit, both valid until September) and would like to return my Work Permit to the labor office in BKK, although it was issued by a labor office upcountry. (Easier for a quick get-away later in the day via Suwannabhumi.) Will they accept it in BKK and give me the TT10 acknowledgement form?

Thanks in advance

Hi,

I just read ubonjoe's last message - I didn't expect it! The Singapore trip is booked, so I'm going. I'll pick up a full-fare refundable one-way ticket from an airline for flying out of Thailand before going to Singapore.

But....

The application form for a Tourist Visa from the Thai embassy in Singapore has a question about my last trip to Thailand. Do I answer about the last trip that I made to Thailand on my US passport (the one I'm using for the Tourist Visa), which was six or seven years ago? Or do I mention living here for the past five years (on my French passport)? Not sure how much information to give them.

The form also asks about my occupation AND employer... oops! Don't have either?! And can't admit that my last employer was a school in Thailand - as that's all in my French passport.... Do I say "unemployed"?

Thanks again for your help. Three cheers for Thaivisa.com !

Thanks all for this good advice. The tour operator that goes from On Nut to Vientiane told me the same thing, too.

I'm going to take the easiest way out: fly to Singapore. No hassles, no surprises. (Fingers crossed, of course!)

Thanks again

Hi,

Can I leave LOS on my French passport (which contains my current extension to stay) via the bridge at Nong Khai and then come back the same way using my USA passport (which will then have a 60-day tourist visa)?

Background: My new employer insists that I leave LOS and get a 60-day tourist visa in another country. They will then get the visa changed into a non-imm B (and get a new work permit). Impossible to discuss any other solution with the new employer and I don't want to make a fuss. The change of nationality is because the employer (a language school) wants to have "native-speaker" teachers. Nationality = native language?! That seems to be the rule.

Thanks in advance

I have a non-immigrant B visa with an extension to stay valid until 30 Sept 2009. My next 90-day check-in is scheduled for 12 April. I will be out of the country from 2 - 15 April. When do I need to do the next 90-day check-in? (I am based in Rayong province.)

Thanks a million.

P.S. Logically, I will "check-in" with immigration at the airport when I return to Thailand on 15 April. Does this re-set the 90-day counter to zero?

Thanks to all for the great info. Good to know that Thailand accepts that its social security system should be open to any legal resident of the country. Again , thanks for your help.

I am considering switching from my non-immigrant B visa (extended annually for five consecutive years now, along with the corresponding work permit) to an O-A retirement extension (and stopping work, of course). Would I qualify (as I do now) for Thai social security and health coverage (ประกันสังคม), and if so, for how long?

Thanks in advance.

I would like more info about the investor visa and/or permanent residence: can I get either or both by simply (I know, nothing is so simple) putting 10 million baht into a savings account in a Thai bank?

Concerning the OP: The title is misleading. The misspelled word "Prenteds" should really read "Claims" (i.e., A French lawyer claims the regulations...; he is not pretending anything!).

(The French word prétendre means "to claim" in English. The English word "pretend" should be translated as "faire semblant" in French.) Sorry if I sound pedantic. Don't ya' just love languages?

800,000 Baht in the bank. Cerificate from bank needed.

For the annual extensions of stay, do you have to show NEW money coming into the account from abroad (like for the visa application), or can you "use" the first 800,000 forever?

Thanks.

Here is the solution I'm putting in place for changing jobs from BKK to another province:

1. Returned my work permit to BKK labour office; no receipt is issued (they no longer give out a ตท10 in BKK as everything is in the computer!).

2. Went to immigration in Maptaput (Rayong) and they gave me a seven-day extension to my visa: 1,900.00 baht

3. Went to labour office Maptaput (Rayong) and requested a new work permit. Got a receipt for making the request (the work permit will take about two weeks to issue). They need to see my new visa extension before proceding (seven days is not enough). No charge (yet).

4. Went back to immigration, who then extended my visa (based on the request for a work permit) for a month: 1,900.00 baht and assurances that another extension - for the full 12-month period of my contract - would be free of charge when I bring them the work permit before the end of the 1-month extension period.

5. Went back to labour office where they took a photocopy of the new visa extension (one month), but then said they would only issue the work permit for the period covered by the visa!!!!

I will go back to immigration with the work permit, and presumably they will extend the visa through the full duration of my work contract (one year), and then back to the labour department to have the work permit extended for the same period.

By the way, the immigration officer mentioned that they allow me to do this ONLY because I am going to work for a government organization (a school). Had I been changing jobs to work for a private company, they said I would have had to leave the country and start with a new non-immigrant B visa.

I'm pretty sure this will work. The process is painful and tedious, the going back and forth is anything but fun. It's important to keep you cool - after all, TIT.

No other circumstances, no Thai spouse.

You seem to be saying that I can/should apply for the new work permit in advance - is that right? So I don't need the new extension of stay to get the new WP? (That's not what I had understood earlier, c.f. the Catch-22 reference.) This is the avenue I will pursue, as it seems like the only logical one.

In addition, I can't imagine that my current employer (yes, a government university) would let me have two employers on the WP, since my contract clearly says I cannot have other employers. So that's out.

And, if you allow this, I'd like to let off some steam: It just cannot be true - having to leave the country so that I can change jobs!?!? I need an extension of stay to get a new WP, but need a new WP to get an extension of stay?!!?! I'm going crazy, losing sleep, and want to chuck the whole thing!

Anyway, thanks for your help and I'll keep you posted. Somehow I will continue to have faith in the Thai system, leaping blindly, hoping for the best.

Wow, this sounds scary. I appreciate the "Catch-22" reference but find it hard to believe: I have to leave the country and start from scratch???

To make things worse, the school upcountry has never been through the process before. Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Are you sure the immigration people won't give me an extension to stay to cover the period that the labor ministry will take to issue the new work permit?

Thanks for your help.

On 30 September, the current extension of my non-immigrant B visa, the current extension of my work permit, and the work contract with my current employer (a government university) will all expire. (I have been in LOS and working at that university for four years; have always had the appropriate papers.)

I have decided to change employers - I will start working at a state-run junior-senior high school upcountry on 1 October. I cannot for the life of me figure out what comes first: a new work permit or a the visa extension. Could you please outline the process for me? My guess is as follows:

- current employer surrenders my work permit to the Labor Ministry; the seven-day clock starts ticking.

- the new employer applies for a new work permit at the Labor Ministry (but doesn't this require a visa extension first???)

- with new work permit in hand, I apply for the visa extension

Can you confirm the sequence (and other steps, as required) and recommend when the process should start? (My new employer is a long way from the provincial capital - Rayong - so dashing off to the Ministry of Labor or to Immigration doesn't happen; I need to pad the schedule plenty.) Is a teaching license needed (I have never had one, since I have been working at a university)? If so, where does the application for the license fit into the sequence of events?

Thanks a million.