Married to Thai - Work Permit under privaled conditions - anyone heard of this?

[frozenpuck]

I was reading a thai attorney website and it states the following:

 

If married to Thai spouse

If a foreign employee is married to a Thai citizen, he/she is then entitled to apply for a work permit under privileged conditions from the Department of Employment. For such work permit, only two (2) Thai staff need to be employed for this foreigner.

There is no requirement for a non-immigrant-B-visa in connection with such work permit, the non-immigrant-O-visa is sufficient.

 

has anyone heard of this? or actually utilized it?

[elviajero]

Yes that is all possible. However, whether or not you'll only need 2 or the usual 4 Thai employees will be down to the Labour Office issuing the WP.

[NickJ]

There is a stipulation. The Business has to be your family business and the work permit is granted to assist your wife's family business.You also must be married for a certain amount of time. I think two years.

I was offered this from an IO.  I knew the IO fairly well. I just didn't want to work.

I doubt most people who learn of this will ever be able to make much of it. I got the feeling the IO was doing me a favor as her and my wife were doing a side business together. 

[TerryLH]

1 hour ago, NickJ said:

There is a stipulation. The Business has to be your family business and the work permit is granted to assist your wife's family business.You also must be married for a certain amount of time. I think two years.

No such stipulation.  Bad info.

You do know, don't you, that immigration officers don't have anything to do with work permits?

 

I've personally had many WP's with a Non O based on marriage.  My first one was in 1995.

 

 

[stevenl]

I have a workpermit on this basis, for almost 15 years now.

[BritTim]

4 hours ago, TerryLH said:

No such stipulation.  Bad info.

You do know, don't you, that immigration officers don't have anything to do with work permits?

 

I've personally had many WP's with a Non O based on marriage.  My first one was in 1995.

I think you are misinterpreting his post. He is not claiming there are limitations in getting a work permit on a Non O. He is saying that the reduction in the ratio of Thai to foreign workers is only relaxed for a family business: a different matter.

[anon789561]

if anyone is able to answer the OP's question it'd be good to know

[ubonjoe]

42 minutes ago, BritTim said:

He is saying that the reduction in the ratio of Thai to foreign workers is only relaxed for a family business: a different matter.

That is not correct either. But the 2 Thai employee rule was eliminated in a ministerial order in late 2010 or early 2011. But some work permit offices will issue one with only 2 employees.

The companies registered capital is also reduced from 2 to 1 million baht.

[anon789561]

20 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

That is not correct either. But the 2 Thai employee rule was eliminated in a ministerial order in late 2010 or early 2011. But some work permit offices will issue one with only 2 employees.

The companies registered capital is also reduced from 2 to 1 million baht.

so if a company has 2 farang staff and 9 thais, for example,  and the company wanted to hire another farang then potentially if that farang has been married for a certain amount of time, some labour offices might do the permit with just one more additional thai staff? or have i got that completely wrong

[ubonjoe]

2 minutes ago, Happy enough said:

so if a company has 2 farang staff and 9 thais, for example,  and the company wanted to hire another farang then potentially if that farang has been married for a certain amount of time, some labour offices might do the permit with just one more additional thai staff? or have i got that completely wrong

You have it wrong. If the foreign staff were married to a Thai only 2 Thai staff per employee would be needed. If not married to a Thai 4 Thai staff would be needed for each one of them.

There is no clause in the rules stating they have be married any amount of time.

[anon789561]

4 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

You have it wrong. If the foreign staff were married to a Thai only 2 Thai staff per employee would be needed. If not married to a Thai 4 Thai staff would be needed for each one of them.

There is no clause in the rules stating they have be married any amount of time.

so i think i'm half right then but maybe didn't make it clear. it's a real example that's why interested to know. so now there are 9 thais and 2 farangs (unmarried) so the company has the 8 required for them. if it adds another farang who is married to a thai then would the company then just need to hire one more thai to make up the 2 for the new farang as opposed to if it hired an unmarried farang then it would still need another 3 thai staff to hire that person?

[ubonjoe]

8 minutes ago, Happy enough said:

so i think i'm half right then but maybe didn't make it clear. it's a real example that's why interested to know. so now there are 9 thais and 2 farangs (unmarried) so the company has the 8 required for them. if it adds another farang who is married to a thai then would the company then just need to hire one more thai to make up the 2 for the new farang as opposed to if it hired an unmarried farang then it would still need another 3 thai staff to hire that person?

You would only need one more Thai employee in that case.

You would also only need 1 million baht more of the company's registered capital unless it was already more than 5 million baht.

[anon789561]

thanks OP and UJ, first i had heard of this. 

[Classic Ray]

When my wife formed her company a year ago, she only had to have 1 million baht in declared capital and have two Thai employees (including her as MD) for me as a foreigner to be granted a work permit. It has just been renewed for a further year in the easiest and quickest interaction I have ever had with a government department here at the Ministry of Labour in Chiangmai. 

[TravelerEastWest]

49 minutes ago, Classic Ray said:

When my wife formed her company a year ago, she only had to have 1 million baht in declared capital and have two Thai employees (including her as MD) for me as a foreigner to be granted a work permit. It has just been renewed for a further year in the easiest and quickest interaction I have ever had with a government department here at the Ministry of Labour in Chiangmai. 

Correct - from experience.

 

Normally in Chiang Mai you can get a 2 year work permit but not always and not in every province...

 

Note in Chiang Mai your company does not need to be in the VAT system but in other areas the rules acn be different.

[TerryLH]

5 hours ago, BritTim said:

I think you are misinterpreting his post. He is not claiming there are limitations in getting a work permit on a Non O. He is saying that the reduction in the ratio of Thai to foreign workers is only relaxed for a family business: a different matter.

And you think that's good info?

[elviajero]

7 hours ago, Happy enough said:

so if a company has 2 farang staff and 9 thais, for example,  and the company wanted to hire another farang then potentially if that farang has been married for a certain amount of time, some labour offices might do the permit with just one more additional thai staff? or have i got that completely wrong

In a company/business like this you would have little to no chance of getting a Labour office to apply the two Thai employee ratio.

 

The rule is aimed at husband/wife run businesses and these days probably only granted to small husband/wife businesses.

[anon789561]

21 hours ago, elviajero said:

In a company/business like this you would have little to no chance of getting a Labour office to apply the two Thai employee ratio.

 

The rule is aimed at husband/wife run businesses and these days probably only granted to small husband/wife businesses.

Perhaps you're correct. I'll let you know next week 

[TravelerEastWest]

On 10/6/2017 at 3:39 PM, elviajero said:

In a company/business like this you would have little to no chance of getting a Labour office to apply the two Thai employee ratio.

 

The rule is aimed at husband/wife run businesses and these days probably only granted to small husband/wife businesses.

Husband/wife business is not a requirement - from experience in Bangkok and Chiang Mai.

 

I am not aware of any rules regarding the size of a company - can anyone confirm current rules or are there no rules anymore as another poster stated?

 

Perhaps another province may be different?