I have lived in Thailand for 1 year and went back to Australia with my Thai wife, late September 2006. My wife had to return to Thailand in Late December 2006 due to the 8503 condition being stamped in her passport. I am about to put in an application for my wife to come and live with me in Australia, however I was unfairly dismissed from my job on Thursday and am under the impression you need to be working for immigrations criteria.

I am thinking about joining my wife in Thailand and putting the paper work in with her and waiting with her until the decision. I have read the rules to apply form Australia and there is no criterion for the 400000 baht, which is a good thing as the dollar has dropped to 26 baht now. I need an introduction letter of my wife, a copy of her I.D. card, copy of our marriage certificate, my wife has already done the x-ray and health checks, I have got our marriage certificate translated and am obtaining the affidavits of friends and family.

The question is I want to work and I need to no if I can do this on a marriage visa, as it does not say you can not, but does so on a retirement visa.

You can apply for a Non Immigrant O visa based on your marriage,

at any of the Thai Consulates in Australia.

All you should need is a copy of your marriage cert and wife's passport.

Once in Thailand you will be able to extend the visa for one year if you can show a combined

family income of 40K baht a month.

Now the bad news.

Unless you have some very special skill that is not readily available in Thailand you will find it very difficult to get a job.

Any company who wants to apply for a Work Permit for you has to show that the post cannot be filled by a local.

I guess you are asking about working in Thailand during your wait for visa to Oz for the wife. You can not work without a work permit. A work permit could be issued on a non immigrant O visa (which is issued to visit family (wife)). But as said unless you have very special qualification it would not be likely - especially for a short term.

As your goal seems to be to take her to Oz believe you would be best served to look for employment there and hopefully build up savings rather than to be spending. As for Oz requirements do not know them but the other visa forum will have more experience on that if you wish to post there. I suspect you may be able to have family help in meeting requirements if required. They would also understand "8503" perhaps.

Thank you for your time in answering my question.

I guess you are asking about working in Thailand during your wait for visa to Oz for the wife. You can not work without a work permit. A work permit could be issued on a non immigrant O visa (which is issued to visit family (wife)). But as said unless you have very special qualification it would not be likely - especially for a short term.

As your goal seems to be to take her to Oz believe you would be best served to look for employment there and hopefully build up savings rather than to be spending. As for Oz requirements do not know them but the other visa forum will have more experience on that if you wish to post there. I suspect you may be able to have family help in meeting requirements if required. They would also understand "8503" perhaps.

I am sorry I should of explained what a 8503 is, it is a condition the authorities put in your passport it means "no further stay" the only way around it is to ask for a waiver but you need a really good excuse to obtain that.