My American friend is coming to Thailand on a 2 week work visa. If he wanted to stay longer, I guess on a visa exempt, would he have to leave the country to do that or could he simply go to immigration?

A work visa does not exist. 

If coming to work he would a non-b visa that allows a 90 day entry and then get a 15 day work permit based upon urgent work. After the work ends he could stay until the the 90 day entry ends.

Permission to work and stay are two separate permits..

 

I assume you mean that he’s been given temporary permission (“2 weeks”) to work. If so he should be entering with a non-immigrant ‘B’ visa, and will probably be stamped in for 90 days. If that’s the case he will be limited to working for the two weeks, but could stay for the remainder of the 90 day permission to stay.

 

He can, at anytime, do a “visa run” to get a new 30 day visa exempt entry that could be extended by 30 days.

I forgot to ask if he could enter somehow, say 2 weeks, before his permission to work commences. Not sure if I am being clear.

 

Can he be a tourist for a couple weeks before the permission to work? I guess I don't know enough to ask a clear question. I hope you understand.

There is no such thing as a two week work visa. You need to get your facts straight before trying to confuse people.

32 minutes ago, elgenon said:

I forgot to ask if he could enter somehow, say 2 weeks, before his permission to work commences.

Yes he could enter before the work starts.

1 hour ago, murphya33 said:

There is no such thing as a two week work visa. You need to get your facts straight before trying to confuse people.

It is possible to get temporary permission to work for two weeks.

1 hour ago, elgenon said:

I forgot to ask if he could enter somehow, say 2 weeks, before his permission to work commences. Not sure if I am being clear.

 

Can he be a tourist for a couple weeks before the permission to work? I guess I don't know enough to ask a clear question. I hope you understand.

As I said the permission to stay and permission to work are two separate things. 

 

They can enter as soon as the visa is issued and stay for as long as permission is granted. They can only work during the two week period the permission to work is granted. They can “be a tourist” when not working.

There is the non-immigrant EX visa, that allows entry as an expert or specialist, my previous company did have specialists coming to repair ships in Thailand using this visas and the correct permission from the labour department, I just cannot remember if the entries were 90 days, or the period that the labour department would allow them to carry out the specialist duties without a full on WP, which was a max. of 15 days.

45 minutes ago, Mattd said:

There is the non-immigrant EX visa, that allows entry as an expert or specialist, my previous company did have specialists coming to repair ships in Thailand using this visas and the correct permission from the labour department, I just cannot remember if the entries were 90 days, or the period that the labour department would allow them to carry out the specialist duties without a full on WP, which was a max. of 15 days.

The non-ex visa is not issued very often. Most people enter on a non-b visa and then get the 15 day work permit for urgent work.

The non-ex visa would allow a 90 day entry like other non immigrant visas do.

He sent me a photo of his visa and it is a non-b. He maintains he has a work visa and he can only stay for the 2 weeks of his work. So I hope to educate him and myself. If he can come early, he will be here while I am here which would be fun.

 

I asked him to look at his Permission to Stay from a previous trip. That should show how long he is able to be here which would be 60 + 30, correct?

 

Thanks for your expert information. Now I just need to convince him.

4 minutes ago, elgenon said:

He sent me a photo of his visa and it is a non-b. He maintains he has a work visa and he can only stay for the 2 weeks of his work. So I hope to educate him and myself. If he can come early, he will be here while I am here which would be fun.

 

I asked him to look at his Permission to Stay from a previous trip. That should show how long he is able to be here which would be 60 + 30, correct?

 

Thanks for your expert information. Now I just need to convince him.

If his previous stay was also a non-b, then his permission to stay would have been for 90 days.

Yes, that's why I want him to look at it.

You might check to see if what he considers "work" is still work under the definition of work under the new work permit law.  The earlier definition was extremely vague and narrow, but the definition in the new law is broader, but still (and this is probably unavoidable) somewhat ambiguous.  

 

This was said several times above, but it can't be repeated enough (since if causes considerable confusion) but the government authorities and laws that handle and govern (a) the right to enter and stay in Thailand (e.g., visas, etc.) and (b) work in Thailand are entirely different.  This is part of Thailand's "charm".

8 minutes ago, Horace said:

You might check to see if what he considers "work" is still work under the definition of work under the new work permit law.  The earlier definition was extremely vague and narrow, but the definition in the new law is broader, but still (and this is probably unavoidable) somewhat ambiguous. 

It sounds like the OP's friend is going to be carrying out temporary work that is of an expert type, you can get a special 15 day permit for this type of work, which is pre-approved by the labour department.

3 hours ago, elgenon said:

He sent me a photo of his visa and it is a non-b. He maintains he has a work visa and he can only stay for the 2 weeks of his work. So I hope to educate him and myself. If he can come early, he will be here while I am here which would be fun.

 

I asked him to look at his Permission to Stay from a previous trip. That should show how long he is able to be here which would be 60 + 30, correct?

 

Thanks for your expert information. Now I just need to convince him.

I understand his confusion as he’s been given a visa on the basis of work. But he simply has a non immigrant visa which category (‘B’) allows him to work if he has separate permission to work.

 

When he enters the country, and hands over his passport, the IO has no idea what work he will be doing or even if he has permission to work, The IO will grant permission to stay for 90 days (not 60 + 30). He will be able to stay for the whole of the 90 days regardless of whether he works or not.

42 minutes ago, Horace said:

You might check to see if what he considers "work" is still work under the definition of work under the new work permit law.  The earlier definition was extremely vague and narrow, but the definition in the new law is broader, but still (and this is probably unavoidable) somewhat ambiguous.  

What “new work permit law” are you referring to?

On 6/14/2018 at 3:42 PM, elviajero said:

I understand his confusion as he’s been given a visa on the basis of work. But he simply has a non immigrant visa which category (‘B’) allows him to work if he has separate permission to work.

 

When he enters the country, and hands over his passport, the IO has no idea what work he will be doing or even if he has permission to work, The IO will grant permission to stay for 90 days (not 60 + 30). He will be able to stay for the whole of the 90 days regardless of whether he works or not.

That sounds great.I sent him your words. I think he is still dubious because he has been under the wrong impression for a long time. I am working on him. 5555