My non Imm B expires June 27th 2004, I wish to apply for a work permit at the end of this month (May).

Given that the visa expires end of June, will the relevant authority consider the application or does there have to be a minimum period of say three months left on the visa for a valid application to be made?

What then happens whilst the work permit is being considered and the visa expires? Is there an automatic extension given for one month?

Any advice will be appreciated.

You can apply for the work permit. In Bangkok, turn around time for a work permit is seven days. When issued, the work permit will be valifd only until the expirration date of the entry permit you have, on the day you pick up the work permit. Probably about 30 days, in your case.

With work permit, you can aply for extension of the entry permit. Granting of that extension will be based on whether your company qualifies to sponsor such an extension for you - by having 2,000,000 baht paid-in capital and four employees per foreigner, and by paying you minimum qualifying monthly salary (soon to be 50,000 - Euro/ANZAC or 60,000 baht - North Amer). If you and your employer meet thesecriteria, then when your application for extension is accepted, they will stamp it "Under consideration - come back in 30 days" - which is a defacto 30 day extension. With that stamp, you must then go back to Work Permit office and renew WP for 30 more days. It si preesntly taking about 75 days for business-based extensions to be approved - so you will have to go through at least two - and more likely three - 30 day extension cycles, for both entry and work permit.

A company like mine can handle the whole process for you - if you have better things to do with your time.

Good luck!

Steve

Indo-Siam

[email protected]

www.thaistartup.com