Volunteer--no work permit required--visa extension

[Michael N]

I entered Thailand on a non-B 90-days visa to work as an academic volunteer. Upon applying for the work permit, I was told that I could work right away. I did not need any work permit any longer since the law had been changed in March 2018. That's fine with me. However, the question then is how can I extend my visa if Immigration still insist on seeing the work permit (be it non-B or Non-O Volunteer). I have seen an article on this on Thai Visa, I think from about August), saying that hundreds of volunteers had encountered this problem. Is there anybody who can tell me how this issue has been resolved? Btw, I work in Bangkok, so I do not know the situation in Chiang Mai.

[ubonjoe]

22 minutes ago, Michael N said:

Upon applying for the work permit, I was told that I could work right away. I did not need any work permit any longer since the law had been changed in March 2018.

Who told you that? As far as I know volunteer work still needs work permit.

Immigration has not changed their requirements for extensions based upon working as a volunteer. If it was no longer required they would of changed their requirements by doing a change to the police order which has not been done.

[Michael N]

11 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Who told you that? As far as I know volunteer work still needs work permit.

Immigration has not changed their requirements for extensions based upon working as a volunteer. If it was no longer required they would of changed their requirements by doing a change to the police order which has not been done.

The Bangkok Labor Office at the Ministry of Labor rejected my work permit application arguing that I did not gain any income or benefits from my work. This kind of work does not need a work permit since the second amendment to the Royal Decree governing foreign workers. This amendment came into effect this March. It changed the definition of "work". Previously, this covered both paid and non-paid (volunteer) jobs. The new definition is "kanprakopachip" (การประกอบอาชีพ), meaning that you work as a paid professional. By the way, this same amendment also exempted all short-term internships, meeting attendances, etc. from having to apply for a work permit. Thus, this amendments has a number of positive changes. Unfortunately, though, there does not seem to have been an adjustment on the Immigration side, as far as I know.

[ubonjoe]

Immigration has certainly not changed their requirements. Perhaps the Labor Ministry needs to let them know that volunteer work no longer requires a work permit.

I think the organization you are working with needs to contact immigration about it to get a formal  ruling from them about it.

[Michael N]

What you are saying is that, when time comes, I should take my application for visa extension with all the documents, minus the work permit, to Immigration, and then see, whether they accept or reject it. But I would rather know beforehand what Immigration will do. Such as in the case of Chiang Mai, where ThaiVisa reported that the labor office rejected issuing work permits to volunteers, on which Immigration reacted by not issuing visa extensions. How has this "standoff," as they called it, been resolved since the problem arose sometime in July/August of this year? I have not seen any follow-up news on this issue. So, what is the situation now in Chiang Mai, or in any other province, including Bangkok? Are there any foreign volunteers with concrete experience about this issue?

[Michael N]

57 minutes ago, Michael N said:

What you are saying is that, when time comes, I should take my application for visa extension with all the documents, minus the work permit, to Immigration, and then see, whether they accept or reject it. But I would rather know beforehand what Immigration will do. Such as in the case of Chiang Mai, where ThaiVisa reported that the labor office rejected issuing work permits to volunteers, on which Immigration reacted by not issuing visa extensions. How has this "standoff," as they called it, been resolved since the problem arose sometime in July/August of this year? I have not seen any follow-up news on this issue. So, what is the situation now in Chiang Mai, or in any other province, including Bangkok? Are there any foreign volunteers with concrete experience about this issue?

The original article I variously mentioned can be found at this link: https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/1050924-expat-volunteers-in-chiang-mai-denied-visas-in-work-permit-standoff/

[ubonjoe]

9 minutes ago, Michael N said:

The original article I variously mentioned can be found at this link:

That was in news. I had forgotten about reading it over 3 months ago. I have seen nothing about it since that article was done.

You could ask the organization you are working with inquire at immigration about it. It might of been resolved now.