Work Permit Advice

[nsitom]

I am totally confused about when you need a work permit. I have been in Thailand 2 months on a Non Resident B Multiple Entry visa and recently received an additional 90 day stamp upon returning here from a trip. I am using Thailand as a base to travel Asia to train our sales force. I do occasionally use a desk in our Thailand office for internet access and for some telephone calls. My salary and expenses go to my home bank account. I have an extended lease at a serviced apartment.

Do I need a work permit? ...and if so, will I be penalized for not having applied sooner? Also does my current 90 day stamp protect me from a visa issue?

I explaned my situation to the Thai embassy back home and got 2 different opinions as to the need for a work permit.

I would appreciate any advise.

Tom

[Indo-Siam]

Hi Tom -

You do not need to do anything. I lived here for two years as "Asian Technical Manager" for an overseas firm - paid to a US bank, and basically living in Bangkok in-between endless trips throughout the region. Thailand couldn't have cared less.

As long as your passport shows you going in and out of the country a lot, they simply ignore you.

If you did want to get a work permit - which does allow you some additional options for things like bank accounts, drivers licenses, certain mobile phone accounts, etc - you would have to have your firm open a Thai Representtive (or Regional) Office - which would then be funded by your overseas parent company - that TRO would then sponsor you for a work permit, and pay you (and withhold personal income taxes). It's quite an involved process - not for the faint of heart.

If you ever dow ant to establish a TRO, please let me know, and I'll send you details.

Good luck!

Steve Sykes

Managing Director

Indo-Siam Group

[email protected]

www.thaistartup.com

[Pink Mist]

You are working, you even need a work permit to do volunteer work here, so the matter of salary is irrelevant. Indo Siam a forum sponser can provide you with this service.

link here help

[robsamui]

Seems to me that nobody in Thailand or abroad in their embassies has much of an idea. Go to one of 4 different Thai consulates abroad and get a no-hassle Non-Im O. Got to the others, you need differing amounts of paperwork.

My suspicion is that unless there has been some national directive on a specific aspect (the recent visa-stamp frauds, for example) then each official and each embassy and every country has a different interpretation of what is or is not required for your particuar case...even varying opinions from individuals in the same embassy.

A good friend of mine came here 2 years ago on a tourist visa to work on the book he was writing. Seems he was observed sitting outside his house everyday working on his laptop. After a visit from Immigration, he was subsequently deported for "working"

It's anybody's bet!

Rob

[opalhort]

A good friend of mine came here 2 years ago on a tourist visa to work on the book he was writing. Seems he was observed sitting outside his house everyday working on his laptop. After a visit from Immigration, he was subsequently deported for "working"!

it is VERY unlikely that he was deported for woking his laptop!

There must have been something else behind it.

Question regarding chain of comand embassy - consulate...:

Is the following correct?

The embassy receives orders from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but the embassy does not issue any visas; it is the consular section which takes care of visas. The embassy forwards the instructions/rules to the consular section.

This consular section attached to an embassy instructs consulates under their jurisdiction about the current rules and the consulates have to inform the honoury consulates under their jurisdiction.

opalhort

Edited May 24, 2004 by opalhort