Business visa options

[Hal65]

I am self employed as a freelance programmer and curious about options to secure a business related visa

 

Work permit visa. What criteria will my company need to meet if I relocate it to Thailand?

 

Business owner visa. Same question as above. I have some software that could be supported by customer support and maintenance programmers. I think 4 is the minimum number of employees?

[ThomasThBKK]

no real option for you if you want to own your own company here, needs a thai shareholder.

You could setup some subsidary here and route enough payments through it to pay 4 thais i guess...

 

What you could however do is look into https://iglu.net/ and co, they over to hired you, you get a work permit and for that 2.5k/month min of ur salary has to use igluu as a middle men, they also pay your taxes, healthcare and stuff. 

Yeah you lose money but it seems to work since a long time...

[dcnx]

53 minutes ago, ThomasThBKK said:

What you could however do is look into https://iglu.net/ and co, they over to hired you, you get a work permit and for that 2.5k/month min of ur salary has to use igluu as a middle men, they also pay your taxes, healthcare and stuff. 

How desperate does one have to be to choose that? For what you pay them in a year (if what you posted is accurate) you could buy a 20 year elite visa, or a 5 year visa for half as much. 

 

To the OP, if you work online, keep it to yourself and no one will ever bother you. Thailand is FULL of people who work online or are various digital nomads, working quietly without hassle. The grumps will tell you otherwise, but you won’t have problems. 

 

If you need to establish residency for tax purposes, there are several counties you can do that with without paying ridiculous amounts of money to do so. 

 

But if you you truly want to start a business here and hire Thais (good luck with that), contact a few lawyers. Some can even do it with “ghost” employees where you don’t actually have to hire anyone. 

 

There are ALWAYS options in Thailand. You just have to speak to the right lawyer / agent. 

 

 

[ThomasThBKK]

Why desperate?

They just charge a bit... The rest goes into taxes and co.

It's not desperate to pay taxes in thailand, it might be unusual tho.

Everyone else working here as foreigner pays taxes too...




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[ThomasThBKK]

Not to mention u can apply for permanent residency and passport using iglu and co.

Needs 3 years work permit and sufficient taxes, not possible with Thai Elite.

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[Srikcir]

What is your nationality?

Registration through the Treaty of Amity (for US citizens only): Thai-US Treaty of Amity and Economic Relations is a special agreement between the USA and the Thai Kingdom that allows American companies or entrepreneurs to maintain a majority of shareholding or full ownership of a company in Thailand. https://www.thethailandlife.com/starting-a-business-in-thailand

Read more here: https://www.siam-legal.com/Business-in-Thailand/US-Thai%20Amity.php

[Hal65]

Yes I am American, maybe that is a good option too then

[yellowboat]

20 hours ago, Hal65 said:

I am self employed as a freelance programmer and curious about options to secure a business related visa

 

Work permit visa. What criteria will my company need to meet if I relocate it to Thailand?

I would do my homework.  Where are your customer's located?  If they are outside of Thailand, set up a business on paper in Hong Kong or Singapore (no office needed).  It is what successful Thais do.  Taxes are easy and banking services are superior. 

 

Check out Saigon.  Far better programmers, and far fewer visa hassles.  Unless your customers are mostly Thai or you have romantic / life style reasons that supersede your business interests, avoid Thailand or learn the hard way.

[khunPer]

23 hours ago, Hal65 said:

I am self employed as a freelance programmer and curious about options to secure a business related visa

You need a Work Permit, i.e. being employed by a Thai company, to be allowed to work in Thailand, and to extend your stay based upon work. You can enter on a non-immigrant B-visa, if you have an employment contract.

 

Opening you own business, and obtaining a Work Permit from that, you'll need to establish a Thai company limited with a fully paid shareholder capital of 2 million baht, and in most cases 4 Thai employees; there might be exception of the number of Thai employees in certain business, but count on four.

 

To establish a Thai company limited you'll need 3 shareholders, and at least one of them a Thai shareholder. 51 % of "your" company shall be owned by Thais, and the Thais need to show proof on invested capital; i.e. don't expect that you can use nominee shareholders. In other words, you might need to find a Thai business partner.

 

As a shareholder and member of the board of directors, you will not need a Work Permit or a non-immigrant B-visa. However, you cannot perform any physical work in the company, apart from attending board meetings, and sign high level documents like annual tax reports and meeting reports. There is to my knowledge not such a thing as a "Business Owner Visa"; however you can obtain an Investor-visa, if you invest minimum 10 million baht in specified items like government bonds, or buying one or more condos. The Investment-visa do not include investment in shares in a small Thai company limited.

 

An alternative way to stay in Thailand might be a Thailand Elite Visa – which can give you permission to stay in the Kingdom for up to 20 years – if you are not married to a Thai and thereby qualify for "marriage-visa"; or under 50-years old, and thereby not qualify for "retirement-visa"; both non-immigrant O-visa with extension of stay based on marriage or retirement.

 

Some so-called "digital nomads" just stay, and officially live of their foreign savings, and do some work strictly "under the radar", meaning only for foreign clients, and only foreign income settled in an offshore account, and not talking about it...

 

It has, however, been discussed if work for foreign clients only, or company/companies only, is considered as working in Thailand. The conclusion seem not more clear than "under the radar" is the best option; you can find a number of threads about it when searching Thaivisa forums, a few of them are here...????

 

[khunPer]

4 hours ago, Hal65 said:

Yes I am American, maybe that is a good option too then

Okay, sorry I didn't see that before.

 

You can establish a company limited under the Thailand-US Amity Treaty, you can read more about registration here.

[tabarin]

18 hours ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Why desperate?

They just charge a bit... The rest goes into taxes and co.

It's not desperate to pay taxes in thailand, it might be unusual tho.

Everyone else working here as foreigner pays taxes too...
 

You need to pay a hell lot more than a little bit with them and obtaining a passport? Dream on as a freelancer via Iglu.
If you really have that ambition you are better off setting up your own company as well.

It is like signing a contract with the devil, one might just as well stay resident at home when paying that, at least you are guaranteed of social welfare, pension etc. then.

[THAIJAMES]

I have an American treaty company. Doesn't require any Thai shareholders just one more American for partnership or two more for a company.

You will still need to hire four Thai persons

And you will also need to get a work permit for yourself in order for immigration to issue you a business Visa.

You will have to submit tons of paper work to immigration for them to check. For example profit and loss statements, tax payments social security payments etc etc.

 

Very costly if you're not really doing business in Thailand.

 

Big hassle but worth it if you are hiring Thai people genuinely to produce a product or service preferably for export.