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2020: Crackdown on tourists working without work permits - 50K fines and deportation awaits


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6 hours ago, Drax said:

What if you have no employer nor tourist visa? ????. For instance owning an online business with passive income and stocks.

 

is it considered work to sell/buy  stocks and answer messages on phone while walking around? 

Passive income isn't a business.

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Well, so many Thai employers have to be careful now with their thousands of illegal Cambodians, Laotians, Burmese and Vietnamese "tourists".

You can see them daily at the Friendship Bridge in Nong Khai where they queue without luggage and only their passport in hand to do a border run. Not all of them are here in the Land for its sights and the family pleasures of Pattaya. 

Some years ago the sitting PM had the splendid idea already once which resulted in MILLIONS leaving Thailand overnight - very much to the disliking of the employers of such people. The legalization process is as complicated and mazed as everything else in this country PLUS illegal workers dont strike, dont cost social welfare nor insurance and usually are paid (considerably) less than the legal minimum - go figure. 

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This will only affect people getting paid into their Thai bank accounts working for a Thai company , it will not affect us digital nomads . 

Edited by balo
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8 hours ago, Thailand said:

Hundreds of people mainly Chinese operating Homestay whilst on tourist visas, now there is a money maker for the immigration BIB.

Already know of one case, from the horses mouth as it were, where the "penalty" was reduced from 80,000 baht and potential deportation to 40K and no receipt.

dont worry they will be back next month looking for another 40K.

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17 hours ago, Beggar said:

There are many. Some don't get paid and think this is no problem then. But it is not important if you get money or not. It is important that you do something that could be classified as work. 

What is classified as work?
If somebody builds a cupboard for his Thai girlfriend during his holiday, because wood working is more relaxing for him than hanging around some beach. Is this classified as work?
If a pensioner maintains his house, by him self (gardening, painting, laying tiles, repairs) is this classified as work?

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7 hours ago, Ventenio said:

Just go to all schools at the beginning of a term.  I would guess 99% of all new teachers don't have a work permit, since it takes months.  

 

If it takes four months to get a work permit for a new teacher, they have time to catch everyone.  Of course, not sure if it would make sense to fine a government school.  but private school??

 

but this is in theory.  In practice, I'm sure less than 1% are caught.  

it dont take four months to get a work permit, takes about 1 week.

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42 minutes ago, balo said:

This will only affect people getting paid into their Thai bank accounts working for a Thai company , it will not affect us digital nomads . 

 

I wonder if they will start looking at ISP records to ferret out remote/digital workers. Or raiding coworking spaces (the later would miss me, but maybe not the former)

Edited by Hal65
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You are really hurting yourselves with all this hyperbole, it seems to me that all the Thai law enforcement do is chase overstaying 'Farangs' or working in jobs that Thai's don't wish or mainly can't do, all this while your crime rate, drink driving etc.etc. is rampant. Get a Grip..! I have been coming to Thailand for 52 years now,usually every year, this year I shall be going to Penang,Malaysia, NO more Thailand for me. 

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1 hour ago, Hal65 said:

I wonder if they will start looking at ISP records to ferret out remote/digital workers. Or raiding coworking spaces (the later would miss me, but maybe not the former)

Why would they?  If you sit inside Starbucks , have a coffee, and do some remote work , it would look silly if they try to chase you down for nothing. Must be over 100 000 people inside Thailand doing some kind of online work on holiday, for weeks or 2-3 months. This will not affect them. 

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41 minutes ago, balo said:

Why would they?  If you sit inside Starbucks , have a coffee, and do some remote work , it would look silly if they try to chase you down for nothing. Must be over 100 000 people inside Thailand doing some kind of online work on holiday, for weeks or 2-3 months. This will not affect them. 

Dangerous trying to game out their thought process like this. Say the local police request tips, the barista responds. I would be more careful during sweeps like this.

 

If anyone has heard of sweeps targeting digital workers that would be good to know. Someone posted they tried one but it didn't produce anything because DNs don't leave a lot of clues.

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20 hours ago, steven100 said:

I'm amazed that this would be a big deal, as i wouldn't suspect too many foreigners on tourist visa's working in Thailand .....  maybe a few but certainly not a hundred or even 30 .....   ? 

All the foreign teachers in my local town had better scarper quick then as none have work permits. 

Repeat throughout the country and you have thousands.

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15 hours ago, shadowofacloud said:

If such a visa was introduced and promoted in relevant circles, they would be earning (tens of) millions USD pa. Remote work is a major trend in the workforce these days and is predicted to grow steadily in the next decade.

Practically speaking, isn't that the Elite Visa?

 

I agree it would be cool -- and great publicity -- if they made a "Digital Work Permit" that allowed you to work only for companies outside Thailand, and cost a couple thousand Euros per year, and was renewable annually.  Maybe require a proper rental contract if you stay past 90 days.

 

If they played their cards right they could charge a whole lot more -- how much would a remote worker from say the UK pay in order to not be physically present in the UK and thus not pay taxes?  How many employers would happily pay that worker via their favorite offshore in order to avoid payroll taxes?

 

Probably not a good result for humanity, but when I was younger I'd have happily shelled out 10 grand a year for something like that, and they could totally one-up Estonia!

 

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8 hours ago, CH1961 said:

Do you really think the guys at your ISP can't distinguish normal https traffic to your prefered pron-site from packets to well known vpn server? 

What kind of digital artist you are? 

web site hobbyist? 

 

Ah, so changing your tune now? A bit embarrassed by flaunting your ignorance publicly, I guess?  ????

 

So now it's not encryption, but VPN servers. Very good, you are improving. Keep learning, boomer.

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22 hours ago, Isaanbiker said:

Even volunteers need to have a work permit and the right type of visa. 

In a country that struggles year after year to reach basic English proficiency the Thai government goes out of it's way to make it scary/difficult/impossible for retired English speaking farangs to VOLUNTEER to help teach English.  There are thousands of bored older expats who could be a major asset to many underfunded Thai public schools and should be encouraged to step forward and volunteer if they are so inclined.  Naturally a basic background check should be required to weed out the perverts.

 

What if the Thai govt actually had a program whereby if a farang agrees to volunteer teach, under supervision of a local school, that they could "earn" a one year visa based on meeting some minimum weekly/monthly hours of volunteer English teaching?  I suspect such a program would draw numerous farangs into the public schools where the kids are DESPERATE to be around native english speakers to practice actually speaking and understanding conversational english.

 

I was a volunteer teacher in a rural school for several years.  I never worried about not having a work permit and in fact was treated as a full VIP by the entire school staff from the head person down.  My "job" was to try and get the kids to talk and listen to the English language.  I usually had a thai teacher in the room with me who sure seemed happy to have me there.  The kids also seemed to get over a bit of their natural shyness and throw out a few words/sentences to see if I could understand them etc.  I also made a point of eating lunch and interacting with the kids with a few words of english in between classes, at school functions etc.  I like to think that just maybe i did actually help at least a few kids become more confident with their English skills.....beyond reading and writing.

 

Not one time was I ever concerned that the "work permit police" going to show up to deport me. Just the opposite as I was included in every school function where I was often asked to speak and sat next to the head people of the school.  I suspect that volunteers who get "turned in" have somehow gone out of their way to <deleted> off fellow teachers or school administrators....my experience was never make waves, be a nice person, focus on helping the kids, show up at a lot of school functions etc and never a hint of a hassle.

 

Recent reports again show Thailand kids falling lower on the worldwide ratings of english abilities.  Reports also lament lack of funding to hire native english speakers.

 

Perhaps the powers that be should implement a basic pilot program designed to encourage utilizing the amazing FREE resource of volunteers?  Try if for a couple of years,, work out the snags and see what happens?  Or continue to hassle volunteers and watch  the english proficiency ratings continue to decline?  Seems worth a try to me.

 

Oh and finally;  I absolutely loved being a volunteer.  One of the best things I have ever done.  It gave me something positive to occupy a few days a week and frankly was a LOT of fun.

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12 hours ago, Bjrda77 said:

Actually "Mom" is bigger than "Big...". The word "Mom" is informally used to indicate his status of belonging to the Thai royal families, in his case "Mom Rajawongse..." which means that his father is a Mom Chao = His Serene Highness Prince). Thai people take every "Mom" seriously if you wonder.

Thanks, I took it literally as in Mummy.

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11 hours ago, impulse said:

One thing I find amusing is the guys who complain all the time that their governments are letting their countries be invaded by foreigners, then turn around and complain when Thailand tries to stop it from happening in LOS.

 

I'm with some other guys.  I suspect that the vast majority of those being banged up will be from north of Thailand or from Africa.  Not Europe or the US.  Of course, some falang will make the headlines.  But that will be the tip of the iceberg.

 

It's the same guys that are Brexit and then whine about immigration here getting harder, oh the irony lol.

 

 

11 hours ago, Wongkitlo said:

Yes it would be great if all the dive instructors were Thai but  "Mai pben Rai" doesn't really work when you are 30 metres underwater.

 

Why would that be great, what's great about this nationalistic bs?

 

Would it be great if all engineers in germany would be germans, all cooks would be german (ohh hell <deleted> off). All software engineers in San Fran americans.... This stuff never worked, foreign expertise is always beneficial. Many of the now big dotcom era companies are run by foreigners and very successfully, there's literally nothing good about this protectionist bs. It's bad for the economy.

 

7 hours ago, Kohkah said:

What is classified as work?
If somebody builds a cupboard for his Thai girlfriend during his holiday, because wood working is more relaxing for him than hanging around some beach. Is this classified as work?
If a pensioner maintains his house, by him self (gardening, painting, laying tiles, repairs) is this classified as work?

The definiton of work is as following: 

 

“Work” has been revised under the amendment to the Decree to be an engagement of any profession, with or without employer, but excluding business operation of a licensee under the foreign business law."

 

Any profession, so yeah beiing a hobby carpenter may or may not be a profession? Who knows? If you are an overseas landlord and take care of your tenants, profession or not? For me being an investor is also a profession?!

 

What i am trying to say is, they make this <deleted> up as they go, that's also why most people ignore it. The law is so wishy washy that absolutely everything could be declared as work if they want to, including you fixing your houses roof.

 

7 hours ago, Hal65 said:

 

I wonder if they will start looking at ISP records to ferret out remote/digital workers. Or raiding coworking spaces (the later would miss me, but maybe not the former)

They tried that many times, and in all cases judges ruled that no law was broken.

Immigration cops opinion is meaningless; they don't make the law nor do they have a say in it.

A judge will interpret it and so far it differed from what immigration cops say.

 

 

 

Edited by ThomasThBKK
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I'm supposed to answer my work e-mails while on holiday in LOS. I wonder whether the immos are going to come knocking if I do..... Perhaps they could find a Thai person who could answer my e-mails better than me... so I need to be deported. 

 

Lawmakers should remember they are there to help people be successful not to stop people being successful.

Edited by Ketyo
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On 1/6/2020 at 8:55 AM, steven100 said:

I'm amazed that this would be a big deal, as i wouldn't suspect too many foreigners on tourist visa's working in Thailand .....  maybe a few but certainly not a hundred or even 30 .....   ? 

More than you think, especially in the teaching industry. Backpackers are what has been keeping the salaries low for people like me who are licenced and certified teachers here in Thailand. I never reported anyone but I sure as hell don't like them working illegally and keeping the salaries stagnant at 30 000 bht a month as the have been for the last 20 years.

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45 minutes ago, ThomasThBKK said:

They tried that many times, and in all cases judges ruled that no law was broken.

Please show any case where a judge dismissed a presented case as you claim. 

 

Dont use the stockbroking chinese gang (wasnt in court or before a judge they were simply not charged) as they have already been very public about exempting stock trading as work and class it as investing. Other than that having followed the issue in detail since before telework and location independent online jobs were really possible I have never seen a case of a judge dismissing any charges as you claim, let alone 'many times'. Please cite your facts. 

In fact on the exact opposite there are many many cases where online workers have been charged, often in combination with other legal violations but clearly charged and found guilty of working without a work permit, when operating 100% online. My Mate Nate (got away with a grace period and quickly solved his work permit by incorporating a Thai company simply for youtube) the online porn and gambling dens, online teachers, even the solo online case with a single guy working at home, teaching non Thais on the internet. All charged and deported for 'working without a work permit' how do you claim it is not a law, when these cases are there to be seen as precedent. 

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20 minutes ago, Ketyo said:

Lawmakers should remember they are there to help people be successful not to stop people being successful.

How it that helping Thai people be successful ?? 

 

Surely your not suggesting it is Thai lawmakers job to make non Thais successful ?? 

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