Work permit expired today

[jasonsamui55]

Work permit expired today because accountant took too long to process papers. It might take a month to get new work permit. Non B visa good until October. Obviously cannot work while no work permit but otherwise is there any cause for concern? Visa valid so good to stay at home or just out while waiting, right? Can even look for a new job in this period also, i.e.: someone else to supply visa and work permit, right? 

[BritTim]

Vital question: are you currently in Thailand on an entry from a Non B visa, or do you have an extension of stay on the basis of working?

 

If you are on the 90-day permission to stay from entering with a Non B visa, your permission to stay remains valid until the end of the 90 days and (assuming it is a multiple entry visa) you can do a border bounce for a fresh 90-day entry.

 

My suspicion, however, is that you are on an extension of stay from immigration based on working. If that is the case, your permission to stay ceases as soon as you are not working and (as you are already aware) you cannot work without the work permit. I think you immediately need a letter from your employer, perhaps granting you a one month leave of absence (so your employment contract remains intact) but to confirm your temporary cessation of employment. With that visit immigration to have your current permission to stay cancelled, and do a border bounce for a 30-day visa exempt entry  As an alternative, cross your fingers and hope the failure to cancel your extended permission to stay is not noticed. That has potential serious consequences.

[naboo]

As BritTim says, if you are an extension of stay based on your work permit, your extension of stay becomes invalid on expiry of the work permit. More info is needed to answer your question.

[jasonsamui55]

It’s a 1 year Non B issued in October, and must do visa runs every 90 days. Every October need to get a new Non B visa, so seems like it’s not an extension of stay. I’m planning to do a border run this next weekend for 4 days and then return to get the work permit sorted or look for a new accountant/new company. So in that case, should there be any worries?

[jasonsamui55]

Further, It’s my own company and I am the only employee. I am director and shareholder. The accountant just took several weeks to reply to emails and let it lapse because they are slow and lazy. So I’ll do a border run this weekend and come back next week and see if they got their act together otherwise I’ll look for a new accountant and maybe create a new company for a new work permit and visa.

[jasonsamui55]

On 3/3/2020 at 11:28 PM, BritTim said:

Vital question: are you currently in Thailand on an entry from a Non B visa, or do you have an extension of stay on the basis of working?

 

If you are on the 90-day permission to stay from entering with a Non B visa, your permission to stay remains valid until the end of the 90 days and (assuming it is a multiple entry visa) you can do a border bounce for a fresh 90-day entry.

 

My suspicion, however, is that you are on an extension of stay from immigration based on working. If that is the case, your permission to stay ceases as soon as you are not working and (as you are already aware) you cannot work without the work permit. I think you immediately need a letter from your employer, perhaps granting you a one month leave of absence (so your employment contract remains intact) but to confirm your temporary cessation of employment. With that visit immigration to have your current permission to stay cancelled, and do a border bounce for a 30-day visa exempt entry  As an alternative, cross your fingers and hope the failure to cancel your extended permission to stay is not noticed. That has potential serious consequences.

Does what I wrote in the next post seem ok in your opinion? Thank you.

[Neeranam]

How is immigration going to know when your WP expires?

When I never returned my WP, I had to pay 1500 baht at the local police station before getting a new one.

 

[BritTim]

On 3/4/2020 at 6:38 AM, jasonsamui55 said:

It’s a 1 year Non B issued in October, and must do visa runs every 90 days. Every October need to get a new Non B visa, so seems like it’s not an extension of stay. I’m planning to do a border run this next weekend for 4 days and then return to get the work permit sorted or look for a new accountant/new company. So in that case, should there be any worries?

That is good news. Your visa (and the entries based on it) remain valid.

[timendres]

Very curious how you managed a work permit with zero Thai employees.

[BritTim]

17 minutes ago, timendres said:

Very curious how you managed a work permit with zero Thai employees.

It is not easy, but there can be ways. For example, he may have a sole proprietorship under the US Thai Treaty of Amity, and have been able to get a work permit based on his management of that.

[jasonsamui55]

9 hours ago, BritTim said:

It is not easy, but there can be ways. For example, he may have a sole proprietorship under the US Thai Treaty of Amity, and have been able to get a work permit based on his management of that.

No, I just went to the accountant 4-5 years ago and said I need a visa to stay in Thailand they said sure we'll set you up with a company that does nothing and has no employees and no transactions and somehow they got me a new visa every year and a work permit to hang out at home all the time but not really do any work.  It's functioned well until now, but now they said they ned more time to figure out how to renew the work permit without thai employees, so it expired, and that's the cause for the current problem.  So when I come back I hope they get it sorted or else I'll look for another accountant or another visa option or maybe just leave thailand altogether as its becoming too difficult and expensive for visas here.

[BritTim]

10 minutes ago, jasonsamui55 said:

No, I just went to the accountant 4-5 years ago and said I need a visa to stay in Thailand they said sure we'll set you up with a company that does nothing and has no employees and no transactions and somehow they got me a new visa every year and a work permit to hang out at home all the time but not really do any work.  It's functioned well until now, but now they said they ned more time to figure out how to renew the work permit without thai employees, so it expired, and that's the cause for the current problem.  So when I come back I hope they get it sorted or else I'll look for another accountant or another visa option or maybe just leave thailand altogether as its becoming too difficult and expensive for visas here.

It would be interesting to know the details of the company setup, and how a work permit was possible without the required four Thai employees. Of course, it is possible that brown envelopes facilitated things, but solutions in full compliance with the official regulations are something many would like to know about.

[jasonsamui55]

13 minutes ago, BritTim said:

It would be interesting to know the details of the company setup, and how a work permit was possible without the required four Thai employees. Of course, it is possible that brown envelopes facilitated things, but solutions in full compliance with the official regulations are something many would like to know about.

I asked initially and they never gave me a straight answer. But the results were there and it worked. They barely speak English. They just give a stack of documents to sign, all in thai, and some Bills, some annuals, some monthly, and if all seems to work out....until now. They said they need more time.

[BritTim]

1 minute ago, jasonsamui55 said:

I asked initially and they never gave me a straight answer. But the results were there and it worked. They barely speak English. They just give a stack of documents to sign, all in thai, and some Bills, some annuals, some monthly, and if all seems to work out....until now. They said they need more time.

Do you mind sharing your nationality? US citizens have some options not available to others. As I mentioned before, it is possible for them to have a sole proprietorship with fixed annual tax and minimal paperwork.

[FritsSikkink]

16 minutes ago, jasonsamui55 said:

I asked initially and they never gave me a straight answer. But the results were there and it worked. They barely speak English. They just give a stack of documents to sign, all in thai, and some Bills, some annuals, some monthly, and if all seems to work out....until now. They said they need more time.

They might need (a lot) more time because they ran into a problem now.

[jasonsamui55]

1 hour ago, BritTim said:

Do you mind sharing your nationality? US citizens have some options not available to others. As I mentioned before, it is possible for them to have a sole proprietorship with fixed annual tax and minimal paperwork.

Not US. Italian/Irish/Hong Kong.