Visa And Work Permit Renewal

[krystian]

Hi guys, my brother has already had his visa and work permit for the past 3 months now it has to be re-newed on the 25 of June I think, we used the services of sunbelt to make things easier, and it was easier as expected BUT now that he has to re-new his visa and WP the lady who we used to talk to said that to renew the visa and work permit he has to go and apply for another visa in penang,, which I thought may have been a miscommunication but to my surprise his wife called the lady from sunbelt confirmed that he has to go to penang again, Please sunbelt need your help on this and if you can give me a contact number of someone I can talk to regarding this.

I had never heard of anything like this, just now maybe because of the visa requirements and rule changes..Has anyone had this problem before??

Thanks again

Edited June 14, 2007 by krystian

[lopburi3]

Unless you and company meet the requirements for an Immigration extension of stay you have to have a valid visa and if you do not currently have a multi entry visa that will require a trip to a Consulate to obtain. I believe it has become much more difficult recently for one year extensions of stay for startups so perhaps this is the problem? It sounds as if your brother and his wife have talked with Sunbelt and I am sure if they do not understand the person they talked with would turn the phone over to someone else if asked. Have you tried calling that number? It might be faster than waiting for a forum read/answer. Plus the person would have the information at hand.

[krystian]

Yes they did and I think they spoke to miss Sarunyu,, as for the visa its still valid till June 25 and the requirements they're just waiting for 1 more document. I also wanted to know if there are other guys who had this kind of problem and what they have to do about it, that is why I wanted to post this too,, but anyway I would try to give them a call again thanks again loopburi3

[Maestro]

Krystian, one important thing for your brother to remember when talking to Sunbelt is that the requirements for obtaining a visa (from a Thai consulate) and for obtaining an extension of permission to stay (from an Immigration office) are not the same.

Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as “renewal of visa”. Some people use that expression and mean going to a Thai consulate to get a new visa. Some other people use the same expression and mean going to the Immigration office to apply for an extension of stay. Hence the confusion that sometimes occurs.

--

Maestro

[Sunbelt Asia]

Hi guys, my brother has already had his visa and work permit for the past 3 months now it has to be re-newed on the 25 of June I think, we used the services of sunbelt to make things easier, and it was easier as expected BUT now that he has to re-new his visa and WP the lady who we used to talk to said that to renew the visa and work permit he has to go and apply for another visa in penang,, which I thought may have been a miscommunication but to my surprise his wife called the lady from sunbelt confirmed that he has to go to penang again, Please sunbelt need your help on this and if you can give me a contact number of someone I can talk to regarding this.

I had never heard of anything like this, just now maybe because of the visa requirements and rule changes..Has anyone had this problem before??

Thanks again

I surmise your brother has started to work for a start up company. This would be impossible for your brother to get an extension of stay based on business until Jan 2008 as one of the criteria is to have an annual balance sheet and financial audit. ( Exception would be if he has board of investment privilege) Your brother would have to meet many other criteria as well besides having a balance sheet showing more than one million baht equity and gross sales in the prior year higher than the foreign employee salaries. Other criteria such as having 4 Thai employees per work permit, having many documents updated and certified by each governing body including the auditor must certify the audit is a correct copy, pictures of every Thai staff, minimum salary for his nationality with tax records showing such, social fund records certified, etc. Some of these rules are since Oct 1st 2006 and some are recent in the last two weeks.

Going on the basis your brother does not qualify for the extension of stay based on business, your brother will need to go to a Thai Embassy or Consulate which do not have the same requirements as Thai Immigration for the extension of stay based on business. If he has a one year multi entry visa, he just neds to cross the border and then revalidated his work permit by showing a new 90 day stamp. If he does not have a multi entry visa then he must go to a Thai Embassy/ Consulate and get a new visa. Once he has this the fresh 90 day entry stamp, he revalidates his work permit to match his fresh 90 day stamp in his passport.

Fell free to contact Andy in our office and he will pull your brothers file and confirm if your brothers employer does not meet the criteria for an extension of stay based on business. 02-642-0213 By the way getting the new business visa is no walk in the park but it wll help if your brother has a valid work permit.

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

[krystian]

Hi Thanks sunbelt now its clear..I will ask himto contact andy later this afternoon.. Thanks for your help and also to all the members

[SamuiRep]

Hi,

I have a non immigrant-single entry business visa which runs out in middle of july.

my work permit is still in procedure (my employer is not very quick with this all).

does this mean, i have to go to another consulate/embassy again ? (for example penang or singapore)

I was thinking, that this 1 year single entry visa should be enough to stay here for the next 1 year ?

can anybody give me the information about this please.

my WP should be made within the next 2-3 weeks. is it possible then, to make the extension of the visa from the immigration ? or do i must go to the embassy for a multi entry. why did the embassy gave me a single entry visa, this i still not understood ?

[junkofdavid2]

Hi,

I have a non immigrant-single entry business visa which runs out in middle of july.

my work permit is still in procedure (my employer is not very quick with this all).

does this mean, i have to go to another consulate/embassy again ? (for example penang or singapore)

I was thinking, that this 1 year single entry visa should be enough to stay here for the next 1 year ?

can anybody give me the information about this please.

my WP should be made within the next 2-3 weeks. is it possible then, to make the extension of the visa from the immigration ? or do i must go to the embassy for a multi entry. why did the embassy gave me a single entry visa, this i still not understood ?

Hope Sunbelt or someone can answer you.

That's a horrible problem.

The danger is that that even if you go again to get another Type B abroad, they might not issue you one anymore because they had already previously issued you one and it was not acted upon.

Maybe you can bring documents or something to "prove" that your work permit is being processed. Dunno if that would work though. In any case, you'd still have to have a good updated lawyer do it for you.

Another thing to remember. Your work permit's validity expires on the same day that your B visa expires. So if they drag their feet in processing your work permit and your visa expires, they WILL NOT be able to issue the work permit on that visa; and everything they have already done to process your work permit might just go to waste and you'd be back to square 1 (I think).

Edited June 18, 2007 by junkofdavid2

[Sunbelt Asia]

Hi,

I have a non immigrant-single entry business visa which runs out in middle of july.

my work permit is still in procedure (my employer is not very quick with this all).

does this mean, i have to go to another consulate/embassy again ? (for example penang or singapore)

I was thinking, that this 1 year single entry visa should be enough to stay here for the next 1 year ?

can anybody give me the information about this please.

my WP should be made within the next 2-3 weeks. is it possible then, to make the extension of the visa from the immigration ? or do i must go to the embassy for a multi entry. why did the embassy gave me a single entry visa, this i still not understood ?

No such thing as a single entry "B" one year visa from a Embassy/ Consulate. You can get from an Embassy/Consulate a one year multi entry visa. Each Embassy/Consulate has guidelines on issuing these types of visas. Some are stricter than others. KL is more apt to give a multi entry if you have a work permit and have records showing you are paying tax.

It may be possible to extend the 90 day visa inside Thailand to an extension of stay based on business if you and your employer meet the criteria.

This criterion is having a work permit along with your employer having an audited balance sheet showing more than one million baht equity and the gross sales in the prior year higher than the foreign employee salaries. Other criteria must be met such as having 4 Thai employees per work permit, having many documents updated and certified by each governing body including the auditor must certify the audit is a correct copy, pictures of every Thai staff, minimum salary for his nationality with tax records showing such, social fund records certified, etc.

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com