LTR visa: Work-from-Thailand as a UK contractor

[voltore]

Hey all, I'm new here. Basically I'm wondering whether the use of an umbrella company could help satisfy the visa requirement to be employed full time.

 

So I'm currently perm employed in UK (software dev, earning over $80k) but am considering leaving as they don't allow working abroad which my wife & I would like to experience.

 

I've been wondering about taking UK contracts (generally 6 month contracts on a daily rate) and working from Thailand.

 

I understand this falls foul of the "employed full time by a private company earning $150m+ over 3 years rule" and from previous posts it looks like an individual's own company would be considered the employer. 

 

However, does anyone have an idea of how it would be viewed if contracts were to go via an 'umbrella' company? IE the companies often used by UK contractors to deal with the recent IR35 rules. 

In this case the umbrella company (established, not owned by me) would be considered the employer, and me the employee. 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[ubonjoe]

You should look and do a post in this long ongoing topic about the LTR visa.

 

[voltore]

Cheers @ubonjoe yeah I did exactly that. Left a post on page 8 but as that visa is split into a few very different categories, I think my post may have been buried under all the "wealthy pensioner" conversation.

 

Thought I'd start a new one.

 

Edit: I forgot to mention, I'm 36yo (the retirement paths are not an option)

Edited August 31, 2022 by voltore

[Misty]

51 minutes ago, voltore said:

However, does anyone have an idea of how it would be viewed if contracts were to go via an 'umbrella' company? IE the companies often used by UK contractors to deal with the recent IR35 rules. 

Hi Michael, best bet would be to ask the LTR unit directly. Since this option is so new there isn't yet outside knowledge on how different situations might be viewed by the LTR unit.

 

The LTR unit says they're pretty busy ahead of the 1 Sep start date, so you may have to wait a bit before getting an answer. But they have been answering emails and FB messages, and they seem to be active on Line. They've also done online seminars with Q&A and maybe there will be more.

 

[voltore]

Thanks @Misty I thought that may be the case. 

 

I've sent this off as an email to [email protected] (forget where I found that address, hopefully that's the one to use).

 

Will update here once I receive a response.

 

[RedArmy]

"Umbrella company" ???

Not a very good buisness venture imo, especially here in Thailand - Its quite hot here you know.