Thai Permanent Residency enquiry

[AustinRacing]

I meet the requirements for Thai PR under two categories but…

1) my oral/written Thai is inadequate. Can this be overcome somehow?

2) I will start a partnership company. Website says it is much easier to get a work permit for PR holders but doesn’t give details. Can I run the business? 

[Tom Parkinson]

I cannot comment on PR issues, beyond the fact that I know I'm not eligible.  The new BOI Long-Term Visa program (https://ltr.boi.go.th/) may help with the work permit issue and does not require any Thai fluency whatsoever.

[Sydebolle]

See an immigration expert, KSS springs to mind. Check out www.kss.co.th for details; Khun Anuchai can be your man who touches applications only if he's sure to get the applicant through ???? Good luck 

[Wiggy]

Written Thai is not necessary. There is time to learn some spoken Thai, as you don’t need to be fluent. 

[tomazbodner]

18 hours ago, AustinRacing said:

1) my oral/written Thai is inadequate. Can this be overcome somehow?

2) I will start a partnership company. Website says it is much easier to get a work permit for PR holders but doesn’t give details. Can I run the business? 

1) that's just part of consideration. I think there's 100 points in total, and you need to get at least 60. There are other categories, like income (seems very important), education level, personality, age (seems around 40-45 gets most points), if you have any Thai children, if you're married to a Thai, what your contributions to Thai society are, etc.). Language should not be a 0 but written part isn't at all part of the interview, it's just a conversation in Thai mostly about your life - where you're from, what you do, if you're married, etc. They are not only rating you on your language abilities but also personality - did you look kind, polite, did you wai them, etc. It is in formal Thai but you'd have at least 6 months from applying in December to learn better conversational Thai before interview is up.

 

This is in front of a panel of uniforms, being recorded in wide shot. To get around doing it completely would be a very expensive affair.

 

2) PR makes it easier to get work permit in a way that you're less scrutinised on the documentation provided around your immigration status - but company documentation requirements remain the same, and if anything is wrong there, you aren't getting it. You also don't get any benefits beyond being able to be a director of a publicly traded company, which a non-Thai without PR cannot be (at least that's what was written in PR benefits book, not like I was interested). For your own company - you can still only own 49% stake max, not being Thai, and 51% needs to be owned by Thais. There are ways around it, gray area or illegal (nominees, lawyers, etc.). I think the registered capital with PR was 1 million rather than 2 million baht per foreigner... but not sure that's correct understanding. Maybe someone else can correct this part. I don't own the company here so I didn't inquire, but have work permit under BOI (and even before at Ministry of Labour) their attitude changed for the better even they just saw PR under consideration stamps in passport.

[WebGuy]

Also eligible for the PR, speak some street Thai but can't get into the type of conversation beyond:

Where are you from? I am from ...

I have a wife (but not I am married).

Where are you going? I am going there and there.

I am hungry / not hungry etc.

I would / wouldn't like ...

 

However, I read somewhere that if I could speak about myself for 10 minutes in Thai, I should be fine.

 

No way I could speak 10 minutes about myself in Thai. When I meet my father in law and we have beer, I ask him if he worked today, how he is i.e. max 5 - 7 sentences and that's it.

[tomazbodner]

1 hour ago, WebGuy said:

Also eligible for the PR, speak some street Thai but can't get into the type of conversation beyond:

Where are you from? I am from ...

I have a wife (but not I am married).

Where are you going? I am going there and there.

I am hungry / not hungry etc.

I would / wouldn't like ...

 

However, I read somewhere that if I could speak about myself for 10 minutes in Thai, I should be fine.

 

No way I could speak 10 minutes about myself in Thai. When I meet my father in law and we have beer, I ask him if he worked today, how he is i.e. max 5 - 7 sentences and that's it.

But good part is if you apply, you'll have some time to go for a Thai course, or get private lessons, or just say you'll speak with people around you only in Thai and you might pick up enough in 6-9 months to pass it even you are a total beginner now.

 

IT is a conversation. In my case it passed so quickly.... One of first questions was where I was from... After hearing my answer he was like... never heard of it. Then we spent the next ... don't even know how long as it was a really pleasant conversation so I lost track of time... 10? 15? 20? minutes about where he should visit if he goes there... that was the main guy with more medals than handed out at all Olympics combined... Overall it was great. No matter how stressed and worried I was about it beforehand.

[WebGuy]

On 9/28/2022 at 11:55 PM, tomazbodner said:

But good part is if you apply, you'll have some time to go for a Thai course, or get private lessons, or just say you'll speak with people around you only in Thai and you might pick up enough in 6-9 months to pass it even you are a total beginner now.

 

IT is a conversation. In my case it passed so quickly.... One of first questions was where I was from... After hearing my answer he was like... never heard of it. Then we spent the next ... don't even know how long as it was a really pleasant conversation so I lost track of time... 10? 15? 20? minutes about where he should visit if he goes there... that was the main guy with more medals than handed out at all Olympics combined... Overall it was great. No matter how stressed and worried I was about it beforehand.

Thank you for encouragement and sharing your experience.

I am too busy to focus on learning Thai. When I say busy, I think really busy working, working on my PhD and raising a small child.

So what would happen if he asks me in Thai what he could do in my home county and I start mixing Thai and English?

For example I do not say you can eat cake but I say khun samad gin cake etc etc.

[tomazbodner]

37 minutes ago, WebGuy said:

Thank you for encouragement and sharing your experience.

I am too busy to focus on learning Thai. When I say busy, I think really busy working, working on my PhD and raising a small child.

So what would happen if he asks me in Thai what he could do in my home county and I start mixing Thai and English?

For example I do not say you can eat cake but I say khun samad gin cake etc etc.

He would continue conversation, at the end give you an honest score of your Thai abilities, which won't be 100% but maybe 60%. So if there are say 10 points to earn for Thai speaking, you'd get 6/10. And you'd need only another 54 in other categories to pass the required score. If you are earning over 100k/month, you obviously have a master degree if you're doing PhD, and these 2 alone will probably get you 2/3 of required points. Being polite, kind, have a nice personality and having good attitude towards Thailand and Thai people, staying in Thailand a long while, and you're already there or over the needed points. If you're in 40-45 age range, you're probably already over the needed threshold - even your Thai was 2/10.

 

Stop worrying so much. Switch to using Thai when you talk to taxi driver, 7-11 and restaurant staff, engage in conversation with the people around your property or when you're outside. Ask friends to talk to you in Thai. If your child goes to school, he/she probably speaks Thai with schoolmates, so switch to Thai at home.

 

I'm confident you can pass with just that. And nobody would judge you for using some English words in Thai, as long as you get the message across.

 

Smile, wai, show respect, speak politely, khrab at the end of every sentence, don't talk <deleted> about Thailand (like so many posters in this forum), put some effort into improving language, which I am sure your Thai friends would love to help you with... And you'll be just fine.