Work Permit - Turn In Upon Quitting?

[jt936]

Does anyone know if you have to turn in your work permit when you quit? I have been told that you can not get another job if you do not turn in your work permit.

Thanks.

[john_bkk919]

You can get another job without turning it in, but when you go down to the Labour Dept to get another work permit you'll have to pay a fine.

As of last year, the fine was 1 or 2 thousand baht (I don't remember, but it was one of those two figures). Not a lot.

If you still have it, you can just hand it over then + the fine. If you don't have it, you will need to go to any police box and tell them you lost it. You fill out some paperwork and then they give you a 'lost document' receipt which you take to the Labour Dept. The normal fee the police charge for this is anything from free to around 40 baht.

Not a big deal if you don't turn your work permit in, though of course it's better to follow the rules than not.

[PeaceBlondie]

Pardon me, since I'm no expert, but I thought that any farang with a work permit on an Extended visa had to surrender the cancelled work permit AND LEAVE THE KINGDOM within seven days. In other words, his (extended) visa would cancel within a week of the work permit. That is a big deal, I would think.

Of course, if his employer and he never notify Labour Ministry of the cancelled WP, nobody knows. And if he's not on an extended visa, his current visa is okay probably (but he has no valid work permit). Lastly, if he's lucky enough to get a new job offer within the 7 days and his new employer and old employer can agree with the Labour officers.....but that's not likely to happen.

[stevemiddie]

Hi PB. The above is true if he has the extended visa ( more likely )

If he is here on a B visa ( 90 day ) then he can still lawfully hold a WP and if the WP cancels then he is not required to leave the country within that 7 day time frame. He remains here on his B visa.

Hope that helps?

[alaina]

If your school is doing things as they are supposed to, you turn in your WP a day or two before quitting and get a receipt from the Ministry of Labour. I think the receipt is a tor dor 10 form. If you don't trust your school to turn the WP, you should go and turn it into Labour yourself and get the receipt. (There is a small fee to cancel a WP, I don't remember how much.)

You may need the receipt if you are switching jobs as the new employer needs to give it to Labour to get a new WP (as stated before, this process happens rarely, most people need to leave the country for a new Non-B.) I was asked for the receipt while applying for a new Non-B in Penang a few years ago and since my school never turned my WP into the Ministry of Labour, I was rejected for the visa. When I returned, I had to go to the police to report it stolen and then to Labour for the form and go for another consulate run. Big pain in the ass, and the school that never turned in the WP pretended not to understand their "mistake".

[PeaceBlondie]

To the original poster, jt936: have we answered your question? I note that you've always only posted an opening post, and never come back and tell us more.

[tamsom]

Oh Boy, it sems that there is a litany of information on web sites, but no one reads it. Both your employer and you have 7 days to hand/cancel the work permit. Failure to do this results in a fine of 1000 baht for both parties. If your visa has been extended on the basis of your work permit you have 0 to 7 days to spilt.It is all discretion by immigration. I have never known anyone who has managed to transfer their documents within 7 days; assuming you have 7 days. Conversely, I have never known anyone who has been tagged at any border crossing for overstay on a year extension. I figure Nong Khai is best: do they turn on their computers? If you have a stamp in your passport, it never seems to come up on the computer as being expired/cancelled. Peace!

[Scott]

Where I work, we routinely ask people when they want their WP cancelled. Some folks plan to travel around a bit or don't want to leave in the 7 days. Even though they are leaving in the middle of the contract, if they were a reasonably good employee and haven't caused any hassles, it seems like the fair thing to do.

The only people that we cancel the WP on right away (unless the employee asks us to cancel it), are those that seem like they are likely to get into some sort of trouble. The last two people we cancelled on right away was a guy who seemed to have rather severe mental problem. He had been fine, but suddenly went into crisis mode and quit. He was aware that we were cancelling the WP. The other pulled a runner (I think). He just disappeared, said he would be absent for a week, and then never came back. After a month of not hearing from him--and trying to get a hold of him and friends. We cancelled it. He will have to face the music with immigration, I guess--unless he left the country.

At our school, the school pays for the WP, so the school keeps the document here. Teachers can take their WP, but they have to sign it out so the Admin knows where it is.

[sctharan]

The company I worked for before relocated and I did not want to move to a different province with them.....they did not like this and cancelled my work permit soon after but told me they had done so on a later date (which meant that the 7 day grace period to return the blue book was up). The interesting thing is, they never did take my passport to get the visa cancelled so my visa would read to any ordinary person, that I was legal to the middle of next year. My new employers told me that since there is no stamp, immigration doesn't know but encouraged me to leave the country, just incase immigration does a "crazy and start checking visa status of everyone...........so tried the Cambodian border....innocently pretending I did not get a re-entry visa, but silly me, they knew I was up to something doing a visa "turn-around" to lose a 9 month visa for a 30 day visa and refused to let me out of the country......... after spending 5 horrible hours getting there and to face another five back.....

Anyway, flew out of Suvannabhumi last week, after my WP was cancelled two months ago, crapping my pants thinking I would be charged a massive overstay fine, and low and behold, after being asked if I was sure I did not want to get a re-entry by the checkpoint immigration officer, was told, ok...stamp, stamp,....have a good trip.

This may be useful to some but really, it doesn't pay to circumnavigate the laws of any country, especially now as foreigners in Thailand...........but I wanted to share this just incase somebody now or in the future has the same problem!