I'm changing schools, and I heard that you have to give back your work permit and your visa gets cancelled at the end of your employment, forcing you to leave and reenter, however:

 

My year visa is stamped in my passport, so how exactly can they cancel that? Can i just not turn up to immigration and wait for my new visa with next employer?

3 hours ago, The sight said:

I'm changing schools, and I heard that you have to give back your work permit and your visa gets cancelled at the end of your employment, forcing you to leave and reenter, however:

 

My year visa is stamped in my passport, so how exactly can they cancel that? Can i just not turn up to immigration and wait for my new visa with next employer?

I changed my work permit employer twice. Admittedly this was over ten years ago. On both occasions, my new employer was able to sort out my work permit and related extension of permission to stay without me leaving the country. So, no, it is not necessary to leave the country.

 

This is clearly something I could not have achieved on my own. Speak to your new employer. They will give you the best advice in your specific circumstances.

3 hours ago, The sight said:

My year visa is stamped in my passport, so how exactly can they cancel that? Can i just not turn up to immigration and wait for my new visa with next employer?

You're more than a little mixed up on how the process actually works,. 

You don't have a year visa, you have a yearly extension of stay based on employment.

 W hen you fail to meet the terms of that employment; as in your work permit is canceled or you stop working for that employer, you can no longer hold that extension. 

So what you do is you get termination documents from your employer, go to the immigration office that issued the extension, and cancel it. 

Most offices allow you to cancel that extension up to 2 weeks before your termination date, they will cancel the current extension you're on and stamp you in until the termination date on your paperwork which gives you 2 weeks to  sort out what you're going to do. 

You can cancel an extension and immediately apply for a new extension based on documentation provided by your new employer IF you can coordinate the cancellation and application of the new extension. 

Or once you cancel the current extension you're on you leave the country come back in on a 60-day free stamp entry and then apply for a new non-b either inside the country or get documentation from your new employer and go to a Thai Consulate in a nearby country to apply for the nambe. 

That's pretty much how that works. 

you can't stay here once you stop working for your current employer just because your extension says you're allowed to be here, 😕 because as I pointed out once you don't meet the terms of the extension anymore you can't be here on that stamp.. 

1 minute ago, Briggsy said:

So, no, it is not necessary to leave the country.

You are correct it totally can be done, but it requires you to coordinate getting documentation from the employer you're leaving and your new employer so you can cancel your current extension and immediately apply for a new extension with the documents from the new employer. 

 

1 minute ago, Tod Daniels said:

You are correct it totally can be done, but it requires you to coordinate getting documentation from the employer you're leaving and your new employer so you can cancel your current extension and immediately apply for a new extension with the documents from the new employer. 

 

This makes sense. The lady from the new employer told me she would try to gain the new work permit and extension of stay without me leaving the country. She was ultimately successful in this. She must have done the co-ordinating with my old employer presumably because I didn't get any documents from them.

 

The point being at the start of the process she wouldn't give me a guarantee that I wouldn't have to leave the country.

Some key insight there guys, especially Todd. I'll have to leave and re enter however, the new employer said I'll have to do it that way since I'm moving from a different province in thailand

4 hours ago, The sight said:

the new employer said I'll have to do it that way since I'm moving from a different province in thailand

Yep, that's pretty common. 

 

New employers, often when switching provinces will make you exit the country and reenter either coming in on a free stamp or taking documents from them to another country and applying for the non-b at the Thai consulate there online. 

 

Make sure you cancel the current extension you're on from the immigration office that issued it before you leave because stamping out of the country does not cancel an extension.

 

If you don't, you will be fined when you go to get a new extension based on employment without having canceled the earlier one correctly. 

 

Now on the other hand if you're on the original 90 days of a non-b Visa you just leave the country and stamping out does cancel it. 

 

Best of luck with it,

Thanks for that response, I will have to cancel my visa as I'm on a one year Non-B, my school said they will do it for me on the day I do the border run, I'm planning to go to Laos, but can I get a returning flight on the same day and come back with a tourist visa? I think somethings are going to go horribly wrong lol.

3 hours ago, The sight said:

Thanks for that response, I will have to cancel my visa as I'm on a one year Non-B, my school said they will do it for me on the day I do the border run, I'm planning to go to Laos, but can I get a returning flight on the same day and come back with a tourist visa? I think somethings are going to go horribly wrong lol.

How do you expect them to cancel it when you will have your passport with you? 

Only YOU can cancel your work extension. It belongs to you.  It's in your passport.  You must go to the immigration office that issued the extension with paperwork that states your last day of work, and cancel your extension.  You can go about a week before the date on the paperwork and get it cancelled, and they'll stamp you in until the end date of the paperwork.  You'll also need your cancelled work permit to cancel your work extension.

I don't know mate the visa person at my school said they can just cancel it on the system instead. Whatever that means

4 hours ago, The sight said:

I don't know mate the visa person at my school said they can just cancel it on the system instead. Whatever that means

They don't know what they are talking about. You have to get the extension cancelled in your passport, by immigration, or you can be fined in the future 500 baht per day for failing to do so, and it can also block you from getting another long-term visa or extension until you do it.

On 9/2/2025 at 10:10 PM, The sight said:

I don't know mate the visa person at my school said they can just cancel it on the system instead. Whatever that means

They are probably talking about the work-permit - not the "permitted stay" extension from immigration. 

Some businesses will send someone to immigration to handle this for departing employees, but would need your passport to do it.  Based on what they told you, it does not sound like your school will do this.

 

Canceling your extension at immigration can be done before your last day of work, with letter from your employer stating a future termination-date.  Ask if the school / your-employer will provide this in-advance of your departure.