1st Renewal Of Visa B And Work Permit

[Sinclair]

Sorry if the question was asked many times before, but rules keep changing and I couldn't find a recent topic about the renewal of non-immig B visa and work permit. My visa will end on October 16 and my work permit on January 15. What is the procedure to renew? Do I need to go abroad? What should be renewed first?

Thank you for your help!

[Indo-Siam]

Your visa has nothing to do with your in-country status. What are importan are your work permit, and your ENTRY PERMIT.

If your work permit expires Jan 15, the that is also probably the date that your extended entry permit expires.

You can effectively let your visa expire, and ignore it - if you continue to renew your extended entry permit, you do not need a visa - ever again. The visa only becoimes useful if you allow your entry permit to expire without renewing, or you depart Thailand while in extended status, and fail to obtan a re-entry permit before you depart.

So - what you will want to do is to apply for an annual renewal of your entry permit, sometime after 17 September. Thi process will probably take 8-12 weeks - but, during that period, you will be granted a series of 30-day extensions. While on your initial3 0-day interim extension (awaiting approval of your renewal), your work permit will expire. Before that happens, you will need to renew the work permit - and the renewal will be for less than 30 days - because it can never extend beyond the expiration date of your entry permit.

In no case will you need to depart Thailand.

So - you will end up doing a series of 30 day renewals - of both entry permit, and work permit - up until you are given the new one-year renewal - at that point, you will go and get a matching work permit - and then forget about all this stuff for another year.

If you are in Bangkok, and your employer is not handling all this for you,a nd you want someone to do the running around for you, please contact me via regular e-mail.

Otherwise, Good Luck!

Steve Sykes

Managing Director

Indo-Siam Group

Bangkok

[email protected]

www.thaistartup.com

[Sinclair]

Thank you for your answer!! I didn't know there was a difference between the visa and the entry permit. Actually my visa is due to end on October 14, whereas my entry permit is due to end on October 16. The company will handle the renewal process for me, but I like to know in advance, especially if I had to go abraod, which in fact is not the case.

So, as far as I understand, I will have to think about it one month before the expiration of my entry permit (even if the whole process takes 8 to 12 weeks), then there will be a succession of short extensions, until I eventually consider myself "liep loy" for another year. Did I get it right?

Thanks again.

[Axel]

Yes, it is correct. Once 'you' apply for extention of stay you will get a stamp

saying that such application is under consideration and you should come back on date so and so. Come back you do and theyh probably stamp 'still under consideration, come back ... (new date)

These 'under consideration' stamps are your de facto permissions to stay, usually 30 days.

Finally, if and when you permission is extented you will get a new stamp, permitted to stay.... usually 12 months from the expiry date of your previous entry permit (October 16 you said)

Small thing. A visa in all countries is like a recommendation by a consular officer to let you enter the country. Once you arrive, the immigration police will accept the visa (recommendation) and give you an entry permit. So the moment you have this your visa is used. If your visa suggest multiple entries one entry is voided every time you come in and get a entry permit.

[Sinclair]

Thank you Axel.

[alanw]

The actual renewal, at the 'one-stop-shop' is not all that complex, 95% is standard forms, but If you prefer to use an 'agency' to do the work permit , & visa etc renewal for you, can I suggest to shop around a little for fees.

My company uses the same international firm in most countries where my company operates, for work permit etc stuff. Their charges, here, are outrageous, bordering on insulting, considering that the work is actually done by a junior clerk and a messenger. Plus their attitude is aloof, arrogant and condesending .

I'm aware of two local law firms who have farang partners who charge fees which are more than outrageous. One firm charges 30,000 Baht.

I'm also aware of one business consultancy, managed by farang, who charge very modest fees, compared to what I've mentioned above. However I'm not sure whether it's appropriate to mention their name on this board. Perhaps one of the moderators could advise me on this point.

Regards

Alan

[boris]

My company uses the same international firm in most countries where my company operates, for work permit etc stuff. Their charges, here, are outrageous, bordering on insulting, considering that the work is actually done by a junior clerk and a messenger. Plus their attitude is aloof, arrogant and condesending .

I'm aware of two local law firms who have farang partners who charge fees which are more than outrageous. One firm charges 30,000 Baht.

I'm also aware of one business consultancy, managed by farang, who charge very modest fees, compared to what I've mentioned above. However I'm not sure whether it's appropriate to mention their name on this board. Perhaps one of the moderators could advise me on this point.

Regards

Alan

Alan

My company is charged about Bt 25,000 per wp/visa renewal.We know it is very expensive but have used the same firm for many years and had excellent service during that time.If there had been even a hint of the attitude you had to put up with we would have switched.There are a couple of points.

1.Best to use a firm with a first class Thai lawyer partner with immigration his or her prime field of expertise.He won't of course actually do the running around (it's a fairly routine business after all) or any of the work at all to be frank but will provide guidance and sort out any problems.Same principle I suppose as conveyancing in the West where junior staff do the work supervised by a partner.

2.In practical terms very helpful if your Thai secretary has a good and friendly relationship with firm's Thai secretary.

3.I would never use a firm where the senior figure was a farang.99% of the time there would be no problem but in the unlikely event of a hiccough at Suan Plu, it's best to have a well connected Thai to sort things out.

[alanw]

Dear Boris,

Thanks for your comments.

To be honest, considering the work performed (if it's a standard renewal - which in my case it is), I personally consider 25,000 to be outrageous.

I would certainly agree:

- That it's always desireable to have the Thai Admin Manager / Thai Secretary on good terms with a contact at the Lawyers office,

- That a Thai lawyer handle any problems

However, I am well aware that inside the International law firm law which handles our renewals (standard renewals - 2 farang), the very limited amount of work needed is 99%, maybe 100%, handled by junior staff and the lawyer signs a couple of template type cover letters.

But, in our case most of the document preparation is completed by our internal staff. The support documents (standard renewal) are:

- A handful of standard forms (issued by the government agencies concerned), they are very simple forms and take 5 minutes to complete, completed by our internal Admin Manager, and she delegates it to a junior clerk.

- Copies of the receipted income tax records for both the farang and the company. Our internal junior accountant is aware that, at certain times of the year, these documents will be needed for the work permit renewal, and she has them prepared as a matter of course. Very simple, very straight forward.

- Copies of the companies registration, stating paid up capital etc, etc. Our internal Admin Manager knows that these documents will be needed regularly, for various purposes, and she just takes a set of photocopies from a file she keeps for this purpose.

All of the completed documents are then sent to our lawyers. They just add a standard cover letter, and a junior employee goes to the 'one-stop-shop'.

I have PR, so in my case it's only renewal of the work permit, there is no work done in regard to visa.

I'll stay with my comment - I believe 25,000 (and I'm aware of higher fees), is totally outrageous.

As i said earlier I'm aware of one business consultancy which charges less than a quarter of the charge I've mentioned in the paragraph above.

Regards

Alan

[boris]

Dear Boris,

Thanks for your comments.

To be honest, considering the work performed (if it's a standard renewal - which in my case it is), I personally consider 25,000 to be outrageous.

I would certainly agree:

- That it's always desireable to have the Thai Admin Manager / Thai Secretary on good terms with a contact at the Lawyers office,

- That a Thai lawyer handle any problems

However, I am well aware that inside the International law firm law which handles our renewals (standard renewals - 2 farang), the very limited amount of work needed is 99%, maybe 100%, handled by junior staff and the lawyer signs a couple of template type cover letters.

But, in our case most of the document preparation is completed by our internal staff. The support documents (standard renewal) are:

- A handful of standard forms (issued by the government agencies concerned), they are very simple forms and take 5 minutes to complete, completed by our internal Admin Manager, and she delegates it to a junior clerk.

- Copies of the receipted income tax records for both the farang and the company. Our internal junior accountant is aware that, at certain times of the year, these documents will be needed for the work permit renewal, and she has them prepared as a matter of course. Very simple, very straight forward.

- Copies of the companies registration, stating paid up capital etc, etc. Our internal Admin Manager knows that these documents will be needed regularly, for various purposes, and she just takes a set of photocopies from a file she keeps for this purpose.

All of the completed documents are then sent to our lawyers. They just add a standard cover letter, and a junior employee goes to the 'one-stop-shop'.

I have PR, so in my case it's only renewal of the work permit, there is no work done in regard to visa.

I'll stay with my comment - I believe 25,000 (and I'm aware of higher fees), is totally outrageous.

As i said earlier I'm aware of one business consultancy which charges less than a quarter of the charge I've mentioned in the paragraph above.

Regards

Alan

Alan

You are right of course and the work done by your administrator mirrors the internal work done in my own company.Bt 25,000 is no doubt far too expensive (but would we say Pnds 350 was too much for a UK lawyer to process a Thai's residence/visa requirement in London?). In our case, there is a historical background as I mentioned and furthermore the Thai lawyer concerned is a friend and gives excellent free advice on immigration matters when needed.I am sure you can always find someone to do it more cheaply.In your case with PR I should think your internal administrator could tackle it herself without external assistance at all, especially in view of the poor service you have been getting.

[Sunbelt Asia]

Our firm sponsors the Thai Visa Forum so will repeat our rates for the record. We have 13 legal staff and proud to say we never had a work permit case denied approval.

Sunbelt Legal Advisors legal fees are 3,800 Baht for a work permit renewal and 3,200 for the visa renewal. Visa or WP extension legal fees are 1,600 Baht.

By the way, our first initial application is 7,200 for the extension of stay visa and 7,800 Baht for the work permit.

We have had three different clients this past week state that their auditor or lawyer just increase their charges. One in particular said the WP and Visa renewal went from 10,000 Baht to 25,000 Baht and he had been using them for 10 years. Pretty steep increase so it was why this guy was shopping for rates. Not sure if this a sign of the times?

www.sunbeltasia.com