In Need Of 3 Work Permits, Need Advise

[kudroz]

Does the registered capital of a Limited Partnership have to be fully paid up in cash to get a work permit? I know for a Limited Company you don't have to show your bank account, and some of the registered capital can be paid with other assets. What about a Limited Partnership, are they going to ask for a copy of the bank account?

Limited Partnership is in Chiang Mai, and have:

- 1 Thai Partner (51%) 2 Foreign Partner (49%)

- 5 Million in registered capital

- 500,000 paid-up in cash

- 4.5 Million paid-up with computers, office equipment and intangibles (software, licenses, client databases, etc)

We would like to get 3 work permits, any advise?

The Limited Partnership is not selling anything in Thailand, it is used only for the sourcing of services for the foreign parent company. We wanted to establish a representative office at first, but we had some trouble with substantiating the legitimacy of the head office as it is a start-up (internet) company, and couldn't provide financials for the past 3 years and other things they were asking for.

*edit typo

Edited December 7, 2007 by kudroz

[TJ9]

I'm no expert, but based on my experience I see the following potential "issue"...

You need 2 million in paid-up capital for each work permit unless one of the work permit holders are married to a Thai National, in which you only need 1 million for that one.

i.e. if one of the work permit holders are married to a Thai national then you're good, otherwise you'll have to increase your paid-up capital by another million to 6 million total.

[Guderian]

Does the registered capital of a Limited Partnership have to be fully paid up in cash to get a work permit? I know for a Limited Company you don't have to show your bank account, and some of the registered capital can be paid with other assets. What about a Limited Partnership, are they going to ask for a copy of the bank account?

Limited Partnership is in Chiang Mai, and have:

- 1 Thai Partner (51%) 2 Foreign Partner (49%)

- 5 Million in registered capital

- 500,000 paid-up in cash

- 4.5 Million paid-up with computers, office equipment and intangibles (software, licenses, client databases, etc)

We would like to get 3 work permits, any advise?

The Limited Partnership is not selling anything in Thailand, it is used only for the sourcing of services for the foreign parent company. We wanted to establish a representative office at first, but we had some trouble with substantiating the legitimacy of the head office as it is a start-up (internet) company, and couldn't provide financials for the past 3 years and other things they were asking for.

*edit typo

Since you are suffering from a major lack of replies, I will add what little I know about this subject.

The first thing is that several people with their own businesses here (ranging from GoGo bar owners in Pattaya to the farang owners of a textile or garment factory in Chonburi) have told me that the rules have changed quite a lot recently. This may, of course, (as in the case of some of the "new" visa issues) just mean that the Thais are now enforcing rules that already existed, rather than inventing brand new ones.

For this reason, and because a WP is important, I recommend that you see a good Thai lawyer who would know about such things. It's not expensive, my lawyer in Pattaya is excellent and charges 1000 Baht/hour. He even pro-rates his fee to 500 Baht for 30 minutes if we get through quickly. Unlike the West, where high legal fees are beyond the reach of most people, here in Thailand there is no financial reason not to use a lawyer.

I got briefly involved in WP's early this year via Sunbelt Asia. I won't go into details, but basically a Pattaya-based company needed a WP for a new farang manager. At that time it only had a single WP for the farang owner, and 2 million Baht of capital (not sure of the status of this). The cost of a new WP was about 11,000 Baht to get the registered capital upgraded to 4 million Baht, and then about 25,000 Baht for the paperwork in applying for and issuing the new WP. I was amazed at how cheap and easy the WP process was via Sunbelt. However, I dropped out of the loop long before the new WP was issued, and heard that there had been some problems along the way, but I do not know the details.

More recently, as I mentioned when I started this reply, several business owners have told me that under the new regime the capital now has to be fully paid-up. They also intimated that other rules have been changed/enforced strictly and that life has generally become rather more difficult, but I don't know the details. The two guys I mentioned with the factory in Chonburi (I met them during a visa run to Cambodia) were actively looking to relocate their business from Thailand, and seemed to be saying that not only had life as a businessman become more difficult recently, but there was now one set of rules for farang-owned businesses and another (more relaxed set I presume) applied to Thai-owned businesses.

That's what little I know of the WP situation at the moment anyway. Since much of it comes from what other people have told me rather than my own personal experience, please don't quote me on any of it or assume that it is gospel. As I suggested, get professional legal advice, it's cheap here.

Cheers.