Annual Visa Extension ~ Currently No Work Permit

[misterme]

I applied and received my Non-B last May in my home country. My own company at home supplied the guarantee at that time.

Forward 9 months later.

I have a small guesthouse in Phuket. All the paperwork is in my Thai partner's name. No company, sole proprietor.

We have an operating certificate from the municipality, and have paid tax on the business.

As of yet, I do not have a work permit. I am not married. I am 40 years old. I have a condo with chanote.

I want to go the Thai Citizenship route... as I understand it, that requires continuous extensions to the visa. Is that correct? If I apply for a new visa, does the counter reset again?

I've been told in Phuket that:

*no work permit without 35K income

*not sure if work permit without a company is possible in Phuket

*no visa extension without the work permit and 50K/month income*

One law office wants to charge me 98,000 (+3000 tea money) to do the company route.

Is there any other way to apply for extension? Or is a work permit my only choice for non-B?

Can my partner apply for the work permit herself from the labour department? Or is the do-it-yourself route not advised?

If I go the (fake) company route, will this backfire on my when I apply for citizenship/residency?

Is it just Phuket? Are there better provinces to get things done? If so, can I transfer to Phuket after the fact?

Any advice from the experts is apreciated...

thanks in advance...

Mr. Me

Edited February 19, 2008 by misterme

[Maizefarmer]

I am not going to gte into the details about work permits and visa but i would like to say this.

I am a little suprized in the position that you are in that you do not have a level of understanding that us old hands in Thailand would expect to see from someone in your position. Please do not take this as a negative critisism - it is not meant to be. rather i hope it stresses for you the need to get a solid comprehensive undertsanding of the issues - and there are lots of guys on the forum who understand the subject matter very well - so you are going to a lot of helpful responses.

But I will say this: if you are working toward Thai Citizenship it is going to take you a good 10years to get - during which time you will need to have held first a work permitt for 3 years, which then allows you to apply for Thai permanent residency, and then with Thai Permanent residency f=after about 10years you will then be allowed to apply for citizenship.

I woul dthink very carefully about Thai citizenship if i was you - it has never appealed to me. I am a permanent resident and have being since the 1980's, during which time citizenship has never appealed to me. I get teased every year i go to get me WP renewed - same people make comments along the lines of "Citizenship this year wil it be Mr X??" - to which I reply, which equal amounts of seriousness and tongue in cheek - "Nope, not yet thanx, folks - I enjoy the security that being a UK/USA citizen offers me"

... and I'll leave it that, except to say that with Thai citizzenship, while in Thailand you will be considered first and foremost a Thai citizen with none of the security that you have or be entitled to as a permamnent resident with foreign nationality.

This is very much a personal reflection and opinion on the matter.

Oh and one other thing - yes, a fake company will almost certainly backfire down the road at some point in some way. Keep in mind that everything you do over the next 10 years can in someway contribute positively or negatively to your ultimate goal.

I wish you all the best

Edited February 19, 2008 by Maizefarmer

[lopburi3]

Although I do not believe application for citizenship requires a ten year wait anymore you do need to have PR first and that is going to require that you remain here on extensions of stay for over 3 continuous years (visa entry time does not count) and in almost all cases will require proof of tax payments on income in the 80k per month range. You do not require a company but you do require taxable employment of some type. Suggest you read the pinned guide to PR at top of forum under useful information.

[misterme]

Thanks for your replies. Will check the sticky.

I went to Immigration and another law office today.

As it stands now, it appears that I can get my partner to request a work permit easily that will enable me to get a New 1 year Visa outside of Thailand.

A Limited Partnership or Company do not seem to make a difference on the work permit.

But, to extend the current Visa, I need a work permit AND salary of 50,000 with 4 Thai Staff.

If these requirements are not met, I will have to go the New Visa Route which resets the number of years to (future) Residency. This is the main issue I am concerned with.

So, off to get a big salary, I recon.

Any other advise apreciated, again.

thanks

[PoorSucker]

But, to extend the current Visa, I need a work permit AND salary of 50,000 with 4 Thai Staff.

And your staff needs to pay tax and social security.

The company you work for must pay VAT.