Suspending Work Permit? Possible?

[thaitanic]

I have a work permit for working in a Thai Limited Company in Phuket. I get multiple entry non-B visas from the UK and I make visa runs every 3 months.

I am now planning to go abroad from June for between 4.5 and 6.5 months, with no chance of returning during the trip. So I will not be able to make the normal 3-monthly renewal in July.

Is there any official mechanism for "suspending" a work permit until my return or should I just cancel it before I leave and apply for a new one when I return?

I obviously don't want to pay income tax on a 35,000 baht minimum salary for the time I am away.

[stevemiddie]

No. Its cancelled if its not renewed at expiry date. Same happens if you have an extension of stay for 1 year ( with WP )

but fail to do your 90 day report.

[opalhort]

Same happens if you have an extension of stay for 1 year ( with WP )

but fail to do your 90 day report.

I doubt very much that this is correct. The 90 day address report has nothing to do with the WP.

opalhort

[stevemiddie]

Same happens if you have an extension of stay for 1 year ( with WP )

but fail to do your 90 day report.

I doubt very much that this is correct. The 90 day address report has nothing to do with the WP.

opalhort

That is the information received from the Labour Office in Chonburi if your extension is based on work.

Perhaps your office is different

[lopburi3]

I suspect there has been something lost in translation. Labor has nothing to do with 90 day address reporting. But if you do not have a one year extension of stay you would then be making 90 day trips for a new visa entry and have to also report to labor office to reactivate your work permit for the next 90 days.

[opalhort]

I have a work permit for working in a Thai Limited Company in Phuket. I get multiple entry non-B visas from the UK and I make visa runs every 3 months.

I am now planning to go abroad from June for between 4.5 and 6.5 months, with no chance of returning during the trip. So I will not be able to make the normal 3-monthly renewal in July.

Is there any official mechanism for "suspending" a work permit until my return or should I just cancel it before I leave and apply for a new one when I return?

I obviously don't want to pay income tax on a 35,000 baht minimum salary for the time I am away.

It depends very much of what is stated in your WP.

If the WP has been granted for one year but was validated only up to your current permit to stay stamp AND the granted one year period ends AFTER your scheduled return, you may have a chance. (read the handwritten notes in your WP when they first granted it! is it one year from date of issue?)

If the above matches your conditions then you can go to your local labor department and apply for renewal of validation before you depart TH but stating reason: pending passport. When you get back the WP will be validated matching your new permit to stay stamp.

Talk to your local labor officers first to make sure. It works in BKK but I've no idea about up-country.

Tax should not be an issue since you are not working here while outside TH (just my opinion)

opalhort

[Cyberstar]

The OP is a long-timer who knows the basics, so let's make it basic. Basically - the one and only rule that applies ***generally*** according to the written, ***Thailand-wide*** laws - is that your WP is AT MOST valid until the expiry date of your latest "permitted to stay until" stamp - whatever happens in between, really, isn't on the table of labor department. As long as you take care of keeping the permitted-to-stay-until stamp (based on which you last extended your WP) alive - either by not leaving the kingdom or by obtaining the proper re-entry-permit stamps before leaving - it shouldn't matter to your local WP-office what you do in the meantime (work or go on holiday outside of TH) ...

Well, unfortunately - your local WP-office may have a different opinion. If that's the case - feel free to tell them that their colleges in Chiang Mai don't require anything but your latest "permitted-to-stay-until" stamp to decide on how long your WP should be valid until (which will be the same date). So, shortly - look at the date on your last passport stamp: no way you can have/get a WP valid any longer than the date told by that stamp... Whether you can maintain/get a WP valid that long - well, only guys familiar with your local office can tell.

[lazeeboy]

if you tell your accoutant he can put it on hold ,this costs 600b a month

[opalhort]

......WP is AT MOST valid until the expiry date of your latest "permitted to stay until" stamp....

This is not correct in every case. It depends on what is written in the WP (for how long the WP has been approved but not necessarily been validated to this date).

The approval period of the WP is independent of a permit to stay stamp but the validation of the WP is.

See the attached scan of my WP with the all important date marked in green.

IF the OP has an approval date written in the WP which is beyond his return date then he can suspend the WP by submitting the form WP.5 with PP copies and original WP to the local labor office stating 'pending PP' until his return even if he comes back on a new visa. The labor office will then upon his return validate the WP to match the new permit to stay stamp OR the WP approval date, whichever comes first.

Sorry the attachment upload did not work, will try again in a new post.

opalhort

[opalhort]

finally got the attachment uploaded

opalhort

[stevemiddie]

finally got the attachment uploaded

opalhort

Useful info. Thanks .

[thaitanic]

Thanks very much for the information. It's looking like I will be away too long to suspend it, so I'll just cancel it and reapply when I return, if I decide to work again.