General Info Required Please.

[thongwong]

Hi,

I'm a reseacher and developer with a company in Belgium. (electronics and software)

I would like to go to live in Thailand from july 2005 and work over there. (stop my company here and start 1 in Thailand)

I will be payed by another Belgium company for the results of my research monthly so I will have a guaranteed income.

At the beginning I would like to work alone , and later I could employ some thai engineers and IT specialists.

Now I'm very confused about visa ,workpermit etc....

I would like to have a visa for long term stay but with the flexibility to go outside the country when I want , for sure to go to Belgium and Taiwan.

Some questions in my mind now :

1/ I read that in the company minimum 4 people must be employed? So I cannot work alone?

2/ Do I have to open 2 million bath company? Or other possibilities?

3/What amount do I have to invest minimum to start and get workpermit?

4/How long I have to put the 2 million in the company?

5/Should I go to BOI , they have interesting /other possibilities for me?

6/If I want to start working in july , what should I do and when?

Thank you all very much for your help,

Wim

[Indo-Siam]

1. You can start a company with 2,000,000 baht REGISTERED CAPITAL, and then get a work permit - no Thai employees needed. Also, no capital pay-in needed (although you are supposed to pay-in at least 25% within 90 days). If you proceed this way, you will have to leave Thailand at least every 90 days - and then reenter on a valid non-immigrant visa.

2. If you wish to be legally employed, you either find another employer, or open your own company here. If the latter, then a 2,000,000 baht company is needed, to qualify for a work permit. If you could do all your work on-line, and be paid overseas (and then wire money here, or withdraw via ATM), you could simply obtain a one-year multiple-entry Class B visa, come here, and work from home - doing a visa run every 90 days. Thailand will not know or care much about you - as you are not working for a Thai employer, and not being paid in Thailand.

3. To be solid, REGISTER 2,000,000 baht, and pay-in at least 500,000 baht.

4. You never have to pay-in the balance of the 2,000,000 baht - up until you wish to obtain a long-term entry permit extension (so that you do not need to leave Thailand every 90 days). But - to get that long-term extension, you will also need to have four Thai employees.

5. In ordrer to be eligible to apply for BOI promotion, you must be investing at least 1,000,000 baht, not including land or working capital - meaning that you must justify and purchase 1,000,000 baht worth of capital assets - equipment, vehicle, etc. - assets that can be depreciated. This excludes most "bootstrap" IT oriented start-ups from applying for BOI promotion.

6. If you prepare somewhat in advance, working with a service provider such as my firm, you could arrive in early June, and have a company started and a work permit in hand on July 1st. The theoretical minimum time to start a company from scratch is about 12 days - and then seven days for the work permit. More realistic is 25-30 days. A lot of law offices here will take 60 days or more to accomplish this work - which reflects absurdly poor efficiency.

Good luck!

SteveSykse

Managing Director

Indo-Siam Group

Bangkok

[email protected]

www.thaistartup.com

[thongwong]

Thank you very much Steve for your clear answers.

I will contact you for appointment!

Best Regards,

wim