New Requirements For Non Imm B Extension

[keestha]

When I went to the local immigration office on monday march 25 to get my yearly non immigrant B extension, I found out that two things had changed:

1) nowadays you need authorized copies of all your tax forms and receipts, also forms and receipts for the compulsory staff health insurance need to be authorized. And the 2 copies of the company book (nangsue laplawng) and the shareholders list need to be originals, with the red stamp on it. When I went to the provincial tax office to get my authorized copies, I heard them complaining that the immigration office gives them a lot of extra work by requiring this. By no means I was the first one bothering them about this!

2) I was told that in order to get the yearly extension, the balance sheet has to show a profit of at least one million Baht. Mine does not, because my own salary is quite high, the 50.000 Baht per month I need to have in order to qualify for a one year extension.

I was given a provisional one month extension, but the immigration officer told me it was an open question if the local head office in Had Yai would approve my one year extension or not. Guess when the result is negative, I will have to head for Kuala Lumpur to get a one year multiple entry.

Hereunder follows a complete list of the documents I had to submit. You have to make 2 complete sets of all the paperwork.

1) TM 7 application form with a passport picture size 4X6 glued on it.

2) copy of passport, front page and page with the last visa/extension stamp

3) standard letter from the company explaining your position, at immigration they have a form for this

4) acknowledgement of conditions of stay, also a standard form

5)copy of work permit/work permit application

6) most recent tax return form and balance sheet, and if the one for last year is not ready yet, a letter explaining this.

7) forms and receipts of income tax (PND 1) of the last three months

8)form and receipt income tax (PND 91) over the last year

9) company book (nangsue laplawng) and shareholders list, shouldn't be more than 6 months old

10) 01 form concerning VAT registration

11) map indicating the location

12) form and receipt PND 1ก tax

13)forms and receipts for the compulsory staff insurance, last 3 months

14) form and receipt PND 51 tax

15) yellow company registration paper (tabbian kom gan kha), looks like a diploma

16) a chart showing which tasks in the company are done by whom.

Edited March 26, 2008 by keestha

[THAIJAMES]

Thanks for this very useful information. I wonder if there is any confirmation about the 1 million profit from anyone else.

Please keep us up to date.

[jstumbo]

I always heard that the company just needed to make enough money to pay the foreigner's salary. Not that they needed to make 1 million baht profit on top of that.

[beechguy]

Some offices do require 1 million Baht. But, not exactly a new requirement, it was mentioned last year.

Edited March 26, 2008 by beechguy

[keestha]

The day before yesterday I received a phone call from the immigration office that the regional head office in Hat Yai had handled my application, and that I should come and get my stamp.

Yesterday this turned out to be a 7 day stamp, the provisional one month "under consideration" stamp was cancelled.

So monday I am off to Kuala Lumpur to try and get a one year multiple entry non immigrant B.

Theoretically I could also apply for a non immigrant O, since I have a Thai daughter and I am listed as the father on the birth certificate. ( not married to the mother). But first I want to try to get a non immigrant B.

Any input from people who have gone to Kuala Lumpur recently for a non immigrant B would be most welcome.

[lopburi3]

Believe you can likely obtain multi entry non immigrant B visa (although no personal knowledge) but you are unlikely to obtain more than a single entry O type without a marriage.

[keestha]

Thank you very much Lopburi.

[keestha]

Yesterday the consular section of the embassy in Kuala Lumpur issued me a multiple entry non immigrant B. Of course my documentation was supercomplete, everything mentioned in the opening post, and also forms and receipts for the last three months ภ.ม 30 VAT, which is strangely enough not on the list of documents immigration needs to supply a one year extension.

The process at the embassy is straightforward. It is wise to come early, say 8 in the morning, in order not to have to wait around the whole day. Once your paperwork is accepted and you have made your payment, you can count on collecting your visa the next day. The day that you come to collect your passport, you don't even go into the office. You wait outside till they start handing out the passports.

Air Asia, which can very easily be booked online, is good for low cost flights to/from Thailand. From the central railway station there is a train every 20 minutes to the airport, which costs 35 Ringit. Mind you there are 2 airports, government run KLIA and privately run LCC. After I arrived by train at KLIA, I had to take a bus to go to nearby LCC which is used by Air Asia.

There are a lot of low budget hotels in centrally located Chinatown.

Edited April 10, 2008 by keestha

[KamnanT]

I always heard that the company just needed to make enough money to pay the foreigner's salary. Not that they needed to make 1 million baht profit on top of that.

It would be really handy if the new (ie. 09/2007) regulations governing extensions of stay for business people were clarified and made publically available. A friend running his own business (legimately employing 6 Thais) went to Suan Phlu in January to extend for the 6th year and was turned down because his company was over-leveraged. He had the requisite THB 2M in paid-up capital, but had funded the remainder of the start-up expenses 6 years ago with a loan to the company. This was never previously an issue, but this year they said the debt to equity ratio was too high. They wanted him to put more share capital into the business to lower the ratio. No guidance was given as to what an acceptable debt:equity ratio might be - just put some more money in and come back. Extension granted: 7 days.

[bkkflyer]

Some offices do require 1 million Baht. But, not exactly a new requirement, it was mentioned last year.

Isnt the 1 million baht requirement "Equity" and not necessarily "last years profit"?

[Nickkbh]

Good info,thanks.

Can i just ask,what time did you go to pick up the Passport at KL.

Did you fill out the application form,at the embassy,or in advance.

If in advance,where did you get it from.

Thanks.

[keestha]

Some offices do require 1 million Baht. But, not exactly a new requirement, it was mentioned last year.

Isnt the 1 million baht requirement "Equity" and not necessarily "last years profit"?

You could be right.....What made the balance sheet of my company not pass the bar, is that it is a 2 million Baht company, and accumulative losses for the years 2005 and 2006 were over 3 million. In the balance sheet for 2006, this produced a figure of over 1 million of losses which are not divided among the shareholders yet. I believe that this figure, the official capital the company has, plus undivided profits or minus undivided losses, has to be over 1 million.

One way to solve this problem, could be to change my company into a 5 million Baht company. I don't know if this is relevant, but my company has very little debt and way over 5 million Baht in assets: land, buildings, and equipment. But before I make this investment, I would like to know if this would make my company's balance sheet meet immigration's requirements. It would be very good if the requirements a company's balance sheet has to meet in order to get a one year visa extension for foreign staff, would be published. In order to operate within the framework of the law, we have to know what the law is.

Last of all I might add that my losses over the years 2005 and 2006 were very high because my bungalow resort was razed to the ground by the december 26, 2004 tsunami. I had to invest very heavily to build up everything anew, and replace all the lost equipment. Just that you guys/gals don't think I am a stupid businessman making losses all the time.

[torrenova]

I have friends here in Pattaya who were refused annual extensions despite running very profitable businesses over nearly a decade. madness.

I think the confusion with the Bt1m is that they wanted to see up front the whole cost for the WP's salary so on 50k per month they would need 600k plus social so say about 700k. Perhaps they now want all the Thai salaries and social contributions so if you have 4 Thais on 6k then they need another (4*(6000+750))*12 = 324k which would make it near enough a million !

I could never understand why a company in its first year has to show all the cash to pay the salaries but it is even more stupid to say that a company more than one year old must retain all this cash on its balance sheet to fund salaries when salaries are only payable each month. All that cash is not available for investment.

Did these clowns ever go to college or study accountamncy and economics - of course not. Just get your nose in at the trough.

[keestha]

Good info,thanks.

Can i just ask,what time did you go to pick up the Passport at KL.

Did you fill out the application form,at the embassy,or in advance.

If in advance,where did you get it from.

Thanks.

Hi Nick,

You will get your passport around 11 AM. This leaves more than enough time to catch a flight back to Thailand the same day.

I downloaded an application form from the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but decided not to try and use it when I saw that the embassy was using a different form. Have a nice trip.

Edited April 11, 2008 by keestha

[CosmicSurfer]

Air Asia, which can very easily be booked online, is good for low cost flights to/from Thailand. From the central railway station there is a train every 20 minutes to the airport, which costs 35 Ringit. Mind you there are 2 airports, government run KLIA and privately run LCC. After I arrived by train at KLIA, I had to take a bus to go to nearby LCC which is used by Air Asia.

There are a lot of low budget hotels in centrally located Chinatown.

You can get an a/c Air Asia shuttle bus, direct from KL Central to LCC - Cost only "9" Ringit. (But it takes an hour - probably same time as train plus transfer you mentioned. But without the transfer hassle.)

Their are actually 2 competing bus transfer companies - RED Air Asia buses and Yellow Busses... Yellow ones are 8 RM, but busses are older and not as comfortable.. for the extra 1 RM stick with Air Asia red Busses.

KL is a great place.

CS