Does anyone know whether there has been any change in applying for work permits recently?

I have just been told that for every work permit issued for a company (other than diving), we need to have 2,000,000 baht capital in the company. It used to be that for every 4 Thai staff employed, we could employ one foreign worker. But when we tried to make an application today, our lawyer informed us that we no longer can do that unless we raise our capital by another 2,000,000 baht.

This would be really inconvienent as it would change our company from a SME to the next level. And this would mean that our corporate tax bracket would be a lot more.

...Does anyone know whether there has been any change in applying for work permits recently?

I have just been told that for every work permit issued for a company (other than diving), we need to have 2,000,000 baht capital in the company...

I don’t see this requirement as a change. On 14 October 2004 Sunbelt Asia posted the Department of Employment Regualtions and they included the following:

Article 5. From the consideration of issuing the work permit under Article 4, permission may be granted according to the following criteria:

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(3) Foreigners working for an employer whose investment size from the paid up registered capital is not lower than Baht two million, the rate being one alien permitted for every Baht two million...

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Maestro

There was a change in the Working of Aliens Act this year. Sunbelt Asia posted about it and attached a PDF file detailing the changes. This attachment can be found here.

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Maestro

Does anyone know whether there has been any change in applying for work permits recently?

I have just been told that for every work permit issued for a company (other than diving), we need to have 2,000,000 baht capital in the company. It used to be that for every 4 Thai staff employed, we could employ one foreign worker. But when we tried to make an application today, our lawyer informed us that we no longer can do that unless we raise our capital by another 2,000,000 baht.

This would be really inconvienent as it would change our company from a SME to the next level. And this would mean that our corporate tax bracket would be a lot more.

2 million per work permit has been a requirement for some years now (including dive companies).

The extra 4x Thai workers stipulation is recent, the 'idea' comes from the criteria for an extension of permission to stay on the basis of business.

The 4x Thais 'rule' is not currently being used by all labour departments.