Ukraine ... Enlighten yourself

[bertlamar]

Hello, I am new to the forum and working in the marine industry here in Thailand.

Recently, a new company approached me to work for them, they are a bit different to where I work now, they are a fully foreign company with no Thai shareholders and all foreign directors.

They mostly produce boats for export and are wanting to expand. They don't have BOI or any special privileges I don't think.

Before I even consider working for them, I would like to know the impact of the FBA on this sort of company, because I know where i work now are majority Thai owned to get around this issue, and anyway, there are only 2 non Thais out of 50 people.

- Can a foreign company registered in Thailand engage in boat construction under the FBA 2007 (construction is an annex 3 activity); or is boat building covered somewhere else

- Does it make a difference whether the boats are for export only, or for both export and sales locally

Also, I have the questions on work permits. This is a company with a capital of 20 MB. They already have several foreigners working for them. Does it make a difference or is there some ratio of Thais to foreigners and/or foreigners to registered capital?

And if they offer me a job, and then don't make a profit, will I still be eligible for a work permit?

Since I have to possibly know answers to all of this since they could not easily answer in the job interview, I do not want to leave my current job, move north 600km and then discover I can't work!

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.....

[sbkk]

Hello, I am new to the forum and working in the marine industry here in Thailand.

Recently, a new company approached me to work for them, they are a bit different to where I work now, they are a fully foreign company with no Thai shareholders and all foreign directors.

They mostly produce boats for export and are wanting to expand. They don't have BOI or any special privileges I don't think.

Before I even consider working for them, I would like to know the impact of the FBA on this sort of company, because I know where i work now are majority Thai owned to get around this issue, and anyway, there are only 2 non Thais out of 50 people.

- Can a foreign company registered in Thailand engage in boat construction under the FBA 2007 (construction is an annex 3 activity); or is boat building covered somewhere else

- Does it make a difference whether the boats are for export only, or for both export and sales locally

Also, I have the questions on work permits. This is a company with a capital of 20 MB. They already have several foreigners working for them. Does it make a difference or is there some ratio of Thais to foreigners and/or foreigners to registered capital?

And if they offer me a job, and then don't make a profit, will I still be eligible for a work permit?

Since I have to possibly know answers to all of this since they could not easily answer in the job interview, I do not want to leave my current job, move north 600km and then discover I can't work!

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.....

Hi Bert

Manufacture for export is generally regarded as not being caught by list 3 (or lists 1 or 2) and as a result many large manufacturers are overtly foreign owned (as for construction in list three, think immovables). The work permit issue is really separate from the company's FBA status - even a Thai company would still need to comply with per-expatriate capital requirements and Thai staffing ratios.

If in doubt, you could stipulate that acceptance of the offer is conditional on a work permit being issued to you.

All the best.

[bertlamar]

thank you, that makes me feel better.

It is a tough business in marine, so the offer is very enticing; just need to make sure the legal side is ok!

4 Thais for each foreigner I think is the ratio right? That's no problem. 3mb per permit.

Is there a minimum amount of profit per year also, or is it just staff and capital ratio enough?

[monty]

There is no minimum revenue/profit at the labor department for the work permit per se (although it'll be hard if they actually declared a loss!), but it is needed for allowing you to get a 1 year extension based on your work permit.

In general the immigration will check if the company is making enough actual profit enabling them to pay your salary. They are looking at the audited books from the previous year, there should be enough profit made in those 12 months to be able to pay you for the next 12 months...

[otherstuff1957]

I used to work for a Yacht Brokerage in California that imported boats built in Thailand (Hans Christians). So, it was possible for a foreign company to build boats in Thailand 15 years ago!