Is there anyone out there (NOT AN EXPENSIVE LAWYER) who knows the real gen on volounteering. I am a very active 60 year old who has spent most of a lifetime in humanitarian related work. I'd like to spend the latter part of my life doing the same here (for free) but the labour laws make it nigh impossible for both the volounteer and the organisation. Having worked in over 30 contries this is new for me.

The booze,birds and sitting on my arse scenario simply doesn't do it for me and I don't have a 'use by' date.

If there is no help to be had here,can anyone recomend an affordable country that is friendly to 'active' seniors ?

My understanding is that you do not need a work permit to volunteer at a government hospital, government school, or any agency of the government itself. Kind of a small subset. But I'd get that cleared by means of a letter from immigration before you start. Volunteering in anything but those three without a work permit is still considered work. and there are harsh penalties.

Affordable and 'active'-friendly country? I'll leave that to better minds than mine...

Take one pace forward

You do need a work permit to volunteer, even if you volunteer for the government. I volunteer for the government and do need a WP!

The work permit must be obtained through the organisation you wil be volunteering for. For the organisation it is required that they are an officaly registered organisation or a government school. The required documents for a volunteer are not difficult to get, especialy for a government school.

I suggest when you find an organisation who is willing to accept you that they contact the labour office together to see if you can get a work permit as a volunteer. Normaly it is hard to get a WP when you are on a extension of stay based on retirement. If the organisation has trouble in getting the WP for you I suggest they contact the governour.

If you would be interested in doing volunteer work for an anti-human trafficking and slavery NGO in Phnom Penh please go to my profile page and contact me from there.

My understanding is that you do not need a work permit to volunteer at a government hospital, government school, or any agency of the government itself. Kind of a small subset. But I'd get that cleared by means of a letter from immigration before you start. Volunteering in anything but those three without a work permit is still considered work. and there are harsh penalties.

To reiterate Mario's point... you DO need a work permit to volunteer at a government hospital, government school, or any agency of the government. You also need a work permit to do ANY volunteer work and also for ANY work.

The only exception to this rule is that covered by receiving a work permit exemption letter. That is something I've never seen done before nor have I ever heard of it being done any where at any time in the entire history of Thaivisa.

Edited June 5, 200917 yr by sriracha john

I have seen such a case where someone got an exemption letter here on thaivisa. Believe it was with someone on an Ed visa.

My understanding is that you do not need a work permit to volunteer at a government hospital, government school, or any agency of the government itself. Kind of a small subset. But I'd get that cleared by means of a letter from immigration before you start. Volunteering in anything but those three without a work permit is still considered work. and there are harsh penalties.

To reiterate Mario's point... you DO need a work permit to volunteer at a government hospital, government school, or any agency of the government. You also need a work permit to do ANY volunteer work and also for ANY work.

The only exception to this rule is that covered by receiving a work permit exemption letter. That is something I've never seen done before nor have I ever heard of it being done any where at any time in the entire history of Thaivisa.

I have seen such a case where someone got an exemption letter here on thaivisa. Believe it was with someone on an Ed visa.

Nothing turns up on the Thaivisa search engine searches.

Do you have a link or do you recall the thread title or the person who made the post or the OP of the thread or any of the posters on the thread to help in finding this historical and precedent-setting post?

Edited June 5, 200917 yr by sriracha john

No, I do remember it, though. Some guy was a student and doing some sort of what some would call "work" in Thailand as required by his class (think from Chula Uni) and got a letter from somewhere saying he did not need a work permit. It was an official letter from a government department, but not sure which department.

It's not something that could really be applied here, though, as it wasn't about being a volunteer on a visa on the basis of retirement.

I don't think it's so amazing and historical and precendent-setting as you would have it sound, though. Seemed fairly routine for foreign students in his university.

Edited June 5, 200917 yr by Jimjim

Thanks for the lead, but still nothing showing up on an assortment of searches for chulalongkorn, chula, work permit, university, ED visa, etc. going back through four years worth of posts.

It's historical and precedent-setting because it's never before been put forth as ever having actually been obtained... for any purpose.

Even though as you say, it might not actually be construed as working if its so tightly tied to his actual educational process the person is undergoing and that it is not applicable to this thread's OP at all.

Still, I'm curious as to which entity actually issued it and its contents.

Edited June 6, 200917 yr by sriracha john

No, I do remember it, though. Some guy was a student and doing some sort of what some would call "work" in Thailand as required by his class (think from Chula Uni) and got a letter from somewhere saying he did not need a work permit. It was an official letter from a government department, but not sure which department.

It's not something that could really be applied here, though, as it wasn't about being a volunteer on a visa on the basis of retirement.

I don't think it's so amazing and historical and precendent-setting as you would have it sound, though. Seemed fairly routine for foreign students in his university.

This was probably a required internship and as such considered a part of his study in Thailand and therefor not work. Agree that is routine.