Work Or Not?

[tt61]

Hi again,

I never got any reply on my last post so here we go again. I plan to live in Thailand and I'd like to know what kind of visa I could obtain (non-immigrant one year or work visa).

I am self-employed and do consulting on the Internet. I make all my money outside of the kingdom and all money go to a foreign bank account. I do not occupy a job that a Thai citizen could do.

My questions:

1. Would it be possible for me to obtain a work visa even though I don't have a sponsor in Thailand? This is of course if my occupation is considered work in Thailand.

2. If it is not considered work would it possible for me to get a non-immigrant one year (non-working) visa and still do my thing in Thailand?

I will buy a condo in Thailand this year. Would this help in any way?

I contacted the Thai embassy in Sweden but got no reply. Hope for better luck here..

Thanks in advance.

[EVO]

Im no expert, but ill give you my twopennies worth.

From what you said, you are not technically working in Thailand. You are not recieving money from your work in Thailand and therefore you dont need a work permit to be here.

There is no such thing as a 'work visa'. There is a long term visa, to which a work permit can be 'attached' by the labour department. Unless you have a sponsor in Thailand then you wont be able to get a nonB visa from the Thai consulate in your home country. (You need the paperwork).

How your investment in a Condo complicates matters, i honestly dont know.

I am totally against working in Thailand or any other place unless you are working legally, but in your case the area is so grey that i wouldnt have a quarms about it.

Let me know how you go and what you decide. Id be very interested to know.

[PvtDick]

If you are consulting on the internet and sitting in Thailand while you're doing it, you're working in Thailand and require a work permit. To get a work permit, though, I believe you would have to found a company with the requisite capitalization levels, number of Thai employees, etc.

[tt61]

Thanks for the replies. I do not want to do any work in Thailand if it is not legal. But as was mentioned, the area is gray. I've done my consulting in a number of countries and in some it's considered work, in others not. When I can't even a reply from the embassy I suppose it is a gray zone even for the authorities.

I could, as suggested, try to open up a company in Thailand but since I would not have any revenues generated within Thailand it seems somewhat like an overkill and lots of complications along with it...

In any case thanks a lot for your input!

TT

[autonomous_unit]

Thanks for the replies. I do not want to do any work in Thailand if it is not legal. But as was mentioned, the area is gray. I've done my consulting in a number of countries and in some it's considered work, in others not. When I can't even a reply from the embassy I suppose it is a gray zone even for the authorities.

...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I do not think you will get any legal advice that suggests it is OK. The letter of the law is that you need a work permit, and to do that you need a Thai employer and sufficient reason for the Labor Dep't to approve your permit for the kind of professional work you plan to do. The spirit of the law varies depending on who is looking at your case and perhaps on whether you are liked or not.

In practice, going the legal route will get you lots of gov't officers looking at you funny and telling you that you didn't need to do any of this. But that is not legally binding advice, and you would need to evaluate your own risks as well as the risks to your overseas employer, should you work unofficially and somehow get hassled.

[tt61]

Thing is I am self-employed and am my own employer. I cannot employ any Thai because what I do is enough for me (both in terms of work load and revenues).

TT

[Steve2UK]

Unless you have a sponsor in Thailand then you wont be able to get a nonB visa from the Thai consulate in your home country. (You need the paperwork).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not strictly true. Depending on your home country, some consulates (e.g. Hull in UK and - I think - Houston in US) are fairly free and easy about giving out non-imm B visas on the basis of exploring business opportunities in Thailand. In my case, the Hull consulate was very happy to grant my application for a one year multi-entry B visa and I simply wrote a letter as MD of my own one-man band UK company confirming that the company would cover any costs that arose from my time in Thailand.

That said, it doesn't get you a work permit. Forming a Thai Limited company (not a big or expensive deal through the likes of Indo-Siam or Sunbelt Asia) would get you a work pemit as MD of that company. If you'd be happy to accept visa runs every 90 days and renewing the work permit concurrently, you don't have to have Thai employees. You only have to have Thai employees if you yourself are trying to get an extended work permit - i.e. for a year.

That's my reading of the legal situation from numerous posts and a meeting with Sunbelt in Chiang Mai.

It's not the end of the story and there will be wrinkles for you to weigh up as to whether they're worth the cost/bother. But, it DOES seem that there is a route. You'll have to read through a lot of previous posts on here to establish more of what you need to make the decision. I suggest you use the search facility and look for posts by both Indo-Siam and Sunbelt.

About the condo, I believe that there is also an investor status that might work for you - depending on the value/price of the condo counting as an investment. Not sure of the exact details; again, I suggest that you do a search on the this forum using "condo investment".

Good luck!

PS - the search button is at the top of the page (not very obvious, but it's there!)

[Indo-Siam]

There is a long-term entry permit extension category for investors bringing in 3 million baht, invested under certain conditions (one alternative being in a comndominium) . Once you had an investor extension, you could then form a Thai consulting company with 2,000,000 baht regsitered capital (500,000 baht paid in) and obtain a work permit to work for that company. This would gove you a stable base, no Thai employeesrequired.

If you could live with quarterly border turns, simply start a companyt with 2,000,000 baht registered capital (500,000 baht paid in), obtaina work permit, and live in 90-day increments.

If you are living here in tourist status, working from home - none of your clients are in Thailand, and you receive no money in Thailand (it is all paid to an overseas account), then there is no evidence of any wrong-doing in Thailand - so don't worry about it.

Without a work permit, there are a very few things that you cannot do here - mostly trivial. But - you would have to depart thailand very frequently.

Coststo "carry" a company here, once formed:

Monthky: office rent, monthly accounting charge, personalincometax and social fund tax on your salary - figure 10% of salary

Quarterly - Border run, plus revalidate work permit

Annual - Six month and 12 month tax filings, annual audit

Good luck!

Steve Sykes

Managing Director

Indo-Siam Group

Bangkok

[email protected]

www.thaistartup.com

Skype: sykesbkk