Please help.

My 60 day with 30 day extension tourist VISA ends next week and was intending to apply for a new one in Vientiane, however, the rules have now changed and will be refused back to back tourist VISA's.

I have a job offer to work in Bangkok with a legitimate company. They will give me a work permit once I have a non B VISA. They gave me the number of the Thai solicitor/lawyer they use and she told me she can change my tourist VISA into a non B 90 day VISA for 17,000 baht!?!?! The company will rebate me the 17,000 baht after three months, so they say!

I have read that it only costs 2,000 baht for a non B 90 day VISA from Vientiane if you supply all the correct paperwork with a letter from company to support your application. Is this still the case??

The lawyer tells me I cannot get a non B VISA from Laos and that it may affect the work permit application. Is this true?

If it is possible to get a non B 90 day VISA from Laos, can anyone please guide me to the best web-site for information on exactly what is required? Is it as straight forward as the tourist application or does it take much longer i.e. apply in morning and pick up passport following afternoon?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

You need to apply for a work permit and obtain receipt before you can apply for a non immigrant B visa in the area. If you obtain a free tourist visa you can use that to apply for the work permit. Then you can apply for the B visa and obtain the work permit. B visa should cost 2,000 baht I believe.

If conversion done in Thailand it also costs 2,000 baht. Are you also getting a one year extension of stay? That would be another 1,900 baht. So lawyer fee is the difference. But if it includes the work permit (believe a bit over 3,000 most places) it would get into expensive but not too outrageous fee.

Thanks Lopburi, I will inform the bosses. The lawyer quoted 60,000 baht for work permit and B VISA!!

I hope they will look at an alternative. Can anyone recommend a decent solicitor/lawyer that doesn't charge ridiculous fees?

Didn't realise you had to apply for work permit before you got B VISA?? This is not how I first came to Thailand, the B VISA was done prior to any work permit application.

In the region you will not get Non-B visa without either WP or Form WP3 (receipt for application for WP). Outside the region many honorary consulates are more liberal in requirements, usually just a simple letter from Thai employer is enough.

OK, clearly the bosses are unaware of this as they want me to work a probationary period before committing to a WP.

If I do a border run and get 15 days, can I then go to Laos and apply for another tourist VISA?

Working without a work permit in Thailand is illegal. Your employer is obviously unaware of that too. The consequences of being caught can lead, at worst, to jail time but usually just a fine and deportation. And you cannot work on a tourist visa either.

This is the process you need to go through:

1) Your employer needs to present the appropriate application papers to the Labour Department for your work permit to obtain Form WP3

2) Once you have obtained Form WP3 you can apply for your Non-B visa at a neighbouring embassy/consulate (you will need full company paperwork from your employer). KL would be a good choice.

3) Once you have your Non-B visa you have to show this to the Labour Department before they will handover your work permit.

Edited September 23, 200916 yr by thaiphoon

Are you a teacher by any chance? They seem able to obtain B visa without the work permit receipt.

But this whole situation sounds like a money spin between your "potential" employer and lawyer with you being taken down the garden path.

No, I'm not a teacher. Would you be kind enough to refer a solicitor that can assist my company and I further without charging the earth?

Believe there is a firm sponsoring this forum that you might want to consider. There is about a page of them advertising in Bangkok Post every day but expect some are sharks.