Looking To Move To, And Work In Thailand

[johnnyj]

Hi all,

this is my first topic, and I think second post ever on the board, although I have been lurking and reading for quite a while, so Hi! everyone.

Basically Id like to move to thailand and work there for a while,

My partner is originally Thai, although she emigrated to my home country as a child and thats where I met her and were we have been living,

she now holds dual passports so she has no visa issues for work or anything, plus she has a number of standing job offers being able to speak, read, write both english and thai natively, along with having a foreign education yadda yadda yadda (apparently that counts for a lot in thailand particularly if she is a thai native)

I on the other hand am not sure the best way to approach it, I have over a decade experience in IT and have plenty of skills and a good work record, etc.

Looking around I dont know what the best way of getting work in thailand is, do I look at coming across on some sort of visa that allows me to look for work? (is there such a thing?) or do I look from my home country and see what I can find??

My reasons for wanting to move to thailand are pretty simple, I'm sick of the Tax regime of the country I am in, its almost persecution, close to 50% income tax, plus travelling to any other country is hideously expensive (the closest country to where I am is about 1500+miles/ 2500 odd kilometres), the white picket fence dream in this country is effectively <deleted> and to be honest I'm sick of the weather here.

so being based in thailand would give plenty more opportunity for travel (particularly with my partner as she speaks a load of languages)

My thai speaking is basic at best, but I pick things up pretty quick, when I first visited thailand I couldn't even count in thai, and would forget how to say thankyou half the time.

now I can maintain basic conversations - understand a hel_l of a lot more than I speak (it probably helps that in my home country I live in a predominantly thai household lol)

as well as being able to read most of the road signs, and count / handle thai currency amounts, along with manage to purchase things in shops, get petrol/diesel, deal with being caught speeding, etc easily enough.

the weather in my home country isn't the greatest and I love the hot weather in thailand, all in all its time for a change.

My partner is keen to move as well, we are considering other countries but as we (read: she) own some land in thailand along with a couple of other investments, we both like the idea of spending a few years in thailand at least.

so I guess what I'm after is

- best way of looking for a reasonable job

- what to expect by way of salary (I have spoken to some thai friends as well but it is always great to get some more input)

- any cautions, words of wisdom or advice when it comes to moving to thailand

- pitfalls ?

plus I'd love to hear about other peoples experiences with similar?

Also, if this is in the wrong section I apologise, and please someone let me know

[Soutpeel]

And the most crucial bit of ino missing...What exactly do you do for a living ??

OP a good start is to take off or dont put on the rosey tinted spectacles as regards Thailand, unless you are very highly skilled/experienced person in your chosen field whose skills are in demand in Thailand, the best option you have will be teaching English for between 30-50k month...

[johnnyj]

And the most crucial bit of ino missing...What exactly do you do for a living ??

OP a good start is to take off or dont put on the rosey tinted spectacles as regards Thailand, unless you are very highly skilled/experienced person in your chosen field whose skills are in demand in Thailand, the best option you have will be teaching English for between 30-50k month...

I work in IT, or More specifically I'm a cross skilled DBA (MSSQL, Oracle, Sybase, MySQL, CouchDB, PostgreSQL, etc) & Windows / Unix Engineer, previously worked as a Data Architect, along with being a Senior development consultant for projects for pretty much every section of industry.

I can also program .Net, Java, Javascript, Ruby / Ruby on rails,etc, etc, I wont go into my full resume, but I'd say I'm pretty good at what I do,

Obviously I'm not looking to move to thailand to make loads of cash, if I wanted to do that I'd be looking to move somewhere with a much less pleasant climate.

honestly though, teaching english doesn't really appeal to me, I could probably teach computing, but not teaching english unless it was something specific...

Maybe I'm being too fussy, but eh.

I'd like to say I dont have rose tinted glasses, but I guess to a certain extent I do, its hard to tell really!

but I'm still relatively young (approaching 30) and have time to learn to like it, or cut the losses and get on out of there.

[garyh]

If you think moving to Thailand will let you avoid tax you may need to look again. If you are Australian you would still have to pay tax to Australia even living and working in Thailand. It takes 2 years to break from this strangle hold. You may want to check if these laws exist in your country.

[johnnyj]

If you think moving to Thailand will let you avoid tax you may need to look again. If you are Australian you would still have to pay tax to Australia even living and working in Thailand. It takes 2 years to break from this strangle hold. You may want to check if these laws exist in your country.

close even though I have spent quite a bit of time in Australia, I'm from the land -even more- downunder,

NZ as far as I am aware, there is no requirement for me to pay income tax in New Zealand unless I am living in New Zealand, any kiwi's out there who can correct me?

[Gippy]

I would suggest trying to get a job arranged before you come here, can you get posted to Thailand from a company back home?

Your line of IT seems to be the same as many, many other Thai people do and it could be hard to get a job. If you get a position in a regular Thai company the pay will be low and you may only get a few days a year holiday, not giving you much time for the travel you are seeking.

[wamberal]

I would contact some of the consulting firms/software houses in your home city, let them know that you would be prepared to work in Thailand on local terms and conditions. You might find that you get somewhere that way, it all depends of course on whether they are hiring in Thailand and whether you fit the bill.

In my experience, some Western companies might be interested in hiring a person with expat skills and experience who is prepared to work on local terms.

As for taxation, are you really paying 50% income tax? You need a new tax accountant.

[johnnyj]

I would suggest trying to get a job arranged before you come here, can you get posted to Thailand from a company back home?

Your line of IT seems to be the same as many, many other Thai people do and it could be hard to get a job. If you get a position in a regular Thai company the pay will be low and you may only get a few days a year holiday, not giving you much time for the travel you are seeking.

Ideally I would love to get posted to Thailand from a country here, unfortunately the chances of that are pretty slim, mostly because a lot of the companies here, post people from other places to this country,

its hugely popular with the North American / European families with kids crowds,

but I guess thats beside the point.

To be honest, I figured that there might be some demand for people experienced in administering large enterprise systems, as there seems to still be demand in most of the world.

I did consider some muslim countries, but after visiting them I think it would be a very tough lifestyle (eg, something you do for the money!)

I figured the best thing for it would be to try and find something from here, and then head across, but asking for advice never hurts

on that note, what would be considered the main thai job seeker websites? eg, in the western world you have sites like Seek, Monsterjobs, etc.

any pointers / urls would be appreciated.

[johnnyj]

I would contact some of the consulting firms/software houses in your home city, let them know that you would be prepared to work in Thailand on local terms and conditions. You might find that you get somewhere that way, it all depends of course on whether they are hiring in Thailand and whether you fit the bill.

In my experience, some Western companies might be interested in hiring a person with expat skills and experience who is prepared to work on local terms.

As for taxation, are you really paying 50% income tax? You need a new tax accountant.

heh, I said it was close to 50%, it is effectively that when you take everything into account,

38% pay as you earn income tax +12% GST - and thats just taking the simple view. im sure it works out higher than that in actual $$ figures (without going into petrol tax or the taxes on booze and smokes... not that I smoke anymore thankfully)

Good thinking on approaching the Western companies in that way, I can imagine why they would find it attractive, much cheaper for them to pay a good - in thai terms - salary in thailand, than to lay out the $$ for a full expat package.

[scorecard]

If you think moving to Thailand will let you avoid tax you may need to look again. If you are Australian you would still have to pay tax to Australia even living and working in Thailand. It takes 2 years to break from this strangle hold. You may want to check if these laws exist in your country.

I have doubts whether this is correct. Thailand and Australia have a tax agreement which means that as long as your paying in one country then that's it.

Unless of course it's changed just recently which I doubt.

[MJo]

Your up to a good start. That being coming with your partner that has job secured in Thailand. And the fact that you already speak some Thai.

For visa your options are to get married and get one year non-immigrant O based on marriage to Thai national. This will mean you do visa run every 3 months but you can avoid those having 400k baht in Thai bank or regular income of 40k per month. Other option is to get ED visa for studying Thai. The O visa you can get work permit on top of it. ED visa you need to convert to O or B to be able to work so if you are married or plan to marry then O is preferred for that reason as it does not prevent you studying either.

Which ever visa you come from it could be wise move to advance your Thai to passable level so that you are able to perform your work in Thai. That could be possible if your partner has a job capable of supporting you both in the beginning.

With your skills and being able to speak Thai you should with a bit of luck find some employment within a year. Especially if you are willing to work on local or close to local salary. Could be around 80k to 100k per month (just my wild guess).

This board is full of members claiming they run "IT companies" here and even more members claiming they "work in the internet" being consultants working from home. Doing all kind of stuff from web pages to coding etc.

So doable in my opinion and above the odds due your basic language skills and coming over with native speaker.

Chok dee.

[MJo]

And if Thailand fails there is always Singapore where banks etc are hiring like crazy again. Also for IT and systems etc.

for url try jobsdb.com and there is various groups in LinkedIn listing jobs in your field all around APAC.

[johnnyj]

And if Thailand fails there is always Singapore where banks etc are hiring like crazy again. Also for IT and systems etc.

for url try jobsdb.com and there is various groups in LinkedIn listing jobs in your field all around APAC.

thanks for the helpful feedback, and also that URL, it looks like there is quite a few job listings there.

also Singapore is a good call too.

[scorecard]

I would suggest trying to get a job arranged before you come here, can you get posted to Thailand from a company back home?

Your line of IT seems to be the same as many, many other Thai people do and it could be hard to get a job. If you get a position in a regular Thai company the pay will be low and you may only get a few days a year holiday, not giving you much time for the travel you are seeking.

1. Thai gf or wife makes no difference to your chances of work here.

2. Permission to work (meaning being issued a work permit) is about you, details of your marital status, relationship status is not part of the work permit authorization regime.

3. Work permits are NOT available to foreigners for a long list of occupations and it's pretty much not flexible. There's a specific thread on this forum 'Work Permits' which gives more comprehensive details and gives the full list of jobs which are banned for Work Permits. there.

4. To get a work permit (if the job role is not on the list of jobs which foreigners are banned from) you must have a specific job offer (employment contract) plus various other items of documentation including a health certificate with report from a pathology lab to indicate that you don't have syphillus and some other things.

The employment contract must state that you will be paid at salary which is at or above a certain minimum amount (not sure what it is currently, about 40,000 to 50,000Baht a month I think).

Plus your prospective employer must sign a work permit application and attach various details of the company registration - copy of registration documents etc, paid up capital and more. Plus there's a ratio system. Something like 'can only have one foreign worker for every 9 Thai employees'. (Actually I'm not sure of the actual ratio numbers, other TV members can probably advise on this point.)

5. In other words you cannot apply for a 'personal work permit' which would cover you wherever you work. There is no such thing.

6. As mentioned by a previous poster "Your line of IT seems to be the same as many, many other Thai people do and it could be hard to get a job. If you get a position in a regular Thai company the pay will be low and you may only get a few days a year holiday, not giving you much time for the travel you are seeking. "

In fact Thailand is wash with Thai IT people with advanced experience etc.

7. Maybe worth reconsidering whether you want to teach English (TEFL - Teaching English as a Foreign Lanaguage). If you have a degree in anything (and I guess you do from the details you mentioned earlier about your skills) then you can do a short course here in Thailand to provide you with an acceptabe qualification and the skills to do the work. I think the courses are either 2 or 4 weeks.

Good luck!

[MJo]

Your are mostly right scorecard but the OP is in better situation than most coming alone or without any language skills.

1. Coming with Thai GF or wife having job in Thailand allows you to come over and look for job instead of trying to find something over the internet from NZ. Coming alone without loads of cash is harder to survive while you are looking.

2. Correct, but having Non-O visa means you can get a work permit with it. Much easier than coming with 30 day stamp from airport and then starting to organize all the paperwork to get non-B while in Thailand. Again some companies prefer to hire a guy with non-O than someone without any visa. It costs money to send him back home or whereever to apply non-B

3. Correct, but then there is foreigners with WP's working in IT so not all jobs in the that industry are banned from foreigners

4. Correct, the employer must apply WP and provide supporting docs. Salary is 50k i believe which should not be a problem for OP's line of work. Used to be one WP per 4 Thai employees. Might have changed since.

5. Correct

6. Correct, but there is also foreigners

7. Possible if you are prepared to throw away your career and life so far for 30k a month teaching job. Good backup though if all fails and you run out of money. But having wife or gf with good education working should prevent it ever going to that

[gvallee2]

IT is useless here

Most companies online would rather have a website made from microsoft word office with no functionality and no database because that way it doesnt look like a scam to them

Most offline companies do not care about security since the most secure information they have is where their golden sumtam stand is located at

Maybe uni teaching in your field? doesnt pay much but it seems like your best bet..

Starting small business like NET café for games is always good, the bigger, the more $ per month

[MJo]

IT is useless here

Most companies online would rather have a website made from microsoft word office with no functionality and no database because that way it doesnt look like a scam to them

Most offline companies do not care about security since the most secure information they have is where their golden sumtam stand is located at

Maybe uni teaching in your field? doesnt pay much but it seems like your best bet..

Starting small business like NET café for games is always good, the bigger, the more $ per month

For me that means there is huge potential in the market !

Set up your own business setting it right for these stone age companies

[TheJoker12]

Just make sure you are financially capable of going home if you have to. try to have atleast a million baht in the bank capital before coming here. that is absolute minimum.

[johnnyj]

IT is useless here

Most companies online would rather have a website made from microsoft word office with no functionality and no database because that way it doesnt look like a scam to them

Most offline companies do not care about security since the most secure information they have is where their golden sumtam stand is located at

Maybe uni teaching in your field? doesnt pay much but it seems like your best bet..

Starting small business like NET café for games is always good, the bigger, the more $ per month

to be honest, although I have the skills and have worked as such before, I figured I'd avoid the "web developer" or web based stuff if I could - mostly because I got a bit of the impression that there was a _lot_ of foreigners and locals in that area, and also because I have seen the quality of a lot of the websites.

I was more thinking that as I have quite a bit of experience in IT in the financial sector, it might be possible to find work with one of the larger financial institutions or with one of the big multinationals who provide consulting to the financial companies, as I've quite a bit of experience in IT in Finance, banking, insurance and investment.

otoh I wouldn't pass up a web development job, but I guess I figured those would be the ones with the most people applying for them.

I also kinda assumed there was quite a few expats in thailand who did freelance web stuff.

[johnnyj]

Just make sure you are financially capable of going home if you have to. try to have atleast a million baht in the bank capital before coming here. that is absolute minimum.

A million baht in the bank? as a minimum?

that seems to me to be a bit excessive, as a minimum, to my mind, I mean I could be wrong, but considering

- I have a truck over there already (only an '07 isuzu SLX but not bad)

- we have a house in my partners home town, and can get an apartment outside bangkok without too much of an issue.

I don't know about your home country, but in my country 1,000,000 baht = $42,725 which is more than the average national wage here before tax!

yes it is still less than I currently earn obviously, but at the same time people survive here on that easily, and the cost of living I would say would be around 10x that of living in thailand, but to be fair I'd say it would be 4x more expensive than living it up large in thailand.

that said, I am eager to hear the thinking behind having that much capital available.

[simon43]

Check out jobserve [dot] com on a regular basis. I often see long-term contracts working in the financial sector, such as working with IBM for their client Bangkok Bank. Typically looking for SAP and management skills, and especially looking for expats, since they have worked outside of Thailand and have not been 'corrupted' by some of the bad traits in Thai work ethics Monthly salaries are $10-$15k plus accomodation etc.

Simon

[dmax]

first off if i were you i would be learning to speak thai, meanwhile start trawling through the bangkok post, and all other main newspapers in thailand for jobs for foreighners