Is One Allowed To Work

[steverino]

Is one allowed to work as a musician, play in bars etc, if one has a residency visa? Anyone know? Thanks.

[penelope]

Is one allowed to work as a musician, play in bars etc, if one has a residency visa? Anyone know? Thanks.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If you have permanent residency, you still need to get a work permit.

[steverino]

I take it you don't need a non imm. B, you just apply with your Resid. docs?

[penelope]

I take it you don't need a non imm. B, you just apply with your Resid. docs?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I would presume that to be correct. Someone who has actually procured their WP from a position of Permanent Resodent might wish to confirm ?

[sabaijai]

I take it you don't need a non imm. B, you just apply with your Resid. docs?

That's correct. With PR you simply have to satisfy the requirements of the labour dept.

For the average muso working in Thailand, the stumbling block is the minimum income levels required to get a WP. These levels vary according to your nationality. Very few Thai clubs - luxury hotel lounges being an exception, or Coco's on Samui - can afford to pay the levels for the average European, American, Australian or Japanese.

[steverino]

[Thanks a lot Penelope

[Indo-Siam]

The Labor Ministry does not have salary minimums for work permits - these are for Immigration, not for Work Permit Office. Up until last October, Work Permit Office used to require that you pay at least 18,000 baht per year in personal income tax - but that rule is no more.

The problem for a foreign musician to obtain a work permit is to have a legal Thai employer - no performance venue is going to arrange formal employment with work permit.

The problem for work permit is that to sponsor one, an employing company must have 2,000,000 baht reistered capital (or - if worker is married to a Thai, just 1,000,000 baht capital) - and company must also be registered for VAT.

What puzzles me is that anyone with permanent residency should know all this stufff cold. You cannot ever get PR without having earned at least 80,000 baht per year for some time, with a work permit. So - I wonder whether this really involves someone with PR status.

Good luck!

Steve Sykes

Managing Director

Indo-Siam Group

Bangkok

[email protected]

www.thaistartup.com

[steverino]

I have a friend who is a musician and he has his own company set up and this allows him to play anywhere in Thailand...I believe it's an entertainment company. Musicians are Rovers so his lawyer claims it gives him the right to do this. Of course he has the work permit etc. Can any of you verify this, as some of these lawyers just take the money and make up their own laws, and then poor muso gets into deep trouble...

[Indo-Siam]

I am sure that if you set up a company as a contract staffing company, and the company gets an engagement for a qualified musician, and the foreign director - as the only employee qualified to do that work - fills the assignment - then it is not a problem - everything is legal.

The work permit would specify the compaany's registered business address as the place of employment, and state that the MD will visit customer sites for the contract staffing business, to ensure that client expectations were being met.

But - the job would not be primarily a job as a "musician." The job (and work permit) would be as a director.

Cheers!

Steve

Indo-Siam

[steverino]

Thanks Steve, that makes it very clear.

[The Philosopher]

The wandering minstrel has the heart of a butterfly and the soul of a lion