at home in the Uk i volunteer for Mencap, a mental health charity. when i move to Surin, Thailand, next year i would like to do similar work, just to keep busy. does thailand have similar charities? from what i have managed to find out so far, they dont. i also understand there are some schemes where if you volunteer for a number of hours a week, the charity will take are of your visa for you ( you still have to do the visa run of course ) - anyone hear anything about this? i am not interested in the charities where i pay them to work. if i can not do similar charity work as i do at home, then maybe i can approach the schools and do some volunteering with them, but not sure if they could sort me out a work visa.

Voluntering in Thailand requires a work permit, for which the organisation and you both must submit papers to the labour office. If you have a work permit and volunteer at least 4 hours a week, you can get yearly extensions of stay from immigration.

The hardest part is always finding an orgaisation that is willing to help you with a work permit. Many organisations just don't know how to go about that.

Voluntering in Thailand requires a work permit, for which the organisation and you both must submit papers to the labour office. If you have a work permit and volunteer at least 4 hours a week, you can get yearly extensions of stay from immigration.

The hardest part is always finding an orgaisation that is willing to help you with a work permit. Many organisations just don't know how to go about that.

You do not actually need a work permit. What you need is an identification card from the organization you are volunteering with.

Barry

Voluntering in Thailand requires a work permit, for which the organisation and you both must submit papers to the labour office. If you have a work permit and volunteer at least 4 hours a week, you can get yearly extensions of stay from immigration.

The hardest part is always finding an orgaisation that is willing to help you with a work permit. Many organisations just don't know how to go about that.

You do not actually need a work permit. What you need is an identification card from the organization you are volunteering with.

Barry

The law is quite clear that you do need a work permit and risk a maximum jail term of 5 years and/or a fine of up to 100,000 baht if you work (or volunteer) without one.

Voluntering in Thailand requires a work permit, for which the organisation and you both must submit papers to the labour office. If you have a work permit and volunteer at least 4 hours a week, you can get yearly extensions of stay from immigration.

The hardest part is always finding an orgaisation that is willing to help you with a work permit. Many organisations just don't know how to go about that.

You do not actually need a work permit. What you need is an identification card from the organization you are volunteering with.

Barry

Legally you do need a WP.....whether the law is enforced is another story

Voluntering in Thailand requires a work permit, for which the organisation and you both must submit papers to the labour office. If you have a work permit and volunteer at least 4 hours a week, you can get yearly extensions of stay from immigration.

The hardest part is always finding an orgaisation that is willing to help you with a work permit. Many organisations just don't know how to go about that.

You do not actually need a work permit. What you need is an identification card from the organization you are volunteering with.

Barry

The law is quite clear that you do need a work permit and risk a maximum jail term of 5 years and/or a fine of up to 100,000 baht if you work (or volunteer) without one.

I'd like to see where those penalties are stated clearly. But yes, you need a work permit provided by the legally registered charity

From my understanding, depending on the lawyer (or consultant, or official- or what mood they are in or if the moon is in a transition, ) it is a crime punishable by UP TO those mentioned penalties for working ( or volunteering ) on a tourist visa.

And the 100,000 fine is, and /or too, for the employer.

The penalties are not so draconian if you happen to already reside on a B visa, such as an Investor Visa ( which is no longer available but are grandfathered in. )

I'd like to know how it is acceptable for tourists to own condos which they rent out for income.

IMHO, the immigration and Foreign Business Act rules are designed to marry foreigners off to Thais.

I've got a tip - don't stand in front of me at the consulate in Vientiane and spend half a frigging hour asking about what visa you need, in a dopey Scottish accent.

Seriously, if it was me I'd probably get here first and see what sort of things you want to be involved in. If you're in a rural area anything like mine you'll probably find that there's not much by way of mental health charities but a fair few people who could do wiht some help on an informal basis, and you wouldn't need to do anything visa wise for that.

You might find more opportunities if you changed your job description from mental health to psychological counseling for those with AIDS...

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning group Medisin San Frontieres (maybe dated) has operations in Surin as of 2004:

http://www.msf.org/msfinternational/invoke...ethod=full_html

However, note that the 'Volunteer' page does not include Thailand.

Where volunteering occurs on an organised basis I think most of the organisation is provided by NGO's (non-government organisations). One web site I know about is www.thaingo.org. Here is a link to their jobs board which for some reason is no longer updated (anyone know why?) http://www.thaingo.org/prboard/2/index.php

But try using google, bing, yahoo, etc on terms like "Thailand volunteering" etc and see what you turn up. Also try searching (then posting) in the relevant Thaivisa regional forum to see if there are any relevant prior threads (which there probably will be)

Section 5. In this Act:

“Alien” means a natural person who is not of Thai nationality;

“Work” means engaging in work by exerting energy or using

knowledge whether or not in consideration of wages or other benefits;

Section 51. An alien who engages in work without having the

permit shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of not exceeding five years or to a

fine from two thousand Baht to one hundred thousand Baht or to both.

In the case where the accused under paragraph one wilfully departs the

Kingdom within the period specified by the inquiry official, but not more than thirty

days, the inquiry official may settle the case and causes that alien to depart the

Kingdom.

http://thailaws.com/law/t_laws/tlaw0366.pdf