Now that the adult voice of wisdom has chimed in I can go to sleep ... Against the law? Rubbish ... I can't be bothered reading all those silly laws...

Now that the adult voice of wisdom has chimed in I can go to sleep ... Against the law? Rubbish ... I can't be bothered reading all those silly laws...

Neither can I

If I had to research the entire legal system of every country I lived in or visited I'd probably never leave the house. Anyway my cat needs feeding so I'd better go.

Edited July 26, 201015 yr by inthepink

That's fine .... I am sure an eminence such as yourself is allowed to decide to which of any country's laws you choose to adhere and which you will deem as 'rubbish' ...

... but as Vincent LaGuardia Gambini (Joe Pesci) said to The Judge in My Cousin Vinny:

Vinny Gambini: You were serious about that?

That's fine .... I am sure an eminence such as yourself is allowed to decide to which of any country's laws you choose to adhere and which you will deem as 'rubbish' ...

... but as Vincent LaGuardia Gambini (Joe Pesci) said to The Judge in My Cousin Vinny:

Vinny Gambini: You were serious about that?

You are being rather silly continuing with your straw man argument, trying to attach a different meaning to a single word that I used in a post. I said that most consulates in the West normally don't require all that rubbish, i.e. details of company formation, shareholders, annual reports and God knows what else. Nowhere did I state that the laws were rubbish, but 2 inches of documentation on any company is just printed verbiage to me. I never said the laws were rubbish either, merely that I am not aware of every single one.

At least I don't claim to have applied for and received numerous visas from a nonexistent consulate.

If you could actually stick to the topic, in my personal experience with consulates that actually do exist and are not in Asia, a minimum of documentation is required when applying for a non-immigrant 'B' visa for the purposes of 'doing business' in Thailand. I don't dispute the fact that they could demand all manner of documents if they were so inclined but they usually aren't. I thought the purpose of this forum was to give help and advice to people about what actually does happen and can be done, not to try and scare them off and post inaccurate information.

If you are fully conversant with every law in Thailand then I take my hat off to you but personally I use common sense to stay out of trouble and only worry about researching laws when there is something specific that I wish to accomplish and I need to know that it is legal. I haven't been charged with any offence in all the time that I have lived here so if you don't mind I'll leave a more intensive study of Thai law to people such as yourself.

Edited July 27, 201015 yr by inthepink

My first work in Asia 20+ years ago was with the Ministry of Agriculture PR China C-Party Members, and in that situation you'd better d-mn well know the specifics so I nowadays still tend to err on caution ...

... As of right now -- unless there is something going on in PM land -- there would be no 'valid' reason based on the OP's description of his circumstances for him to obtain a 'B' visa ... if instead of a software developer he magically becomes a recruiter or contractor that is something else.

Any Thai Embassy, Conuslate, or Consulate-General has full discretion as to who and on what basis they will issue any Visa ... and once issued one is valid as the next.

Everybody's favorite UK CG says on their website:

Category "O" to visit family/friends living in Thailand, to work as a volunteer for a recognised charity or to visit as UK Pensioner. This category does not allow

employment without a work permit.

Every mod on this Forum has repeatedly stated that to do work of any kind -- paid or otherwise -- requires a work permit.

Sunbelt: You must have a work permit to perform any type of work in Thailand... This also includes volunteer and non-profit work.

... and the Thai Ministry of Labour website says (definition) " Work " means to engage in work by exerting energy or using knowledge whether or not in consideration of wages or other benefits.

So go figure.

What about a hypothetical situation such as the following?

Let's say that I am a software developer who heads up a department for a UK company. My duties consist of managing a team of programmers and writing code for specific applications that they are unable to deal with. The project I am currently working on could be completed more cheaply by farming out some of the work to a software company in Thailand. My superiors wish me to visit the country in order to discuss our requirements with a number of Thai firms and see if any of them are suitable to go into partnership with. A letter is sent to a consulate requesting a business visa so that I can enter the country for this purpose and is duly granted.

Whilst I am in Thailand, one of the programmers in my team encounters a coding problem that he cannot solve. He emails me the relevant piece of code and I rewrite it for him on my laptop, in my hotel room. Have I now broken the law?

This is a genuine question as although I have actually taken some time to try and acquaint myself with the laws that concern working in this country, I find it hard to believe that the Thai authorities would expect any businessmen who are visiting the country for legitimate purposes to completely ignore any other responsibilities that they usually have to deal with as part of their job back home.

This is how I would personally assess the situation described above:

If the person is genuinely here in Thailand to seek Thai companies for sub-contracting projects, and some 'problem at the office' arises, then such work is incidental to the true purpose of the visit ('B' Doing Business in Thailand) and no problem.

It then becomes a matter of degree: Is the person here in Thailand 'doing business' by some half-hearted efforts to familiarize him/herself with Thai software sub-contractors, but spending the bulk of his/her time doing work for the employer back home while here in Thailand without a work permit... then the B visa was obtained under false pre-tenses.