Paperwork For Short Work Assignments

[professor]

What are the paperwork required if a foreigner with a VISA in other than working want to work for a few days in Thailand on short assignments such as event organising, speaking, management consulting? (He is already in Thailand but for other reasons like religion or education)

What are the paperwork required if a foreigner with a tourist visa only want to work for a few days in Thailand on short assignments such as event organising, speaking, management consulting? (He has not applied for any long term visa yet)

Are VISA or work permit required for short assignments lasting for less than 1-2 weeks only?

[Guest IT Manager]

Any work, including volunteer work requires a work permit.

If you are on non im (Ed), you are specifically denied legal access to employment.

However, if it really is a few days, and you don't upset anyone, (don't get into arguments at work etc), you will get away with it. You won't be legal but it's unlikely anyone will care. The enemy of the situation is upsetting someone, and them reporting you.

If you are here regularly, and these few day assignments occur regualarly, you should get a non-immigrant B visa, and do it properly. Depening where you are from, go to the local consul and be honest about your applicatiuon for non immigrant multiple entry visa. Some will give it to you, some won't.

Good luck and hope it helps.

[professor]

Any work, including volunteer work requires a work permit.

If you are on non im (Ed), you are specifically denied legal access to employment.

However, if it really is a few days, and you don't upset anyone, (don't get into arguments at work etc), you will get away with it. You won't be legal but it's unlikely anyone will care. The enemy of the situation is upsetting someone, and them reporting you.

If you are here regularly, and these few day assignments occur regualarly, you should get a non-immigrant B visa, and do it properly. Depening where you are from, go to the local consul and be honest about your applicatiuon for non immigrant multiple entry visa. Some will give it to you, some won't.

Good luck and hope it helps.

actually i read somewhere online that for few days' work, you may not need a work permit. u just have to inform the authority that u r going to do it, and no permission is required for certain work like organising an event or give a talk. i m wondering how far it is true.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

What visa are you holding now Professor ?

[professor]

What visa are you holding now Professor ?

I have not applied or gotten a Thai VISA, though I am planning for one.

My plan is to apply for an ED VISA as a university Fellow or Professor. I may or may not teach full-time in Thailand. But I hope to get 3 1-yr multiple-entry VISA in a row under this category, after which I will apply for Thai PR.

Beside teaching/researching, I may engage, if invited to, in other consultancy assignments in Thailand. My question is whether a seperate VISA/permit on top of the ED VISA is necessary if I am paid to consult for a few days to a Thai company.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Without any visa whatsoever don't even think about working in Thailand. An ED visa is not really the appropriate for you. That is the class generally issued to students, and doesn't permit work. You need a B visa.

[professor]

Without any visa whatsoever don't even think about working in Thailand. An ED visa is not really the appropriate for you. That is the class generally issued to students, and doesn't permit work. You need a B visa.

dear dr,

in this case, what is the procedure and permit required to work for a few days as a consultant?

[Indo-Siam]

Professor -

My comments are not meant to be official - but they are very different from what everyone else is telling you.

Forget about a work permit. That requires a legal and qualifying Thai employer, a personal Thai income tax registration card, a specific job and salary, and that your employer document that he has sufficient Thai employees.

An entry permit issued against a class B visa does not allow you to work. It allows you to enter Thailand, and it allows you to apply for a work permit. It is the work permit, issued by the Labor Ministry, that allows you to work. Everyone on this board who states that a Class B entry permit allows you to work is totally wrong. You cannot get a tax ID card with just a Class B entry permit, and if you are not able to pay taxes, you are NOT allowed to work. They are confusing the fact that you will not be found in violation of immigration law if caught working illegally with a Class B - you will simply be violating Labor law and Tax law - and will go to regular jail for those violations - just not directly to the Immigration Detention Center for a passport violation. Don't confuse avoiding immigration jail as being the same as being legal - you just go to a different jail.

Back to work permits:

Assuming a week to get papers together and apply, and two weeks to turnaround work permit, you wold probably secure work permit following completion of work. Forget that.

Think for a minute. Every businessman who occupies a hotel room in Bangkok, uses a hotel business center, or attends or exhibits at a Thai tradeshow is 'working'. What they are not doing is receiving a paycheck from a Thai employer, or performing a fixed job that has a habitual work location in Thailand, or a regular work schedule in Thailand.

So - the key is - do not receive compensation payments inside Thailand, do not establish an office, and I would suggest do not accept assignments that involve more than 30 days in Thailand. Follow these rules, and it is all but impossible for you to get in trouble. If you are an employee of an overseas firm, with a fixed job title, paycheck, and office based elsewhere than in Thailand, you are absolutely bulletproof - Thailand will treat you like the other "X" thousand of foreign businessmen who pass through Thailand each month as part of their jobs - without incident.

If you are an itinerant person with no employment "roots" elsewhere( "no visible means of support"), then your situation is significantly more tenuous - if you somehow come to the attention of the Thai authoritoies, they could perceive you (rightfully) as an unemployed bum passing through Thailand and illegally working your way from meal to meal. You will then be classed among the many other dodgy riff-raff in Thailand, and you could find yourself in a jam.

So- what are you - a legitimate educator /consultant with an established practice, office, and business outside Thailand, that will withstand scrutiny?

Or - are you a vagabond bum with good educational credentials, looking to muck on by in Thailand for as long as you can get away with?

Indo-Siam

[Guest IT Manager]

Good point Indo. I forgot about the way he posed the question and was put off by the "visa for working".

Non Im B can be issued to seek investment opportunities by a consul. Then you can apply for a work permit held be a qualified Thai Company.

That at least lands you here to seek employment legally. You haven't qualified the original post, but I am reading into it that you have been requested to present/organise an event or series of events. I can't see anyone arriving and then getting into the events business.

As Indo says, if you were supporting an event organiser based on your capacity to do something in that field, just make sure you're paid off-shore, not here. If it is going to be regular work, coming and going, as opposed to regular work while living here, get a B visa against a letter of invitation from the company managing the events.

How's that Steve?

[dr_Pat_Pong]

What visa are you holding now Professor ?

I have not applied or gotten a Thai VISA, though I am planning for one.

I repeat...do not even think about work or related matters until you have got an appropriate visa. A 30 day permit on arrival isn't appropriate.

[professor]

TEMPORARY WORK PERMIT:

Some folk coming to Thailand to conduct seminars, rock concerts etc require the following to obtain a temporary work permit good for up to 15 days.

What you need:

1/. You must be a registered company outside Thailand.

2/. Must have company papers and registration papers.

3/. No tax is payable.

4/. A temporary work permit for up to 15 days is issued.

5/. If already living in Thailand & on a non immigrant visa or ordinary visa this is OK.

6/. Apply at your nearest Labour Office for the paperwork application form.

(source: http://cp.yahoo.net/search/cache?va=thaila.../workpermit.htm )

Dear guys,

I just found that website where again. The following points are interesting:

1) We need a permit, no matter how short the work is, by right. (of course, you can do anything if you don't get caught!)

2) We may not need to pay tax, or to have a tax ID, in such temporary work cases.

3) We need not work for a Thai company, or a registered Thai branch of a foreign company.

4) Even if you are already living in Thailand on other VISA, like for working as an English teacher or university lecturer, or even a student, you can apply for this additional permit. It does not mean that as a teacher or a student, you cannot do other work. The point is: get the permit.

5) the permit is to be applied from the Labor Office, not Immigration. So, I don't know whether we can do it through a consultate. Do we have to be on tourist visa to Thailand, then visit the Labor Office in Thailand and apply on the spot? Anyone can advise?

As such, I think it answers my questions. I can lecture at a Thai university or 'study' as a post-doctoral fellow to get the 1-year multiple entry VISA. If I should find any Thai firms wanting my consulting services, I can apply for this permit to engage in short assignments. I don't have to pay tax, as long as the cheque is payable to an overseas company, which commissions me.

[ThaiAdventure]

You cannot get a tax ID card with just a Class B entry permit, and if you are not able to pay taxes, you are NOT allowed to work.

I had a non-imm B AND personal tax id BEFORE applying for a work permit. You can get registered...you just cannot work!

An example of being registered without a work permit for tax purposes might be...for example, retired resident (180 day rule) with income from abroad. You would pay tax in Thailand but you would not need a work permit!

[ThaiAdventure]

Indo Siam.

Why don't you send the proffessor a letter of invitation to discuss his business problems in thailand (for a fee of course ). Based on that he can apply for a B Visa!!!!

[Indo-Siam]

I am having my staff check out the professor's story about 15-day "short-stay, no tax" work permits - at Labor Minstry. Because something is written on an unofficial website somewhere does not make it true. But - usually there is some basis for most things that people have exerted the effort to put onto a website.

I'll post the reply frpm Labor Ministry.

Cheers!

Indo-Siam