One of my friend recently got the work permit through his teaching career in an international school. He is originally from Pakistan and he had to go back to Pakistan to change his Non-Immig ED class visa to Non-Immig B class visa.

Now 2 of his friends claim that they got the work permit without even going back to Pakistan. He was upset coz he spent ###### lot of money to go back n come back here again. They claim that their company/school paid more money to get that visa and work permit.

Can anyone tell me, if anyone from Pakistan can change the visa status from Tourist/Non-Immig ED class to Non-Immig B class visa and get the work being still in bkk.

According to my information, anyone from Pakistan has to go back if he wants to change the visa status.

Dont know about Pakistan, but I am from the US and I changed my Tourist to a Non Imm O on the 3rd Floor at Suan Plu. It took a month to finally get it, but I did not need a border run or return to the US.

You need to ask many people here in LOS before you can be sure you have the right information.

A change of status MAY be permitted at the Immigration Officer's discretion. A Pakistani with a tourist visa would be most unlikely to have it converted to a Non-Immigrant visa. He could only be issued with a Thai visa of any category from the country where he has permanent residency.

What Dr. Patpong wrote is generally correct - because Pakistan is one of the countries (along with at least Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Philippines) where a WP3 employment pre-authorization approval must be obtained by the employer from Labor Ministry - this is then given to applicant, who must take it to Thai diplomatic post in home country to obtain a Class B visa. Without a WP3 - no visa will be issued. And visa based on WP3 can only be issued in home country.

There used to be exceptions - with the right amount of money changing hands - see right hand side of http://www.thaistartup.com/visa_4-8-05.jpg - which was a Suan Phlu Class B visa issued to someone who should have had to go back to home country with a WP3.

But - Immigration has tightened up significantly over the past 60 days - meaning that they are internally cracking down on corrupt "selling" of favors. I understand (but have not yet seen) that they are installing cameras - similar to how they are installed in casinos - to watch employees, and look for signs of payoffs.

I also understand that teachers at government and Royal schools can bypass some of the normal procedures - both Immigration and Labor Office make it easy to process such applications.

Good luck!

Steve Sykes

Managing Director

Indo-Siam Group

Bangkok

[email protected]

www.thaistartup.com