Visas And Wp

[Morty]

hi all!

I'm planning to relocate to LOS from Norway by the end of the year, I've been married to my thai wife for 7 years now, and we have a 4 years old kid.

I've been in the computer biz. for all my life, (I'm 38 y. now) Since I have arthritis, and for that reason, I've been granted disabillity retirement.

my pension gives me approx. 100K bath pr month. I plan to come on a non O visa, and I don't see any problems concerning that.

What makes me worried is that I still own 1/3 of my biz. in Norway (it's an ISP) and I will have to be able to do certain maintenance work on our servers i Norway. All the work will be done from my home in Thailand, all of my earnings from my company will be taxed in Norway, and the salery will go in to my norwegian bank account. these resources will not be transfered to LOS other than in very spesial circumstances (accidents of catastrophic proportions, strikes to mind), so thai authorities wouldn't even know that I'm making these money as I'm not dependent of this income to secure my non O.

Will this sort of situation require me to obtain a WP?

My wife has been in Norway for seven years now, and is entiteled to a Norwegian citizenship, just like farangs in LOS (phun intended)

We where told by the Norwegian immigration that she would have to give up her thai citizenship, in order to become a Norwegian.

How would thai auth. handle this?

Will she still be concidered a thai citizen by thai auth.?

i.e. can she still own land and reside in the kingdom without a visa?

[Indo-Siam]

To get a work permit, you must have a Thai employer that is a registered corporate entity with the Thai Revenue Department.

Come here on a Class O visa, and then extend that visa based on supporting a Thai spouse. As long as you work from home, on-line, and do not interact with any Thai businesses, Thai authorities will not bother you.

Just be careful that you do not follow the "natural path" of expanding your overseas activities to encompass local Thai requirements that you will almost surely discover. In that case, you need to possibly form a Thai company.

Norway cannot strip your wife of Thai citizenship - except within Norway, if she lives there as a Norwegian. No country can strip the citizenship of a citizen of another sovereign nation, once that individual departs the jurisdiction of the "new" host country. All they can do is declare the local citizenship premptory while the dual citizen is in the new home nation.

I had lunch once with a Thai career diplomat and his wife - Khun Orachun had concluded his diplomatic career as Thailand's Ambassador to China. I asked him if he had ever heard of Thailand involuntarily stripping the citizenship of a natural born Thai. He said he had never heard of such an incidence.

Good luck!

Steve

Indo-Siam

[Morty]

To get a work permit,  you must have a Thai employer that is a registered corporate entity with the Thai Revenue Department.

Come here on a Class O visa, and then extend that visa based on supporting a Thai spouse.  As long as you work from home, on-line, and do not interact with any Thai businesses, Thai authorities will not bother you.

Just be careful that you do not follow the "natural path" of expanding your overseas activities to encompass local Thai requirements that you will almost surely discover.  In that case, you need to possibly form a Thai company.

Norway cannot strip your wife of Thai citizenship - except within Norway, if she lives there as a Norwegian.  No country can strip the citizenship of a citizen of another sovereign nation, once that individual departs the jurisdiction of the "new" host country.  All they can do is declare the local citizenship premptory while the dual citizen is in the new home nation.

I had lunch once with a Thai career diplomat and his wife - Khun Orachun had concluded his diplomatic career as Thailand's Ambassador to China. I asked him if he had ever heard of Thailand involuntarily stripping the citizenship of a natural born Thai.  He said he had never heard of such an incidence.

Good luck!

Steve

Indo-Siam

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

tnx for a quick and informative reply, I will not expand my biz. to LOS (I don't want to have any more work than I already have )

I (my norwegian company) am already letting out a server to a thai biz in CM., run by a farang. this guy has his own company in Thailand with WP and all, so he's all "above boards". I will have do maintenance work on his server too (he is selling web hotels on his server, and pays a fixed price for hosting and maint.), but his company get billed by our company in Norway.

His server is also located in Norway

Would this change my situation?

Morty

[Indo-Siam]

In the case you describe, there is a strange thing called an "Urgent Work Permit" valid for 15 days. It fits the scenario you describe,and can be obtained in one transaction at the Labor Department Work Permit office.

But - the funny thing is - there is no fee associated with this type of work permit - meaning they do not make any money from these. Meaning - they are generally not interested - and tell you to go away - don't even bother with it!!!!!

Realistically, if you keep a low profile, and just help out once in a great while, the chances of running into problems are fairly remote.

If you want to be "bullet-proof", you have to start your own Thai company. Although it can be done for less, for planning purposes, think in terms of: 1,000 Euro to get it up and running, and another 750 Euro per month burn rate - forever (I am assuming salary for just one Thai office administrator, plus paying required taxes on your "salary", plus monthly bookkeeping, and sustainment of a legally sufficient business address).

It's "up to you"!

Cheers, and good luck!

Steve Sykes

Managing Director

Indo-Siam Group

Bangkok

[email protected]

www.thaistartup.com

[Morty]

In the case you describe, there is a strange thing called an "Urgent Work Permit" valid for 15 days.  It fits the scenario you describe,and can be obtained in one transaction at the Labor Department Work Permit office.

But - the funny thing is - there is no fee associated with this type of work permit - meaning they do not make any money from these.  Meaning - they are generally not interested - and tell you to go away - don't even bother with it!!!!!

Realistically, if you keep a low profile, and just help out once in a great while, the chances of running into problems are fairly remote.

If you want to be "bullet-proof", you have to start your own Thai company.  Although it can be done for less, for planning purposes, think in terms of:  1,000 Euro to get it up and running, and another 750 Euro per month burn rate - forever (I am assuming salary for just one Thai office administrator, plus paying required taxes on your "salary", plus monthly bookkeeping, and sustainment of a legally sufficient business address).

It's "up to you"!

Cheers, and good luck!

Steve Sykes

Managing Director

Indo-Siam Group

Bangkok

[email protected]

www.thaistartup.com

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

tnx again Steve!

I can see your point regarding a thai company, but if I can, I would prefer not beeing involved in any biz. in LOS since it's not my turf

I found an explanation here:

http://www.thaiimmigration.com/inv/index.p...=46&hl=offshore

As far as I can tell these ppl work @Nong Khai Immigration, and it seems they consider money generated offshore as ok, even though the actual work is beeing done inside the kingdom.

This looks exactly like the situation I'm in, so I think I will go for the "easy way".

BTW if I go for the company route, will I need a two mill. bath company to get a WP?

I read someplace that the two mill. requirement didn't apply if you where in LOS supporting family on a non O.

Is this true?

regards

Morty

[lopburi3]

Will add a caution about the citizenship as Norway would probably demand proof that your wife has renounced her citizenship. In that case she would no longer be Thai and would not be able to buy land and you could not live here in Thailand as supporting a Thai wife. So I would advise a close look before you leap when one country does not allow dual citizenship. It sounds as if she would not want to renounce her Thai citizenship with your plans.

[Morty]

Will add a caution about the citizenship as Norway would probably demand proof that your wife has renounced her citizenship.  In that case she would no longer be Thai and would not be able to buy land and you could not live here in Thailand as supporting a Thai wife.  So I would advise a close look before you leap when one country does not allow dual citizenship.  It sounds as if she would not want to renounce her Thai citizenship with your plans.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

tnx for your reply lopburi3

"Will add a caution about the citizenship as Norway would probably demand proof that your wife has renounced her citizenship."

That's my thought exactly, so I will have a chat with the immigration office in my hometown to get info on what the procedure is.

I will post the result of my inquires here as soon as I get it

regards

Morty

[Morty]

Will add a caution about the citizenship as Norway would probably demand proof that your wife has renounced her citizenship.  In that case she would no longer be Thai and would not be able to buy land and you could not live here in Thailand as supporting a Thai wife.  So I would advise a close look before you leap when one country does not allow dual citizenship.  It sounds as if she would not want to renounce her Thai citizenship with your plans.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

tnx for your reply lopburi3

"Will add a caution about the citizenship as Norway would probably demand proof that your wife has renounced her citizenship."

That's my thought exactly, so I will have a chat with the immigration office in my hometown to get info on what the procedure is.

I will post the result of my inquires here as soon as I get it

regards

Morty

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Update!

Just got off the "horn" with the Norwegian immigration (UDI), Thai citizens can have dual citizenship in Norway.

i.e. they will not demand of her to renounce her Thai citizenship while acquiring Norwegian citizenship.

Morty