Work Permit Requirements For Non Imm 'O' Spouse Visa

[bkkexplorer]

Hi,

Company A wants to hire me. I am currently holding a spouse 'O' visa. Does the company still have to show 4 local working employees in this case? Are there any differences between having this visa and not having one for the company hiring? What is the minimum salary requirement in this scenerio?

thanks.

[lopburi3]

Believe it lowers from 4 to 2 Thai for work permit and capital from 2 to 1 million. There is no set salary requirement and there are also exceptions when there are. Extension of stay is where salary normally makes a difference but if you extend on marriage basis it stays the same.

[Phil Conners]

I had a company for 3 years, was (am) here on a non-O married to Thai extension: The capital required was 1M, but I was obliged by Chonburi labor department to hire minimum 4 Thai and declare a minimum salary of 50,000 baht/month.

I was informed that without it they would not issue me a work permit.

I think you will probably have to ask your local labor department what they require.

Disclaimer: I am by no means an expert on these issues, this is just my personal experience.

[bkkexplorer]

Thanks once again lopburi..

Phil, I'm also looking at at possibility of setting a company up. Can you tell me from experience what the monthly or annual expenditures are. Social security, taxes, audits and whatever else I've missed out. I will visit the labour department to get more info as well but wanted real experiences.

thanks.

[mallyrd]

It is my belief that the requirements for employing Thai people through a limited company and the amount of the registered capital against the paid up capital will vary from one district office to the next. The law may say one thing but your local labour office and/or immigration could well give you a different set of rules to adhere to.

[Phil Conners]

Thanks once again lopburi..

Phil, I'm also looking at at possibility of setting a company up. Can you tell me from experience what the monthly or annual expenditures are. Social security, taxes, audits and whatever else I've missed out. I will visit the labour department to get more info as well but wanted real experiences.

thanks.

It's difficult to say because it depends on many factors, turnover/profit, salary levels etc. but these are some approximates:

It has been several years since I set up the company and I can't remember how much it cost to set it up. It wasn't too expensive though, somewhere between 10-20,000 baht everything incl.

Social security is a percentage of the salary. The employee pays half and the company pays half. For a 20,000 baht salary the social security last year was around 900 baht (450 each). I don't recall how much the cost was for my (set) income of 50,000 but I remember it was more expensive than private health insurance, but as a director you are not obliged to pay social security so I avoided that cost.

For salaries under 20,000 there were no income tax. For my (set) income of 50,000 baht the income tax was 1,334 baht.

My accountant charged me 2,000 baht/month to take care of taxes, vat and social security. For the annual books I think I was charged 20,000, half of which was for a state authorized accountant to sign off the papers.

Then you need to factor in the cost of a work permit as well. When it was first issued I think the total cost was around 20,000 baht, half of which was for the accountants paperwork. Annual renewals was, I think 2,000 baht/year.

[danbradster]

This is seeming like a daunting task to me.

So if I want to start a business, it is illegal for me to do so without first having a working permit, and to get a working permit I should have a company with 2/4 employees and 1/2 million baht in capital? And this business would be 49% owned by me?

So the business has to be immediately successful, enough to support 4 employees.

In Australia i can start a new business and improve it over time, but in this case it seems like it has to be immediately successful or you're bound for a great loss.

So step by step it would be:

1. Find a thai partner to start the company with, while making sure to do no work on the company myself.

2. Inject 1 million baht of capital, make the business successful and employ 2 or 4 Thais profitably, again making sure not to do any work.

3. Issue myself with a work permit and then get started working on the business.

I would rather run a business than find a company to employ me, business is what I'm experienced at. How did you manage to get started?

Thanks!

[Phil Conners]

The capital depends if you're married to a Thai or not. If you are the capital needed is 1M, otherwise 2M. The capital does not need to be paid up, it's just a number on a paper (though the company registration fee is a percentage of the capital so gets a little more expensive to register a 2M company).

You don't need to find any Thai partners. The lawyer who sets up the company for you will assign a number of Thai minority shareholders for you as part of the setup fee.

Yes it is illegal for you to do anything until you have a work permit. You need 4 staff to get a work permit.

Nobody said it was going to be easy

Disclaimer: This is from my own experience running a business previous years. Things change all the time so I can't guarantee it's still like this.

[danbradster]

The capital depends if you're married to a Thai or not. If you are the capital needed is 1M, otherwise 2M. The capital does not need to be paid up, it's just a number on a paper (though the company registration fee is a percentage of the capital so gets a little more expensive to register a 2M company).

You don't need to find any Thai partners. The lawyer who sets up the company for you will assign a number of Thai minority shareholders for you as part of the setup fee.

Yes it is illegal for you to do anything until you have a work permit. You need 4 staff to get a work permit.

Nobody said it was going to be easy

Disclaimer: This is from my own experience running a business previous years. Things change all the time so I can't guarantee it's still like this.

Would I be able to use an Australian company, hire 2 or 4 Thai employees then apply for a working permit from that company?

Going from 0 employees to 4 employees without doing any work in the mean time seems...difficult, I guess they could be low paid employees at least. Just establishing the new company seems like the hard part, having no working permit and only being able to get one after the business has become reasonably successful. Unless you just put up the money and hope for the best without an establishment / initial growth phase.

[Phil Conners]

Would I be able to use an Australian company, hire 2 or 4 Thai employees then apply for a working permit from that company?

Going from 0 employees to 4 employees without doing any work in the mean time seems...difficult, I guess they could be low paid employees at least. Just establishing the new company seems like the hard part, having no working permit and only being able to get one after the business has become reasonably successful. Unless you just put up the money and hope for the best without an establishment / initial growth phase.

I very much doubt you could get a WP to work in a non-Thai company.

Yeah, it's not easy, I agree. Probably purposely so.