I saw this visa type on the siam-legal website:

One Year Multiple Entry Non-Immigrant Visa for UK, USA, AUS Citizens!

*** Must travel back to your home country *** Fee $445 or £ 200 (not included visa fee $150 / £100)

Siam International Legal Group offers this service for you to obtain a one-year visa for Thailand. This visa type provides

* Multiple entry into Thailand (unlimited)

* Valid for use for a period of one calendar year

* Able to stay in Thailand for 90 days for each entry *

* Ability to obtain work permit for Thailand, if needed

* One-day border trip (4 hours from Bangkok) and you can renew your stay for another 90 days in Thailand.

Requirements:

1. Passport (at least six months remain before expiration)

2. Some interest in business or investment in Thailand

3. Reside in the country where you will apply at Thai Embassy

What they explained is that I can get a work visa before the 1 year period is expired and stay in Thailand without having to travel back to the United States. Is this true? Are there any nuances with this type of visa that I should know about?

Also I am wondering if anyone has used Siam Legal's services before and if they are reliable. I feel more comfortable using a service to handle this process.

Thanks

EDIT: Saying "Business Visa" is probably misleading. It's a 1 year visa for people with an interest in business and investments.

Edited April 18, 201115 yr by gray42

Siam Legal seems OK

There is no "work visa" and no visa entitles you to work in Thailand. There is a Work Permit that is issued by the MoL and it doesn't entitle you to stay in Thailand.

A non-imm-B visa (and some other non-imms but not all) AND a WP AND both the company and the job you get MAY entitle you to stay in Thailand. The non-imm-B multiple entry visa will not guarantee a work permit even "if needed".

note -- all work in Thailand requires a work permit, including volunteer work

Siam Legal seems OK

There is no "work visa" and no visa entitles you to work in Thailand. There is a Work Permit that is issued by the MoL and it doesn't entitle you to stay in Thailand.

A non-imm-B visa (and some other non-imms but not all) AND a WP AND both the company and the job you get MAY entitle you to stay in Thailand. The non-imm-B multiple entry visa will not guarantee a work permit even "if needed".

note -- all work in Thailand requires a work permit, including volunteer work

Thanks for the response. My plan is to find full-time employment within the 1 year that the "business and investments visa" allows you to stay, so the employer would help me get my non-imm visa and a work permit, as far as I understand. Probably should have included that part in the original post. Of course finding full-time employment may prove to be tricky, but assuming I manage to make that happen, does this sound like a reasonable plan? Thanks again

Siam Legal seems OK

There is no "work visa" and no visa entitles you to work in Thailand. There is a Work Permit that is issued by the MoL and it doesn't entitle you to stay in Thailand.

A non-imm-B visa (and some other non-imms but not all) AND a WP AND both the company and the job you get MAY entitle you to stay in Thailand. The non-imm-B multiple entry visa will not guarantee a work permit even "if needed".

note -- all work in Thailand requires a work permit, including volunteer work

Thanks for the response. My plan is to find full-time employment within the 1 year that the "business and investments visa" allows you to stay, so the employer would help me get my non-imm visa and a work permit, as far as I understand. Probably should have included that part in the original post. Of course finding full-time employment may prove to be tricky, but assuming I manage to make that happen, does this sound like a reasonable plan? Thanks again

There is absolutely nothing wrong with your plan, other than there are very many jobs that foreigners are not allowed to do in Thailand and that hiring foreigners can be torturous in the amount of red tape here. You will only be allowed to stay 90 days at a time, but merely walking across the border and back will get you a new 90 days. The visa you are looking at from them IS a non-imm-B- multi-entry, you will have the correct visa to get a WP if you are offered a job that qualifies for one by a company that qualifies to get you one.

I suggest going over to Thaivisa.com (the parent site of this forum) and reading everything

There is absolutely nothing wrong with your plan, other than there are very many jobs that foreigners are not allowed to do in Thailand and that hiring foreigners can be torturous in the amount of red tape here. You will only be allowed to stay 90 days at a time, but merely walking across the border and back will get you a new 90 days. The visa you are looking at from them IS a non-imm-B- multi-entry, you will have the correct visa to get a WP if you are offered a job that qualifies for one by a company that qualifies to get you one.

I suggest going over to Thaivisa.com (the parent site of this forum) and reading everything

Ah so it IS a non-imm-B multi entry visa. That's great. I'm trying to read as much as I can, but this whole process is so foreign to me (no pun intended). It's a bit hard to grasp everything. Thanks for the response.

I have one other question that just came to mind. I am assuming if I get hired full time by a company in Thailand I can stay indefinitely as long as I am employed. Is that correct? Does the company have to renew your work visa every year? Do you ever have to leave the country, e.g. visa runs?

No you can not stay just because you have employment. You still must qualify for extensions of stay based on income and company documents each year (new companies would not qualify you for extensions until at least second year). If you do not qualify for extension of stay you must obtain visas and they will also require full company paperwork (but new company would qualify) and only allow 90 day stays.

Thanks for the info. That was what I was starting to gather but I wasn't able to find a straightforward explanation like yours.