Hello I have just moved to Phuket to work in the Scuba diving industry. I was offered by a foreigner dive master to join his company in order for me to get a work permit. I haven't read anything about joining a company to get a work permit, so I am wondering if this is possible or am I wasting my time trying to do this.

Thanks for any help

It is correct that a foreigner can apply for a work permit only if he has a contract for employment with a company registered in Thailand. Usually, it is in fact the company that applies for the work permit on behalf of the foreigner and the company must submit documents to prove that it meets certain criteria.

It also seems to be known that many of those in the diving business are not able to provide work permits from reports so be careful that legal employment is obtained.

You need two million Capitalisation per Work Permit (one million for each foreign employee married to a Thai), they may insist on 4x Thai employees per foreign Work Permit (2 Thai employees per foreign employee married to a Thai).

The Labour Dept in Phuket is currently extremely strict; I know of one dive company in Phuket that recently took on a foreign Scuba Instructor - the Labour Department first insisted they also employed a Thai Instructor to assist on all Open Water Dives! It took a lot of hard work and several weeks to fix this issue.

If the DM whose company you may join has not dealt with Phuket Labour recently, then he will need to check that they will actually issue the Work Permit.

Getting the WP3 is not such a problem, but the big boss often refuses point blank to sign a lot of applications until certain 'small details' are attended to.

It will of course be much easier if the application is through an agent that has a good 'relationship' with Labour.