Hello

question for a friend:

He's married to a Thai national, financially secure with a Thai property (and yellow book). He has a non imm O visa with a one year extension.

Anyway, hes bored and wants to get a job teaching or something similar.

Will he have to give up the visa linked to his wife to get a work permit? He is concerned that he'll get a job, then be subjected to the kind of shit TEFL teachers often take. Of course, he'd vote with his feet and leave BUT is concerned then about visa status.

Any ideas what his best options would be? He wants to work legally but not be so tied in.

Thanks

Mark

On an extension based on being married to a Thai naional a work permit is normally issued without a problem.

And even if a problem and he had to change to employment entry he could always return to Thai Wife extension of stay(s).

So, he can get a job and maintain the family O visa and then his employer's will raise a work permit and this will not affect the visa, right? And if it goes tits up with the job, his visa status is not affected in any way - just the WIP would be cenacelled

Cheers

As we said in most cases yes - but even if a work permit can not be issued and he had to change to employment extension of stay it would not be much of a problem returning to Thai Wife extension of stay with loss of work if he can still meet the financial requirements. Also a 60 day extension is easily available for anyone married to a Thai.

Thanks

Whats this about the 60 day extension???!

Police order 777/2551:

2.24 In the case of an alien

visiting a Thai spouse or

child:

Permission

will be granted for a period

of not more than 60 days at

a time

(1) Proof of relationship.

(2) In the case of a spouse, their marital relationship shall be de

jure (legitimate) and de facto.

If , for some reason, you had to change to an "employment extension" to obtain your work permit, that extension would end the same day that your employment ended. Normally, you could apply foe a 7 day extension to get your personal things together before you had to leave the country. But since you have a Thai wife, you are allowed a 60 days extension. During that time you could extend again, either for employment or marriage which you currently have. In most cases there should be no problem in obtain a WP on a marriage extension, but there have been reports that some labor offices would noy issue the WP unless the extension was converted to an "employment exrension". When I worked, I could not get A WP on my "marriage extension" and had to convert to an "employment extension". The day I stopped working, I applied for a 60 day extension and during that time I applied for a new "marriage extension" and they readily issued a "retirement extension", because I'm an old fart! Since then, they have changed the rules an you can work on a "marriage extension", but I guess some labor offices are still following the old rules.