Renting An Office.. Do You Need Work Permit?

[ozvenison]

I am visiting Thailand on a regular basis and often stay for 3 months at a time.

As a computer programmer working for an Australian company they pretty well let me work from anywhere I wish.

So long as I have the internet I can perform my duties back in Australia. I do not do any business here in Thailand.

Am I able to rent office space here without the need for a work permit or any other legal requirements?

Cheers

[Mario2008]

Any work you do in Thailand requires a work permit.

While renting an office will not need a work permit, it does raise the question what you are doing in an office. Will need a lot of convincing that you are not working.

[ozvenison]

Thanks for the reply

All work I am doing is for Australia only..

I do not do anything here for Thai companies and therefore do not get paid anything from here..

Its the same when I go and stay in Singapore where I have a small office..

So does that still apply that I need a work permit?

[tfc]

From what I hear it's a grey area. I wouldn't go announcing it at immigration for instance or even just announce it too loudly anyway as it's a different ballgame over here than in Singapore or Australia. Your logic while it sounds perfectly reasonable to me (as a fellow Australian) may very well not be reasonable over here.

[fakename]

Why not just have internet connected to where you live?

[Mario2008]

The law says that as a foreigner you need to have a work permit for work and it wasn't written with working over the internet in mind.

A lot of peope do it anyway, but keep a low profile. Of course it doesn't have much priority, but it is illegal.

[Soutpeel]

From what I hear it's a grey area. I wouldn't go announcing it at immigration for instance or even just announce it too loudly anyway as it's a different ballgame over here than in Singapore or Australia. Your logic while it sounds perfectly reasonable to me (as a fellow Australian) may very well not be reasonable over here.

Its actually not a grey area, Phuket Immigration/DOL came out some time back and stated catagorically that working on-line from Thailand required a WP and if anybody knows of people doing this, they should report them to the authorities...

For the OP...forget about the office, you would just have to do this under the radar if you didnt want to go the WP route, if the work was two weeks or less you could get a temporary WP

BTW why do you need an office for this ?....you are not claiming this against your Aussie tax are ?

[arthurwait]

I take it he can't get a years work permit as he isn't employed by a Thai company and doesn't have a Thai company, so he can only apply for a temporary working visa.

As someone said above for 2 weeks ? My question just out of interest is do you have to leave the country when this a expires and apply for tourist visa or re-enter without a visa - 30 or 15 days ?

Also can you rent an office or would anyone rent an office to you without a visa ?

And can you only get a temporary working visa if the work needs to be carried out in Thailand ?

[ozvenison]

my work requires contact with Canada for support at odd hours of the night.. not too good for the girlfriend when living in a studio

I think I might just keep flying under the radar

cheers to all the responses...

[Soutpeel]

my work requires contact with Canada for support at odd hours of the night.. not too good for the girlfriend when living in a studio

I think I might just keep flying under the radar

cheers to all the responses...

Get a bigger condo then..

[Vale Tudo]

my work requires contact with Canada for support at odd hours of the night.. not too good for the girlfriend when living in a studio

I think I might just keep flying under the radar

cheers to all the responses...

Rent a house then?

[Vale Tudo]

If you can work on the internet from home it's utterly pointless messing around with all the work permits,Thai company rubbish,it will cost you a fortune and you will have to employ however many Thais the Government decide you need!(How many cups of tea can you drink in a day anyway?)

The employment laws are an archaic joke here,in Cambodia you can land,get a one month business visa on arrival,then a 1 year business visa after that.No wonder Thailand doesn't bother to enforce their laws too much!

[tfc]

From what I hear it's a grey area. I wouldn't go announcing it at immigration for instance or even just announce it too loudly anyway as it's a different ballgame over here than in Singapore or Australia. Your logic while it sounds perfectly reasonable to me (as a fellow Australian) may very well not be reasonable over here.

Its actually not a grey area, Phuket Immigration/DOL came out some time back and stated catagorically that working on-line from Thailand required a WP and if anybody knows of people doing this, they should report them to the authorities...

For the OP...forget about the office, you would just have to do this under the radar if you didnt want to go the WP route, if the work was two weeks or less you could get a temporary WP

I stand corrected. In that case I'd keep my mouth shut completely. And stuff the office, work from home.

[vtjforyou]

It's a stupid idea, work from home and if the GF is not happy find a new one !

[Soutpeel]

It's a stupid idea, work from home and if the GF is not happy find a new one !

Home or GF or both ?...

[fakename]

If the girl friend is upset with you on the phone, then just let her watch the Thai soap operas, that will keep her occupied. If she complains, then just chuck her out, she needs to know that work is what brings in the money, and feeds her.

[Scully]

Tell your gf to get a job working nights.

I hear Tesco pay well

[Vale Tudo]

Thai girls usually need a siesta anyway after watching three or fours hours of soaps,it's tiring work,perhaps you can cram your work into that window?

[nietzche]

Any work you do in Thailand requires a work permit.

While renting an office will not need a work permit, it does raise the question what you are doing in an office. Will need a lot of convincing that you are not working.

I am also a programmer. I do freelance work for a couple of firms back in the U.S. This is a very grey area.

I receive my contract payments into my U.S. account. I pay taxes as a sole proprietor in the U.S.

As long as you are not doing any work for Thai companies or individuals you are completely o.k.

I do not understand why you think you need an office? I have a home office. Even back in the U.S. I used to do the occasional contract work and worked from my home office there.

The first time I travelled around Asia for 6 months I was still employed by my company on a part time basis and allowed to work 100% remotely. I worked from my hotel rooms in China, Thailand, Malaysia, etc. This issue never crossed my mind.

In regards to the quoted comment; "who exactly will he have to convince"?

There are many people living in Thailand who make their living remotely; like writers, software developers, etc.

Just make sure you obtain an appropriate visa that will allow you to stay here legally. Multiple tourist visa's is not a good solution.

[Sydneycraig]

Why are multiple tourist visas not a good option... Seeing he is only here 3 months at a time ?!

[nietzche]

my work requires contact with Canada for support at odd hours of the night.. not too good for the girlfriend when living in a studio

I think I might just keep flying under the radar

cheers to all the responses...

Surely you can make enough to rent a bigger condo?

Btw, what platforms do you develop for?

I worked as a developer in the financial industry for 6 years. I love coding, liked my job, but wanted to travel/live abroad for a while before I got stale.

About a year before I decided to move to Thailand I started making the transition into freelance. Started developing for iOS and Android. The beauty of developing for mobile platforms is that 90% of projects take only a week or two at most. You are free to work as much or as little as you want.

It's worth investing in a good internet connection and an Asterix VOIP phone. Get your Aussie number setup on it.

[nietzche]

Why are multiple tourist visas not a good option... Seeing he is only here 3 months at a time ?!

Didn't catch the 3 month at a time part. My mistake

[Vale Tudo]

my work requires contact with Canada for support at odd hours of the night.. not too good for the girlfriend when living in a studio

I think I might just keep flying under the radar

cheers to all the responses...

Surely you can make enough to rent a bigger condo?

Btw, what platforms do you develop for?

I worked as a developer in the financial industry for 6 years. I love coding, liked my job, but wanted to travel/live abroad for a while before I got stale.

About a year before I decided to move to Thailand I started making the transition into freelance. Started developing for iOS and Android. The beauty of developing for mobile platforms is that 90% of projects take only a week or two at most. You are free to work as much or as little as you want.

It's worth investing in a good internet connection and an Asterix VOIP phone. Get your Aussie number setup on it.

I use a Linksys PAP2 box and a standard analogue phone,normal or mobile with base station,just enter the SIP settings from your Voip client.

[nietzche]

my work requires contact with Canada for support at odd hours of the night.. not too good for the girlfriend when living in a studio

I think I might just keep flying under the radar

cheers to all the responses...

Surely you can make enough to rent a bigger condo?

Btw, what platforms do you develop for?

I worked as a developer in the financial industry for 6 years. I love coding, liked my job, but wanted to travel/live abroad for a while before I got stale.

About a year before I decided to move to Thailand I started making the transition into freelance. Started developing for iOS and Android. The beauty of developing for mobile platforms is that 90% of projects take only a week or two at most. You are free to work as much or as little as you want.

It's worth investing in a good internet connection and an Asterix VOIP phone. Get your Aussie number setup on it.

I use a Linksys PAP2 box and a standard analogue phone,normal or mobile with base station,just enter the SIP settings from your Voip client.

[DrTuner]

It's not a gray area at all. You need a WP, which means a Thai company as well. And to stay and work, you need to enter with a visa that allows employment (tourist visa does not and it says so right on the visa) and to extend the stay also apply in a category that allows working.

That it isn't actively enforced doesn't mean someone won't snitch on you and ensure your stay ending in the immigration van together with some folks from Myanmar.

[Vale Tudo]

It's not a gray area at all. You need a WP, which means a Thai company as well. And to stay and work, you need to enter with a visa that allows employment (tourist visa does not and it says so right on the visa) and to extend the stay also apply in a category that allows working.

That it isn't actively enforced doesn't mean someone won't snitch on you and ensure your stay ending in the immigration van together with some folks from Myanmar.

Peter Reid,the ex-Thailand International Football Team Manager got stopped at immigration when his contract was up and he was leaving Thailand,apparently they'd only got him a tourist visa which had run out and he was on overstay...TiT!

[driedmango]

Can you imagine if they cracked down on tourists that keep up with work over the interent ? LOL... Your spending money, your on a trip and you keep working. Big deal.

Show us one example of one person that got in trouble for this ?

[WilliaminBKK]

Can you imagine if they cracked down on tourists that keep up with work over the interent ? LOL... Your spending money, your on a trip and you keep working. Big deal.

Show us one example of one person that got in trouble for this ?

However think of our home country...........if 100K Americans or Jamaicans were to enter Canada and work without a work permit how would you feel then ? I'd be pretty pissed.

[driedmango]

umm... I don't know but I can tell you one thing, many of the people that have money to travel keep working on their companies, they are not exactly stealing dishwashing jobs from ya...

Like I said, show me ONE example of someone who works from the net, with a company in their home country (nothing about Thailand) that has ever gotten in trouble for keep doing their thang while travelling in Thailand. Simple.

I don't think anyone would ever care, in a million years, if someone was say from France, and they did work for a French company online.. Or someone was penning their travel articles to sell... it isn't of a concern to Thailand, be realistic, you just envious of someone that has work like this.

[tfc]

Can you imagine if they cracked down on tourists that keep up with work over the interent ? LOL... Your spending money, your on a trip and you keep working. Big deal.

Show us one example of one person that got in trouble for this ?

However think of our home country...........if 100K Americans or Jamaicans were to enter Canada and work without a work permit how would you feel then ? I'd be pretty pissed.

If 100K people working on the internet and getting their income from overseas came to Australia and didn't have work permits I'd have no problem at all. More money coming into Australia. It's another thing if they are taking jobs from locals (when they don't have a work permit) but if they are working online and the income isn't coming from Australia but it is being spent there then that's fine by me.