Hello

Firstly, thank you for reading my past.

I have pretty much been searching for the past month, trying to work out how to best able to live in Thailand and live there on a Business VISA and start up my own company. However, it seems as though whenever a light bulb goes off in my head in terms of how to work with the system, I stumble across another road block. Therefore, I was wandering if you could give me some advice in regards to my following questions.

1) I would like to do Business in Thailand and have a company opened in Australia. Would it be possible for me set up a Thailand company (start up), and ask them to issue me an invitation letter to allow me to apply for a non immigrant VISA? Also, sInce I will be having meetings in Thailand, though all commercial dealings will go through my Australian company (such as invoicing, etc), would I need a work permit? The Thailand company would be an agent to invite me to conduct Business Consultancy services

2) If 1) is out of the question (hope not!), would it be possible for me to legally be on an education VISA and have my own web business in which all transactions are made through my Australia company? Although I suppose the answer would be yes, I would probably be required to have meetings in Thailand once a month linked to that web business (again, invoices issues through the Australian company)

Thank you in advance for your feedback!

You need a work permit and you will not get one on an ED-visa.

If you only travel to Thailand for business, you could suffice with a non-B visa and don't need a work permit for business meetings.

You however are planning to set up aThai business and live here. That is a different situation and you will need a work permit for your activities.

If you have a company in Thailand and have a work permit to work in it, the company will need to demonstrate that it has some operating income, is profitable and has paid some income tax in order to get the work permit renewed. You might be able to get away with losing money in the first year but could be asked for a letter of explanation. After that it gets tough to get WPs renewed, unless the company as viewed through its financial statements looks like a going concern that can justify employing an expat and afford to pay his salary. You will also need Bt 2 million in paid up capital and 4 Thai employees for each WP. There again there is some flexibility in the first year of a start up and there is also some regional variation with some labour ministry branches allowing 2 Thai employees.

All in all maintaining a Thai company in fit condition to obtain and retain WPs is not an undertaking that should be undertaken lightly. If you don't need a Thai company as an operating company and won't be in Thailand full time, I would explore other visa possibilities. Alternatively, you could invoice customers from a Thai company or charge your Australian company for work done from Thailand. That might reflect the economic reality of what you are actually planning to do and be the most transparent structure from the point of view of visas, WP and tax. However, if you don't need the Thai staff, that is going to create unnecessary cost and paperwork.

To get a business visa you only need a letter from your Australian company saying that you have to visit Thailand several times to see if there are business opportunities. In this letter it needs to have your complete details including passport number.

Thank you all for your replies. I really appreciate it!

After evaluating my options, I am leaning towards the Business VISA option. Before I do that though, I would like to stay in Thailand for three months or so to give myself more opportunities to evaluate options on the next steps to take.

As I am an Aussie, I can stay for up to 30 days with no VISA. Is there some kind of rule or understanding of how many VISA runs I can do before it raises question marks?

Cheers!

If you want to come first for 90 days get a single entry tourist visa. You will get 60 days on entry which can be extended for another 30 days at immigration for 1900 baht. There is no official limit on how many visa exempt entries that you can get but if you do border runs by land you only get 15 days. You only get 30 days if you enter by air. The tourist visa will give you 90 days (cost of visa + one 30 day extension) without the hassle and expense of doing border runs, which consume time and are costly. Currently a package border run from Bangkok runs between 2000 and 2500 baht, and takes one day

You could also get a single entry non-b visa (2000 baht) with letter from your company. This would give you a 90 day entry which saves 900 baht when you add up cost of extension and tourist visa plus no trip to immigration.

I suggest you get your visa from one of the honorary consulates in Oz.

Info: http://canberra.thaiembassy.org/consulate.html

I'll offer a non-technical answer: If you are coming to Thailand to purchase goods or services i.e. sub-contracting Thai citizen IT support, you will get favorable support on possible 'Conducting Business' 'B' visa; If you are coming to Thailand to sell, much more difficult.

http://www.mfa.go.th/main/en/services/123/15388-Non-Immigrant-Visa-%22B%22-%28for-Business-and.html