Volunteer Work In Thailand Under Various Visas?

[MrGaoMungGawn]

Please advise where can be found a concise and clear statement regarding doing volunteer work if one is in Thailand with an Education Visa.

Also, what are the regulations under other types of visas.

I had heard that doing volunteer work is not permitted if one is in Thailand with a Education Visa.

Thank you.

[Sceptict11]

Work, of any nature, is not permitted whilst on an "Education Visa" unless that "work" is part of a , usually, University based course.

​There is the possibility of working as a "volunteer" which requires obtaining , with appropriate paperwork a Non "O" visa and , again with paperwork, a work permit

It may help if you were able to articulate exactly what you are hoping to achieve.

Edited December 18, 2013 by Sceptict11

[MrGaoMungGawn]

I am asking this question because I was not clear if one was not making any income from the volunteer work why such work would not be allowed. However, I had heard that it was not allowed, and I wanted to verify this.

One possibity would be to teach English to a group of students at a school without payment for this work. This seems like it would not be taking work away from Thai citizens, but again I had heard that this was not permitted with a Education Visa.

[taotoo]

See first bullet point here:

http://bic.thaiembassy.sg/node/123

With few exceptions, all non-Thai nationals are required to have work permits issued by the Ministry of Labour to work in Thailand, including foreign volunteers who may not receive remuneration for services rendered.

[taotoo]

I've known one or two people in villages in issan etc. to teach English at the local primary school with agreement of the local police. Probably not doable if you're somewhere more populated though.

[MrGaoMungGawn]

Thank you, and I think the link you provided spells it out very clearly.

[patyh]

Most officer would just close an eye on this though. The rules are rather weird. Consider this. Many Universities around the world send students to do volunteer work in Thailand as well. And that, technically, is illegal under the eye of the law. But knowing Thailand, an eye is always closed.

[FritsSikkink]

Most officer would just close an eye on this though. The rules are rather weird. Consider this. Many Universities around the world send students to do volunteer work in Thailand as well. And that, technically, is illegal under the eye of the law. But knowing Thailand, an eye is always closed.

And the other eye is open to nick you.

[pogal]

Officially you need to get a note in your work permit booklet(if already working) but Im not sure how it works for a edu visa since you do not have a Work Permit booklet.

On the other hand as others have mentioned I have never heard of anyone being arrested for volunteering as officials see it as innocent BUT you must be on an official visa of some sort to be in the country.

[thaibeachlovers]

Even jamming in a nightclub requires a work permit, as some farangs in Chiang Mai found out the hard way.

[MrGaoMungGawn]

With all the risk, or potential risk, then it just does not seem to be worth it to volunteer, something that I would like very much to do.

I was thinking of just offering to teach English to students (for free of course) if they wanted to have even a 1/2 hour to ask questions before an exam, or for a paper they were writing.

I thought of just sitting at a table in the student area and then advertising that I would be free to work on English related homework questions, similar to what some study halls offer in boarding school, or college.

It would not be worth it, however, if one were to inadvertently annoy someone, and then have that someone turn you in.

Better let sleeping dogs lie.

There sure are enough of them on the CMU campus.

(And thank you for the very clear answer which was posted above, or the link to the answers.)

Edited December 21, 2013 by MrGaoMungGawn

[thaibeachlovers]

With all the risk, or potential risk, then it just does not seem to be worth it to volunteer, something that I would like very much to do.

I was thinking of just offering to teach English to students (for free of course) if they wanted to have even a 1/2 hour to ask questions before an exam, or for a paper they were writing.

I thought of just sitting at a table in the student area and then advertising that I would be free to work on English related homework questions, similar to what some study halls offer in boarding school, or college.

It would not be worth it, however, if one were to inadvertently annoy someone, and then have that someone turn you in.

Better let sleeping dogs lie.

There sure are enough of them on the CMU campus.

(And thank you for the very clear answer which was posted above, or the link to the answers.)

<I thought of just sitting at a table in the student area and then advertising that I would be free to work on English related homework questions>

Not in a million years would I advise anyone to do that.

Sadly, the Thai elite don't seem to want foreign volunteers here.

Edited December 22, 2013 by thaibeachlovers

[MrGaoMungGawn]

With all the risk, or potential risk, then it just does not seem to be worth it to volunteer, something that I would like very much to do.

I was thinking of just offering to teach English to students (for free of course) if they wanted to have even a 1/2 hour to ask questions before an exam, or for a paper they were writing.

I thought of just sitting at a table in the student area and then advertising that I would be free to work on English related homework questions, similar to what some study halls offer in boarding school, or college.

It would not be worth it, however, if one were to inadvertently annoy someone, and then have that someone turn you in.

Better let sleeping dogs lie.

There sure are enough of them on the CMU campus.

(And thank you for the very clear answer which was posted above, or the link to the answers.)

<I thought of just sitting at a table in the student area and then advertising that I would be free to work on English related homework questions>

Not in a million years would I advise anyone to do that.

Sadly, the Thai elite don't seem to want foreign volunteers here.

You must admit, however, that it would be a heck of a lot of fun just to sit down at a table in a CMU or college study area with a sign stating "All English Langauge Related Questions Welcome", "1 Baht Per Question", especially if you did it on a regular basis. You would probably have the time of your life, and get a whole broad range of questions. Sort of like Heaven for the English Lover in all of us.

And I do agree with you that I will not try it.

Well, maybe in a million years.

(Maybe more teaching should be done like this, because there would be no pressure on the teacher to keep rigid schedule, and because knowledge should be freely availalbe to all.)

Edited December 22, 2013 by MrGaoMungGawn

[Loaded]

With all the risk, or potential risk, then it just does not seem to be worth it to volunteer, something that I would like very much to do.

I was thinking of just offering to teach English to students (for free of course) if they wanted to have even a 1/2 hour to ask questions before an exam, or for a paper they were writing.

I thought of just sitting at a table in the student area and then advertising that I would be free to work on English related homework questions, similar to what some study halls offer in boarding school, or college.

It would not be worth it, however, if one were to inadvertently annoy someone, and then have that someone turn you in.

Better let sleeping dogs lie.

There sure are enough of them on the CMU campus.

(And thank you for the very clear answer which was posted above, or the link to the answers.)

<I thought of just sitting at a table in the student area and then advertising that I would be free to work on English related homework questions>

Not in a million years would I advise anyone to do that.

Sadly, the Thai elite don't seem to want foreign volunteers here.

You must admit, however, that it would be a heck of a lot of fun just to sit down at a table in a CMU or college study area with a sign stating "All English Langauge Related Questions Welcome", "1 Baht Per Question", especially if you did it on a regular basis. You would probably have the time of your life, and get a whole broad range of questions. Sort of like Heaven for the English Lover in all of us.

And I do agree with you that I will not try it.

Well, maybe in a million years.

(Maybe more teaching should be done like this, because there would be no pressure on the teacher to keep rigid schedule, and because knowledge should be freely availalbe to all.)

would you be able to answer the questions?

[Arkady]

I am asking this question because I was not clear if one was not making any income from the volunteer work why such work would not be allowed. However, I had heard that it was not allowed, and I wanted to verify this.

One possibity would be to teach English to a group of students at a school without payment for this work. This seems like it would not be taking work away from Thai citizens, but again I had heard that this was not permitted with a Education Visa.

It may not take work away from Thais but it does meet the very broad definition of work under the Working of Aliens Act and therefore requires a work permit. The logic is clearly that it would be very easy to claim work was unpaid and be paid in cash. Also, like many developing countries, Thailand is very suspicious of NGOs and wants to restrict and control foreigners working for them.

[MrGaoMungGawn]

With all the risk, or potential risk, then it just does not seem to be worth it to volunteer, something that I would like very much to do.

I was thinking of just offering to teach English to students (for free of course) if they wanted to have even a 1/2 hour to ask questions before an exam, or for a paper they were writing.

I thought of just sitting at a table in the student area and then advertising that I would be free to work on English related homework questions, similar to what some study halls offer in boarding school, or college.

It would not be worth it, however, if one were to inadvertently annoy someone, and then have that someone turn you in.

Better let sleeping dogs lie.

There sure are enough of them on the CMU campus.

(And thank you for the very clear answer which was posted above, or the link to the answers.)

<I thought of just sitting at a table in the student area and then advertising that I would be free to work on English related homework questions>

Not in a million years would I advise anyone to do that.

Sadly, the Thai elite don't seem to want foreign volunteers here.

You must admit, however, that it would be a heck of a lot of fun just to sit down at a table in a CMU or college study area with a sign stating "All English Langauge Related Questions Welcome", "1 Baht Per Question", especially if you did it on a regular basis. You would probably have the time of your life, and get a whole broad range of questions. Sort of like Heaven for the English Lover in all of us.

And I do agree with you that I will not try it.

Well, maybe in a million years.

(Maybe more teaching should be done like this, because there would be no pressure on the teacher to keep rigid schedule, and because knowledge should be freely availalbe to all.)

would you be able to answer the questions?

Ask away.

Be my guest.