10 To 30 Farang Employees

[KronbergTH]

Hi there,

I have a question. Maybe I should request my assistant to call Sunbelt (which takes care of some of my stuff) but I think it is a kind of interesting and thus I am posting it here.

I may have a new project in Thailand, and that may need 10 to 30 young farang employees. They will stay here between 6 to 12 months and are to enter Thailand with a one year multiple non-immigrant visa B (visa-run every 3rd month).

In this case, are there any special requirements re. WP to the company as e.g. share capital and numbers of Thai employees?

Regards, Robert

[SunbeltAsia]

Hi there,

I have a question. Maybe I should request my assistant to call Sunbelt (which takes care of some of my stuff) but I think it is a kind of interesting and thus I am posting it here.

I may have a new project in Thailand, and that may need 10 to 30 young farang employees. They will stay here between 6 to 12 months and are to enter Thailand with a one year multiple non-immigrant visa B (visa-run every 3rd month).

In this case, are there any special requirements re. WP to the company as e.g. share capital and numbers of Thai employees?

Regards, Robert

Guess we'll just answer it here.

Unless this is BOI, the company will be limited to 10 Foreigners per company. The register capital must be 20 million Baht ( 2 million per foreigner) unless any of them are married to a Thai. For each applicant that is legally married, reduce the register capital by 1 million.

You can have three companies hiring 30 foreigners. No Thai employees will be required to obtain the work permit So theoretically you could have 10 foreigners and no Thais employees per company. The foreigners will simply do a visa run every 90 days ( get a fresh 90 stamp) and extend their work permit. Their salary must be what ever was put on the work permit apllication.

If however they would like to stay in Thailand more than 90 days at a time ( not having to do a visa run) If they are not married or have a investment extension then the employer must have 4 Thai employees per foreigner. ( Unless your companies objective is Consultant or Agent, than it is only 1 Thai employee required) Each Thai must be getting the minimum salary of 5,520 Baht per month and the foreigner must be getting the following salary

United States, Canada, Japan 60,000 baht/month

Europe, UK, Australia, NZ 50,000 baht/month

Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea 45,000 baht/month

India, Malaysia, Middle East 45,000 baht/month

China, Philippines, Indonesia 35,000 baht/month

Africa, Lao PDR, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam 25,000 baht/month

Journalists working for Thailand newspapers 20,000 baht/month

We have done up to 72 work permits at a time so we welcome the opportunity to process the applications for your firm.

www.lawyer.th.com

[taxexile]

employer must have 4 Thai employees per foreigner.

is that rule actually written anywhere in thai law , or is it just something that has become a requirement , but has never been actually legislated by the government?

are companies that work in certain fields exempt from those requirements?

the reason i ask is that a friend of mine runs a company here and when he was starting it up he was told that he would need so many thais for each foriegner work permit , the company lawyers asked to see the relevant legislation relating to that requirement and the labour and immigration depts. were unable to show any legislation. after negotiations his company was exempted from that "rule".

i have always maintained that he has got his facts wrong , but he claims that it is exactly as he has told it , and that there are no such regulations , it is just a requirement dreamed up and enforced by the labour dept.

[SunbeltAsia]

employer must have 4 Thai employees per foreigner.

is that rule actually written anywhere in thai law , or is it just something that has become a requirement , but has never been actually legislated by the government?

are companies that work in certain fields exempt from those requirements?

the reason i ask is that a friend of mine runs a company here and when he was starting it up he was told that he would need so many thais for each foriegner work permit , the company lawyers asked to see the relevant legislation relating to that requirement and the labour and immigration depts. were unable to show any legislation. after negotiations his company was exempted from that "rule".

i have always maintained that he has got his facts wrong , but he claims that it is exactly as he has told it , and that there are no such regulations , it is just a requirement dreamed up and enforced by the labour dept.

Your friend is correct and thank God for that because if you go back and look at our posts under Sunbelt Asia or SunbeltAsia, we have stress it easily over 200 posts that no requirement exist to have any Thai employees for the work permit just like I stated in this post in this same tread.

You can have three companies hiring 30 foreigners. No Thai employees will be required to obtain the work permit So theoretically you could have 10 foreigners and no Thais employees per company. The foreigners will simply do a visa run every 90 days ( get a fresh 90 stamp) and extend their work permit. Their salary must be what ever was put on the work permit apllication.

I went on to say this

If however they would like to stay in Thailand more than 90 days at a time ( not having to do a visa run) If they are not married or have a investment extension then the employer must have 4 Thai employees per foreigner. ( Unless your companies objective is Consultant or Agent, than it is only 1 Thai employee required)

This is the regulation for the Immigration which is a different dept than the Labor Dept. Hence you can still be legal by having the work permit but avoid Immigration for the category of extension of stay based on business. Then you have no requirement to have any Thai employees.

We have won many clients from other firms because many service providers or lawyers are not aware of the difference im the regulation. Our legal staff could tell you the difference in their sleep.

I'll say it one more time..

The labor dept has no requirement that you must employ any Thais to get a work permit

[taxexile]

thanks for the reply sunbelt.

i owe the bugger a meal now !!!!!

[KronbergTH]

Hi,

Thanks for the great answer.

Maybe, if we go into this, we should start with 10 employees only...

/Robert

[samran]

Be very very glad certain things aren't legislation and only an administrative requirment. Legislation in Thailand take Years and Years to draft, and equally as long to ammend.

[KronbergTH]

Even thru the new regulations as of August 15, I am still looking into this case, but I have an additional question.

Is there any requirements about share capital and maximum numbers of alien employees when applying for ADD ON work permits?

EXAMPEL:

Let’s say a 10 MB fully paid up company has 5 unmarried alien employees with what ever visa and with work permit. Then there is no more space for additional alien work permits (if we do not want to raise the capital), but we need two more aliens, which are a part time Managing Director and a part time expert:

1) The company is an subsidiary of another company, e.g. Mother Co.,Ltd., and the Managing Director of the Mother Co.,Ltd. is unmarried alien as well and holds a work permit and gets his salary in Mother Co.,Ltd.

My question is whether it is possible for the Managing Director of the Mother Co.,Ltd. to obtain an ADD ON WORK PERMIT to the “10 MB subsidiary”, which has 5 aliens already?

2) If it’s possible to get the ADD ON for the Managing Director, even thru the “10 MB subsidiary” has 5 unmarried aliens already, then the next question is about the expert.

One of the Mother Co.,Ltd.’s partners has an unmarried alien employed with work permit and required salary. He is an expert, and we want him to help as part time in the “10 MB subsidiary” that now has 5 work permits and 1 ADD ON, i.e. we need yet another ADD ON.

It is possible to obtain yet another ADD ON work permit for him if he gets what ever salary, and/or if he does not get salary?