Camerata's Guide To The Permanent Residence Process

[grtaylor]

At the first stage of the process, the Permanent Residence section of the Immigration Bureau (a.k.a Room 301) collects and verifies the information required to support each application, including conducting interviews with each applicant and testing them on their spoken Thai language abilities. This is normally completed by the end of March following the December application period (three months).

Each application is then considered by the Immigration Commission, whose members are drawn from a number of government ministries. Your application must be unanimously approved by all ministry representatives. This is the part that takes over a year - your file is circulated around to all of the ministries, being reviewed and approved at each stop. Of course, it has to sit in a lot of in-trays on its epic journey.

13-15 months after submission, you should get a letter telling you that the Immigration Commission has granted "acceptance in principal" to your application or rejected it. If it's accepted, your file goes on to the final step: sign-off by the Interior Minister. This should take a month or two, but given the number of different Interior Ministers we've had in the last 3 years, it would appear none of them have gotten around to signing the stack of PR applications on the desk. Alas, as a result even the December 2006 applicants are still waiting.

Last time I asked, in #301, the lady officer told me it was all supposed to have been completed at the beginning of September 08, but that "the meeting got cancelled".

[sassienie]

I have thought about going for permanent residence for some time.

What keeps putting me off, is that I was told the application fee is 60000 baht and this doesn’t guarantee a successful application even if I pass all the imposed requirements by Immigration. Permanent residency is a lottery and only so many numbers of applicants are permitted the PR each year.

The other cruncher is, that if the application fails, there is no refund of the 60000 baht application fee.

OK, questions, questions, questions;

Have I got this all wrong?

Can anyone on here give facts about the PR application process?

[ubonjoe]

Application fee is 7600 baht. Not refundable.

If you get it the fee is 191,400 baht unless you are married to a Thai then it's 95,700 baht.

[sassienie]

Application fee is 7600 baht. Not refundable.

If you get it the fee is 191,400 baht unless you are married to a Thai then it's 95,700 baht.

Thank you for this information, much appreciated.

So lets say that I satisfy all the Immigration department’s requirements, I still wonder how many applicants who also pass through the rules, are actually given PR per year?

In other words, if I fork out the 7600 baht application fee, plus other costs probably involved to apply, what are the odds of being successful?

Edited February 13, 2009 by sassienie

[Mario2008]

I understand the rate of succes is very good, as they screen all the paperwork before they accept your application. If you don't stand a chance they will make that clear to you early on, before you officialy apply.

[camerata]

Can anyone on here give facts about the PR application process?

The process is described in the first post of this topic. It isn't a lottery. There is a quota of 100 applicants granted PR per country, but apparently that quota is never reached for Western countries.

[Arkady]

I have a couple of friends who applied for PR in December 2007 and was rather surprised to hear that they had not received any news by the end of last year. On looking into this thread I am stunned to see that the December 2006 candidates have also heared nothing. In the 90s, when applicants were not required to speak even a word of Thai, Immigration could virtually guarantee that all applicants from the previous year would be informed before they opened the new application process in December. In fact the committee for permanent residence involving the different agencies used to convene three or four times a year and applicants in each batch were informed after the meeting, if they enquired. A friend of mine applying in the mid 90s was lucky enough to be in the first batch and was informed of his success in June, following his application in December of the previous year. The Interior Minister generally signed each batch within a few months of approval by the committee and all successful candidates could collect their blue and red books by the end of the year following their applications. I remember old hands saying at the time how much easier it had been for them in the 70s and 80s!

I don't know if things have changed radically but Immigration was the driver of the PR process, unlike citizenship applications where it is solely the Interior Ministry with Special Branch vetting the applications. The Interior Ministry's involvement in the PR process was as one of the several participants on the committee for permanent residence and, of course, there is the Interior Minister's role in signing the applications approved by the committee. Even in the dark days of the late 90s when there were revolving doors of governments and interior ministers, Immigration for all its faults, was able to keep the process more or less on track and interior ministers were politely asked to sign the applications in their in trays before vacating office. Generally speaking the folk in room 301 want the process to be reasonably rigorous but smooth flowing and largely under their control. After all they want to keep the whole system alive with enough people bothering to apply to justify their existence and they are the ones who have to field the phone calls from candidates. It sounds as if Immigration may have lost control of the process and the Interior Ministry, which tends towards opaqueness and unaccountability, may be leaving piles of applications to gather dust. It was Purachai (the guy who bought land and got residence in New Zealand) under the Thaksin regime who raised the bar on PR applications but others seem to have picked up the ball and run with it. Purachai also rejected an entire batch of citizenship applications on the questionable grounds that all of them had suspicious backgrounds overlooked both by Special Branch and Immigration. The Sarayudh government, which appeared xenophobic in its approach to the Foreign Business Act, nevertheless, cleared off a big backlog of citizenship applications piled up by the Thaksin regime. It is not at all clear where the current slowdown on PR applications has come from.

I note that several posters have talked about applying without a job on the basis of supporting Thai family members which is permitted in the regulations. I have never heard of anyone being approved on this basis and I suspect that it rarely happens. Even though they do indeed sometimes give PR to some low paid priests, teachers etc, a key emphasis seems to on salary and amount of tax paid by you and your company but you never know, if you don't try.

Edited February 18, 2009 by Arkady

[grtaylor]

I too have heard that the process was not only a lot easier, but a lot quicker in bygone years!

The people in Room 301 say that once they have verified that the applicants paper-work is in order, and have completed the interview, video and Thai test, they pass the whole application to the Interior Ministry, from which point its out of their hands.

I can't say too much about this, but I am making an approach at the "highest level" at the Interior Ministry, through family connections, relatives who I know, to try to find out what has happened to the 2006 applications. I'll post any news here.

G

I have a couple of friends who applied for PR in December 2007 and was rather surprised to hear that they had not received any news by the end of last year. On looking into this thread I am stunned to see that the December 2006 candidates have also heared nothing. In the 90s, when applicants were not required to speak even a word of Thai, Immigration could virtually guarantee that all applicants from the previous year would be informed before they opened the new application process in December. In fact the committee for permanent residence involving the different agencies used to convene three or four times a year and applicants in each batch were informed after the meeting, if they enquired. A friend of mine applying in the mid 90s was lucky enough to be in the first batch and was informed of his success in June, following his application in December of the previous year. The Interior Minister generally signed each batch within a few months of approval by the committee and all successful candidates could collect their blue and red books by the end of the year following their applications. I remember old hands saying at the time how much easier it had been for them in the 70s and 80s!

I don't know if things have changed radically but Immigration was the driver of the PR process, unlike citizenship applications where it is solely the Interior Ministry with Special Branch vetting the applications. The Interior Ministry's involvement in the PR process was as one of the several participants on the committee for permanent residence and, of course, there is the Interior Minister's role in signing the applications approved by the committee. Even in the dark days of the late 90s when there were revolving doors of governments and interior ministers, Immigration for all its faults, was able to keep the process more or less on track and interior ministers were politely asked to sign the applications in their in trays before vacating office. Generally speaking the folk in room 301 want the process to be reasonably rigorous but smooth flowing and largely under their control. After all they want to keep the whole system alive with enough people bothering to apply to justify their existence and they are the ones who have to field the phone calls from candidates. It sounds as if Immigration may have lost control of the process and the Interior Ministry, which tends towards opaqueness and unaccountability, may be leaving piles of applications to gather dust. It was Purachai (the guy who bought land and got residence in New Zealand) under the Thaksin regime who raised the bar on PR applications but others seem to have picked up the ball and run with it. Purachai also rejected an entire batch of citizenship applications on the questionable grounds that all of them had suspicious backgrounds overlooked both by Special Branch and Immigration. The Sarayudh government, which appeared xenophobic in its approach to the Foreign Business Act, nevertheless, cleared off a big backlog of citizenship applications piled up by the Thaksin regime. It is not at all clear where the current slowdown on PR applications has come from.

I note that several posters have talked about applying without a job on the basis of supporting Thai family members which is permitted in the regulations. I have never heard of anyone being approved on this basis and I suspect that it rarely happens. Even though they do indeed sometimes give PR to some low paid priests, teachers etc, a key emphasis seems to on salary and amount of tax paid by you and your company but you never know, if you don't try.

Edited February 18, 2009 by grtaylor

[sabaijai]

I too have heard that the process was not only a lot easier, but a lot quicker in bygone years!

The people in Room 301 say that once they have verified that the applicants paper-work is in order, and have completed the interview, video and Thai test, they pass the whole application to the Interior Ministry, from which point its out of their hands.

I can't say too much about this, but I am making an approach at the "highest level" at the Interior Ministry, through family connections, relatives who I know, to try to find out what has happened to the 2006 applications. I'll post any news here.

G

I have a couple of friends who applied for PR in December 2007 and was rather surprised to hear that they had not received any news by the end of last year. On looking into this thread I am stunned to see that the December 2006 candidates have also heared nothing. In the 90s, when applicants were not required to speak even a word of Thai, Immigration could virtually guarantee that all applicants from the previous year would be informed before they opened the new application process in December. In fact the committee for permanent residence involving the different agencies used to convene three or four times a year and applicants in each batch were informed after the meeting, if they enquired. A friend of mine applying in the mid 90s was lucky enough to be in the first batch and was informed of his success in June, following his application in December of the previous year. The Interior Minister generally signed each batch within a few months of approval by the committee and all successful candidates could collect their blue and red books by the end of the year following their applications. I remember old hands saying at the time how much easier it had been for them in the 70s and 80s!

I don't know if things have changed radically but Immigration was the driver of the PR process, unlike citizenship applications where it is solely the Interior Ministry with Special Branch vetting the applications. The Interior Ministry's involvement in the PR process was as one of the several participants on the committee for permanent residence and, of course, there is the Interior Minister's role in signing the applications approved by the committee. Even in the dark days of the late 90s when there were revolving doors of governments and interior ministers, Immigration for all its faults, was able to keep the process more or less on track and interior ministers were politely asked to sign the applications in their in trays before vacating office. Generally speaking the folk in room 301 want the process to be reasonably rigorous but smooth flowing and largely under their control. After all they want to keep the whole system alive with enough people bothering to apply to justify their existence and they are the ones who have to field the phone calls from candidates. It sounds as if Immigration may have lost control of the process and the Interior Ministry, which tends towards opaqueness and unaccountability, may be leaving piles of applications to gather dust. It was Purachai (the guy who bought land and got residence in New Zealand) under the Thaksin regime who raised the bar on PR applications but others seem to have picked up the ball and run with it. Purachai also rejected an entire batch of citizenship applications on the questionable grounds that all of them had suspicious backgrounds overlooked both by Special Branch and Immigration. The Sarayudh government, which appeared xenophobic in its approach to the Foreign Business Act, nevertheless, cleared off a big backlog of citizenship applications piled up by the Thaksin regime. It is not at all clear where the current slowdown on PR applications has come from.

I note that several posters have talked about applying without a job on the basis of supporting Thai family members which is permitted in the regulations. I have never heard of anyone being approved on this basis and I suspect that it rarely happens. Even though they do indeed sometimes give PR to some low paid priests, teachers etc, a key emphasis seems to on salary and amount of tax paid by you and your company but you never know, if you don't try.

We look forward to any news,grtaylor.

Good summary of current conditions, Arkady.

[johny1941]

Thanks for this

[Arkady]

I too have heard that the process was not only a lot easier, but a lot quicker in bygone years!

The people in Room 301 say that once they have verified that the applicants paper-work is in order, and have completed the interview, video and Thai test, they pass the whole application to the Interior Ministry, from which point its out of their hands.

I can't say too much about this, but I am making an approach at the "highest level" at the Interior Ministry, through family connections, relatives who I know, to try to find out what has happened to the 2006 applications. I'll post any news here.

G

Interesting grt. It is possible that an unequal power struggle took place between the Immigration Bureau and the Interior Ministry following the initial push from Purachai in the brief period he was Interior Minister in the early 2000s before he upset Thaksin by upstaging him with the "social order" campaign and got sidelined. In alleging that Immigration had inadequately screened PR applicants (and similarly that Special Branch had inadequately screened citizenship applicants) Purachai suggested that corruption was involved, although he didn't offer any evidence or attempt to investigate. This might have been the thin end of the wedge that enabled the Interior Ministry to take over the PR application process from Immigration and leave the latter acting purely as an initial screen, as Special Branch is for the citizenship applications. If this is the case, it might explain why the PR application process is starting to have more and more elements in common with the citizenship application process e.g. the recently started home and/or office inspections and interviews with families/staff; the Thai language test which started out under Immigration as a simple multiple choice test but has apparently been turned into a panel intererview where applicants are asked questions probing their suitability for permanent residence in the Kingdom; and finally the opacity of the process and lack of a clear time line or any way for candidates to enquire the status of their application. In the 90s it was relatively simple for an applicant or his secretary to get to know some one in Room 301 and be given a very clear answer on the status of their application (for better or for worse) and what was likely to happen next and when. Since unsuccessful applicants were usually given a pretty clear indication of why they had been rejected, it was sometimes possible for them to fix the problem and apply again successfully the next year.

No doubt it would have been impossible for Purachai to find any evidence of corruption, if he had tried, as I think the instances were fairly few and far between at that time. I can believe that Immigration might have been happy to take some very discretely offered tea money to make the screening a little less onerous but I have never heard of anyone who wouldn't otherwise qualify getting PR through tea money. I think this was already made extremely difficult in the 90s by the committee for permanent residence that comprised representatives from the Interior Ministry, the Labor Ministry, the Tourist Authority of Thailand the National Intelligence Agency, and I think the Revenue Dept in addition to Immigration. In the case of citizenship applications, I think that Purachai's allegation was utterly unfounded. The whole thing was purely political posturing to cash in on the nationalistic fervor whipped up by Thaksin to criticize the previous Democrat government for bringing in the IMF in 1997, without whose help Thailand would have have gone bankrupt as a nation and with a worthless baht would have defaulted on its foreign debt obligations.

I am sad to learn that things have gone this way. The government is entitled to set whatever qualifications it deems necessary for PR but I think it is in every one's interests, bearing in mind the positive image that Thailand seeks to project to foreign investors, to have a transparent procedure and a clear time line.

Will be interested to see if you can find out what has happened to the 2006 applications, although I am not personally affected.

Edited February 26, 2009 by Arkady

[longstebe]

Hi there, l was awarded a Residency Permit last year! If anyone one wants any tips then let me know... It takes alot of patience, lots of interviews, tests, VDO interviews etc etc, ........Good luck.

Hi Krismat89

Hopefully this is a easy one for you.What would you recommend if I wanted to stay in Thailand for 9 months of the year.I am married to a Thai and we plan to base our lives here.Not ready for retirement yet.I work offshore and can only show proof of my weekly pay(no taxes).

Thanks a bunch mate

[Arkady]

Hi there, l was awarded a Residency Permit last year! If anyone one wants any tips then let me know... It takes alot of patience, lots of interviews, tests, VDO interviews etc etc, ........Good luck.

Hi Krismat89

Hopefully this is a easy one for you.What would you recommend if I wanted to stay in Thailand for 9 months of the year.I am married to a Thai and we plan to base our lives here.Not ready for retirement yet.I work offshore and can only show proof of my weekly pay(no taxes).

Thanks a bunch mate

Under the business quota (nearly all successful applications) you have to be working onshore for a company incorporated in Thailand that is paying tax and you have to be paying Thai income tax too. Business trips overseas are of course OK but you need to have a Thai work permit and non-immigrant visas for at least three years.

[stbkk]

I too have heard that the process was not only a lot easier, but a lot quicker in bygone years!

The people in Room 301 say that once they have verified that the applicants paper-work is in order, and have completed the interview, video and Thai test, they pass the whole application to the Interior Ministry, from which point its out of their hands.

I can't say too much about this, but I am making an approach at the "highest level" at the Interior Ministry, through family connections, relatives who I know, to try to find out what has happened to the 2006 applications. I'll post any news here.

G

Interesting grt. It is possible that an unequal power struggle took place between the Immigration Bureau and the Interior Ministry following the initial push from Purachai in the brief period he was Interior Minister in the early 2000s before he upset Thaksin by upstaging him with the "social order" campaign and got sidelined. In alleging that Immigration had inadequately screened PR applicants (and similarly that Special Branch had inadequately screened citizenship applicants) Purachai suggested that corruption was involved, although he didn't offer any evidence or attempt to investigate. This might have been the thin end of the wedge that enabled the Interior Ministry to take over the PR application process from Immigration and leave the latter acting purely as an initial screen, as Special Branch is for the citizenship applications. If this is the case, it might explain why the PR application process is starting to have more and more elements in common with the citizenship application process e.g. the recently started home and/or office inspections and interviews with families/staff; the Thai language test which started out under Immigration as a simple multiple choice test but has apparently been turned into a panel intererview where applicants are asked questions probing their suitability for permanent residence in the Kingdom; and finally the opacity of the process and lack of a clear time line or any way for candidates to enquire the status of their application. In the 90s it was relatively simple for an applicant or his secretary to get to know some one in Room 301 and be given a very clear answer on the status of their application (for better or for worse) and what was likely to happen next and when. Since unsuccessful applicants were usually given a pretty clear indication of why they had been rejected, it was sometimes possible for them to fix the problem and apply again successfully the next year.

No doubt it would have been impossible for Purachai to find any evidence of corruption, if he had tried, as I think the instances were fairly few and far between at that time. I can believe that Immigration might have been happy to take some very discretely offered tea money to make the screening a little less onerous but I have never heard of anyone who wouldn't otherwise qualify getting PR through tea money. I think this was already made extremely difficult in the 90s by the committee for permanent residence that comprised representatives from the Interior Ministry, the Labor Ministry, the Tourist Authority of Thailand the National Intelligence Agency, and I think the Revenue Dept in addition to Immigration. In the case of citizenship applications, I think that Purachai's allegation was utterly unfounded. The whole thing was purely political posturing to cash in on the nationalistic fervor whipped up by Thaksin to criticize the previous Democrat government for bringing in the IMF in 1997, without whose help Thailand would have have gone bankrupt as a nation and with a worthless baht would have defaulted on its foreign debt obligations.

I am sad to learn that things have gone this way. The government is entitled to set whatever qualifications it deems necessary for PR but I think it is in every one's interests, bearing in mind the positive image that Thailand seeks to project to foreign investors, to have a transparent procedure and a clear time line.

Will be interested to see if you can find out what has happened to the 2006 applications, although I am not personally affected.

Hi grt,

That's really kind, and I for one appreciate it a huge amount. I'm one of the 2006 applications, and hope to get my PR sometime soon because my job is looking a bit dodgy.

When I went in to 301 for my latest 'extension of stay' and asked (very politely, of course) if there was any news,

First the lady was quite surprised when she looked at my number and saw it was from over 2 years ago, but then she said, no, come back in December!

T.I.T.

I also have a friend who applied this year, and it will be interesting to see what happens to him.

[Haddo]

Apparently the all important meeting was held today (Monday 16 March) to decide on the PR applicants for 2006. (and possibly 2007 as well).

So fingers crossed, a letter will be on its way to us soon.

[grtaylor]

Apparently the all important meeting was held today (Monday 16 March) to decide on the PR applicants for 2006. (and possibly 2007 as well).

So fingers crossed, a letter will be on its way to us soon.

Hope this is true - I really want this sorted out soon, as circumstances in my employment have changed and it looks as if I will be going to work overseas for at least two years. I'll be leaving in July, and if I don't have PR by then I might as well kiss it goodbye.

G

[Haddo]

Apparently the all important meeting was held today (Monday 16 March) to decide on the PR applicants for 2006. (and possibly 2007 as well).

So fingers crossed, a letter will be on its way to us soon.

Hope this is true - I really want this sorted out soon, as circumstances in my employment have changed and it looks as if I will be going to work overseas for at least two years. I'll be leaving in July, and if I don't have PR by then I might as well kiss it goodbye.

G

I have it on good authority that it did indeed happen today.

Good luck!

[Time Traveller]

Further to my earlier post about applying for PR. I happened to drop by the applications office on Friday, and ask regarding applicants under family category and investment category about the need to have work permits.

While the criteria printed on the wall next to the office does not mention the need for work permit in these categories, the lady inside the PR applications room did say explicitly no WP = no application for PR. Also need to have had work permit for 3 years before applying (not just 3 ext. of stay), and the previous one year work must be at the same company (in the event that you changed jobs during that time).

I didn't ask about the other category such as "Expert", but I suspect that unless you've got some very influential contacts, then no applicants would be accepted without work permits, no matter how many year by year visa extensions or how much money you have invested here. Who knows, perhaps the rule will change in the distant future. Should this info be incorrect, I'd be glad if anyone can post details where people have applied in any category without wp.

[stbkk]

Apparently the all important meeting was held today (Monday 16 March) to decide on the PR applicants for 2006. (and possibly 2007 as well).

So fingers crossed, a letter will be on its way to us soon.

Hope this is true - I really want this sorted out soon, as circumstances in my employment have changed and it looks as if I will be going to work overseas for at least two years. I'll be leaving in July, and if I don't have PR by then I might as well kiss it goodbye.

G

I have it on good authority that it did indeed happen today.

Good luck!

Brilliant! Thanks for the information.

Good luck to all of us.

[Haddo]

apparently there's one more meeting in the PR approval process to rubber stamp the minutes of the meeting last Monday.

This should happen before the end of the month ... I wonder if we'll here anything before Songkran?

[grtaylor]

apparently there's one more meeting in the PR approval process to rubber stamp the minutes of the meeting last Monday.

This should happen before the end of the month ... I wonder if we'll here anything before Songkran?

Here's hoping!!

G

[Spinning Dwarf]

Apparently the all important meeting was held today (Monday 16 March) to decide on the PR applicants for 2006. (and possibly 2007 as well).

So fingers crossed, a letter will be on its way to us soon.

Hope this is true - I really want this sorted out soon, as circumstances in my employment have changed and it looks as if I will be going to work overseas for at least two years. I'll be leaving in July, and if I don't have PR by then I might as well kiss it goodbye.

G

Why can't you just fly back to get your PR and Alien books when the finally issue them? Cheers, SD

[grtaylor]

Apparently the all important meeting was held today (Monday 16 March) to decide on the PR applicants for 2006. (and possibly 2007 as well).

So fingers crossed, a letter will be on its way to us soon.

Hope this is true - I really want this sorted out soon, as circumstances in my employment have changed and it looks as if I will be going to work overseas for at least two years. I'll be leaving in July, and if I don't have PR by then I might as well kiss it goodbye.

G

Why can't you just fly back to get your PR and Alien books when the finally issue them? Cheers, SD

A couple of reasons:

• There is an outside (TIT) chance that they could ask to see my work permit, and as I won't have one they could argue that I didn't fulfil the conditions of application. I'm not prepared to take that risk.
  
• Some people have the luxury of being able to take holidays from their job at any time. As a school teacher, I don't.
  

G

[wayfarer108]

On 1 May I'll be starting a new job here in Thailand. My current work permit is for a job as a foreign correspondent for an overseas news agency, a position I've had the last seven years. The new job is editorial staff for a domestic news publication which provides work permits for all its foreign employees.

I had intended to apply for PR at the end of this year. If I must relinquish the original work permit (which I've had for seven years) in order to take the new one, will it constitute a gap in my record from the perspective of Thai immigration?

Or can I continue to keep my original correspondent's work permit while taking on a second one for the domestic publication? I will continue to be a correspondent for the foreign news agency while working at the new position.

Thanks for any advice.

[Mario2008]

Normaly you can add a new employer to your curent WP if the old empoloyer agrees and both employers fall under the same labour office.

As for the PR, as fas as I know the requirement is at least 3 years on yearly extension of a non-immigrant visa, not having the same WP for 3 years.

[grtaylor]

Normaly you can add a new employer to your curent WP if the old empoloyer agrees and both employers fall under the same labour office.

As for the PR, as fas as I know the requirement is at least 3 years on yearly extension of a non-immigrant visa, not having the same WP for 3 years.

Isn't it also a requirement that you have to have been with your current employer for a full 12 months when you apply?

G

[Mario2008]

Isn't it also a requirement that you have to have been with your current employer for a full 12 months when you apply?

G

I'm not 100% sure, but believe that is for applying for Thai nationality.

The required documents for PR can be found here:

http://www.immigration.go.th/nov2004/en/do...nce_work_en.pdf (based on work)

Ohter here: http://www.immigration.go.th/nov2004/en/ba...?page=residence

[Time Traveller]

Normaly you can add a new employer to your curent WP if the old empoloyer agrees and both employers fall under the same labour office.

As for the PR, as fas as I know the requirement is at least 3 years on yearly extension of a non-immigrant visa, not having the same WP for 3 years.

Isn't it also a requirement that you have to have been with your current employer for a full 12 months when you apply?

G

I checked this with them recently and they replied yes you must be with current employer for at least 12months. But, I've also had other people in immigration give different time periods for certain requirements so it possible that what they told me may be different to what they tell someone else.

[stbkk]

Normaly you can add a new employer to your curent WP if the old empoloyer agrees and both employers fall under the same labour office.

As for the PR, as fas as I know the requirement is at least 3 years on yearly extension of a non-immigrant visa, not having the same WP for 3 years.

Isn't it also a requirement that you have to have been with your current employer for a full 12 months when you apply?

G

I checked this with them recently and they replied yes you must be with current employer for at least 12months. But, I've also had other people in immigration give different time periods for certain requirements so it possible that what they told me may be different to what they tell someone else.

When I applied (in 2006) you had to have had your wp with the same employer for 12 months. I had originally planned to apply in 2005 but had to wait a year longer because of this, as I had changed jobs.

But, of course, it may have changed!

[samran]

Can anyone tell me what the extra priveleges exist for a person with PR with regards to work permits and company establishment?

The reason I ask is that I friend (the PR) and I ((the Thai citizen) are looking to establish a company together. The company will be legit, deriving revenues from a well known client.

I'm a bit shakey on the work permit issue, but I know that there has to be a certain amount of paid up capital and a certain ratio of Thai to foreginers for a work permit to be issued.

The question is, does the fact that the prospective work permit applicant is a PR ( who is also married to a Thai) reduce the thresholds for paid up registered capital and for the Thai to foreigner ratio?

Cheers

Samran