2 Year Visa Options From The States?

[Chop]

Hello all,

I have been visiting this board for a couple months now and decided to post my situation in hopes of getting some suggestions from the knowledgeable here.

My situation:

I recently returned from a trip from LOS, and fell in love with the comfortable, laid back lifestyle LOS offers and I would like to return and stay for a couple years. My main objective is to make Thailand my home base to travel and experience Asia, and the surrounding areas.

I currently live in New York City, 27yo, single male. I run a IT consulting company here, selling our Internet software, and consulting services to our clients. I make a good living, $150,000 US/year.

I have determined I can retain most of my clients if I relocate to LOS, and with my savings of ~3million baht, I don't envision any problems with money.

My questions:

Of course I am looking into visa options for this planned extended stay.

I am aware of getting a multi entry tourist visa, which would require visa runs, not a problem since I plan to visit the surrounding countries anyways. My trips would likely be one week trips to see clients in NZ and friends in Japan, and China.

Is the multi entry tourist visa hard to get? Can I "buy" it to ensure a legal stay in LOS? And does anyone have experience with the consulate in NYC?

Another idea that I have, would be to setup a Thai company, as a remote office of my US based software company. I would be open to employing Thai citizens ( 3-5 of them ) to aid in the development of our products. Would doing this provide me with the ability of obtaining a work permit since I would be providing jobs to Thai citizens? Anyone know any requirements for this or a source for the information?

Any other suggestions/questions are welcome,

TIA.

[huski]

Is the multi entry tourist visa hard to get?  Can I "buy" it to ensure a legal stay in LOS?  And does anyone have experience with the consulate in NYC?

Another idea that I have, would be to setup a Thai company, as a remote office of my US based software company.  I would be open to employing Thai citizens ( 3-5 of them ) to aid in the development of our products.  Would doing this provide me with the ability of obtaining a work permit since I would be providing jobs to Thai citizens?  Anyone know any requirements for this or a source for the information?

Any other suggestions/questions are welcome,

TIA.

a multi entry toursit visa can be obtained in NYC no problem, however please don't mention your intention of opening a business or doing any work in Thailand while under that status.

if you would like to work in Thailand, one of the best things to do would to prepare a letter of your intentions and apply for a non immigrant B visa by mailing your application to the thai consulate in houston, texas.

once back here in thailand you might want to keep an eye on phuket as they are getting aggressive with promoting fast visas/work permits in the IT field

good luck and please return to post your experience with obtaining your visa on thaivisa.com

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Phuket will be the go Huski. The Government will aggressively try to attract IT people there.

[Indo-Siam]

In my opinion, Phuket is a first-class smoke-blowing operation, and little else. They announce a new "focus area" about every six months, and none of them ever amount to squat.

The Thai Board of Investment treats all software/IT businesses as eligible for "priorty" BOI investment status - meaning you can obtain an eight year Thai corporate income tax holiday, and locate your company anywhere. But - your total cumulative tax exemption cannot exceed the amount of your capitalziation (so - with 20% as the Thai corporate tax rate for SME's, you can exempt taxes on profit equal to five times your investment - during first 8 years).

BOI application form for an IT company can be downloaded at:

http://www.boi.go.th/english/pdf/PP_04.pdf

If you want to see BOI approved companies that have completed this process; go to http://www.boi.go.th/english/pdf/PP_04.pdf and then select category 5.8 from the "Filtering" scroll menu, then hit "submit" at bottom of page. Up comes a listing - you can then hit "details" in right-most column to see more info about a company.

A BOI approved company can be 100% foreign owned, and both work permits and entry permit extensions from One-Stop Center can be issued without regards to employee nationalities AS LONG AS EMPLOYEE PROFILE IS CONSISTENT WITH WHAT WAS APPROVED IN SECTION 7 OF YOUR APPLICATION.

Chop - if you are interested in exploring this, send me a private e-mail and I will send you complete info.

Good luck!

Steve Sykes

Managing Director

Indo-Siam Group

Bangkok

[email protected]

www.thaistartup.com

www.thaitradedata.com

[Chop]

Thanks for the feedback, good stuff. I do have a few followup questions though.

Huski - You mention not to indicate that I would be possibly trying to relocate my business when applying for my tourist visa. In your experience does applying for two different visas have an effect (trump) on each other? What makes the Houston consulate more approachable than other consulates in the states? Is it because they are generally more lenient? I see Houston mentioned a lot.

Also, I have started to see a lot of mention about possible troubles with successive visa runs on a tourist visa. How long could someone exist legally in LOS with a tourist visa doing runs every 30 or 60 days? Can this be effective for more than a year with proof of XX Baht in a foreign account that you are living off of?

Indo-Siam - Thank you for the info, most valuable. I would be curious as to how selective the BOI is in approving companies. Is this a process that would involve our lawyers and months of paper work or are they more lax than that? Do you have any idea on the approval rate of the applications, or what factors they see as most important?

thanks again,

.chop

[Chop]

If you want to see BOI approved companies that have completed this process; go to http://www.boi.go.th/english/pdf/PP_04.pdf  and then select category 5.8 from the "Filtering" scroll menu, then hit "submit" at bottom of page.  Up comes a listing - you can then hit "details" in right-most column to see more info about a company.

http://www.boi.go.th/cgi-bin/cdb.pl

seems to be the page for database lookup for current BOI promoted companies.

Thanks for the links Indo-Siam.

[huski]

Huski - You mention not to indicate that I would be possibly trying to relocate my business when applying for my tourist visa.  In your experience does applying for two different visas have an effect (trump) on each other?  What makes the Houston consulate more approachable than other consulates in the states?  Is it because they are generally more lenient?  I see Houston mentioned a lot.

as you know a tourist visa is not the proper visa for working in thailand.

you mentioned setting up a branch of your software company here in thailand. it would be best to get a non immigrant B visa before you arrive. houston is very visa friendly and you can take care of this while in the US by mail.

[Indo-Siam]

Hi Chop -

Sorry, I somehow posted the first link twice - I guess the "cut" and "paste" function didn't clear correctly for the second link.

Looking at the listings of companies that have "made it" in the look-up table, I'd say approval rate is very high. For example, set date selection as June 2003 to present, and capitalization level at 3,000,000 baht and below - and you still get a healthy listing of approvals.

I do not know hard figures for approval vs, rejection rates. What I understand is that they very rarely "disapprove" a company - as long as a company is actually operating in activity approved for BOI promotion (listing is at

http://www.boi.go.th/english/boi/Sections.pdf

What they do sometimes do is require modification to your proposed business profile - increase in capitalization, or training of Thai staff - but I have not heard of such restrictions being placed upon Category 5.8 startups (they definitely happen to industrial applications). Some BOI departments also require some "private consultation fees" to grease the rails.

Remember - the BOI, as an organization, is evaluated on how much investment they bring into Thailand. They have great incentive to approve projects, as it helps them achieve their targets.

My company can handle all aspects of company incorporation, BOI application, work permits, entry permit extensions - and we are in process of adding capabilities for certified translations, staff recruiting, and logistics management - all in support of start-up clients. We offer interim virtual ofice support, and assistance in locating factory space or permanent office space. Unfortunately, the Software Park Thailand is full, with a fairly long waiting list.

Costs are dependent on a lot of factors, but the last couple of BOI start-ups we supported (one mold and die factory/company, and one telecom software start-up) paid us total fees of under US $5,000 (that does not count government fees for capital registration - which alone ran over US $1,200 for one of them). At any rate, I provide a cost calculation spreadsheet to clients, so that they can project costs for their situation - down to each work permit, entry permit, reentry permit, company stamp/seal - everything.

The BOI allows an application for a proposed project to be submitted without (ahead of) a company being formed - so you can mitigate risk by applying first - and actually proceeding to launch a company only after approval is granted. Assume less than US $2,000 to pursue this route - we can develop application via e-mail exchanges, and submit on your behalf. For a Category 5.8 activity, I'd be confident enough to process application for half the fee - with the other half being paid only if we obtained approval.

'Hope that answered the questions. Good luck!

Steve Sykes

Managing Director

Indo-Siam Group

[email protected]

www.thaistartup.com

www.thaitradedata.com

www.bangkokstaff.com