Do I Realy Need A Work Visa?

[camo007]

Ok here is my question…

I own a business in Australia and I want to avoid the cold winter. As such I plan to move to Thailand to work remotely. As such I will not be earning money in Thailand but only working from a serviced office for 3 months of the year in Bangkok.

My business only requires me to have a good Internet connection so I can communicate with my Sydney staff / Office.

I fear if I get a holiday visa.. (if I can get a 3 month or longer one) that if asked the question I am working and I would be found in an office (Serviced).

So as a “remote worker” is that what people call a branch office or as I am not earning money in Thailand am I simply a tourist. ??

I feel this is a grey area as in today’s age the internet makes any location a possible work zone.

Let me know your thoughts..

[Sunbelt Asia]

The labor Dept has stated as well that it is a gray area as it would be hard to catch someone working, if they simply click away from their homepage, when they come in.

The office should be your name and not the office in Australia. You also should have a "B" visa.

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

[kash]

The labor Dept has stated as well that it is a gray area as it would be hard to catch someone working, if they simply click away from their homepage, when they come in.

The office should be your name and not the office in Australia. You also should have a "B" visa.

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

So how do you get a B-visa with no letter from a Thai company? And if you come from Scandinavia you won't get a multiple visa (of any kind) ... so a bit hard.

[Rinrada]

Talk to Sunbelt...yes ..yes

[h5n1]

in my opinion a b visa would only open an eternal can of worms and endless questions and issues.

you dont need an office, you dont need a corporation - unless of course you already have one. that is also a can of worms you may not have ventured into and your personal business i might add. maybe its not time/financial expedient to incorporate.

if all you are doing is working from your laptop it is esssentially no different than people sitting in the internet banging keys on any given brokerage acct - isnt that 'work'?

let it be said that thailand is the only country i can think of where this is not a silly question. the laws and now paranoia surrounding them are far more trouble than its worth - it is after all one nation among many and far from heaven.

if this presents problems for the op there are 150 other nations that will accept him with open arms.

when these questions start cropping up - persons fear merely working over the internet, you can bet this will have indirect impact on expat living style.

[smilingjim]

Ok here is my question…

I own a business in Australia and I want to avoid the cold winter. As such I plan to move to Thailand to work remotely. As such I will not be earning money in Thailand but only working from a serviced office for 3 months of the year in Bangkok.

My business only requires me to have a good Internet connection so I can communicate with my Sydney staff / Office.

I fear if I get a holiday visa.. (if I can get a 3 month or longer one) that if asked the question I am working and I would be found in an office (Serviced).

So as a “remote worker” is that what people call a branch office or as I am not earning money in Thailand am I simply a tourist. ??

I feel this is a grey area as in today’s age the internet makes any location a possible work zone.

Let me know your thoughts..

Why not apply for a 12 month non-immigrant b mulitple entry visa? You have a business - can you justify exploring business opportunities or sourcing products in Thailand? Simple procedure.

Why work from a serviced office - just work from where you are planning to stay. Internet connections are easy here now.

[samran]

APEC business visa might be the go. Takes a couple of months to process (as it facilitates entry to all participating APEC countries) but it is designed for globetrotting business people around the region. Both Austalia and Thailand participate in the scheme.

[camo007]

Hi All and thanks for the replies.

Yes it would look I have opened a very big can of worms as I seem to get very different answers. From what I can see this is not going to be as easy as first thought.

The main issue is I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder every 5 minutes worrying about getting fined or thrown out of the country. And I am too fragile a person for the Bangkok Hilton.

I plan to reside 3 months of the year in Silom area as I have many friends in that area. From what I can see internet should not be much of a problem but as I connect back to the offices PABX via internet I need to make sure connection is very good and 1 or 2 days without connection would cost me AU$500 daily in lost productivity. For this reason I had the thoughts of the Serviced office option. However the Serviced office has the problem of being a BUSINESS address and police could say “You go there every day to do business but only have tourist visa”.

So yes it would be cheaper to work from a nice condo in Silom and have possibly 2 internet connections for redundancy. I have factories in China and Korea I must visit and call centres in the Philippines so taking a trip out of the country every 30 days also would not have been a problem.

However the APEC business visa could be a go being I am from Australia and I do also Import to Australia this is a possibility.

I truly thought Thailand would have had a easy solution for this very problem as I would simply be bringing money into the country. I do love Bangkok and have always found it a good Asia hub for my needs. If only I could live a dream and work some of the year in Bangkok as well and stop just being a tourist……

[camo007]

OK I think i have the answer... the APEC option looks like a winner for all Australian's http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/990i.htm