Hi everyone, thanks in advance for your help. I recently received an offer to work for a large company in Thailand. As part of the visa process, the company said I'll need to provide letters from former employers, and that the sum total of my prior work experience needs to be at least two years (and internships don't count towards this). The company also said that if I don't have two years of experience, they can go through an "agency" to get the visa, but it will take a little longer. Is anyone familiar with what it means to go through an agency, and what the differences might be?

 

 

 

Can you not supply the company with past employment letters?

do you have the 2 years experience that they are asking for?

 

@Doiger, I can supply letters, and I'm one month short of two years. So I'm wondering what the whole agency situation looks like

Edited November 8, 20169 yr by Tee Kay

21 minutes ago, Doiger said:

Can you not supply the company with past employment letters?

do you have the 2 years experience that they are asking for?

 

 

@Doiger, I can supply letters, and I'm one month short of two years. So I'm wondering what the whole agency situation looks like

There is no such requirement, period.

if 2 years experience is the legal route    then you have all but  answered your own question

2 hours ago, PoorSucker said:

There is no such requirement, period.

 

Incorrect. I was asked for the same 2yrs ago.  Period

It depends on your age and qualifications. If you are 40+ with a subject related Masters degree and lots if experience, no problem.

 

If you are fairly young and/or your qualifications are not substantial and category related, you have to find a way to convince the Ministry of Labour why you should be doing the job instead of a Thai person.

 

Hence the 2 years experience requirement.

 

To the OP - there is no difference to you if the employer uses an agency. The end result is the same. It will cost your employer more though.

I guess PoorSucker meant there is no law stipulating such thing, but I was made certain that on my line of work I needed 5 years of experience and an applicable degree. So depends on the line of work I would suggest here.

1 minute ago, jabis said:

I guess PoorSucker meant there is no law stipulating such thing, but I was made certain that on my line of work I needed 5 years of experience and an applicable degree. So depends on the line of work I would suggest here.

 

I needed 15 years of experience buts that because I have no tertiary qualifications.

8 minutes ago, Don Mega said:

 

I needed 15 years of experience buts that because I have no tertiary qualifications.

Wow - that's a new record I've heard so far :D Apparently you qualified nonetheless :)

3 minutes ago, jabis said:

Wow - that's a new record I've heard so far :D Apparently you qualified nonetheless :)

I did but some days I wish I did not !

 

Edit; I'll have to double check that number as Iam  having doubts, I know it was a long time though, will go searching my emails and report back.

Edited November 9, 20169 yr by Don Mega

Thank you all for your replies! I do have a masters degree as well, so hopefully that helps. The company formally offered me the job and they already know my background, and they hire a ton of expats, so I assume this means they know what they're getting into with me. I was just curious because I had never heard of such a requirement.

12 hours ago, Sooo Upto Me said:

 

Incorrect. I was asked for the same 2yrs ago.  Period

 

Other than letters from your former employers, did they check on this in any other way? Do you know if the Thai immigration folks actually contacted your former employers, or were letters certifying your employment enough?

11 hours ago, Don Mega said:

I did but some days I wish I did not !

 

Edit; I'll have to double check that number as Iam  having doubts, I know it was a long time though, will go searching my emails and report back.

 

 

To follow up on this it was 5 years required, I had worked for my them employer for 15 years.

Most of the jobs I do require 10-15 years experience in a very specific field (one in India asked for 20+ years, since the technology has only been around since the mid 90's that's a big ask), but as far as I am aware it's not an immigration or work-permit requirement.

 

18 hours ago, Sooo Upto Me said:

 

Incorrect. I was asked for the same 2yrs ago.  Period

There is no such requirement for visa, extension of stay or for work permit.

Your employer might want it but it's not in any law or regulations.

Labour office in Krabi is checking the papers.

Work Permit for General Manager was no problem,

Scuba Dive Instructor was not possible after they checked my teaching status with PADI.

I did not want to pay yearly fees for just 3 months.

So have to go back and add Scuba Dive Instructor after payments made and teaching status active again.

On 11/8/2016 at 11:32 PM, Tee Kay said:

@Doiger, I can supply letters, and I'm one month short of two years. So I'm wondering what the whole agency situation looks like

So only use the years and not the months. i.e. 2013-2014 company A and 2014-2015 company B  that's 2 years.

18 hours ago, PoorSucker said:

There is no such requirement for visa, extension of stay or for work permit.

Your employer might want it but it's not in any law or regulations.

 

You're right - this seems to be the case. It sounds like it benefits the company (for tax reasons) if new employees have at least two years of prior work experience, but they can get the visa either way. It might just be more expensive for them to do so for people with less than two years. With more than 5 years of experience, there's an even bigger tax benefit for the company.