I can't believe you haven't contacted a lawyer. Instead you post on a website for advise. If you were back home in your country and broke the law, would you do the same? No, of course not. You would do the sensible thing and call a lawyer. I can just here the Thai bashing brigade now, stating that all Thai lawyers are useless crooks with no pull and all you need is some tea money to get out of this. Don't listen to them. Close the business now. I hope you did not collect any upfront tuition because I would think you couldn't pay it back and thus will cause an influx of complaints and police reports. Take it from someone who went through the same thing in China. I hate to say it to you but your days are numbered in Thailand.  If you stop now and leave the country, you will most likely be black listed due to working ileagally. Your only hope is to call a lawyer and pay him to sort it out for you. Make sure it is an immigration lawyer from your area with good contacts from immigration. After he sorts it out, get a proper job. I suspect however that you don't have a degree or you would have done that already. Sadly immigration does not care about breaking up families as I have already experienced in China. Now your best hope will be to just stay out of jail. Exit Thailand now or contact a lawyer.

This is very simple

 

What you are doing is illegal, and you are aware of it

 

You are in a foreign land so you have to expect to live with the consequences

 

You are not so charitable you are making money

 

If In your home country and you run a school without the approvals etc, you know you would be shut down

 

Obvious solution, shut down immediately

 

Research the situation and try to find a legal way to reopen

 

At the moment you are free to leave Thailand

 

Jail time in Thailand is not recommended, breaking the law for 16 continuos years is serious

Consider applying for Thai citizenship, but first, close your school pronto! Thai citizenship will take years....

would making the classroom a part of your local wat help?

 It might be too late to try to continue. You better go for a holiday. 

18 minutes ago, muzmurray said:

 

The authorization is the lack of "employment prohibited" stamped on your visa or extension.

 

Even a visa-exempt entry has no such stamp so clearly that is nonsense.

4 hours ago, mstevens said:

This is an awkward situation.  On the one hand (I presume) you are offering a valuable service to the community, imparting your knowledge, teaching a skill that is important for all Thais and hopefully making young Thais more comfortable around foreigners.  On the other hand you have flagrantly flaunted the law for a very long (!!) time and have not jumped through all the hoops and gone to the not inconsiderable expense and hassle that others doing the same thing have gone through.

 

From the sounds of it you have had a good run and been very lucky to have operated for as long as you have.  If it were me I'd close the business down and hope that that is the end of it and there are no consequences.  Sometimes you have to know when it's time .... and it seems now may be that time.

Sorry, but there is a cost of doing business. 4 employees, taxes, Employee benefits etc. If he has a business but doesn't need

staff then it is not profitable. I don't feel sorry for him at all. I deal with it everyday as a business owner.

 Rightly or wrongly, the rules are the rules, whether you agree with them or not. So if you are knowingly breaking the law, which it appears you are, then you will suffer the consequences accordingly. The other dimension to this is that it also makes it harder for those of us here who are abiding by the rules, again - whether you like them or not.  As to the argument that you are helping people/developing the country/providing a much needed service etc. etc. It means nothing I'm afraid.

So, what to do? Get legal or cease and desist. And, as others have said, contact a lawyer. It sounds like you might need one.

If the OP's wife owns their house and moving is not an option, the following might be a possible way to stay:

Find a local cram school (one with a legal business license and 4 or more Thai teachers) and offer to bring your students there in exchange for a Work Permit.  You will probably have to take a cut in pay and will have to deal with endless paperwork, but you will be legal and won't be looking over your shoulder all the time.

 

If you have an O - Thai wife Visa, you can get a work permit.

Why didn't you/your wife get registered as a school with the required paperwork?  You don't necessarily need the 4 thai staff if you register as a school.  It is some work to make sure you have certain # of toilets, xxx square meters per # of students, emergency lights, lesson plans, etc.  They don't pay any bribes, so some of the stuff took a bit longer than expected.  And the wife/wife's mom knows a lot of people in the community.

 

If you were registered as a school, it would be much easier to obtain the work permit.

 

----

But you did the correct thing and closed the school until you can sort it out.   But since some of the immigration office have their children in the school, it must have some value.  You just got "too big."  Why not have the wife negotiate something?

 

I don't even have a school and I've been approached to teach English on a private level.    

not just illegal.  when folks say they have a "classroom" or "orphanage" as a wonderful service for the "poor" folks in Thailand.... there are lots of things that come to mind.... with the hands down unlawful work aspect merely icing on the cake. 

 

Close it down NOW.  Make it quickly a private TV lounge etc.. Stay away for a while if you can.  

34 minutes ago, AlQaholic said:

Consider applying for Thai citizenship, but first, close your school pronto! Thai citizenship will take years....

 

How would he do that, he does not have the required legal income ?

The rules for aliens in thailand are clear, working without work permit is illegal. As in any other country in the world. If you now on Spot of Immigration,is there no way out.

30 minutes ago, thedemon said:

 

Even a visa-exempt entry has no such stamp so clearly that is nonsense.

 

If you took time to read what I wrote, you would see that I mention visas and extensions of stay. The name "visa exempt" should have been a clue to you that it is not a visa !

1 minute ago, muzmurray said:

 

How would he do that, he does not have the required legal income ?

Good point, didn't think about that.......first you need an income, then you can become a Thai citizen. After you are a Thai citizen, you can loose that income and still be a Thai citizen, makes complete logic!

2 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

16 years of illegally running a business in Thailand, without even having to have paid any bribes as yet?  OP, you ought to consider yourself luckier than most.

 

Get clean while you still can. IDC in BKK is not a fun place to be.

 

16yrs.overstay,plus plus and dont forget 16yrs.of back TAX,plus plus, you deserve 16yrs.in the bangkok hilton.

22 minutes ago, thedemon said:

 

Section 37 of the Immigration Act says:

 

Section 37 : An alien having received a temporary entry permit into the Kingdom
must comply with the following :
1. Shall not engage in the occupation or temporary or employment
unless authorized by the Director General. or competent official deputized by the
Director General . If , in any case , there is a law concerning alien employment
provided hereafter , the granting of work privileges must comply with the law
concerned.

 

The way I read that, it covers all foreigners except those with Permanent Residence.

 

How does Visa type or reason for extension affect section 37?

 

 

 

- PR holders still need a work permit, I got PR more than 2 decades ago, had a WP before PR and all the time since I got PR. 

 

- The list of professions / occupations reserved for Thai citizens only still applies.

 

 

16 yrs running an illegal business in UK

 

16 years paying no tax in UK 

 

What would you expect, a pat on the back I doubt it, wake up sunshine and get out while you can

 

 

2 hours ago, Loaded said:

Fairly sure you won't have registered for and paid tax as well. As someone who runs a legal business in Thailand and jumps through all the hoops, you have no sympathy from me. We have competitors who flagrantly ignore the rules, laws and regulations we follow. They can undercut us because of this. It's not right.

 

When we complained to the authorities of illegal competition, the authorities did little other than alert our competitors to the fact we had complained. Our illegal competition then attacked us. I received threats, fake posts on FB and forums, fake reviews etc. However, this just made us more determined to fight.

 

 

Exactly.

Thanks for making it harder for the rest of us that are trying to do things legally. Don't slam the door on your way out.

9 minutes ago, meatboy said:

16yrs.overstay,plus plus and dont forget 16yrs.of back TAX,plus plus, you deserve 16yrs.in the bangkok hilton.

Yes, 16 years in a maximum security prison that houses those sentenced to 30 years or more sounds perfectly reasonable for working without a work pemit, doesn't it? In fact, why not just have done with it and burn them at the stake after a few hours in the stocks?

I'm just wondering if they will gather any evidence from THIS THREAD????????

1 hour ago, wmlc said:

I can't believe you haven't contacted a lawyer. Instead you post on a website for advise. If you were back home in your country and broke the law, would you do the same? No, of course not. You would do the sensible thing and call a lawyer. I can just here the Thai bashing brigade now, stating that all Thai lawyers are useless crooks with no pull and all you need is some tea money to get out of this. Don't listen to them. Close the business now. I hope you did not collect any upfront tuition because I would think you couldn't pay it back and thus will cause an influx of complaints and police reports. Take it from someone who went through the same thing in China. I hate to say it to you but your days are numbered in Thailand.  If you stop now and leave the country, you will most likely be black listed due to working ileagally. Your only hope is to call a lawyer and pay him to sort it out for you. Make sure it is an immigration lawyer from your area with good contacts from immigration. After he sorts it out, get a proper job. I suspect however that you don't have a degree or you would have done that already. Sadly immigration does not care about breaking up families as I have already experienced in China. Now your best hope will be to just stay out of jail. Exit Thailand now or contact a lawyer.

 

Thailand is not China and suggesting that this fellow's days are numbered is ridiculous.

 

There could be any of a number of reasons why Immigration was monitoring the classroom.  It might be that a student's parent was unhappy about something at the school and complained to them in spite.  It might be that a competitor school complained.  It might be that the OP or his wife unwittingly offended an Immigration officer or someone closed to an Immigration officer and did not even realise it.  Anything could have caused the OP to come under Immigration's spotlight.  Without knowing what has caused him and his operation to come to their attention, your comments are alarmist.  Shutting down the operation might put an end to the attention he was receiving.

 

If the OP and his wife are reasonable people they might just be able to work the issue through if the authorities do come knocking.  Saying the OP's days in Thailand are numbered is ridiculous.  That is not the case at all.  At the end of the day the OP was operating a school to HELP THAI PEOPLE and Immigration would understand that, while at the same time they know he was working illegally.  Even if something comes of this, it can be worked out and often the Thais are remarkably easy to deal with if you are respectful to them and admit you were in the wrong.  Contrition and respect go a long way when dealing with investigating officers in Thailand.  It's not like the OP was dealing drugs or doing something else very clearly wrong, right?!

1 hour ago, Goingmad said:

Sorry, but there is a cost of doing business. 4 employees, taxes, Employee benefits etc. If he has a business but doesn't need

staff then it is not profitable. I don't feel sorry for him at all. I deal with it everyday as a business owner.

Plus the requirements for running an educational institution.

9 minutes ago, mstevens said:

 

<snip>

It's not like the OP was dealing drugs or doing something else very clearly wrong, right?!

Wrong, he was doing something else very clearly wrong.

I would have the wife go to immigration by herself and find out what it is they want.

If the had wanted to arrest you they would already have done so.

This looks like a deal can be made.

I'd hardly call teaching the children of policemen and government officials keeping it..."lowkey".

42 minutes ago, meatboy said:

16yrs.overstay,plus plus and dont forget 16yrs.of back TAX,plus plus, you deserve 16yrs.in the bangkok hilton.

 

Where does he say he has 16 years overstay.

 

He says he is here on a non-immigrant visa.

 

Thai laws are very difficult to follow. Many (if not most) English teachers working here do part-time teaching, either in coffee shops or in their homes.

 

Officially that is illegal. Immigration could almost at anytime walk into any Starbucks or McDonalds and find English teachers doing private lessons.

 

Teaching at home is another matter. From what I understand, you are only allowed to have up to 7 students. These students don't have to study together.

 

Yes, maybe he should have applied for a work permit. How has he been living here for the last 16 years? Certainly not on private teaching. He must have another income.

 

His best bet is to contact the bull by the horn. Go to immigration (he says he teaches some of the officer's kids, so he must know them), talk to them and ask for advice.

 

Running is not a solution... he has wife and house here (maybe kids too).

If he waits they will surely contact him sooner or later.

 

My advice to him is to take his wife and go and talk to immigration now. Get things sorted out.

1 minute ago, dotpoom said:

I'd hardly call teaching the children of policemen and government officials...."lowkey".

Which is why I think a deal can be made

Just now, Sir Bogdiver said:

Which is why I think a deal can be made

 

I agree.

 

Maybe the whole thing is blown out of proportion. If he just teaches a few kids now and then.

He doesn't say he makes a living out of teaching.