Permanent Residency Permit

[Oohwan]

Hello Forum,

I know to become eligible to apply for Permanent Residency Permit, an applicant must meet any of the following criteria:

Must hold 3 consecutive 1-year visa extensions.

Must have a valid work permit for 3 years at the date of application.

Must earn 30,000 Baht monthly income (for those married with Thai spouse for 5 years) and 80,000 Baht monthly income (for those who are single).

Applicant must present 3 years of tax statements proving the above income

I will be resigning from my current job the end of this month. I have been with them for the past 12 years.

My new job won't start until April.

Will the change in visa, work permit, and me being unemployed for two months affect my eligibility to apply for PR this coming November?

Oohwan

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[ubonjoe]

13 minutes ago, Oohwan said:

Must earn 30,000 Baht monthly income (for those married with Thai spouse for 5 years)

That  amount and the 5 years does not exist. The baseline is really 50k baht proven by 3 years of tax returns.

You have to be working for 3 consecutive years with a work permit and on extensions of stay for 3 consecutive years.

Even a short interruption of the 3 years would prevent you from applying.

If married to a Thai and you can prove 3 years of working and paying taxes on 40k baht of income while on an extensions for 3 years you can apply for Thai citizenship now.

[Oohwan]

I've been working for the past 12 years uninterrupted on a non-b, but have only been married for 1 month. Can I still apply for PR now?

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[Oohwan]

Sorry ubonjoe, I just realized you said Thai citizenship instead of PR. Will the 2 month interruption still be an issue if applying for Thai citizenship?

Sent from my SM-N920C using Thaivisa Connect mobile app

[ubonjoe]

7 minutes ago, Oohwan said:

I've been working for the past 12 years uninterrupted on a non-b, but have only been married for 1 month. Can I still apply for PR now?

You could with no interuption before they start accepting applications and can meet the requirements shown here. http://www.immigration.go.th/nov2004/doc/residence/residence_th_sponser_en.pdf

2 minutes ago, Oohwan said:

Sorry ubonjoe, I just realized you said Thai citizenship instead of PR. Will the 2 month interruption still be an issue if applying for Thai citizenship?

Yes the interruption would effect that.

[JOHN CHAN]

Hi, I am on a retirement visa staying here and have never worked in Thailand before. Therefore I never had a work permit. My question is between yearly renewal of my retirement visa which is no big deal and a PR permit, which one is preferred? What are the pros and cons? I have a dual citizenship and I learnt from past articles in this forum that if one applies for PR, he has to sacrifice the other not-involved citizenship. Please advise. Thank you

[ubonjoe]

5 minutes ago, JOHN CHAN said:

Hi, I am on a retirement visa staying here and have never worked in Thailand before. Therefore I never had a work permit. My question is between yearly renewal of my retirement visa which is no big deal and a PR permit, which one is preferred? What are the pros and cons? I have a dual citizenship and I learnt from past articles in this forum that if one applies for PR, he has to sacrifice the other not-involved citizenship. Please advise. Thank you

You don't qualify for permanent residency. You have to be working here with a work permit and paying taxes.

To apply for PR does not require  giving up one of your nationalities to apply. But you would have to use the one you applied for with to depart and leave the country.

Same for a citizenship application in reality since there is no requirement to give up your other nationalities.

[apalink_thailand]

What about a situation where one has the required 3 years of back-to-back marriage visas but, one works offshore and brings in his income? Obviously, I do not have a work permit in this situation. However, I have lived in TH for 30 years and most of that time I was working with work permits. I am guessing past work permits hold no merit?

Is there not a different class of PR for people that do not or have not worked in Thailand?

[ubonjoe]

1 minute ago, apalink_thailand said:

I am guessing past work permits hold no merit?

Is there not a different class of PR for people that do not or have not worked in Thailand?

You have to be on a work permit and paying taxes for 3 consecutive years to apply for PR.

There is no other basis you could apply for.

[apalink_thailand]

14 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

You have to be on a work permit and paying taxes for 3 consecutive years to apply for PR.

There is no other basis you could apply for.

You sure? I found this.

 

• The applicant must be able to meet one of these categories to apply for PR status in Thailand:

  • Investment category (minimum THB 3–10 Million investment in Thailand)

  • Working/Business category

  • Support a family or Humanity Reasons category: In this category, the applicant must have a relationship with a Thai citizen or an alien who already possesses a residence permit as a husband or wife; father or mother; or a guardian of a Thai child under 20 years of age.

  • Expert/academic category

  • Other categories as determined by Thai Immigration

[ubonjoe]

15 minutes ago, apalink_thailand said:

Support a family or Humanity Reasons category: In this category, the applicant must have a relationship with a Thai citizen or an alien who already possesses a residence permit as a husband or wife; father or mother; or a guardian of a Thai child under 20 years of age.

That category was scrapped in or before 2009. 

[jombangkok]

Can I chime in with a question here?

 

I've worked for a company here for ~4 years, so I think I have the consecutive stay on non-B visas sorted. However I am planning to change job this year and I wonder a bit about possibilities to screw my status up.

 

This old page states the following: 

Quote

The foreigner must have held a non-immigrant visa and have resided in Thailand for at least three consecutive years on the same non-immigrant visa at the time of application.

 

I am thinking about possible scenarios that may happen, which would screw me over when applying.

 

- Something "takes too long" and I need to get out of thailand, effectively resetting the visa status?

- Everything goes smooth, and the work permit is transferred while im on the same visa, and I can apply later this year?

 

Anyone who has changed jobs here that could chime in on this? Thanks in advance.

[gk10002000]

On 1/5/2018 at 1:33 AM, apalink_thailand said:

You sure? I found this.

 

• The applicant must be able to meet one of these categories to apply for PR status in Thailand:

  • Investment category (minimum THB 3–10 Million investment in Thailand)

  • Working/Business category

  • Support a family or Humanity Reasons category: In this category, the applicant must have a relationship with a Thai citizen or an alien who already possesses a residence permit as a husband or wife; father or mother; or a guardian of a Thai child under 20 years of age.

  • Expert/academic category

  • Other categories as determined by Thai Immigration

So if an older person (such as me) for whatever wanted to get PR, but never worked in Thailand,  it still might be possible, say in the investment category?  If that exists, would buying a 3 million THB condo or house to live in qualify?

 

  I understand that much may be left up to whoever evaluates the application but is the 3 M THB at least a possibility?

 

[ubonjoe]

8 hours ago, jombangkok said:

Something "takes too long" and I need to get out of thailand, effectively resetting the visa status?

If you had to get a new NON-B visa it would end the 4 consecutive years on extensions of stay you have now.

If you could  change employers witout needing to get a new visa it would not be a problem.

[ubonjoe]

7 hours ago, gk10002000 said:

  I understand that much may be left up to whoever evaluates the application but is the 3 M THB at least a possibility?

There is no longer a 3 million baht investment option that went away about 12 years ago.

Also for the 10 million baht investment option immigration want a work permit and tax payments for 3 years.

[gk10002000]

36 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

There is no longer a 3 million baht investment option that went away about 12 years ago.

Also for the 10 million baht investment option immigration want a work permit and tax payments for 3 years.

OK.  So basically no way to get PR if not working.  I defer to the Thai mentality why they do that.  One can't "buy" a PR.  No big deal.  I am not sure there are that many pros versus cons to getting a PR if one were retiring there.  Moot point since it is not available. 

 

Thanks

[jackdd]

1 hour ago, gk10002000 said:

One can't "buy" a PR

Sure you can "buy" PR, and also citizenship, and that totally legally, you just have to pay some money, spend a few days of your time and have to wait 3 years.

 

You just open a company, for whatever you want preferably something that even returns some money and costs as little as possible.

Maybe a motorbike wash business would be ok, that's simple, just some place with water and some sponges and soap.

Pay a lawyer to open this company for you, and put about 4 million THB of capital in your company, that's about how much it will need to run for 3 years.

Now you find a guy who will be your manager (the retired dad of your GF / wife would maybe be an option), he gets minimum salary and everything that the business earns will be 50/50 between you and him so he has some motivation and you maybe even get some money back. He rents a place, and employs 3 other thais at your company, who you pay minimum salary.

You pay yourself the required minimum salary (effective you just pay the tax on that).

If they somehow manage to make money, that's good, if they don't make money, it's also no big deal, that's just the cost that you have to pay.

 

Now you just wait 3 years, in these 3 years you can stay in Thailand on non-b Visas and get 50k THB per month salary from your company.

When the 3 years are over you apply for PR or citizenship, however you want. You effectively paid about 2 million THB for that and it took you a few days of work to have the lawyer set up the company and give a few instructions to your manager and when everything is done you close the company. If the manager did something else than drinking beer or playing Facebook all day and your business earned some money you maybe paid even less than that.

Edited March 11, 2018 by jackdd

[gk10002000]

2 hours ago, jackdd said:

Sure you can "buy" PR, and also citizenship, and that totally legally, you just have to pay some money, spend a few days of your time and have to wait 3 years.

 

You just open a company, for whatever you want preferably something that even returns some money and costs as little as possible.

Maybe a motorbike wash business would be ok, that's simple, just some place with water and some sponges and soap.

Pay a lawyer to open this company for you, and put about 4 million THB of capital in your company, that's about how much it will need to run for 3 years.

Now you find a guy who will be your manager (the retired dad of your GF / wife would maybe be an option), he gets minimum salary and everything that the business earns will be 50/50 between you and him so he has some motivation and you maybe even get some money back. He rents a place, and employs 3 other thais at your company, who you pay minimum salary.

You pay yourself the required minimum salary (effective you just pay the tax on that).

If they somehow manage to make money, that's good, if they don't make money, it's also no big deal, that's just the cost that you have to pay.

 

Now you just wait 3 years, in these 3 years you can stay in Thailand on non-b Visas and get 50k THB per month salary from your company.

When the 3 years are over you apply for PR or citizenship, however you want. You effectively paid about 2 million THB for that and it took you a few days of work to have the lawyer set up the company and give a few instructions to your manager and when everything is done you close the company. If the manager did something else than drinking beer or playing Facebook all day and your business earned some money you maybe paid even less than that.

fair enough.   And I think you stated the process pretty well.  Thanks

[jombangkok]

6 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

If you had to get a new NON-B visa it would end the 4 consecutive years on extensions of stay you have now.

If you could  change employers witout needing to get a new visa it would not be a problem.

Thanks for the confirmation. That makes it a bit more difficult.

 

And it doesn't matter that I have a consecutive streak in my passport then.

[ubonjoe]

2 hours ago, jombangkok said:

And it doesn't matter that I have a consecutive streak in my passport then.

No it does not matter. Getting a new visa and entering the country with it would break it.

[jombangkok]

Thanks. I will try to investigate if it is possible to do this without changing the visa. But so far it seems like it isn't.

[scorecard]

On 11/3/2561 at 9:07 AM, gk10002000 said:

OK.  So basically no way to get PR if not working.  I defer to the Thai mentality why they do that.  One can't "buy" a PR.  No big deal.  I am not sure there are that many pros versus cons to getting a PR if one were retiring there.  Moot point since it is not available. 

 

Thanks

 

There is an interesting argument about the positives of holding PR, considering that it's' not cheap.

 

I've had PR for around 25 years, the benefits for me are, in priority:

 

- 99.999% guarantee I will not be separated from my Thai family over 'visa issues' *.

 

- Never have to get PR renewed - it's for life, only was you can lose it is:

 

- Get a criminal record anywhere in the world, PR is automatically cancelled. 

- Can be physically out of Thailand in one block period for up to 364 days and your safe, out in one block period of 365 days or more an it automatically cancels. 

 

- Never have to do 30 day reporting, never have to do visa runs, never have to worry about overstay, the house or hotel where I stay are not required to submit the document about foreigners staying in house / hotel.

 

*Many would say the cost is too high for these benefits, but to me my first priority mentioned above makes it well worth while.

 

A side note, if you get pulled over by the cops and show them your PR book, most cops don't know what it is and will often assume you are some sort of VIP / from an embassy whatever, and quickly salute and wave you on. 

 

 

[gk10002000]

9 minutes ago, scorecard said:

 

There is an interesting argument about the positives of holding PR, considering that it's' not cheap.

 

I've had PR for around 25 years, the benefits for me are, in priority:

 

- 99.999% guarantee I will not be separated from my Thai family over 'visa issues' *.

 

- Never have to get PR renewed - it's for life, only was you can lose it is:

 

- Get a criminal record anywhere in the world, PR is automatically cancelled. 

- Can be physically out of Thailand in one block period for up to 364 days and your safe, out in one block period of 365 days or more an it automatically cancels. 

 

- Never have to do 30 day reporting, never have to do visa runs, never have to worry about overstay, the house or hotel where I stay are not required to submit the document about foreigners staying in house / hotel.

 

*Many would say the cost is too high for these benefits, but to me my first priority mentioned above makes it well worth while.

 

A side note, if you get pulled over by the cops and show them your PR book, most cops don't know what it is and will often assume you are some sort of VIP / from an embassy whatever, and quickly salute and wave you on. 

 

 

Well stated. 

[Smokegreynblues]

On 2/12/2017 at 6:14 PM, ubonjoe said:

That  amount and the 5 years does not exist. The baseline is really 50k baht proven by 3 years of tax returns.

You have to be working for 3 consecutive years with a work permit and on extensions of stay for 3 consecutive years.

Even a short interruption of the 3 years would prevent you from applying.

If married to a Thai and you can prove 3 years of working and paying taxes on 40k baht of income while on an extensions for 3 years you can apply for Thai citizenship now.

how come it is 50k ? i thought it was 80k ?

[ubonjoe]

10 minutes ago, Christopherabhadra said:

how come it is 50k ? i thought it was 80k ?

My reply was to a person married to a Thai which is lower than the 80k baht needed for others.

[Smokegreynblues]

2 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

My reply was to a person married to a Thai which is lower than the 80k baht needed for others.

So now its not 40k anymore for the PR>? what about applying on behalf of having a wife as her dependent who makes more than 80k ?

Edited March 29, 2018 by Christopherabhadra

[ubonjoe]

7 minutes ago, Christopherabhadra said:

So now its not 40k anymore for the PR>? what about applying on behalf of having a wife as her dependent who makes more than 80k ?

If married to a Thai it can only be your income from working.

If a dependent of a person that has an extension of stay there is no clause that allows for you to apply for PR.

[apalink_thailand]

On 3/11/2018 at 5:22 AM, ubonjoe said:

If you had to get a new NON-B visa it would end the 4 consecutive years on extensions of stay you have now.

If you could  change employers witout needing to get a new visa it would not be a problem.

Pretty sure that is not possible. You have to get a new B visa when changing employers. 

[ubonjoe]

4 minutes ago, apalink_thailand said:

Pretty sure that is not possible. You have to get a new B visa when changing employers. 

It can be done without going out for a new non-b visa. People have been able to it.

[jayboy]

On 3/11/2018 at 10:58 AM, jackdd said:

Sure you can "buy" PR, and also citizenship, and that totally legally, you just have to pay some money, spend a few days of your time and have to wait 3 years.

 

You just open a company, for whatever you want preferably something that even returns some money and costs as little as possible.

Maybe a motorbike wash business would be ok, that's simple, just some place with water and some sponges and soap.

Pay a lawyer to open this company for you, and put about 4 million THB of capital in your company, that's about how much it will need to run for 3 years.

Now you find a guy who will be your manager (the retired dad of your GF / wife would maybe be an option), he gets minimum salary and everything that the business earns will be 50/50 between you and him so he has some motivation and you maybe even get some money back. He rents a place, and employs 3 other thais at your company, who you pay minimum salary.

You pay yourself the required minimum salary (effective you just pay the tax on that).

If they somehow manage to make money, that's good, if they don't make money, it's also no big deal, that's just the cost that you have to pay.

 

Now you just wait 3 years, in these 3 years you can stay in Thailand on non-b Visas and get 50k THB per month salary from your company.

When the 3 years are over you apply for PR or citizenship, however you want. You effectively paid about 2 million THB for that and it took you a few days of work to have the lawyer set up the company and give a few instructions to your manager and when everything is done you close the company. If the manager did something else than drinking beer or playing Facebook all day and your business earned some money you maybe paid even less than that.

Completely misleading.The route described would not buy PR let alone citizenship.Immigration is well versed in spotting these Micky Mouse companies designed to flout the spirit if not the letter of the law.

 

I appreciate this is probably a wind up.