Thinking of working in Thailand? Here are the 39 things that you can't do!

[transam]

1 minute ago, LannaGuy said:

I note prostitution is not on the list so all those non-Thai ladies of the night (because there aren't any Thais right) are safe.

I fink there is no such thing as prostitution in LOS mon ami....

[KIWIBATCH]

33. Rolling cigarettes by hand.

 

Damn...there goes the future plans for my career...but hang on..maybe I could roll them using my feet....mmm.

[Bazw57]

So those thousands of Idians you see selling goods and suits everywhere in Thailand are either citizens or have working permit ?
I don't think so.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Techno Viking]

3 hours ago, ratcatcher said:

Obviously. Semantics again.

Is it semantics when some official person gets a knock back from the missus before he goes to work and then decides to interpret the law as he see's fit ?

[transam]

4 minutes ago, KIWIBATCH said:

33. Rolling cigarettes by hand.

 

Damn...there goes the future plans for my career...but hang on..maybe I could roll them using my feet....mmm.

Noooo,  just ask the Thai bloke sitting near bye to finish the fag....

[helloagain]

2 hours ago, YetAnother said:

I think it is a mistake to try to list all the jobs that a foreigner cannot do

there's always going to be hybrid jobs in the middle of classifications that raise all kinds of questions

just summarize it by saying ,as many people do ,anything that a Thai can do is prohibited to a farang

Can be a policeman and set up a road block to catch thais like they do for foriengers. 

[varun]

3 hours ago, ratcatcher said:

Do you drive heavy machinery? That's what it implied. You can drive a car or pickup, but not a truck used for commercial purposes.

Driving ,       including operating,      heavy machinery (exception: airline pilot between countries)

I think this is incorrect as well.

I believe the interpretation is that you can't take up driving as a profession for which you get paid e.g. taxi driver, chauffeur or a 'transporter'. This includes cars, motorbikes, trucks, lorries etc.

The exception, however,is being an international pilot.

 

 

 

Edited July 15, 2017 by varun

[Krataiboy]

Yeah, but. . .

 

Hands up all those who can honestly say they have never "made" a Thai doll. 

[Techno Viking]

6 minutes ago, Krataiboy said:

Yeah, but. . .

 

Hands up all those who can honestly say they have never "made" a Thai doll. 

Define made ?

 

Have done a few things to Thai dolls !!

[gal29]

 "Acting as a guide or tour organizer"
"Driving"

 

I know at least 6-7 foreigners that work ad a tour guide/driver.

And they've been doing it for a long time.

 

[Ralf61]

3 hours ago, thequietman said:

I see drug dealing isn't on there. Phew! The Nigerians are breathing a sigh of relief I bet.

Sorry, seems to be included in: 35. Carrying goods around for sale.

[yasorab]

Glad to see you are still able to breath legally !

Sent from my SM-J120H using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[seajae]

really get the feeling that some of the professional jobs(building industry, architects, civil engineering) are in there purely to stop thais from losing face, professionals from outside Thailand would run rings around them. You only have to look at how they build houses and the finish on them to see how pathetic it is, other countries require trades to be certified, here it is dad, mum and the kids, engineering wise just look at the buildings/bridges etc that collapse and architects, the monstrosities that are built and where they put doors etc you really have to wonder. While I can understand many of the jobs listed that require little or bugger all education they do need professionals in some of them to improve on them

[klauskunkel]

I think there should be a 40th job on that last, just to make the number even:

40. Translating Thai language

[PETERTHEEATER]

19. Making Thai dolls.

 

Thank goodness stuffing them is not prohibited.......

[LannaGuy]

1 hour ago, transam said:

I fink there is no such thing as prostitution in LOS mon ami....

Allegedly dear Transam yet a "friend"  who is "acquainted with the matter"  has alluded to such ladies, being of disproportionate moral values, are available for some measure of coin in this fair land.

 

Of course I am personally aghast at this and believe Nana, Pattaya and Loi Khroh are 'fake news' and don't exist!  The Good and Dear General and his righteous Ministers have said so and thus... it MUST be so!  

 

so no need to include them in the list of 'Prohibitive Occupations'

[Bangkok Barry]

 

#29 explains a lot.

[Reigntax]

4 hours ago, ezflip said:

So....if I ask my girlfriend to play "dress-up" I would be in violation of the immigration laws?

Only if you make out.

[HerbalEd]

4 hours ago, Techno Viking said:

If iam not allowed to drive why did they grant me a licence ?

You can't be this dense. You're joking, right?

[Techno Viking]

2 minutes ago, HerbalEd said:

You can't be this dense. You're joking, right?

are you saying that it does not say driving ?

[williamgeorgeallen]

got my girl a 1 year visa for nz. if i wanted it to be a working visa i just ticked a box on the form and no extra fee. she can work any job she can get at any address. all quite a bit easier than the crap i dealt with over the last 10 years keeping my work permit going in thailand. irony is she works full time looking after our kids so does not need the work permit. whole situation seems silly. people move to wealthy countries to earn more money. i dont see why people would move to thailand to do these menial jobs.

[brewsterbudgen]

Many seem to get away with pimping with a bar or 'club' as a front

It's not on the list of forbidden occupations. Neither is bar management.

[Reigntax]

3 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

Gigolo is not on the list, so I am OK.

 

I believe that may fit under #35, carrying goods around for sale or

#3 other construction tasks of which laying pipe probably is included.

Edited July 15, 2017 by Reigntax

[impulse]

15 minutes ago, williamgeorgeallen said:

people move to wealthy countries to earn more money. i dont see why people would move to thailand to do these menial jobs.

 

I've seen western guys that will do just about any menial thing to keep their cheap sex coming.

 

[UdeBoCM]

39. Can't do legal works??

So let's do all kind of illegal works, na....

[williamgeorgeallen]

4 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

I've seen western guys that will do just about any menial thing to keep their cheap sex coming.

 

yea i have seen it as well. english teachers earning 30k per month going round trying to bang bar girls for free. 

[impulse]

4 hours ago, ezzra said:

The irony is that out of that list of jobs many Thais WILL NOT DO as those jobs

become beneath them......

 

I love that chestnut, in use all over the world.  Maybe the pay is beneath them, but if you advertised the crappiest job you can imagine (anal pimple popping?) at a $$ million a year, you'd have no trouble filling it with any nationality.   At 200-300 baht a day?  Nope.  But there's a number in between...that the rich and powerful just don't want to pay if they can import someone cheaper.

 

[CharlieH]

As with many things in Thailand, doesnt really matter what the rules say that much. What matters is WHO if anyone is enforcing them, and what they interpret them to mean, and that will probably vary greatly deoending on who you speak to and where they live.

..

 

[impulse]

Just now, williamgeorgeallen said:

yea i have seen it as well. english teachers earning 30k per month going round trying to bang bar girls for free. 

 

I didn't want to start down this path, but I can't imagine anyone making a career of teaching at 1/8-1/4 the salary they can make back home doing the same.  A few years as an adventure?  Sure.  But the power of the poon seems so often to change that year or two adventure to a career.  

 

Gotta admit, my life would have looked a lot different had I tasted it 30 years earlier.  Maybe a good thing I didn't, maybe I missed out.

 

[williamgeorgeallen]

1 minute ago, impulse said:

 

I didn't want to start down this path, but I can't imagine anyone making a career of teaching at 1/8-1/4 the salary they can make back home doing the same.  A few years as an adventure?  Sure.  But the power of the poon seems so often to change that year or two adventure to a career.  

 

Gotta admit, my life would have looked a lot different had I tasted it 30 years earlier.  Maybe a good thing I didn't, maybe I missed out.

 

i didnt discover thailand till my early thirties and it was shortly after a job came up on samui. if i discovered thailand in my early twenties i probably would have misspent that decade visiting thailand. dont know if i would have been desperate enough to teach english however.