Current Work
Permit Regulations
New Work Permit rules have just been released. Any work permit
submitted after October 8th 2004 must follow these regulations.
Here is the condensed version.
A company who has a director seeking employment or an foreign
employee to be hired, now must have 2 million Baht registered paid
up capital per work permit. (This is different from before which
only required foreign directors to have 2 million Baht registered
capital)
If however your employer was registered in another country and was
doing business in Thailand before October 30th 2002, they are
required to show a bank account of 3 million Baht or show evidence
that the employer transferred money from overseas in the last 6
months. Only one expat per 3 million in the bank account.
If the employee is legally married, then they only need 50% of the
capital required.
If the employer can meet one of the following conditions, the
employee can be exempt on the registered requirement however the
corporation cannot have more than 10 work permits.
1) Hired by an employer who paid not less than 3 million in tax last
calendar year
2) hired by a employer in the export business, which had export
revenue of not less than 30 million last year
3) hired by a employer in the travel business, which had not brought
less than 5,000 tourist to Thailand in the past year
4) hired by an employer who has not less than 100 Thai employees
employed
Exemptions for the following as well
Any alien that has the work permit must transfer his knowledge about
technology to two Thais within the period the Thai government has
set up. The expat must be an expert in a specific project.
The alien who is hired to perform as an entertainer.
Expats working for non-profit foundations.
The representative of the company, that has headquarters overseas,
that are important for releasing news about their brand, can only
have a total of two expats employed.
The representative of the company, that has headquarters overseas,
employed to inspect for quality control, only 5 expats can be
employed. Exemption if the employer had bought not less than 100
million Baht from Thai suppliers the last calendar year than its
possible to get more than 5 work permits.
If you are asked to provide a Work Permit
Medical Certificate - here's how you get one:
Go to the Pattaya Memorial Hospital on Pattaya
Central Road, between 3rd & 2nd roads and ask for a work permit
medical certificate. They will take a few details and then will:
Weigh you, check your height, blood pressure,
pulse, eye test and color blindness, and then a Doctor will ask a
couple of questions on general health and check your lungs and
that's it ! All for 120 baht (about $3).
Our thanks to member Terry Schofield for this up
to date information, and he will provide a first hand
account as he goes through the whole Work Permit process.
Many of our members have work permits, and lots
of experience on the right and wrong way to go about it.
Here too it is possible to make expensive and
time consuming mistakes - so give yourself the Pattaya Expat Club
advantage.
Join our Expat Club breakfast meetings to talk
to folks like yourself that have been through the experience, and
will help you avoid making expensive mistakes.
For expert, friendly advice from other expats,
join us for our regular brunch meetings every Sunday, 11:30am at
the Green Tree Pub and Restaurant,
Beach Road and Soi 1. Enjoy some great
food, meet new friends and make some business contacts.
OWN YOUR OWN
COMPANY AND WORK IN THAILAND
This is time
consuming but not too difficult to do it yourself, either with the
help of a Thai friend or a Thai lawyer. Here are the steps to
follow:
v
Enter Thailand on a
Tourist Visa (2 months plus one month extension)
v
Set up your 2 million
baht company (you do not need 2 million baht to do this). This will
take 30 to 60 days to complete and the government fees are
approximately 15,000 baht. If you get help from a lawyer expect the
fees to be an additional 10,000 baht. Beware companies charging
50,000 baht or more.
v
Take a Visa trip to
Penang and apply for a Business, Non-Immigrant B Visa. They will
need to see your Company documents and a letter from your Company
showing that they are going to hire you.
v
Return to Thailand and
apply for your Work Permit
Do not pay high
consulting company fees to apply for a Work Permit, as it is
relatively easy to apply for the initial application and the renewal
work permit yourself. You will probably need some help with the Thai
language form, but the the initial application cost is just 500 baht
and 300 baht to renew it. Your Work Permit is valid only as long as
your Non Immigrant B Visa is valid.
Note that, unless
you get you Work Permit through a Board of Investment (BOI) approved
program, you still need to do the Visa Run every 3 months
WARNING:
To work in
Thailand you need both a valid Work Permit and a valid Non Immigrant
B Visa, plus the work you are doing must be the work for which your
permit was issued.
