Thai Visa and Work Permit
By Nicke, October 29, 2001.

Introduction
Normally you will get a 30-days tourist visa at the border when you enter Thailand. This can be extended up to 15 days at the immigration office for a fee of 1900 baht. When your visa expire, you must leave Thailand. But you can enter Thailand as many times you want and you will always get a 30-days tourist visa.

Don't overstay your visa! Except the 200 baht fine/day you may also end up in jail!

Tourist Visa
If you plan to stay longer, you should apply for a Tourist Visa at the Thai embassy in your home country or go to a neighbour country of Thailand when your 30 day tourist visa expires. It is easy to get and you will be granted a 60 days tourist visa. This one can be extended with another 30 days at the immigration office for 1900 baht, thus 90 days in total. You can also try and ask for a double entry visa, this means you can enter Thailand two times and stay in Thailand up to 6 months. Althought, you must cross the border after 3 months to get another 3 months.
Note: Thai embassy in Penang only allows applicants to apply for a tourist visa 3 times (anyone with experience from this rule?)

Business Visa (Non Immigrant B)
If you want to work in Thailand you need a Non Immigrant B Visa. My experience is that this may be easy to obtain in your home country if you have a letter of employment and other documents supporting your visa from your counterpart in Thailand but you may only be granted 3 months if this is first time you work in Thailand. Second time you may get double entry or 1 year multiple entry visa, but you still need to leave Thailand every 3 months (Have you heard of the famous VISA RUN?). There is one exception, if you get work permit from a BOI (Board of investment) approved program you may get a real 1 year business visa and you don't need to do the visa run every 3 months. (But on the other hand, if you want to leave the country for holiday in another country you need to do lot of paperwork to keep your 1 year visa. This is not required for the normal multiple entry visa.)
Note: You must show your work permit when you apply for business visa (Non-B) second or third time you renew it. This means you can not stay in Thailand by using business visa without having a work permit.

You are NOT allowed to work in Thailand without a work permit! Business Visa (Non-B) and work permit is required! Some companies try to hire staff and they say Business Visa is enough, work permit can be aquired later. This is wrong and you may end up and in jail and later be deported from Thailand.

Married with Thai lady? (Non Immigrant O)
If you are married with a Thai lady/man and can show proof of your marriage, you can obtain a 1-year Non-O Visa.

Where to go to apply for Thai Visa?
Most people go to Penang in Malaysia to apply or renew their visas. Some other embassies and consulates are only allowed to grant 3 or 6 months visas while Penang can grant 1 year visa.

General requirements when applying for visa
- Passport valid for at least 6 months
- One completed and signed application form
- Two passport-size photographs

+ additional requirements depending on the purpose and visa type.

Fees
Single entry: 500 baht
Double entry or one year visa: 5000 baht
Extension at immigration office: 1900 baht

VISA RUN?
Ranong:
Many companies offer Visa Run to Ranong from Phuket, it takes around 10 hours (r/t) and cost about 1000 baht with minibus; food and boat included.

Hat Yai: (Recommended trip!)
Take airplane to Hat Yai, the air fare takes about 40 minutes and then you take a taxi to Sadao (Malaysian border) and then back to Hat Yai town and stay one night at hotel.
Airticket cost about 2500 baht (r/t), taxi 800 baht and good hotel 980 baht.

Penang (Malaysia):
If you need to renew your visa, go to Penang by airplane on Tuesday. Visit the Thai embassy in the morning on Wednesday (9:00 - 12:00) to fill out the application form. On Thursday you visit the Thai embassy on afternoon (14:00 - 16:00) to pick up your visa. These are the rules and procedures at the Thai embassy Penang. There are flights between Phuket-Penang on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. I am not sure, but I think there are flights from Bangkok daily.
Be aware of Public Holidays in Thailand - The Thai embassy in Penang will close too. (If the holiday is during the weekend, expect the embassy to be closed on Monday.)
Airticket cost about 4000 baht (r/t), taxi to/from airport (Penang) and Georgetown 250 baht, budget hotel at 800 baht/night and high end hotel with all facilities at 1600 baht/night. I can recommend Cititel in Penang, it's worth the extra money if you want to have a pleasant time during your three nights when renewing your visa. Especially if you travel alone.

Singapore:
Not suitable for Visa Run due to the high price, but for a small holiday and if you never have been to Singapore before it may be an option. Make sure you visit Sentosa island by cable car and visit the shopping centers at Orchard road. If you need to buy electronics, this may be the right place. (I.g. Canon Ixus v digital camera cost about 35,000 baht in Thailand, in Singapore about 24,000 baht.)
Airticket cost about 6000 baht (r/t), budget hotel in central location about 2500 baht/night.

Visa facts
NON-IMMIGRANT VISA
Purpose of visit: BUSINESS, CONFERENCE, RESEARCH, TEACHING, MASS MEDIA or MISSIONARY (requiring letter from your government, agency or organization sending you on your mission or from your counterpart in Thailand). EDUCATION (requiring letter from educational institution in Thailand). FAMILY REUNION (requiring marriage or birth certificates). SETTLEMENT AFTER RETIREMENT (requiring proof of retirement and financial support). MEDICAL TREATMENT (requiring letter from licensed doctor).

Maximum stay 90 days, extension of stay may be applied in Thailand.

TOURIST VISA
Purpose of visit: for pleasure purpose only.

Maximum stay 60 day, extension of stay may be applied in Thailand.

TRANSIT VISA
Purpose of visit: TRANSIT (requiring proof of confirmed onward ticket to a Third country). SPORTS or CREW (requiring letter from organization concerned).

Maximum stay 30 days, extension of stay may be applied in Thailand.

Work Permit
Don't pay the high fees the consultants/accounting companies will charge you, you can easily apply and renew your work permit yourself if somebody help you fill out the application form in Thai. It cost you 500 baht when you apply for work permit first time and then 300 baht to renew it. (Normally every 3 months, when you do your visa run.)
It takes about 1 month to apply for a work permit and 2-3 weeks to renew it. (This is new and may be specific for Phuket, earlier we could renew the work permit in just one hour.)

Have your own company and work in Thailand
This is not difficult but little bit time consuming.
This is the procedure I had to do:
- Enter Thailand with tourist visa (2+1 month)
- Setup your 2 million baht company, you can do it yourself with help from a Thai or pay a lawyer for the help. It takes about 1-2 months to accomplish this. I paid 25,000 baht of which 10,000 baht is for the help. 15,000 baht is the real cost for setting up a company, now you understand that companies who charge you 50-60,000 baht makes a huge profit on you.
- Go to Penang/Malaysia and apply for Business, Non Immigrant B Visa and show them your company documents and a letter from your company that they hire you.
- When you are back into Thailand, apply for Work Permit.

Now you can stay and work legally in Thailand! You need to take care of your accounting/auditing, pay income tax every month, do your visa run every 3 months, renew your work permit every 3 months. That's it.