Immigration, Visa & Work Permit

Work Permit

Applications, renewals and changes of employer or position — with the sponsoring company’s conditions checked before the application is filed, not at the counter.

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Tell us the situation and we will tell you what we think you should do — and what it will cost.

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Foreign employees starting work for a Thai company
Employers sponsoring their first foreign hire
Permit holders changing employer, position or duties
Companies with work-permit renewals coming due

New work permit applications under a Non-immigrant B visa

Renewals, and the extension-of-stay filing that runs alongside them

Changes of employer, position, duties or work location

Checking the sponsor’s capital, employee and filing conditions before the application

Aligning the visa side — Non-B, extension and re-entry — with the permit dates

Responding to requests for additional documents from the authorities

Assess the sponsor’s eligibility and the employee’s documents before anything is filed
Prepare the application and the company document set
File with the Department of Employment
Attend collection and signing of the permit
Align the extension of stay and re-entry permit with the permit dates
Set the renewal calendar for both permissions

Documents to prepare

Passport with the current visa and entry stamp
Education and work-experience certificates, and photographs
Employer’s affidavit, shareholder list and financial statements
Employer’s tax and social security filings
Job description and evidence of the Thai staff employed

In the standard case the sponsor is expected to show around two million baht of paid-up capital per foreign employee and roughly four Thai employees per permit, with tax and social security filings in order. BOI promotion and some visa categories relax this. We check the company’s actual numbers first, because an application that fails these tests costs months.

No. Working without a permit is an offence for both the employee and the employer. We plan the start date against the filing, so nobody is working in the gap.

Two permissions from two authorities: the visa (Immigration Bureau) lets you stay; the work permit (Department of Employment) lets you work. Both must remain valid, and their dates interlock — losing one usually undermines the other.

No — the permit is tied to the employer and the described role, so a change means a new application, and resigning affects the extension of stay that was based on the old job. The switch has to be sequenced so no gap opens in either permission.

Indicative handling time for a prepared application: IMMIGRATION_TIMEFRAME. On who files what: IMMIGRATION_FILING_NOTE

Lawyers for this matter

Generation 1