FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Company registration, visas, property, contracts, certification, employment and family — plus fees, procedure and what to expect from a first consultation.
General
Use the consultation form, call +66 X XXXX XXXX, or message us on LINE. We will confirm a time and tell you what to bring.
CONSULTATION_FEE_POLICY The fee and scope are confirmed before the meeting.
Yes. Consultations, correspondence and documents can be handled in English, and bilingual contracts can be prepared where both versions need to be signed.
OFFICE_ADDRESS Meetings can also be held online.
Yes. COVERAGE_NOTE
Yes. Enquiries are treated as confidential whether or not we go on to act for you.
Fees
FEE_STRUCTURE Litigation is quoted by stage, advisory work per matter or on a monthly retainer.
Litigation
Immediately. Response deadlines are short and a default judgment is considerably harder to undo than to prevent.
Cross-border
Yes, though enforcement across borders is the harder question and we will give you a realistic view of it before you commit to proceedings.
Company & Business
In some sectors yes, in others no — the Foreign Business Act restricts a defined list of activities, and outside that list, or through a Foreign Business Licence, BOI promotion or a treaty right, full foreign ownership can be lawful. The answer depends on what the business actually does, so it is assessed before the structure is chosen.
Registration itself is quick once the documents and the name reservation are in order; what sets the timetable is the decisions before it — the structure, the shareholding and any licence the activity needs. Indicative timing for a straightforward incorporation: REGISTRATION_TIMEFRAME
Yes. Thai shareholders holding for a foreigner without genuine investment is unlawful, and it exposes the company, the foreign investor and the nominees themselves. Where foreign control is the goal, we build it through the routes the law actually provides, and say plainly if the plan does not qualify for any of them.
Immigration & Work Permit
No — two permissions from two authorities. The visa lets you stay; the work permit lets you work. Both must remain valid and their dates interlock, so they are applied for and renewed together. Working before the permit is issued is an offence for both the employee and the employer.
Both routes accept either a Thai bank deposit held for a required period or a monthly income, at different levels, and the deposit route has minimum-balance rules that continue after approval. The figures and the seasoning rules are set by regulation and by office practice, so we confirm the position current at your filing date rather than relying on last year’s.
A re-entry permit, obtained before you go. Leaving without one voids the permission to stay you already hold, and you re-enter on a fresh basis — losing an extension that took months to obtain. It is a small filing that protects an entire application.
Property & Construction
Foreigners generally cannot own land, but can own a condominium unit freehold within the building’s foreign quota, and can hold registered long leases and other real rights. What lawfully fits your case is assessed before you commit — not engineered around the prohibition afterwards.
Standard for whom? Reservation forms and developer contracts are drafted by one side to favour that side, and the deposit is usually paid before anyone reads them carefully. Reviewing the document and the title before money moves is the cheapest stage of the whole transaction.
A lease beyond three years is enforceable only for three years unless it is registered at the Land Office, however long the paper says. Registration is also what makes the lease binding on a new owner if the property is sold. For any lease you cannot afford to lose, the registration is the protection.
Contracts
Foreign templates are written for foreign law — they rely on concepts and remedies that do not map onto the Thai Civil and Commercial Code, and they miss what Thai law does require. A short contract written for Thai law beats a long one borrowed from another system.
Either can be valid between private parties, but a contract that may face a Thai court, registrar or government office works best with a Thai text. A bilingual version with a prevailing-language clause serves both sides — provided the two texts actually say the same thing, which is part of the drafting rather than an afterthought.
Notarial & Documents
A notarial services attorney — a lawyer specifically registered with the Lawyers Council of Thailand for this work. It is the Thai equivalent of what other countries call notarisation, and foreign authorities accept it in that capacity.
Not yet. Thailand acceded to the Apostille Convention on 30 June 2026, and the Convention will enter into force for Thailand on 28 February 2027. Until then, Thai documents generally continue to follow the existing legalisation route: attorney certification, then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then the destination country’s embassy. If a foreign body asks you for an apostille before that date, this chain is the answer to give them.
Often yes, under a power of attorney — but it usually has to be certified where you sign it and then legalised at the Thai embassy there before a Thai authority will act on it, and several offices require their own prescribed form. Confirm the chain before signing; a power of attorney rejected at the counter costs the transaction its date.
Employment & HR
It is possible, but it is time-limited and form-bound: the ground must be stated in writing at dismissal, and the law sets a window after the employer learns of the misconduct within which action must be taken. Dismissals fail on procedure far more often than on facts, so the investigation is planned against that clock from day one.
Family & Succession
Your foreign will may be valid, but using it here means legalisation, certified translation and a Thai court interpreting a document written for another legal system — months of delay for your family at the worst possible time. A short separate Thai will covering only your Thai assets, drafted so the two do not revoke each other, avoids nearly all of that.
In practice, a court order appointing an estate administrator — banks, the Land Office and company registrars will not transfer assets without one, even where there is a will. Gathering the family documents that prove the heirs is almost always what sets the timetable, so it is worth starting on those immediately.
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