Business Services

Work Permit and Visa Lawyers for Employers in Thailand

The employee cannot start until the company's own paperwork is in order

Business Services

The employee cannot start until the company's own paperwork is in order

A work permit is issued against the employer as much as the employee. Before an individual application can succeed, the company has to be in a position to support it: registered capital, filed financial statements, tax and social security registration, and the ratio between Thai and foreign staff all have to line up. Employers meet this the hard way — an offer accepted, a start date agreed, and then a delay caused by a company document nobody thought to check. The work is sequencing, not form-filling: establishing what the company can support before commitments are made to candidates.

What we cover

Assessing what the company can support before an offer is made

Non-Immigrant B visas, work permits, and renewals for employees and directors

Change of employer, change of position, and adding work locations

BOI and estate-based routes where the company holds promotion or estate privileges

Dependant visas and the arrangements families ask about

Company-side prerequisites — capital, filings, ratios, and registrations

The blocker is almost always on the company's side

When a work permit application stalls, the cause is rarely the individual. It is the employer's file: financial statements not yet filed, registered capital below what the number of foreign employees requires, social security registration incomplete, or the Thai-to-foreign staff ratio not yet satisfied. Each is fixable, and each takes time that a start date does not allow for. Checking the company position before the offer letter goes out is the single change that removes most of these delays.

Promotion and estate privileges follow a different route

Companies holding investment promotion, or operating inside certain estates, can access alternative channels for foreign specialists that do not follow the ordinary ratio-based path. The channels are genuinely faster where they apply, but they carry their own conditions, and they attach to the promoted activity rather than to the company generally. An employer with promotion for one activity and unpromoted operations alongside it needs to be clear which staff sit where before applications are filed.

Changing role or employer is a new application, not an update

Employers often assume a promotion, a transfer between group companies or the addition of a second work location can be handled as an amendment. In practice several of these require action before the change takes effect, and working outside the terms recorded on the permit creates exposure for the company as well as the individual. The pattern to avoid is a reorganisation announced internally and reflected in the paperwork afterwards.

Contractor and seconded staff need checking before they arrive

Foreign personnel who attend a site through a contractor, an equipment supplier or a group secondment are a recurring source of exposure, because the host company assumes the sending party has dealt with the permissions. Where they have not, the consequences are felt at the site. Confirming status before people arrive is a short check, and it is materially cheaper than the alternative.

What to have ready before the first application

On the company side, the documents requested again and again are the company affidavit and shareholder list, the latest filed financial statements, tax and VAT registration, social security filings that evidence the Thai headcount, and proof of the office or site where the employee will work. On the employee side: a passport with enough remaining validity, degree certificates and a CV that support the position, and in some cases a medical certificate. The document most often overlooked is the job description — the position on the application has to match the work the person will actually do, because that is what the permit authorises.

A permit has to be kept valid, not just obtained

Once issued, the permit and the visa run on their own cycles: extensions to apply for before they lapse, periodic address reporting by the individual, and updates when the employer's details change. The point employers forget most is the exit — when a foreign employee resigns or is dismissed, the company has its own notification obligation, and the individual's permission to stay is tied to that employment. A single calendar of every foreign employee's renewal and reporting dates, owned by one person in HR, prevents most of the lapses we are asked to repair.

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Initial consultation. Tell us what your business needs and we'll map the steps and a quote.

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Frequently asked questions about Work Permit & Visa Processing Service

9 questions answered

There are registered-capital and Thai-staff ratio thresholds to clear first. We check them before filing so the application isn't bounced back.

The work permit must be cancelled and the visa status dealt with properly. Left undone, it becomes a problem for both the company and the individual later.

Well before the expiry date, because an updated set of company documents has to be assembled. We track expiry dates and start the preparation for you.

No — performing work before the permit is in place creates exposure for both the individual and the company, and it is one of the more common inadvertent breaches. Where a start date is tight, the practical answer is to plan the sequence backwards from the date, beginning with the company-side documents, rather than to bridge the gap informally.

It is driven by the company's registered capital and the number of Thai employees, with different rules where the company holds investment promotion or operates under certain estate arrangements. Because the answer changes as the company grows, it is worth establishing before a hiring plan is committed to rather than at the point each individual application is filed.

Frequently yes, because a permit attaches to a named employer, a position and a location. Moving an employee to a different group entity, changing their role materially, or opening a second site are each capable of requiring action. This is worth mapping alongside the restructuring rather than discovering afterwards.

Yes. Dependant arrangements are usually processed alongside the employee's own application, and the practical questions families raise — schooling, banking, driving licences and healthcare access — are the ones that determine whether an assignment settles well. We cover them as part of the same engagement rather than treating the employee's permit as the end of the work.

It depends on what the visitor will do. Attending meetings, conferences and exhibitions is treated differently from performing work, but hands-on tasks — installing or repairing equipment, training staff, supervising production — generally count as work even when the visit is short. Where a task is genuinely urgent and brief, there is a notification route rather than a full permit, with conditions of its own. Define the task first and choose the route from it.

Notify the authorities within the required period and deal with the permit, rather than letting it simply expire. The individual's visa is generally tied to the employment, so their position changes from the last working day, and family members on dependant visas are affected too. Agreeing the last working day with the immigration consequences in view avoids the employee being left without status while a new employer's application is still being prepared.