Preparing for a BOI Interview: Evidence Foreign Founders Should Bring

What the meeting is, and what you should assume

This guide is for foreign founders who have filed, or are about to file, a BOI application and want to walk into the first officer meeting prepared. It does not repeat the application steps, which are in the BOI application process guide.

What BOI says. BOI's published guide to the process lists a project presentation as step three, between submitting the application online and the officer's analysis. The responsible officer contacts the applicant to schedule it within 10 working days of the submission date. The guide does not describe a formal pass or fail test, and we have not found a published list of questions or documents for it.

Our practical advice. Assume the officer will read your application closely and use the meeting to find out whether you can explain it. Prepare as if every number and sentence on the form may be asked about. The evidence below turns the form from your own description into something the officer can check.

What is the officer trying to establish?

BOI promotes activities listed in its announcement, each with its own conditions. The officer therefore tests whether your project genuinely fits the category you chose and meets its conditions. Examples from the 2025 guide show how category-specific this is:

• Software, digital platform or digital content (activity 8.1.1): the guide requires development processes in Thailand, and measures the investment by the salaries of additional Thai IT personnel. Retail and wholesale sales are outside the promoted scope.
• International Business Center (activity 10.1.2): the guide requires a plan to provide specified services to associated enterprises.

Check the exact wording for your category in the current announcement, and read our guide to eligible business activities first. For software and digital companies, see the software and IBC guide.

In general terms, expect questions on four things: what you sell, what is actually done in Thailand, how much is invested and spent on what, and who will do the work. Every item below maps to one of these.

Evidence by topic

Bring the evidence as a short, indexed pack. A binder or a single file in the same order as the form is better than a folder of loose documents.

1. Product or service. A demo, a product brief, or for software an architecture diagram showing which components are built, hosted and supported where. The officer should be able to say in one sentence what you sell and to whom.
2. Process in Thailand. A flow chart of the production or service process with each step marked "in Thailand" or "elsewhere", with the people and equipment that perform it. This is the evidence for the activity conditions.
3. Investment amount. A breakdown by line (machinery, building, equipment, working capital, land) tied to supplier quotations. Your sums should agree with the form and with how the investment is funded.
4. People. An organisation chart, the Thai headcount by role and timing, and the foreign positions you will need and why. If your category measures Thai personnel cost, show the salary budget by role.
5. Financial projections. A model with written assumptions for price, volume, cost and the date revenue starts. A model with no stated assumptions invites the question "where does this number come from?"
6. Customers and demand. Letters of intent, signed contracts or purchase orders where they exist. If you have none, say so and show how you will win the first customers.
7. Intellectual property. Proof that the company, or the right party, owns or licenses the technology it relies on: assignment, licence, trademark or patent records. This is critical if the technology is developed by a foreign parent or contractors.
8. Company and shareholders. The structure chart, who will hold the BOI certificate, and who funds the project. See the multi-founder shareholding guide if there are several founders.

Checklist: topic, evidence, red flag

Who should attend, and in what language?

Our practical advice:

• Send the person who can answer for the business (founder or director), and for the Thai operation (the person who will run it). Add an adviser who knows the form.
• The meeting is held with Thai officers, so bring an interpreter or a Thai-speaking team member if your lead speaker is not fluent. Agree beforehand who answers which topic so that two people do not give two answers.
• A short written summary of the project, in Thai or in English with a Thai version, helps the officer take notes accurately.
• Do not send a representative who can only say "I'll ask head office." It often leads to a second meeting.

Keeping answers consistent with the form

The form is the record. The officer will compare what you say with what you filed, so a figure given from memory that differs from the form is a problem even if the form was the error.

1. Re-read the submitted application, not your draft, before the meeting.
2. Prepare a one-page sheet of key figures (investment, headcount, revenue start date, shareholders) from the form, and have everyone use it.
3. If something has changed since you filed, tell the officer and ask how to amend the application. Do not quietly present the new version.
4. Keep the meeting to the promoted activity. Other lines of business belong in the one company for BOI and non-BOI activities guide.

Common follow-up questions, and why weak answers cost time

These are typical questions we prepare clients for; they are not a BOI-published list:

• What exactly is done in Thailand, by whom, and with what equipment?
• Why does this need foreign specialists, and what will Thai staff learn?
• How was the investment amount calculated, and where is the money coming from?
• When does revenue start, and from which customers?
• Who owns the technology, and what stops it moving offshore?

A vague answer rarely ends the application, but it tends to produce a request for further information. BOI's guide counts the consideration period from the point the documents are complete, so each extra round can push back the start of the clock. Inconsistent answers may also make officers narrow the scope or tighten conditions, which you then live with after approval. Our guide to promotion conditions explains why that matters.

If the meeting went badly

1. Write down every question you could not answer on the day.
2. Send the missing evidence promptly, referenced to the question asked.
3. If the answers show the form is wrong, ask the officer how to amend it rather than waiting.
4. See what you can do while waiting in the pending application guide.

Further reading

• BOI application process, step by step
• Which business activities BOI promotes
• BOI for software, digital companies and IBCs
• BOI promotion conditions after approval
• What founders can do while a BOI application is pending

Treat the meeting as a check of your form: if every statement has a document behind it, the officer has little left to question.

We help foreign founders prepare BOI applications and officer meetings, including the evidence pack and the Thai-language summary. Initial consultation is free: call +66 92 254 2045 or send us the details. See also our company registration services and contracts and documents services.

This guide is published by Suwanvara Law Firm — a Khon Kaen law firm established in 1986. General information only, not legal advice on a specific matter.