The infamous blacklist
There are a lot of lists most of us dreamt to be on (fortune list, most influent people, most eligible bachelor and so on….) but there is one you definitively don’t want to be on, Thailand immigration blacklist.
Note: I would be unfair to Thailand if I did not state that Thailand is not the only country with an immigration blacklist. All countries have one.
Another big problem in Thailand for the professional who like us provide visa services is that foreign visas applicants are often confusing the names of the visas they are having and the benefits attached to say visas. This is why we will dedicate this post and the next post to give definitions of visas terms.
This post is a continuation of our series Thailand Visas: Setting the Record Straight. I wrote this series with a “back-to-basics” kind of approach because I don’t believe that it is possible to understand Thai immigration regulations without having first an understanding of basic terms such as visa, visa class, visa exemption, passport stamp, entry visa, departure visa, multi or single entry and so on…
What is the Visa Exemption?
Pursuant to Thai Immigration Law; any foreign citizen who wishes to enter the Kingdom of Thailand is in principle required to obtain a Visa from a Royal Thai Embassy or a Royal Thai Consulate-General prior to entering Thailand.
Is it difficult to enter and stay in Thailand?
How many times did I hear foreign clients complaining about Thai Immigration policies and how difficult it is to live or stay in Thailand? Believe me we are the lucky one because Thailand gives us VIP treatment in comparison to what Thai citizens have to go through to visit our countries.
May 24 2010
Categories: Thailand FAQ
The Cabinet has decided. Elite Card and its Members will go on the auction block. At least this is the solution that has the preference from the government. Now the question is will there be a buyer? Cause the economic model of the Elite Card does not seems to be a success. I mean Elite Card was supposed to attract 200,000 members in the first year but it only attained 2570 members over a 5 years period. Obviously Elite Card is a failed concept and project therefore what next?
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-11-18 03:30:20.
May 24 2010
Categories: Property General Issues, Thailand Property
You cannot have followed Thai news for the past 3 weeks and not have read about the problem faced by General Surayud (former Thai Prime Minister and Member of the Royal Privy Council) in relation to his Khao Yai land.
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Originally posted 2010-01-21 09:35:01.
May 24 2010
Categories: Doing Business In Thailand, Thailand Business
This post is the second post of a series dedicated to the issues to take into consideration when buying a business. Today we will discuss the matter of due diligence.
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Originally posted 2009-09-09 04:26:16.
May 24 2010
Categories: Understanding Thailand
Today in the Bangkok Post Bag, Richard a foreign tourist that has just spent 5 weeks driving around Thailand and covered 4,000 kilometers is complaining of having been arrested 8 times by Thai police for various traffic offences but having only one time paid a legitimate fine. Richard is according to his own words “disgusted” by Thai police and I’m “disgusted” by Richard hypocrisies.
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Originally posted 2009-08-19 06:22:41.
May 24 2010
Categories: Land Ownership, Property General Issues, Thailand Property
There have been a lot of activities on the “nominees” front lately. It is an issue that resurfaces from time to time. Lately there has been the scandal of foreigners purchasing farm land through the cover of companies that have shareholders that may be deemed “Thai nominees”. This morning in the Bangkok post an article was published under the title “Nominees Ownership under watch”.
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Originally posted 2009-08-25 12:37:59.
May 24 2010
Categories: Understanding Thailand
To start the year with a smile Thai Airways Board is fortunate that ridicule does not kill otherwhise it would have been decimated which would have been sad those guys that have given us so many reasons to laugh recently.
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Originally posted 2010-01-05 07:26:01.
May 24 2010
Categories: Property General Issues, Thailand Property
To buy or not to buy in Thailand?
This is one of the questions that many careful investors are asking now.
Of course due to what happen in Thailand in 1997 where many banks and developers went bankrupt and where hundreds of buildings where left unfinished a lot of buyers are wondering whether it is the right time to buy a property in Thailand?
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-07-25 23:54:08.
May 24 2010
Categories: Thailand FAQ
How much is the Elite Card Business worth? ThailandPrivilegeCards or TPC is worth two to three billion THB (60 to 90 million USD) if you believe the Finance Ministry estimation.
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Originally posted 2009-12-17 11:11:58.
May 24 2010
Categories: Thailand Business, Thailand Company Registration
Why review the private limited company set-up?
The private limited company is the legal vehicle that is the most commonly used by foreign investors in Thailand that is why we will review hereinafter the formalities of registration of a private limited company.
Originally posted 2009-07-24 11:17:21.
May 24 2010
Categories: Doing Business In Thailand, Thailand Business
How well are Thai employees protected in Thailand?
Yes they are well protected by the Labor Protection Act (1998) that applies to all businesses with at least one employee and which provide sanctions for employers who disregard the law.
The Labor Protection Act has been recently amended and the new amended act has been enforced in 28 May 2008. The new Act contains provision to protect indirect or outsourced workers and to empower the Courts to order an amendment of employment contracts, work rules, regulations or orders that are not fair.
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-08-06 03:09:51.
May 24 2010
Categories: Thailand Taxes
In this post I will try to give readers a few tips on how to manage Tax Audits. I guess that readers would prefer tips on “how to avoid a tax audit”. Unfortunately, in Thailand, you cannot avoid tax audit. To the contrary, you may expect regular mandatory visits from the Tax Administration.
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-10-08 05:12:15.
May 24 2010
Categories: Doing Business In Thailand
Any employees between 15 to 60 years old and their employers must make monthly contribution to the social security. Now what are the exact costs of social security in Thailand?
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Originally posted 2009-12-13 09:45:23.
May 24 2010
Categories: Condominium Ownership, Thailand Property
If you are married, you have two options when buying a condominium freehold in Thailand. You may either wish to buy the condominium in co-ownership with your foreign or Thai spouse or you may purchase it solely under your name by fulfilling some simple requirements. What you cannot do is to lie about your marital status in order to purchase a condominium in sole ownership while married
Originally posted 2009-08-20 05:25:22.
May 24 2010
Categories: Thailand Business, Understanding Thailand
Should you be wary to do business with Thai people?
Not really because Thai people are honest. There are always exceptions of course but as a foreigner coming to do business in Thailand you have to be more wary of citizens from your own country than from Thais.
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Originally posted 2009-07-24 04:10:21.
May 24 2010
Categories: Understanding Thailand
One of the interesting aspects of blogging is that I can see the Google searches that bring readers to my blog. Today a reader had a query which read “how to efficiently bribe Thai Police?”. Now, I don’t know about you but when I read this kind of query I cannot help but guess that someone is in trouble and expect to get out of it through the help of a bribe.
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Originally posted 2009-12-03 12:50:50.
May 24 2010
Categories: Condominium Ownership, Thailand Property
If you are an individual and are selling a real estate property in Thailand you will be liable to pay personal income tax on the gain you will realized on the transaction at the time of the transfer at the Land Department. Now how does the Land Department Officer actually calculate the withholding tax payable by individual Sellers? Read more…
Originally posted 2009-12-09 09:26:58.
May 24 2010
Categories: Understanding Thailand
I have been following Thai politics for a few years and I learnt not to be surprised anymore by the antic of Thai politicians reported daily by Thai press.
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Originally posted 2010-01-30 01:42:33.
May 24 2010
Categories: Thailand Taxes
Why Focus on this Subject?
Yes I know this matter is boring and you may wonder why to include it in this blog. When arriving in Thailand you will meet other foreigners who will tell you how easy it is to do business in Thailand. They will tell you that
“you don’t need to paid up the capital of your company” or
“you don’t need to keep accounting records” or
“you don’t need to pay taxes” or
“you can keep double accounting” and so on.
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-07-25 07:39:25.
May 24 2010
Categories: Understanding Thailand
Do Thai value friendship with foreigners?
Generally they do but while Thais can seem very friendly at first understand that it is only an appearance. Friendly attitude is as much a part of ‘Thainess’ as the respect for authority.
Real friendship demands more than just a smile. You must be careful that things are not always what they seem.
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-08-12 13:17:13.
May 24 2010
Categories: Doing Business In Thailand, Thailand Business, Thailand Company Registration
This is the third of a series of posts about Thai private limited company corporate documents translated in English.
The articles of associations of your company are another important corporate document of your company. As a matter of fact the decision on the content of the company articles of associations is actually taken during the statutory meeting.
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Originally posted 2009-09-07 10:22:26.
May 24 2010
Categories: Property General Issues, Thailand Property
[There was a formating problem in our Sunday post. I reposted it again]. People purchasing real estate in Thailand are often fulfilling the goal of a lifetime. In the pursuit of their life dream they will often toss caution to the wind, lose all common sense and ignore some simple precautions.Truth is that the actual formalities to transfer a real estate property are fairly straight, simple and may be completed in a few hours which leads many buyers to believe that purchasing a property in Thailand will be a simple transaction when it is not always the case. [ this post was published earlier as a page. We updated it and republished it as a post].
Originally posted 2009-10-19 03:05:09.
May 24 2010
Categories: Understanding Thailand
As I was saying in my previous post, it is a simple statistical matter that some of my readers will run into trouble of one sort or another when in Thailand. So can you count on your Embassy to help you if you are in deep trouble?
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Originally posted 2009-12-04 03:13:01.
May 24 2010
Categories: Property General Issues, Thailand Property
In yesterday post we discussed Bangkok condominium market. Now what is Bangkok new homes market situation?
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Originally posted 2009-08-27 10:40:41.
May 24 2010
Categories: Doing Business In Thailand, Thailand Business
I have made a lot of posts about starting a business in Thailand but I never discussed the issues that need to be addressed when buying a business. In this post I will first address some general issues to consider before buying a business in Thailand
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Originally posted 2009-09-08 09:45:55.
May 24 2010
Categories: Understanding Thailand
So, the mountain labored and brought forth a mouse, and after a lot of declaration of the contrary the NTC will not auction the 3G licenses before the end of the year. History has repeated itself (please see my previous post on the subject “Ridiculous Thailand: The 3G license drama (2)”). The NTC already did it in 2006 announcing that the 3G licenses would be issued within the end of year 2006 and they were not, and they will not be issued by end of 2009. What next then? Will we have to wait another 3 years before something happen again on this front. I mean some countries are already experiencing with 4G now.
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Originally posted 2009-11-07 11:40:27.
May 24 2010
Categories: Thailand Visas, Thailand Visas & Work Permit
Section 37(5) of the Immigration Act B.E is anorther disposition that gets a lot of foreign citizens in trouble. To sum it up it requires that any foreigner who is permitted to stay in Thailand temporarily is required to report to the Immigration Department to confirm his/her residential address upon completion of every 90 days period of stay.
Originally posted 2009-12-10 07:27:57.
May 24 2010
Categories: Property General Issues, Thailand Property
In Thailand claims on land may be divided in two categories: The major and the minor claims. In this post we will introduce the highest claims on land that are the Nor Sor Sam or Certificate of Use (NS-3), the Nor Sor Sam Gor or Confirmed Certificate of Use (NS-3K) and the Chanote (NS-4) claims.
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Originally posted 2009-09-14 02:59:08.
May 19 2010
Categories: Thailand Visas & Work Permit, Thailand Work Permit
If you are working without a work permit the first thing you must understand is that you are at risk of a control either from the Labor Officer or the Immigration Officer.
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Originally posted 2009-11-25 04:22:54.
May 19 2010
Categories: Thailand Business
Dear Readers, for those of you in BKK I will be given a speech on Wednesday 28 2009 at 15:15 pm at Arnoma Hotel Bangkok on “Laws and Regulations Related to Trans-national Real Estate Investment” during “The 4th CERTIFIED INTERNATIONAL PROPERTY EXPERT (CIPE)” workshop organised by the Thai Appraisal Fundation. To register please follow this link:
http://www.thaiappraisal.org/english/international/cipe.php
Yours Sincerely Rene Philippe
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Originally posted 2009-10-27 04:59:56.
May 19 2010
Categories: Property General Issues, Thailand Property
In the following section, we’ll review the differences between the three higher claims from the lowest to the highest.
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Originally posted 2009-09-15 02:23:39.
