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.
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.
Work Permits Requirements - Update
In France we have this joke of a Prime Minister giving a speech to restore confidence and saying:
" Last year we were on the brink of a cliff but I'm proud to tell you all that we have made a big step forward ".
Extending a Non Immigrant Visa B for one year
A foreign investor conducting a business in Thailand or working for a Thai company may if all conditions and documentary requirements are fulfilled file an application and obtain a one year visa.
Introduction to the Tourist Visa
What is the Tourist Visa?
Foreign investors who wish to come into Thailand for tourism purpose may either chose to come under the regime of Visa Exemption (providing that they are national from one of the countries that benefit from this exemption) or they may also apply and obtain for a Tourist Visa with a Royal Thai Embassy.
January 22 2010
Categories: Thailand Business, Thailand Company Registration
What is the disclosure requirement?
The disclosure requirement was one of the measures taken by the Thai Government to avoid the use of Thai nominees by foreign investors. Since August 14th 2006, the Department of Business Development is compelled to require at time of incorporation of a company that the company Thai shareholders justify the source of their investment if certain circumstances are met.
Originally posted 2009-07-24 10:40:28.
January 22 2010
Categories: Thailand Business, Understanding Thailand
Why it is necessary to understand the system?
The first thing you will hear when coming to Thailand is foreigners complaining about the workings of the Thai Administration. I used to work with a foreign lawyer who had what I call the “colonial state of mind”. This lawyer was so full of his own superiority and so sure that his country’s administrative system was superior to Thailand’s that he never understood the system here, which is a mistake.
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-07-23 05:40:23.
January 22 2010
Categories: Thailand Business, Thailand Company Registration
While companies are juristic persons and cannot be as such subject to the punishment of imprisonment it does not mean that a company may not be prosecuted for a criminal offence in Thailand. To the contrary, companies may be prosecuted the same way as individuals.
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-12-15 10:20:04.
January 22 2010
Categories: Thailand Taxes
What is personal income tax?
Personal income tax is the tax that is levied on the income of any person that is not subjected to corporate income tax such as:
- Individual, ordinary partnership, a body of person which is not a juristic person, a deceased person and an undivided estate.
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-08-01 08:07:03.
January 22 2010
Categories: Land Ownership, Thailand Property
As you know a “witch hunt is a search for witches or evidence of witchcraft, often involving moral panic, mass hysteria and lynching, but in historical instances also legally sanctioned and involving official witchcraft trials. The term “witch-hunt” is often used by analogy to refer to panic-induced searches for perceived wrong-doers other than witches.” Now Thailand has been since 2006 affected by a serious political crisis and the successive governments since the beginning of this crisis have been under a lot of pressure.
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Originally posted 2009-10-28 04:23:27.
January 21 2010
Categories: Condominium Ownership, Thailand Property
Colliers recently published its last property snapshot for 2009 and we would like to take this opportunity to review 2009 Thai condominium market. So, was 2009 a good or a bad year?
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-12-23 07:02:15.
January 21 2010
Categories: Thailand Business
I deleted yesterday post and reposted today a new version
A reader remarked that I posted a lot of information as to real estate selling prices but did not give to date any information as to construction prices. The problem is that while there is actually a lot of data available on this matter, the information provided is not always coherent. In the post I cancelled I only posted the highest price range information but i felt that to do so was only giving you part of the picture.
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Originally posted 2009-10-06 08:05:27.
January 21 2010
Categories: Thailand Visas, Thailand Visas & Work Permit
What is the Non-Immigrant Visa Investment?
The concept of the investment visa is not new in Thailand.
For example, after the crisis of 1997 an investment visa with a ceiling of not less than 3,000,000 THB of investment was created as an incentive to help Thai developers to sell their stock of condominiums units’ leftover of the crisis to foreign investors. This visa was discontinued in October 2006 once Thai economy picked up.
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Originally posted 2009-08-04 10:51:25.
January 21 2010
Categories: Thailand BOI, Thailand Business
What are the activities eligible for promotion under section 7 of the BOI list?
This post concludes our series on the BOI (9 posts in total). If you have a question I did not deal with in the BOI series do not hesitate to complete our FAQ form. It was posted first on the 5th august but had to be reposted following technical problems
Reminder: As you already know the Board of Investment is the agency in charge of promoting certain sectors of Thai economy. As such the BOI role is among other to determine:
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-08-06 03:18:47.
January 21 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.
Read more…
January 17 2010
Categories: What's Up at DBT
Out of the 185 posts I wrote since the launch of this blog some had more success than others. Here below is the list of the 25 most read posts.
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January 16 2010
Categories: Doing Business In Thailand, Thailand Business
If you want to start a restaurant in Thailand the first question you will have to ask yourself is: May a foreign investor legally open a restaurant in Thailand? The answer is No, Restaurant and Bar business are services activities under the Foreign Business Act List 3 which activities may be exercised by foreign investors only upon applying and receiving a Foreign Business License. The only exceptions are US Citizens who benefit of the US Amity Treaty and may operate a restaurant under a 100% US form.
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-11-05 02:44:17.
January 16 2010
Categories: Thailand Visas, Thailand Visas & Work Permit
Visa abuse is not a novelty in Thailand and for the past 3 years we have seen a race between foreigners who abuse the visa system to stay in Thailand (and those who assist them) and the Thai Immigration who always finish by catching up.
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-12-19 05:48:46.
January 16 2010
Categories: Exchange Control, Thailand Banking
Is there any limitation as to the amount of foreign currency you may bring in?
You may transfer foreign currency into Thailand or bring it in cash without any limit.
However if you bring into Thailand in cash an aggregate amount of foreign currency exceeding USD 20,000 or its equivalent you must declare it to a customs officer and it you transfer foreign currency exceeding USD 20,000 or its equivalent you will need to file a Foreign Exchange Transaction Form (“FETF”).
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-08-02 06:44:07.
January 16 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.
January 16 2010
Categories: Thailand Business
Many foreign investors living in Thailand call themselves “permanent resident” which is actually incorrect. A permanent resident of Thailand is a foreign national that has applied and obtained a Resident Permit (or Certicate of Residence) pursuant to Chapter 5 Section 40 to 52 of the Immigration Act. What are the benefits of this status and how to obtain it?
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-11-19 01:27:34.
January 14 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”.
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-08-25 12:37:59.
January 11 2010
Categories: Condominium Ownership, Thailand Property
While I already dealt with this issue two days ago, I just read this morning a comparative study from the Global Property Guide. The Global Property Guide surveyed and compared the prices of 120 SQM good condition second hand high end apartments in 112 cities over the world. Among the cities surveyed was Bangkok which ranked fairly well in the study.
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Originally posted 2009-08-28 10:40:06.
January 11 2010
Categories: Thailand Visas, Thailand Visas & Work Permit
What is the Education Visa?
The education visa is the visa granted to foreign citizens who want to pursue studies in Thailand.
This type of visa covers the cases of enrollment in a government educational institution or in a private educational institution (High School or University) and is also available to foreign citizen that whishes to conduct training or research into a university or research institute.
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-08-04 10:38:43.
January 11 2010
Categories: Condominium Ownership, Thailand Property
In this post we will show how the government fees and taxes payable at the Land Department are calculated in the case of the resale of a condominium. Note that in the two examples below we envisaged a transaction before end of March 2010 and after March 2010 because government fees are discounted until the end of March 2010.
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-12-09 06:47:13.
January 11 2010
Categories: Thailand Business, Thailand Foreign Business Act
The Business Development Department just announced the creation of a special unit dedicated to check companies’ compliance to the Foreign Business Act. The purpose of the new agencies is to insure more efficiency in insuring compliance to the Foreign Business Act. What does it mean for foreign investors in Thailand?
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-12-06 09:49:32.
January 7 2010
Categories: Thailand BOI, Thailand Business
What are the activities eligible for promotion under section 6 of the BOI list?
Reminder: As you already know the Board of Investment is the agency in charge of promoting certain sectors of Thai economy. As such the BOI role is among other to determine:
What are the activities which are eligible for promotion
What are the conditions attached to said promotion
What are the privileges attached to said business activity
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-08-05 15:11:55.
January 7 2010
Categories: Thailand Business
Many employers in Thailand have found themself condamned for unfair dismissal as a result of court proceedings filed by employees that were terminated following a disciplinary action for violation of the company working rules. The reason for this is that Thai laws are very formal and that the disciplinary procedure must be in conpliance with the law or the working regulation of the company in order to be valid and opposable to the employee.
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-12-01 02:34:02.
January 7 2010
Categories: Thailand Visas, Thailand Visas & Work Permit
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.
Originally posted 2009-10-24 09:13:01.
January 5 2010
Categories: Thailand BOI, Thailand Business
What are the mining and base metals activities eligible for promotion under section 2 of the BOI list?
Reminder: As you already know the Board of Investment is the agency in charge of promoting certain sectors of Thai economy. As such the BOI role is among other to determine:
What are the activities which are eligible for promotion
What are the conditions attached to said promotion
What are the privileges attached to said business activity
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-08-03 07:09:13.
January 5 2010
Categories: Understanding Thailand
If you have been following Thai news you cannot have not read about the other affair of the week (the first affair of the week was the police chief election mess) that is to say the story of this Thai television company that has produced footage about an alleged jet-ski scam in Phuket which has been broadcasted on British TV and is now on U-Tube.
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-09-18 08:42:05.
January 5 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.
January 5 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.
January 5 2010
Categories: Property General Issues, Thailand Property
How are rights on land evidenced in Thailand? Now this is a tricky question because land documents such as NS-4 (Chanote), NS-3K (Nor. Sor. Sam Kor.) or NS-3 (Nor. Sor. Sam), which we discussed in the previous posts, only serve to evidence rights to land and contain no mention of the structures built on the land (if any).
Read more…
Originally posted 2009-09-21 04:06:25.
December 25 2009
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.
