Doing Business in Thailand

One of the biggest problems in Thailand for the professional who like our firm provide visa services is that everyone has an opinion on the subject. Having listen to dinner party rumors, gossip, the advice of well intentioned friends and family, many foreign citizens candidate to a visa, a visa extension or a work permit will come to their first meeting prejudiced as to what is in the realm of the possible and what is impossible to achieve.

For example our company recently hired two foreign employees and their visas and work permits were obtained smoothly.

While I want to believe that our firm provides excellent immigration services, the fact is that the process went smoothly because my company was incorporated 8 years ago, that we employ overall 20 Thai employees and have during the past 8 years fulfilled all our taxes and social security’s obligation and fulfill all the immigrations and labor requirements.

Now, as much as would like to tell you the contrary, the process would not have been as smooth if we had to apply and to obtain for 2 work permits and two one year visas, for two foreign employees of a company that has been incorporated only one month ago.

Of course my two new foreign employees were impressed to see how easily things went for them. And I know that they will meet other foreign citizens and praise the quality of our services. Unfortunately too much praise is a two edged sword because they are few fundamental issued that most candidates to a visa or a visa extension refuse to consider rationally:

The first issue is that:

1. NO TWO CASES OF VISA APPLICATION ARE ALIKE

Therefore the fact that your friend obtained his visa without any problem does not mean that you will obtain yours because your circumstances may be different from his.

The second issue is that:

2. THE FORTUNATES FOREIGN CITIZENS WHO OBTAINED THEIR VISAS OR VISAS EXTENTION ONLY HAVE A SUPERFICIAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE ACTUAL PROCESS

Indeed, a lot of the work is done beyond the scene. For example, our Thai lawyers will generally liaise with the Thai employees of our foreign customers. Therefore most of our foreign customers will often only have a partial understanding of the requirements that have to be fulfilled.

Finally the last issue is that:

3. ESSENTIAL DETAILS ARE LOST IN TRANSLATION

It is with visas the same than when translating. Sometimes the original meaning of a sentence cannot be perfectly translated from one language to the other and you may have to adapt the original sentence and may doing so actually change the actual meaning of the original.

Many fortunate visas holders will when discussing their personal cases with a friend forget to mention some information that they do not deemed to be important when the details that have been ignored in the explication are the elements that actually make the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful visa application.

In our next post we will discuss the problem of the confusion surrounding visas names.

Note: This post is an excerpt of Rene Philippe Dubout next book: “How to Invest Safely Into Thailand” to be published in January 2010

About the Author:

The author Rene-Philippe DUBOUT is a lawyer since 1990 when he was admitted to Geneva bar (Switzerland). He practiced as a litigator there for 10 years until he moved to Thailand in 1999. In 2002 he founded with a group of Thai lawyers Rene Philippe & Partners Ltd a local law firm that specialized in Cross Borders Investments and Real Estate. He has been lecturing in several Thai Universities and a speaker to numerous conferences and seminars. He is the author of a must read book:”How to Purchase Real Estate Offshore Safely: The Case of Thailand”.

http//:www.renephilippe.com

© Copyrights 2009 – Rene Philippe Dubout – This article may be reprinted if information about the author, the websites, and the URLs remain intact.

Originally posted 2009-10-23 12:44:03.

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2. Thailand Visas: Setting the Record Straight 4: Visas Definitions
3. Thailand Visas:Setting the Record Straight 2: Visa Exemption
4. Thailand Visas: Comparative Table Main Visas
5. Living in Thailand: What you need to know about Thai visas
6. Thailand Visas & Work Permits: List of Related Posts
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8. Working In Thailand: Thai Visas: Visas B one year extension