Orawee

Hello, Everyone

I’m not an expat, but my husband is a soon-to-be.

We need a lot of advice as we found out that to get the Visa/extension of stay/WP/etc. for Thailand is a bit of a bummer and absolutely confusing hence not all the authorities' website links are fully working/poor information

I’m Thai and my husband is British (36), legally married, now living in the UK. We don’t have much income/saving as we were recently students. Economic in the UK is not so promising, so we didn’t even try getting a job, instead started our own bedroom-based business (which is going well but still need much more time to develop - so no earning yet). We got no saving either.

We got married in December, went to Thailand, and my husband loved it there. We finally decided to move to Bangkok. He is now taking a TEFL course; hope to get a teaching job. So far we have managed to get Non-O visa 1 year multi-entry, hope to get a one-year extension later on (or visa run if necessary).

After hours of painstaking reading (both here and on ThaiVisa), we still got quite a few questions:

1. Does he have to make a notification of resident to the Im**************** within 24 hours if he will be staying at my family home?
2. Can Work Permit be issued with Non-O? Or does he need to switch to Non-B first? Is it more beneficial to switch? Does he need to exit to neighbouring country to do this?
3. Do teachers have no minimum income requirement? (for WP)
4. If he has taken a job which provides him a WP, can he work elsewhere at the same time? Can he get /does he need another Work Permit for the second job?
5. We got married in the UK. For the extension of stay, do we need to translate the married certificate and get it stamped at Brit Embassy? Do we still need Kor Ror 2 as well?
6. To have 400,000 Baht for extension, will it be any problem if we 'borrow' it from my family?

Thank you so much.

Orawee

Just found out about this, we need to translate the married certificate and get it certified at Brit Embassy and Min Foreign Affair, then apply for Kor Ror 22 instead. :-)

Nabbie

1. If you mean 90 days's notification to local immigration office using Non-O, the answer is yes - TM47 form.

2. I believe both Non-O & Non-B both are eligible for WP but I could be wrong.

3. No idea

4. Dept of Employment (or sort of) where WP application is made will need to record the location of your intended work. If you work at the various spots, then it is best to find your employer (agency?). Unfortunately the freelance is not acceptable in subject to my best knowledge.

5. No need to translate for Thai marriage certificate. If you do not have it and you have a UK marriage, it looks as you may have to obtain the translated one and possibly with the stamp from British Embassy.

6. I have experienced many teething problems with that. What the immigration office actually wants to confirm your husband's finance criteria.
Husband must keep 400,000Baht in his solo account (not joint) in any Thai bank for at least 3 months prior to the expired date and do NOT make a withdraw until your visa renewal is completely made. Do NOT switch to the alternative bank account - even using the same name. The idea of borrowing is no problem as long as he must meet that 'clear & loud' rule. Alternatively, I just find out some visa offices can help you obtaining visa extension without a proof of 400,000B and the fee will be about 25,000B (I never tried that but it might be useful for your very last resort.)

Good luck!

Orawee

Thank you Nabbie



It says here in http://www.immigration.go.th/ on Notification of resident of foreighners:

According to section 38 of the 1979 immigration act, "House owners, heads of household, landlords or managers of hotels who accommodate foreign nationals on a temporary basis who stay in the kingdom legally, must notify the local immigration authorities within 24 hours from the time of arrival of the foreign national."

Not sure is it only apply for business? How about if he is staying in a family home? It's TM30 Form. He doesn't need to report himself, ,but my dad might...

nonthaburi

Lot of point here so I'll try and go through them one by one as I found things myself . My info might be a bit out of date though and as I'm sure you're aware things can vary from place to place within Thailand as to what they want to see and how ' flexible ' they are . For flexible read corrupt !!

1) Never heard of that , might be a rule , I don't know . I never did that in all my years in Thailand on a Non-O . Don't see why you would have to either . There is nothing about having a Non-O that says you have to be in a particular place . It is a visa based on marriage to a Thai . If you are doing an extension - whether a one year or a straightforward 60 day extension then you will need to have an address but as far as notifying immigration on arrvial goes , I've never heard that . You say where you are going on your TM card when you arrive and that is it as far as I'm aware .

2) Yes they are ,but it's more usual to work on a Non-B and some schools might be more comfortable with your husband being on a Non-B purely because they haven't had anyone with a WP on a Non-O before and they don't know what to do . It will be up to the school on that one as to how they want to play it . They might not even provide a WP if they know your husband is married to a Thai . A lot of rules ( to be broken !) about teacher's licenses these days.

3) Not that I'm aware of , but if you are doing a one year extension based on marriage then there are financial requirements.

4) A WP is for one specific place of employment and he would be working illegally if he worked somewhere else . It is also highly unusual to have two WPs ( but not unheard of ) as normally one of these jobs would be part-time . Generally speaking as far as teaching goes, part-time jobs don't give WPs.

5) I've never done that because I was married in Thailand and my kids were too but whenever I've had to do other things regarding documents , as a rule of thumb I would say : get a translation , get it stamped at the British Embassy ( be prepared to bend over and open your wallet as you enter ) and then take it to Gong Soon / Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Cheang Wattana Road for their stamp . They do a one day service which is about twice the price of their three day service if I remember right . 400 Baht a page rings a bell.

6) No problem to borrow money whatsoever . As long as it is a Thai bank account for so long before you apply . Some immigration departments are more helpful than others on this one . I know in Pattaya they provide a ' service ' for about 20/25,000 . I used to live in Bang Bua Thong and a friend of mine used Pathum Thani for 15,000 .

Hope that helps a little . Your husband has got his one year multiple entry so you have loads of time to sound things out . Remember that he can do a 60 day extension of every 90 day entry with just your ID card and marriage certificate ( if it's translated etc ) , tabien bahn bluebook without too much difficulty ,2000 baht . That would mean he only has to leave Thailand every 5 months .

I live in Saudi now so I might be a little out of touch but this was how things were when I was there . Chok dee Kap !!

Orawee

Thank you so much, Nonthabury. That was really helpful.

That's quite a relieve to hear that we might not have to do a visa run if we can sort things out in the first 5 months.

Now we can stop worrying and get on with packing. We got so much stuff to deal with. :-)

Thank you again.

nonthaburi

should add though that you will have to be there when he does the extension at immigration so that they know you exist and you also need to sign every page of any documents submitted . We used to let our two boys run riot in there to try and get them to hurry us up . Remember one time when one of my kids was picking up all of the stamps with the different dates on and trying to stamp his brother . That went down well !!
Also , if your husband enters Thailand on the last day of the one year multiple entry Non-O he still gets 90 days so you can actually make it a 15 month visa .

nonthaburi

If you do have to do a visa run the quickest one from BKK is to Aranya Prathet on the Cambodian border . There are many companies advertising in the classified of the Bangkok Post . They do leave very early though . If you want to go on your own time you can get the bus from the ground floor at Morchit Bus Terminal to Rong Klua Market ( think that's how it's spelt ) for about 100 baht - four and a half hours .

Quackers

Does your husband have a degree ? as you usually need a degree to get a work permit for a Teaching job.

wolf5370

OK I'll have a go too.

1. I would guess this is a confusion. There is a rule that as a foreigner you have filled out your place of residence in the kingdom on your landing form, and any change needs to be notified. The rule actually pertains to the place of stay (or owner thereof) - i.e. hotels have to report the names and passport details of all foreign guests that stay at least one night. In theory, the owner of your house in Thailand would have to do likewise. If renting, then the landlord would (in theory again) have to report the foreigners details. The onus is not on the visitor. However, every 90 days a report of address (actually a declaration of address on either a 90 day report at immigration or via another arrivals card at another port of entry - border run) is required - this can be done by post or in person.

2. Yes married people often have their WP on the basis of Non-Imm 'O' (M) rather than 'B' either is acceptable unless they are marked as not (such as retirement visa or sometimes they are just stamped "not allowed to work"). It is more beneficial NOT to switch - the reason are various, but one is that the Non Imm 'B' will be linked to the job (as will the WP) - without the job (say he quits) then the visa is questionable - not so with 'O' visa. It is easier to extend Non-Imm 'o' (M) as the earnings can be less (although this is also true for 'B' visa holder who are married to Thais also - but can be confused at immigration). If he wanted to change he would have to do a visa run to a consul or embassy abroad (not a visa run) - sometimes immigration will do a change in country (for 1900 baht), but it is a grey area and not heard of anyone doing this for O to B.

3. Officially the minimum wage is set per country, with the UK being at the number two sport wage wise (after Japan and USA), however this is often overlooked for teachers as most teaching jobs outside of international schools and university professor doesn't come close. The school will sort out the WP, they have staff to do this (if they are a good school and used to hiring foreign teachers legally) - they will have the contacts and know how to deal with the fickle staff.

4. WP are fixed to employer AND place of work residence. That is, officially he will not even be allowed to work at another site owned by the same school unless specifically added to the WP (they can hold multiple addresses, but not "anywhere"). Outside of this he would need a second WP to cover other work. In theory he could not even go in a working capacity on a school trip/visit/outing/picnic/sports day/away match/etc. for the school he holds a WP for, but they are unlikely to be bothered by such (they WOULD be bothered by second job though). Many teachers do private teaching to raise their wages - this is illegal too.

5. You will need to get the marriage certificate confirmed by the British Embassy (expect a big charge - like a 100 quid for a 3 line standard letter and signature), get both translated, get the British Ambassador's signature confirmed by the Thai authorities. Then it can be used here, no need for KR2 - I doubt you can get one without having had a KR3 at the Amphur (i.e. being married here). The KR2 is just to prove that since you were married legally (KR3) that you have not divorced - the Embassy letter confirms the same).

6. In the first instance the money can just appear (they used to want to see proof of where it came from, but not any more). However, next year (extension) it will have to be seasoned (2 months I think) - but wages of 40k/mo can be used instead (not an combination of both, as once was, and still is for retirement).

Question: Can you not run your bedroom business from here (Thailand). As the Thai you can get a job, and he could run the business from the bedroom. Teachers wages are notoriously low here without teaching experience, teachers degree (i.e. is needed for international and good private school where wages are decent). Most TEFL teachers scrape by on 20k or so a month, not enough for extension (and many without WP too).


Good luck.

nonthaburi

sounds like a visa run to me

20k might be right out in the boondocks but in BKK that figure would be way out of touch. 35-50k would be more like it .

wolf5370

Yeah should have said "he would have to do a visa run to a consul or embassy abroad (not a border run)"

I meant TEFL only teachers, i.e. those without degrees that can't get school jobs. I doubt may unqualified teacher scraping by on TEFL certs are earning 50k even in BKK - and 35k (if they work their bits off) won't go far in the capital either

nonthaburi

the problem is though that so many schools are happy to take people who submit fake degrees though . It's all about the money for a lot of these private schools and the parents often don't know any better . If they are white they must be alright or something like that . My children went to a very well known bilingual private school that has about 30 branches in BKK and surrounding areas and the fees weren't that cheap either at about 70,000 a year and I know a lot of the teachers didn't have real degrees or a TESOL qualification either probably . It was a big school though , about 5000 kids so many teachers did too .

Orawee

Thank you very much, everyone, for your valuable advice. It has been almost a year since we entered Thailand. My husband managed to get a job as an English teacher in a language school. After a pain stalking process and a delay caused by groups of protesters, he has finally got his WP. Yes, he has a degree, so that did help. Like you said, Nonthaburi, schools and officers are definitely not so familiar with processing WP on Non-O visa. It did create lots of confusions.

We applied for Non-O one year extension the same day he got his WP. They didn't give us the extension! They said he has to have an evidence of income tax payments of the last three months. Well, he just got his WP, how could he pay tax!

His visa was about to end, so he did his last border run yesterday. Now he has got another 90 days, but it is not long enough to get the tax things sorted, though. We are still wondering what we should do next. The school is very nice, and they are trying their best to help, but they seems to have no clue of what to do.

From what I understand, he cannot switch from Non-O to Non-B at the Im-Office, and would have to apply at Thai Embassy out side the Kingdom. Rather than switching form O to B, do you think it is better (or possible?) to apply for another Non-O from Vientiane, then apply for one year extension again when we got all the documents ready?

Thank you again for your support.

nonthaburi

That's the best thing to do. It's fairly straightforward to get a new Non-O single entry in Vientiane. Apply in the morning of one day and get it in the afternoon the next day. The embassy is open Monday to Friday except on Thai or Laos holidays. He will need copies of passport, your ID ( back and front), tabien bahn, marriage certificate and any translations if the originals aren't in Thai. You should also sign every copy as his wife. Cost is 2000 baht.

Don't know how he is going to get up there but it is worth getting a Laos visa in advance from the Laos embassy in BKK. Not only does this save a lot of time at the border on the Laos side but it also saves you having to engage the local taxi mafias in Nong Khai or on the Laos side.

Best way IMO is to fly to Udon Thani and get the bus all the way to Vientiane ( you must have a Laos visa or they won't let you on the bus), or get a bus to Vientiane from Morchit ( again you must have the Laos visa to be able to get this bus).

It can get very busy at the border and 2 hours to get across at busy times isn't unusual so anything that saves you a bit of time is always good.

On the plus side, Vietiane is quite a nice place. A fair bit of nightlife if you look for it. Tell your husband to look forward to some great beer, baguettes, fine wine and pizza. There are some great restaurants there. Anywhere near the Nampoo/ fountain is a good area to stay.