Smart visas: Some high earning foreigners may soon be able to work without a work permit

[Arkady]

On 3/5/2019 at 9:23 PM, Cryingdick said:

 

It actually isn't that much in those fields. Most the foreign IT guys in my husband's office were on around 500,000 a month. These aren't the kind of people that take lower rates because the cost of street food makes up for it. 

 

Now that we have that out of the way let's bring on the rest of the posts from the retired geezers on 40,000 a month pensions saying how they should have some easier visa. 

 

Also plenty of people on these salaries do some freelancing. They tend to be a bit more ambitious. 

 

 

 

An issue that crops up quite often for senior expats is being asked to be on the board of a subsidiary or affiliated company in addition to their regular job. Many have been caught out for not having these additional jobs added to their work permits, even though it is not too difficult to do. Some may also appreciate their dependents being able to work without WPs although it is unclear whether this is only for one year out of the four years or one year renewable. Some expat wives would like to work but may not qualify for a WP.  Kids can do intern jobs, if they don't need a WP.

 

This is all very limited in scope but the fact that Thailand can allow foreigners, other than diplomats, UN or World Bank personnel work without WPs for the first time since the early 70s without fearing that the heavens will fall, is historic in and of itself.  Perhaps, if they feel this hasn't led to chaos and revolution, they will relax things even further, e.g. letting people work without pay for NGOs without WPs or even let retirees do part time work.

[DrTuner]

9 minutes ago, Arkady said:

This is all very limited in scope but the fact that Thailand can allow foreigners, other than diplomats, UN or World Bank personnel work without WPs for the first time since the early 70s without fearing that the heavens will fall, is historic in and of itself.  Perhaps, if they feel this hasn't led to chaos and revolution, they will relax things even further, e.g. letting people work without pay for NGOs without WPs or even let retirees do part time work.

Nice thought but it seems more like BOI's pet project, similar to Thai Elite thing, with no further connections to the larger picture. Would be happy to be proven wrong.

[samran]

1 hour ago, DrTuner said:

Nice thought but it seems more like BOI's pet project, similar to Thai Elite thing, with no further connections to the larger picture. Would be happy to be proven wrong.

The BOI was tasked with it after some very heavy lobbying basically up to deputy PM level by the Thai and foreign business community led by the information technology sector. 

 

Little known to most TV readers is that there is always a range of small committees (formal and informal) and representations made to look at the common complaints around work permits. The officials know the issues, but are hamstrung in solving them given the multi-agency involvement and the inevitable turf war which comes with it.

 

As such, you see initiatives such as this, under the auspices of the BOI to get around the legacy issues, with out having to fuss around with making (the much needed) wholesale changes.