Is It Possible To Hire Foreigners In Thailand

[malaica]

I have a set-up in China, and very difficult to hire foreigners. Is it possible to hire foreigners in Thailand if I form a branch company there?

Need about 20 part-time foreigners (mostly westerners) and 30 – 40 Thais.

How difficult is it ?

How long does it take to process the work permits ?

How expensive is it to process each work permit ?

If the foreigners become shareholders of the Thai company lets say 1%? Is the work permit granted?

Thanks if you can help.

Edited July 27, 2008 by malaica

[VocalNeal]

I have a set-up in China, and very difficult to hire foreigners. Is it possible to hire foreigners in Thailand if I form a branch company there?

Need about 20 part-time foreigners (mostly westerners) and 30 – 40 Thais.

How difficult is it ?

How long does it take to process the work permits ?

How expensive is it to process each work permit ?

If the foreigners become shareholders of the Thai company lets say 1%? Is the work permit granted?

Thanks if you can help.

5 thais for every foriegner. Minimum.

Each foreigner needs to be paid minimum of 50,000? /m which is easy as most won't work for that.

Company must be minimum 51% Thai.

Company must have 5? shareholders

There is some special arrangement for US citizens setting up a company but I don't know what it is.

Someone else might clarify. There is lots of info on this site for such issues.

[raro]

5 thais for every foriegner. Minimum.

Each foreigner needs to be paid minimum of 50,000? /m which is easy as most won't work for that.

Company must be minimum 51% Thai.

Company must have 5? shareholders

There is some special arrangement for US citizens setting up a company but I don't know what it is.

Someone else might clarify. There is lots of info on this site for such issues.

please allow me to correct above figures:

4 Thais per foreigner

m/m payment is 50,000 for Europeans, 60k for North Americans and Asians are cheaper.

m/m 3 shareholders now

Costs per WP around 15,000 Baht if you avoid a rip-off lawyer. Maybe you can get a package deal as you have plenty of applications to process. If company documents are all in order and the foreigners you want to employ have their papers in order as well, it should take about a week to process.

Look in the Visa and WP section, there is a lot of info about this.

[malaica]

Thanks for your replies.

If the foreigners are shareholders (1 or 2 %)

of the company? The equation could change?

From

1 Foreigner = 4 Thais

to

1 foreigner = 2 Thais ??

Hope it clear.

5 thais for every foriegner. Minimum.

Each foreigner needs to be paid minimum of 50,000? /m which is easy as most won't work for that.

Company must be minimum 51% Thai.

Company must have 5? shareholders

There is some special arrangement for US citizens setting up a company but I don't know what it is.

Someone else might clarify. There is lots of info on this site for such issues.

please allow me to correct above figures:

4 Thais per foreigner

m/m payment is 50,000 for Europeans, 60k for North Americans and Asians are cheaper.

m/m 3 shareholders now

Costs per WP around 15,000 Baht if you avoid a rip-off lawyer. Maybe you can get a package deal as you have plenty of applications to process. If company documents are all in order and the foreigners you want to employ have their papers in order as well, it should take about a week to process.

Look in the Visa and WP section, there is a lot of info about this.

[malaica]

Thanks for your replies.

If the foreigners are shareholders (1 or 2 %)

of the company? The equation could change?

From

1 Foreigner = 4 Thais

to

1 foreigner = 2 Thais ??

Hope it is clear.

5 thais for every foriegner. Minimum.

Each foreigner needs to be paid minimum of 50,000? /m which is easy as most won't work for that.

Company must be minimum 51% Thai.

Company must have 5? shareholders

There is some special arrangement for US citizens setting up a company but I don't know what it is.

Someone else might clarify. There is lots of info on this site for such issues.

please allow me to correct above figures:

4 Thais per foreigner

m/m payment is 50,000 for Europeans, 60k for North Americans and Asians are cheaper.

m/m 3 shareholders now

Costs per WP around 15,000 Baht if you avoid a rip-off lawyer. Maybe you can get a package deal as you have plenty of applications to process. If company documents are all in order and the foreigners you want to employ have their papers in order as well, it should take about a week to process.

Look in the Visa and WP section, there is a lot of info about this.

[malaica]

Thanks for your replies.

If the foreigners are shareholders (1 or 2 %)

of the company? The equation could change?

From

1 Foreigner = 4 Thais

to

1 foreigner = 2 Thais ??

Hope it is clear.

Thanks for your replies.

If the foreigners are shareholders (1 or 2 %)

of the company? The equation could change?

From

1 Foreigner = 4 Thais

to

1 foreigner = 2 Thais ??

Hope it is clear.

5 thais for every foriegner. Minimum.

Each foreigner needs to be paid minimum of 50,000? /m which is easy as most won't work for that.

Company must be minimum 51% Thai.

Company must have 5? shareholders

There is some special arrangement for US citizens setting up a company but I don't know what it is.

Someone else might clarify. There is lots of info on this site for such issues.

please allow me to correct above figures:

4 Thais per foreigner

m/m payment is 50,000 for Europeans, 60k for North Americans and Asians are cheaper.

m/m 3 shareholders now

Costs per WP around 15,000 Baht if you avoid a rip-off lawyer. Maybe you can get a package deal as you have plenty of applications to process. If company documents are all in order and the foreigners you want to employ have their papers in order as well, it should take about a week to process.

Look in the Visa and WP section, there is a lot of info about this.

[raro]

The shareholding structure has nothing to do with the foreigner : Thai ratio for the work permits.

Shareholding: minimum 3 persons, 2 of them Thai. The Thais must hold 51% or more of the company.

Work Permit: 4 Thai employees for one foreign employee.

Employees can be shareholders in the company, but this would not change any of the above ratio requirements.

[malaica]

Thanks for your reply.

If the foreigners are part-time ?? Is it possible?? what happens to the above ratio?

I don't need top professionals. I need people do carry out customer service, cold calls to overseas in their native language. I.E students and housewives. I also expect to have a fairly high turn over of employees.

The shareholding structure has nothing to do with the foreigner : Thai ratio for the work permits.

Shareholding: minimum 3 persons, 2 of them Thai. The Thais must hold 51% or more of the company.

Work Permit: 4 Thai employees for one foreign employee.

Employees can be shareholders in the company, but this would not change any of the above ratio requirements.

Edited July 29, 2008 by malaica

[raro]

The Labour Department does not care how many hours your staff works. They want you to fulfill their requirements as stipulated before.

You also have to show that their job cannot be performed by a Thai, otherwise a Work Permit will not be granted.