# Don�t even try to work in Thailand



## Oneman

*Don’t even try to work in Thailand*

.
This forum has many questions asking about working in Thailand.
I’ve lived (retired) in Thailand for 10+ years.
Best advice I can offer is, don’t even try to work here.
The odds are against you in many ways, and that’s exactly how the Thais want it.
Some examples to make the point:


*Example 1 — Yoga teacher in his condo*

Nice guy: soft-spoken, polite, Canadian man, about 45.
Yoga teacher.
Escapes Canadian winters and Canadian taxes, by living 6+ months each year in Thailand.
Great idea.
Bought a 2 room condo: front room for a small yoga studio, bedroom for his living quarters.
Taught yoga, private lessons, to other English-speaking foreigners.
Bad idea.

I was one of his clients for yoga lessons.
As I got to know him, his story was told.
For several years he had a Thai girl friend who lived with him and kept him company on his annual visits.
After several years, she wanted to get married.
He did not.

She got angry and stormed out, taking all her things.
Then she called a friend of the family who was a policeman and explained that Mr. Yoga Teacher had access to her body for three years, and now won’t marry her.
Policeman, with several other policemen, knocked on his door, asking to see his business license, his work permit, his visa for long-stay.
Of course, yoga teacher had none of those — he was just working “off the books”.
A few words to a local policeman from a Thai woman scorned, and yoga teacher’s life in Thailand suddenly changed.
*

Example 2 — Artist at an up-country market*

Market days are held in small towns all over Thailand, usually on the same each week.
Besides the vegetable sellers, blue jeans sellers, and DVD sellers, you’ll often see local people selling fruit from their backyard trees, or handicraft items that they have made.
Sometimes a local art student will set up his easel and sketch pad and offer charcoal renderings of local people for a few coins each.

One day, a retired foreigner, living in one small town up-country, who enjoyed a bit of sketching, decided to do that, too.
He offered sketches for 20 baht in local money, about 60 cents in US money.
And, as a foreigner, in a local market, he attracted some attention.
Including attention from the police.
He’s in Thailand on a visa specifically for purposes of retirement.
Working at any job or business — any at all — is a violation of his visa provisions.
His arrest was significant enough to make the English-language newspapers.


*Example 3 — “Open mike” night at a local bar*

This story also made the newspapers a few years ago.
A jazz bar offered “open mike” one night per week.
Any locals could sign in, wait their turn, and then get their 15 minutes of fame on stage.
Many people did that — Thais and foreigners alike — and the weekly event attracted a lot of customers to the bar.
Perhaps owners of other bars in the town didn’t like the competition.
Perhaps they mentioned it to the police.

Nobody got paid for their "open mike" performances.
Okay, maybe a free drink from the bar, but certainly no money.
They just played.
Its public entertainment, said the police — against the law for foreigners to engage in that without a work permit.
The police shut down the bar until the matter was settled.
*

Example 4 — Tsunami volunteers*

You may remember the Christmas tsunami in Southern Thailand some years ago.
Numbers of foreigners rushed to Thailand “to help” with the cleanup.
Good intentions.
But bad luck for them.
Even volunteer work — with no pay, and living at their own expense — is against the law in Thailand.
If you volunteer, said the police, that’s very nice and we thank you very much, but a work permit is required, even if only for one day.


*Example 5 — On-line poker players*

Similar stories to this appear in the English-language newspapers from time to time.
Couple of young men from a foreign country are pretty good at playing on-line poker.
Get the idea they can play just as well in Thailand, while having a “party lifestyle”. 
They come over here, rent a house, get a high-speed Internet connection, stock the refrigerator with beer, and they’re all set.

Neighbors notice them lounging around the house all day, not going out for work, yet always having money for beer, and women, and whatever else.
Neighbors smile a lot, act friendly, and start asking how the foreigners got so lucky.
“Easy,” says one of the foreigners. “We play poker on the Internet. In a good month we each make $4,000, $5,000, maybe $6,000.”

Friendly neighbor admires that kind of money, and decides he wants some of it.
But friendly neighbor doesn’t know anything about playing poker.
However, cousin is a policeman — and therein lies a solution.
Cousin appears at the door, leading a group of several other policemen, asking to see work permits and long-stay visas.

Of course, the poker players have neither of those.
Policeman says, “No reason to bother you with going down to the district police station. We can settle this right here and now for, say, $500 … each ... per month.”
In that situation, what would you do?

The examples could go on and on.
For anyone thinking about ways to make money while living in Thailand, I hope this post is useful.

— Oneman
Bangkok
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## Jelly_Bud

Interesting stories but I am a bit confused on this post??? The stories told can all be summed up with the expat working illegally (no Permits) or breaking their permit rules... So not sure how this is relevant to "Don't even try to work in Thailand".


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## Asian Spirit

Jelly_Bud said:


> Interesting stories but I am a bit confused on this post??? The stories told can all be summed up with the expat working illegally (no Permits) or breaking their permit rules... So not sure how this is relevant to "Don't even try to work in Thailand".


:rockon:Some things are a given if read between the lines. However, due to forum rules, the discussion of illegal activity is prohibited. **Nuf Said*..*


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## dhream

Jelly_Bud said:


> Interesting stories but I am a bit confused on this post??? The stories told can all be summed up with the expat working illegally (no Permits) or breaking their permit rules... So not sure how this is relevant to "Don't even try to work in Thailand".


Exactly! And there's the rub, you cannot work 'legally' in Thailand unless you are headhunted by a multinational, teach a language, are part of a visiting vessels crew, a talent act with permit, attending a tradeshow or convention, invited by HM Govt as a consultant, and that's about it. Literally counted out on the fingers of one hand.

Hence, where is the 'other' legal work for visitors? There is none! So don't even try to work in Thailand, seems pretty clear to me...


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## expats_maybe

Of course, the people in example #5 could have been receiving pensions/interest income from their home countries to support their existence. That particular example would seem to show an example of "loose lips", rather than an inability to "work", per se...


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## tod-daniels

Well, if indeed you've lived (retired) in the glorious "Land 'O Thaiz" for the last 10+ years, you would see that in every single instance you mention foreigners were tryin' to "circumvent" or "ignore" the rules as far as what they were doing here.

Example 1 — Yoga teacher in his condo
He never bothered to set up a company, never bothered to get the right visa, work permit, etc. Plus with a thai in the mix, even though the thai was apparently his significant other, all bets are off, and if you're not legal you're just counting down time until the **** hits the fan.

Example 2 — Artist at an up-country market 
This guy just didn't think it thru, just didn't try to find a way to make it work. Contrary to your comments, a foreigner here on a visa for being over 50, in thai called a living out the end of their life visa (called retirement visas by foreigners) can indeed get a work permit and legally work. There is NOTHING in the Department of Labor's rules about holding that type of visa and getting a work permit.

Example 3 — “Open mike” night at a local bar
Bars all over Bangkok have "open mic" nights and there are NO problems with most of them.. This was clearly NOT related to the foreigners but to the person running the bar and what ever deal they had with the local 'powers that be'..

Example 4 - not even worth mentioning..

Example 5 - On-line poker players
Again, we have foreigners who thought they were 6 foot tall and bullet proof. Loose lips sink ships. They were bragging, showing cash, acting stupid around the neighboring thaiz.. They brought that on themselves.

I know a TON of people who hold correct visas, work permits and engage in various endeavors here in thailand.

Every single example of yours showed the foreigners weren't thinking things thru, thought they could "fly under the radar", and they probably could have except for their own stupidity...

Don't believe the horror stories, but DO your own due diligence if you're considering working. There are any number of companies which will provide paperwork for the correct visa and a work permit, IF you look around..


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## Thai Bigfoot

*Work Permits*



Jelly_Bud said:


> Interesting stories but I am a bit confused on this post??? The stories told can all be summed up with the expat working illegally (no Permits) or breaking their permit rules... So not sure how this is relevant to "Don't even try to work in Thailand".


There are so many farangs here, it's very,very difficult to find any job that will provide a legal work permit.


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## tod-daniels

Man, you are on a roll today Thai Bigfoot. A roll about giving wrong information.

First off, stop using the thai "F-word"; ฝรั่ง for white people, westerners, or foreigners because you look/sound like a total tool. . .

Foreigners (westerners) comprise such a small percentage of the "foreign contigent" in this country that it's not funny. Sure you can see us easily, but we are such a small minority that it's almost not worth talking about.. 

Also as I said, of the hundreds and hundreds of foriegners I know here, almost to a person they all hold valid work permits and work here..

These are NOT college aged kidz who hawk engrish under the table for 1000 US a month, nor are they people who married a 6th grade rice farmer's daughter from Nakhon Nowhere and live in a one buffalo village. These are real honest to goodness foreigners making comparable money to what they'd make anywhere in the world doing their job..

Either, you don't possess a skill-set which is in demand here or you're looking at the wrong companies for work:confused2: 

Just about ANY thai company that wants to (there is the operative phrase:eyebrows can garner a work permit for a foreigner without a lot of hoop jumping..

The post by the O/P was just teeth gnashing and wailing at the injustice of it all even though most of those people were NOT following thai law to be here..


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## Thai Bigfoot

tod-daniels.
While I agree with much of your information, much of it just doesn't apply to Phuket. Bangkok is a whole different world.
I retired here 5 1/2 years ago. I had a work permit as a teacher for a private school for years 2-4. It then went out of business.
My "skill-set" includes owning successful automobile and motorcycle dealerships in New York State. I sold them in 1994 and retired, at 46 years old, to Las Vegas until moving here in 2009.
My hobby is working. It keeps me thinking and young at heart. I got my TEFL here because there was no opportunity for an experienced salesman/manager anyplace here. Theoretically, a Thai national can provide my "skill set", so, it's impossible to get a job in business.
Down here, there are probably 100 applicants for any job a farang can hold. So, the odds that one individual will find a job, with a work permit, are very slim.
The retirement visa? I don't want to put the B$800,000 in a Thai bank. Logically or not, they're below my comfort level. I have been pursuing the O retirement extension for the past year. The Phuket immigration office keeps changing the requirements.
And, using the "F" word? Your kidding, right? It's a whole lot simpler to say farang than "...white people, westerners, or foreigners..." Heck, it is what we are.
By the way, current rules prohibit anyone with a type "O" extended visa (the Retirement Visa) cannot get a work permit.


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