The most common approach is to purchase a flight ticket, land in Thailand, and get a stamp for 30 days Tourist Visa and then you’ll go on a ‘Visa Run’ to the neighboring countries and return to Thailand and get another 30 days and so on and so forth. However as this article is written in the time of COVID-19, this method is no longer possible due to many uncertainties with border control as well as travel options between countries and on top of that, the hassle and the cost of traveling in and out of Thailand every 30 days.
In our opinion, the best approach is to apply for a Non-B Immigrant Visa from your country, for these instances, it will be from the Thai Embassy in Australia / your Capital City. You MUST do this before you fly into Thailand if you wish to apply for another visa while you’re in Thailand because if you arrive in Thailand and be stamped as a Tourist Visa, you CANNOT apply or switch your Visa to another kind without leaving Thailand (and for now, during COVID-19 times, it probably means you need to be quarantined in your next country and again be quarantine when you return to Thailand).
Once you have got your Non-B Immigrant Visa approved, you then need to apply for COE to get to Thailand (this requirement is an additional requirement due to COVID-19).
Once you have got your Non-B Visa and COE sorted, you can now happily fly into Thailand.
Now, with your Non-B Visa, it gives you 90 days to stay in Thailand. The BIG QUESTIONS now is how do you extend it. What is the best option? Which is the cheapest option.
In our opinion, the best and cheapest, and least hassle option (if your intention is to stay in Thailand for a year or so) is to create a business in Thailand and use your company to sponsor you a Work Permit.
This method has been used by many people and is considered one of the most reasonable and straight forward ways. There are many agents or consulting firms who can help you with your business setup and at UnionSPACE, we have a completely straight forward package for that as well.
Our Business Setup for long-stay purpose package includes the following- Company Incorporation – Introductory to open a Company Bank Account – Document Translation- Formal Office Rental with relevant documentation that complies with Company Incorporation and Work Permit requirements- Extension of Non-B Visa (in Australia, we call it Bridging Visa)- Work Permit Application for 1 year.
The total cost for our end to end Business Setup for Long Stay Purpose is THB 107,500 or AUD 4,840.
Lastly, for your company to be eligible to sponsor a Foreigner, it must have at least 4 Thai employees on its Payroll with proper enrollment into the Thai Social Security System. This is the only evidence that they will accept to prove that your Company has hired 4 Thai Staffs.
Once you have accomplished that, which from our experience is quite easy (you can put your maid, driver, designers, translator) as part of your hire and you can safely proceed to apply for a Work Permit for yourself.
In short, AUD 4,840 is the only fee that you will have to pay to get your 1 year Work Permit in addition to you hiring 4 Thai Staffs.
