whats my best visa option

[dazk]

Hi All

Have searched the forum for advise on what visa to go for but need some current advise/ clarification.

My situation is this

At the end of this year i wish to move to thailand full time
I am married to a thai national
I am 43
I will have a small income from my uk business around 800 per month
My thai wife and i are setting up 2 internet cafes in thailand so will have a small income from them
wife has own house


as well as the visa question would it be possible to setup a company of which i can be a partner and would this help with visas

so what are my visa options
and what will make life easier ie setup company or name on house book

Thanks in advance and sorry to ask as this has been covered already but wanted some upto date advise

[maokaang]

One option would be a non-O visa followed by annual 'Thai Wife' extensions.

At the current rate of exchange and visa rules you'd need to be able to prove a UK income of at least £825 per month (40,000 baht) to qualify for 'Thai wife' non-O visa extensions. You'd first need to obtain a non-O visa (single or multiple entry) in the UK. Once in Thailand, and before that expired, you'd apply at your local immigration office in Thailand for a 'Thai Wife' extension which would last one year at a time. You could stay in Thailand indefinitely as long as you qualified each year for a 1 year extension.

Setting up a company in Thailand would be irrelevant and unnecessary if you took that route. Proving any income of your own from the internet cafés would be difficult and probably involve more hassle than it's worth.

You can't have your name on a blue house book (tabian baan) but can get a yellow tabian baan in your name. Doing so has its advantages but has no effect on a non-O visa extension application.

Regards

[prioritypress]

Aren't there benefits of setting up a company, getting a WP, and paying Thai income tax, especially if the OP possibly wanted to apply for PR in the future?


Nick

[maokaang]

Yes, but I'm not convinced a couple of internet cafés would cut the grade for a work permit. Additionally, a 'small income' in Thailand is unlikely to involve serious tax returns, if any at all.

Your suggestion is possible perhaps in theory, but there can be a wide divide between theory and practice in Thailand.

[dazk]

could income be shown as both my income from uk and my share of the internet cafes

[dan&ploy]

I would agree with Paul, the non-O is the way to go.

If you set a company up and apply for a work permit for that company you will have to employ 4 Thais (other than your wife) and pay yourself a minimum of 50,000 baht/month and tax and social insurance for you and all the Thai workers. That might be too much of a burden and as Paul hinted, I am unsure if you would qualify for a work permit unless you extended the business into other IT areas. And no, the income from abroad does not count because it is not from your Thai company.

The non-O is simpler, especially if you choose (if able to) to renew based on a lump sum instead of monthly income. You can always change to non-B later and get a work permit (or get a work permit with a non-O) if the business grows although the benefits of doing so are subtle, (as Nick says, qualification for PR may be easier, you get a social security card and work permit can open doors a tad wider).

If you straight for non-B you will only get a 3 month visa which doesn't give you long to get everything set up and then you will have to leave the country to renew it. The non-O will be for 12 months.

[maokaang]

could income be shown as both my income from uk and my share of the internet cafes

Not in practice. If you were able to prove a legitimate income of your own from your company in Thailand you would already have a work permit and would not need your UK income to satisfy any visa requirements. Anything less financially would not be your income, it would be your wife's which, following changes in the last few years, is not taken into consideration for a Thai Wife extension.

You have a choice of non-O visa from the UK; single (90 days) or multiple (1 year). If you can gather your financial evidence in your first 90 days in Thailand, get a single entry. If you want to give yourself some time to get settled, get a multiple entry non-O. You don't have to use the multiple entry visa for the full year but will have to do a border run every 90 days until you decide you're ready to apply for an extension.

On the non-O extension front, as Dan mentions, money in the bank is another qualifying option. You will need to show certified Thai bank statements showing a minimum of 400,000 baht in your account for a continuous period of at least three months up to the date of any application for an 1 year extension.

If you can't manage that, then a monthly income of 40,000 will need to be shown, evidenced for three months prior to the date of application. You'd send that evidence to the British Embassy in Bangkok who (for a fee) will send you a notary letter confirming your income. That letter alone is all that is required by Thai immigration as proof of income.

Your quoted UK income figure of "around £800 per month" is borderline at today's rates. If you can boost that by £100 or more you'll be able to breathe a little easier and visa extension applications will be quite straight forward. Bear in mind you only need to show evidence of your income over a three month period.

NB. If your UK bank statements happen to show deposits in the three months prior to your visa extension application greater than those for the rest of the year, regardless, it is the average of those three months' figures which will be declared. The rest of the year is immaterial.

Regards

[ddwjg]

You'd send that evidence to the British Embassy in Bangkok who (for a fee) will send you a notary letter confirming your income. That letter alone is all that is required by Thai immigration as proof of income.

The same notary service is offered by the Honorary British Consul in Jomtien/Pattaya, if it is more convenient.

Dave.

[maokaang]

.. or if you live a long distance from any of them, it can be done by post.

http://ukinthailand.fco.gov.uk/en/he...g-in-thailand/

Scroll down to the section headed 'Proof of Income Letters'

[dazk]

thanks guys the replies are making things a bit clearer for me

could i show a combination of part bank balance and part income, and could it to be a thai bank or uk bank account or a combination of both

[prioritypress]

If the OP wanted to go the company route...

Couldn't the UK income become "IT Services" etc and part of his turnover?

Nick

P.S. Purely thinking of my own future plans.

[maokaang]

could i show a combination of part bank balance and part income, and could it to be a thai bank or uk bank account or a combination of both

If you're showing a bank balance it has to be in a Thai account in your name. 3 months statements showing a continuous balance of at least 400,000 baht, stamped and countersigned by your bank will suffice. Unlike a retirement extension, you can't combine bank balance and income for a Thai wife extension, it's one or the other.

[dan&ploy]

The tax people in Thailand are very vigilant about where income into a company comes from. Rather than just submit our invoices to them we also to attach the original orders (on letter headed paper etc. - I know this can be falsified and I doubt they check but that is the proecdure). So you could invoice your own UK company assuming it was a real company although there might still be some questions asked.

If you set a UK company up that you had no involvement with and you invoiced for services or consultancy then I don't think that would be an issue but again the work would have to be 'real'. Invoicing the UK government for 'pensions received' might not cut it!

If you are thinking of this Nick then I would try to think how, whoever you provide the services to in the UK, could invoice your Thai company directly. Also check to make sure that you can get a work permit for the intended work you intend to do.

That is my take on it anyway.

[prioritypress]

We'll I'm a photographer...but for some of the stuff I do I can work remotely from anywhere...99% of my income is paid directly into my Company Bank Account by BACS....I suppose I could change my UK bank account into a Thai based-one??? I'm not sure how this might work? Or maybe a thai branch in the UK? (Bangkok Bank?)

Also, I imagine the fees would be horrendous for small payments...It'd be much easier if I could just "invoice" my own company and transfer a larger amount from my own account...

Just trying to work out how UK income achieved online could end up in the "pot"...And would much-rather be above the radar..

Nick

[dazk]

looks like the best thing for me to do is make sure i have the equivalent of 40,000 paid into my uk account for the 3 month period prior to my visa application, then in the future as we expand our internet cafe empire look at other options, posing the question what long term options are there or will i spend the rest of my life in thailand doing a yearly visa application??