Thailand Work Permit and Work Visa: How to Work Legally

To work in Thailand a foreigner needs a work permit (ใบอนุญาตทำงาน), and since 2018 Thai law calls any occupation work, with or without an employer. Most people get one through a Thai employer: the employer files for you, you enter on a Non-B visa, then apply on the Department of Employment's e-WorkPermit system (eworkpermit.doe.go.th) and collect the permit in person. Twenty-seven jobs are closed to foreigners outright, among them selling or renting out property for a commission, 13 more are restricted, and working without a permit means a fine of ฿5,000 to ฿50,000 and removal from Thailand.

What counts as work, and the jobs foreigners can't do (27 closed, 13 restricted)#

Since 28 March 2018 the Foreigners' Working Management Emergency Decree defines work as "any occupation, whether or not there is an employer" (การประกอบอาชีพใด ๆ ไม่ว่าจะมีนายจ้างหรือไม่). The Council of State, the government's legal adviser, read it in 2019 as an occupation that brings in regular income. A work permit now lets you do any job that is not closed to foreigners, but you must tell the Department of Employment your employer, workplace and main job within 15 days of starting, and again every time the employer changes.

A Ministry of Labour notification of 1 April 2020, in force since about June 2020, lists 40 jobs in four groups. Twenty-seven are closed to foreigners outright, even with a work permit, as is any work a Thai law reserves to Thai nationals. Three are open only under an international agreement, eight only to employees, and two only to workers recruited under a government agreement with a neighbouring country. Teaching, IT, management, consulting, writing, cooking and hotel management are not on the list and stay open with a permit, subject to any professional licence the job needs.

For a property website the line that matters is brokerage. A foreigner may live in Chiang Mai, rent here and buy a condo here, but may not be paid a commission to sell or let someone else's property, with or without a work permit. Permits issued through the Board of Investment (BOI) and a few other laws are not bound by the list.

With a Thai employer, step by step#

The usual route has four steps: your Thai employer gets the Department of Employment's approval letter, you get a Non-B visa at a Thai embassy, you apply for the work permit on e-WorkPermit after you arrive, and you turn your 90-day stay into a one-year extension at immigration. As of October 2026 the Thai government fees come to about ฿5,100 for a one-year permit and the first extension, plus the embassy's visa fee (our arithmetic from the official fees).

1. The approval letter. For someone still abroad, the employer files form บต.32 (WP.32) with the Department of Employment for ฿100 and receives a letter, which embassies call the approval letter from the Ministry of Labour. It replaced the old WP.3. No official page says how long it takes.
2. The Non-B visa. The Foreign Ministry's visa list of 31 August 2026 asks for five things: your passport, a recent photo, proof of where you are, ฿30,000 in funds, and the approval letter (or your current work permit when you renew). The visa is single entry, valid 3 months, for a stay of up to 90 days. Washington charges US$80 and takes applications through the e-Visa site only. Some embassies still ask for the company's papers as well, so read your embassy's page.
3. Or change visa in Thailand. If you are already here on a visa exemption or a tourist visa, you can change to a Non-B at immigration with more than 15 days of your stay left and no overstay, for ฿2,000, in person, with a long file from the employer: its registration, accounts, three months of payroll returns listing its Thai staff, photos of the workplace, and your degree translated and legalised.
4. The work permit. Since 13 October 2025 you apply and pay on e-WorkPermit, then book one of 54 service centres to give your face, iris or fingerprints. You file form บต.25 with your passport, visa, degree or proof of experience, an original medical certificate and photos; the employer adds its employment certificate (บต.46) and company papers, with Thai translations. The permit is ready 3 days after a complete file (10 working days if it is sent for checks), runs up to 2 years, and you collect it in person.
5. Tell the department within 15 days. Once you start, report your employer, workplace and main job within 15 days, and again whenever you change employer. Missing it can cost up to ฿20,000.

A permit running beyond a year is charged again at the same rates for the extra time. Apply to renew in the 30 days before it expires; you may keep working while the renewal is decided. A lost permit is replaced within 15 days of the loss, with a police report and a ฿100 fee. The Department of Employment allowed paper filing at the provincial office for system errors until 28 January 2026; check its news page before relying on paper.

Staying on: the yearly extension#

With the permit you extend your stay at Chiang Mai Immigration for up to a year at a time, for ฿1,900, under clause 2.1 of Immigration Bureau Order 12/2568 (23 January 2025). This is where most small employers fail: the order asks for at least ฿2 million of paid-up capital, audited accounts showing a real, continuing business, four regular Thai employees for each foreigner, and a monthly salary that depends on your nationality.

The order names "Eastern European countries" at ฿35,000 but Europe as a whole at ฿50,000, and lists no countries. Ask Chiang Mai Immigration which line applies to you, and plan on ฿50,000 until it confirms.

• Representative offices, regional offices and branches of multinationals are spared the capital and audit tests and need only one Thai employee per foreigner.
• Certified startups and 18 government-targeted industries need ฿1 million of registered capital, a ฿50,000 salary for any nationality and one Thai per foreigner (for a startup, once it is five years old).
• BOI-promoted companies and government bodies are certified by the agency instead of being tested.
• The file includes Immigration's own employment certificate, the work permit, the company's registration and shareholder list certified within 6 months, its latest accounts, three months of payroll tax returns naming you, a map, and photos of the workplace.
• Every year you also file the 90-day report, and your landlord files the TM30 for your address.

In Chiang Mai#

The work permit is handled by the Chiang Mai Provincial Employment Office in the Central Administration Building of City Hall on Chotana Road, Chang Phueak (053-112-744, LINE @doecmi, cmi@doe.go.th, as of October 2026); no official page gives its opening hours or the address of Chiang Mai's biometric centre, so call first. The visa change and the extension are made at Chiang Mai Immigration on Airport Road. The BOI's one-stop centre for visas and permits is in Bangkok and serves only BOI, SMART and LTR cases.

Chiang Mai immigration office

The two counters, what each handles, booking, the ฿1,900 extension and what to bring.

Read the immigration office guide

The other routes#

The special routes change the visa and the paperwork but never remove the need for permission. Teachers add a Teachers' Council permit, a spouse of a Thai keeps the marriage extension and adds a work permit, LTR holders other than remote workers can get a digital permit, SMART holders get one or need none, and the DTV allows no Thai work at all.

Teachers#

A foreign teacher at a school needs a Non-B for teaching, a work permit, and a Teachers' Council (Khurusapha) licence or temporary permit. The school applies for the temporary permit, not the teacher: ฿1,000 per foreign teacher, a result within 15 working days, with your Non-B stamp, degree and transcript, a contract with at least 30 days left and your timetable (Khurusapha manual, January 2026). From the second permit you must show the Council's 7-module course or a certified graduate diploma or master's. The full five-year licence costs ฿500 and needs a recognised degree and a year of assessed teaching practice. For language and tutoring schools, Immigration's and the Private Education Commission's document lists ask for no Teachers' Council licence, but the Non-B and the work permit still apply.

Spouses of Thais#

Married to a Thai, you can work with a work permit while extending your stay on the marriage clause (2.18 of Order 12/2568), which has its own money test, ฿40,000 a month, ฿400,000 held in a Thai bank for two months, or both combined, on a foreign husband or, in a marriage of persons of diverse genders, on either spouse; and no employer test. Your employer still needs the Department of Employment's approval. Lighter capital rules for spouses are often mentioned, but we found them in no official text, so ask the Chiang Mai Provincial Employment Office.

Your own company#

A company is foreign when foreigners hold 50% or more of it, and the Foreign Business Act then decides what it may do: List 1 (land trading, farming and more) is closed, List 2 needs a minister's permission and List 3 a licence. BOI promotion and treaties, mainly the US Treaty of Amity, give certificates instead. As the founder you still need a Non-B, a work permit and the yearly extension with its ฿2 million, four Thai staff and salary tests. For a certified startup, a SMART S visa needs no work permit for that business. Ask a lawyer before choosing a structure.

BOI, LTR and SMART#

Staff of BOI-promoted companies get permits through the BOI. LTR holders who work for a Thai entity apply for a digital permit of up to five years, ฿100 to apply and ฿3,000 a year, and may work while it is pending; their employers are exempt from the four-Thai-staff rule. Work-from-Thailand professionals, whose employer is abroad, get none. SMART T needs a Thai employment contract and at least ฿100,000 a month, and the BOI says remote workers without a Thai contract are not eligible.

Remote work#

Remote work for an employer or clients abroad is what the DTV and the LTR work-from-Thailand category are built for, but Thai law has no remote-work exemption: the definition of work has no location test, and we found no Department of Employment ruling on it (searched October 2026). Thai clients, a Thai employer, or selling to people in Thailand need a work permit, which neither visa can carry.

• The Foreign Ministry built the DTV for remote workers, digital nomads and freelancers. The Kota Bharu consulate asks for a contract with an employer abroad that generates no income in Thailand, and the Budapest embassy says DTV holders may not get a work permit, work for Thai companies or freelance for Thai clients.
• The BOI says it grants no work permit to LTR work-from-Thailand professionals, because their employer is abroad.
• No official text addresses remote work on a tourist, retirement or Thailand Privilege stay.
• On 16 June 2026 Chiang Mai Immigration arrested a DTV holder in Hang Dong for selling amulets to Chinese buyers online, as working without a permit.
• Income from work done in Thailand is taxable whether it is paid in Thailand or abroad.

DTV visa Thailand

The five-year visa for remote workers and soft-power courses: who qualifies, the ฿500,000, fees by embassy and the work limits.

Read the DTV guide

Volunteering and retirement#

Unpaid volunteering at a registered charity, with at most meals and lodging, is not work under the labour law, according to Thailand's Council of State. A stipend or allowance to live on makes it work. If the volunteering is the reason for your visa or extension, Immigration's current rules still ask for a work permit, so ask the organisation and the Chiang Mai Provincial Employment Office before you start.

The question started in Chiang Mai. In 2018 the province had about 231 foundations and about 1,200 foreign volunteers, and on 7 August 2018 about 80 of them and their foundations petitioned the governor because Immigration wanted work permits for their extensions. The Council of State's opinion of March 2019 called that demand inconsistent with the decree, but Order 12/2568 (clause 2.21) still lists a copy of the work permit for charity and NGO extensions. The entry visa for volunteering is the Non-O (volunteer): 90 days, single entry, US$80 in Washington, with a letter from the government body that oversees the organisation. Volunteers who teach need a Non-B.

A retirement stay does not allow work: the Foreign Ministry issues the O-A on condition that "employment of any kind" is prohibited, and a stay used for another purpose ends. No official text says whether a retiree may volunteer while extending on the retirement clause, so ask Immigration first. The only route open to retirees that can carry a work permit is the LTR, as a wealthy pensioner or a wealthy global citizen, with an employment certificate from a Thai employer.

Working without a permit: the penalties#

Since 2018 a foreigner who works without a permit, or in a closed job, faces a fine of ฿5,000 to ฿50,000, removal from Thailand after paying, and no work permit for two years. The employer pays ฿10,000 to ฿100,000 for each foreign worker. Many English pages still quote the much harsher penalties of the 2017 text, which the 2018 amendment replaced.

Tax and social security#

A permit puts you on a Thai payroll. You are a tax resident after more than 180 days in Thailand in a year, the employer withholds income tax from your salary, and pay for work done in Thailand is taxable wherever it is paid. Social Security (section 33) covers employees aged 15 to 60 with no nationality condition: 5% from you and 5% from the employer on a wage of up to ฿17,500, so at most ฿875 a month since 1 January 2026.

After you leave the job, you can keep Social Security under section 39 for ฿432 a month if you paid for at least 12 months and apply within 6 months. Section 40 needs Thai nationality or certain Thai-issued ID numbers, so it is closed to passport holders.

Health insurance in Thailand for foreigners

Social Security, Thai and international policies with their own prices by age, and what Chiang Mai hospitals charge.

Read the health insurance guide