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Do I Need a Work Permit to Work Online in Thailand?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Work Permits and a question that pops up; people ask me this almost casually on the street if you will or I will be somewhere out with friends or something and people will just kind of pose this question to me and they say "Do I really need a work permit if I am working online?" you know in the sort of digital age wherein there are people that really do most of their work online. They either work remotely for a company or an organization for example in the United States or the UK, in Europe anywhere, and they are working online and they can do it any place. Meanwhile, there are other folks that are like online entrepreneurs. They have their own companies, they may run a website, they may have some sort of business online and the question that is often asked is "Do I need a work permit if I am here in Thailand doing this? I am sort of working remotely." and the thinking seems to be at a paradigm if you will. It is sort of “well, I am not really working in Thailand!” It is a tough question. It comes down to kind of the semantics or a more pedantic approach to what is work? I think ultimately the safest answer is YES. Any type of workout activity, the Ministry of Labour and the labour regulations are pretty clear. You need to have a work permit. Now I understand people watching this video will say, "Well how are they going to catch me?" yes, I understand. The enforcement capability may not be there but that being stated, if one is found to have some other issue with immigration and it is also found that those individuals are also working in Thailand without proper authorization, that can compound an already big enough problem sometimes. Also, it should be noted that Immigration is getting better and Labor Department is getting better and they are more coordinated. Whereas once it was kind of easy to fly under the radar, more and more it is not and the enforcement apparatus is becoming much more sophisticated. 

So, the thing to take away from this video, Yes strictly speaking if one is working in Thailand, they need a work permit and if that individual or individuals is found to be working illegally, that could result in them being fined and possibly deported and possibly blacklisted from returning to Thailand.