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Business Visa Extensions for Thai Amity Treaty Company Owners

Transcript of the above video:

In this video we are discussing B Visas also known as Business Visa extensions here in the Kingdom. Specifically we are discussing these in the context of those who own and operate an Amity Treaty Company here in the Kingdom. 

Now I want to go ahead and preface this by saying we are talking specifically in this video about those who own and work in their Amity Company and therefore have a Work Permit

There is another video on this channel we have made contemporaneously with this one where we discuss those who are simply owners. You can say they are sort of passive owners or passive owners or directors of an Amity Company and there are some different considerations with respect to those kind of folks. With respect to this video, those who operate or own their Amity company here in the Kingdom. They go ahead and obtain a Work Permit and then it is very possible to go ahead and extend their Business Visa for a relatively prolonged period of time, into the foreseeable future if they have a going concern with respect to their company and how it operates in the Kingdom. 

Now the thing that is interesting with respect to this issue is Amity Companies are kind of interesting because they are granted national treatment pursuant to the provisions of the US-Thai Treaty of Amity. Therefore, American citizens are allowed to own their companies nearly outright or it can be 100% American owned and be treated in the same fashion legally as a Thai Company pursuant to the national treatment provisions of the Amity Treaty itself. So basically there is this weird limbo especially for new Amity treaty startups, wherein the folks that are seeking their visa and things are having to sign documents and do things in kind of a catch-22 manner; there are some "cart before the horse" kind of issues that come up. In the past especially, one had to have legal work status in order to sign off on certain kinds of documentation. As time has gone by, they have restricted certain aspects, especially directorial signature requirements, specifically they have lightened up on whether or not they consider that actually work or needing a work permit for all of that, but yes Amity treaty companies can be a bit tricky and timing of various corporate activity can be very important because doing one thing out of turn can cause something else to have a problem because the individual in question can't sign for it because they are not yet work authorized. So you know dealing with that is an issue. Once work authorization is issued in the form of a Work Permit here in the Kingdom then that individual can go ahead and see B Visa extension here in the Kingdom based on the fact that they are working for a company in Thailand and that company is granted national treatment and therefore it is as if they are working for a Thai Company.

So The Amity Treaty provides many benefits to Americans not least of which is the ability to basically own their own company but it also allows that individual to in a sense be somewhat more a master their own destiny with respect to their immigration status as they can basically be self-employed and thereby sponsor their own visa and their own visa extension to maintain their status here in the Kingdom of Thailand.