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Overstay & Illegal Employment Targeted by Thai Immigration

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing overstay and unlawful employment here in the Kingdom; that is working without a Work Permit here in Thailand. 

It recently came to my attention a couple of things. An article I found in the Chiang Mai Times, and the article is titled 10 French Nationals Arrested For Running a Call Center Scam. Quoting directly, "Thailand’s Immigration Police have arrested 10 French Nationals for allegedly operating an illegal Call Center in Bangkok. All of the 10 French suspects were found inside a rental house in Bangkok's Thonglor area." Quoting further:  "The suspects used the office as a Call Center luring companies in France and Belgium to use their Accounting & Tax Services.  They are charged with working without permits and also operating an illegal Call Center. Furthermore, their behavior raised suspicions as they arrived at 3 p.m. and left the house around 9 p.m." Quoting further: "Biometric screening has above all helped the Bureau arrest a number of suspects traveling on false documents."  So they also noted below that there were some other issues but I think that that is noted within the context of this article because I suspect all those folks will be biometrically scanned. So fingerprints, facial recognition will be done and I suspect after these folks are kicked out of Thailand, they are probably not going to be able to get back in. 

In another article and we will go ahead and put this one up on the screen. I can show that to you because I went ahead and pulled it from the print edition of the Bangkok Post.  This article is titled: Marathon Overstayer Caught. Quoting directly: "A French National was taken in to custody in Samut Prakarn on Friday for staying in the country illegally for nearly two thousand days Police said yesterday". Quoting further: "Those found to have overstayed their visas for more than 5 years will be banned from entering Thailand for 10 years, Police said." I am just noticing now that coincidentally both of these articles involve French Nationals. I am not trying to single them out. I am just noticing that now. It is a coincidence that both of these articles involve French nationals.

What I want to point out with this is, it seems to me that the priority with respect to Immigration enforcement presently is focusing on over stayers and focusing on those who are working illegally. I think illegally working in Thailand is going to be something that is going to be focused on a lot more in the year 2020 as compared to 2019, 2018 and 2017. As I have noted in previous videos on this channel, the prior Head of Immigration was concerned with really big rounds up of over stayers and those who were in the country illegally or on false documentation and a lot of people were rounded up and a lot of people were kicked out of Thailand and many of those people's records were kept biometrically so that when they tried to return they have been found and turned around; they have been precluded from entering the Kingdom. So a lot of those folks got rounded up in wide swaths and we have seen them deported.

Now it looks like Immigration is taking much more of a for lack of a better term a more pinpointed approach. They are dealing with more acute problems; again you know substantially long over stayers like 2,000 days and those who are illegally working. Working illegally in Thailand is a major issue. There are restrictions on the occupations foreigners can undertake in Thailand. There are also serious and stiff penalties for working in Thailand without any sort of permit.

So those who are looking to work in Thailand, it is a good idea to look at the information associated with getting for example a Thai Business Visa. Maybe it could be necessary to set up a Thai company, register a corporation here in Thailand and then subsequent to that, go ahead and obtain a Work Permit or get a job with reputable company that will provide a Work Permit in association with one's employment here in Thailand as being arrested for Work Permit violation and deported is not a very fun prospect and I suspect that these individuals in question will probably not be coming back to Thailand anytime soon.