For a lot of us foreigners in Thailand, the process of obtaining a visa in Thailand is a humbling cocktail of confusion, frustration, and mountains of paperwork anointed with the ink of the official government stamps.
I have been fortunate, and with a lot of help from my colleagues and a little bit of perseverance, I’ve escaped this process unscathed (and haven’t had to go through a visa agency!)
For those working officially in Thailand who just obtained the work visa, CONGRATS… but there is no time for a premature celebration. The next step is the work PERMIT.
The work permits are under a different government agency (Ministry of Labour rather than Immigration) so the center is different and the documents required are different.
The information online (English) is not always updated and the information on the online expat forums is entertaining and can be insightful but often more colorful than what people need. The best information you can get is from personal experience.
From my experience, I’ve gone to my local Nonthaburi Department of Employment Office (housed under the Ministry of Labour) a few times. Inside the building housed a single elevator, possibly the slowest on the planet and possibly a sign of things to come as people go up to the 6th floor to apply for their work permits. Well, one time on my annual trip to renew my work permit, after waiting an absurd amount of time for the elevator to arrive and crawl up to the 6th floor, I found the entire office abandoned. No desks, no tables, no people, no announcement. After a few calls, I was finally able to learn that they relocated to an abandoned shopping mall in a space that looked like it once housed an MK Suki. The only other stores in the deserted mall was your typical photocopy/coffee hybrid shop and a few fold-up tables with vendors selling Buddhist amulets. After over a year of COVID, this temporary space is still the home of the local Department of Employment, minus the amulet vendors.
Anyways, on my most recent trip for my annual permit renewal, after finally collecting my documents I returned to the abandoned mall. The front door has been shuttered, and the only way to the office is to take a musty elevator (not slow) to the 3rd floor of the side parking garage and enter through the garage. After the staff checked my documents, they informed me that was not approved because I hadn’t used the updated form. I keep records of previous renewal documents but apparently a new form was in place.
For those keeping track, the new form is the WP 25 or “บต ๒๕” while I was still using the WP 5.
Here is the link for the new form (it says Kampaeng Phet, but it is the same form for all provinces): https://www.doe.go.th/prd/assets/upload/files/kamphaengphet_th/5dfe1aa27ae5b554850d246cd5713cb0.pdf
The differences in the forms are subtle and it felt nitpicky, but I will say that the staff are extremely kind and patient and they don’t have the power to authorize a permit renewal for someone with an outdated form.
Fortunately, the fix was easy and I returned yesterday to finish the process and get my work permit renewed.
Recommendations:
Prepare early – Make sure there is time for you to make multiple trips if necessary
Keep records of previous documents – Also keep an eye out for announcements on new forms
Be reasonable – Bottom line, is that when you are a guest in a foreign country, there are certain hoops that you have to jump through, whether you like it or not. If you are frustrated, it’s okay to be frustrated, but don’t make the staff your punching bag.