Change type of Visa is always be advised to leave Thailand.
Thailand is a popular destination for visitors, and many think that they must leave the country to alter their visas. Even if this is a typical and acceptable technique to reach your objective, it should be recognized it is possible to alter some kinds of visas without leaving the country if you have the proper documents and information.
How and why a person might arrive and then alter their visa without leaving the country is explained in this post.
1- Tourist visa to a Non-Immigrant B Visa:
In Thailand, a tourist visa allows visitors to stay for a maximum of 60 days but may be extended for an additional 30 days by applying to Thai immigration officials. You’ll pay 1,900 baht for this extension right now.
The most common reason for foreigners desiring to switch from a Tourist visa to a Non-immigrant B visa is that they have accepted a job in Thailand.
A valid non-immigrant B visa is necessary to apply for a work permit in the country. After you have changed your Tourist visa to a Non-immigrant B visa, you will be able to stay in Thailand for 90 days. If you need to leave Thailand for a business trip or to visit family, you must get a Re-entry permit from your local immigration office.
2- Leaving the country is typically recommended for most people.
In most cases, the institution or company giving work will advise the soon-to-be foreign employee to leave the country and go to one of Thailand’s neighboring countries to apply for a Non-immigrant B visa. Popular destinations include Laos, Cambodia, and Malaysia.
After leaving Thailand and entering another country, the foreigner will apply at a Royal Thai Consulate-General to change their existing visa with a Non-immigrant B visa before returning to Thailand.
They can then apply for a work permit after they have this visa in their passport.
The disadvantages of changing visa types in this way:
The main disadvantages are time and money. To get a non-immigrant B visa in this way, the visitor must:
- Pay for return travel, accommodation, and living costs while departing from their Thai base for a neighboring country.
- After departing Thailand, the Thai consulate in the destination country must wait three days before issuing a new visa.
How to change type of Visa without leaving Thailand:
It should be made clear that changing from a Tourist visa to a Non-immigrant B visa may be done without leaving the country. This requires a lot of paperwork, which must be correctly completed, a thorough understanding of the procedures, and a lot of patience.
- A must-have’ to complete this conversion:
While you may hear conflicting reports from various sources and always have a bar-room ‘lawyer’ on hand to advise you, you must ensure that your tourist visa has at least 21-30 days of validity remaining. Due to the risk of Thai immigration officials informing you that your tourist visa is about to expire, you should apply for your visa at least two weeks in advance of your arrival.
- Prioritize your application for a work permit:
For visa conversion, this may seem to be a strange step, but it is the most efficient one.
To be successful in your new position, you must have the support of the organization where you will be working or studying. However, this should not come as a surprise to them, since they should already be familiar with the job you’ll be filling. The Thai Labor Office will not complete your application if they don’t offer what you need when you need it. This means you must leave the country to get your visa.
- Non-Immigrant B visa application:
The labor office will send you a form to fill out and submit with the necessary papers for a non-immigrant B visa if your future employers have done their part and all work permit paperwork is in place.
This application must be submitted to Thailand’s Immigration Bureau.
Every piece of documentation must be accurate and thorough:
It is critical that your non-immigrant B visa application documentation is flawless and that all applicable standards are satisfied. Your application will be rejected if any of the documentation is missing, incomplete, or inaccurate
Here is your check-list:
- Employment certification form from the Thai Ministry of Labour Employment Department. It is a downloadable document. (For teachers only)
- A copy of the employment contract. This must include the start date of employment.
- A copy of the Institutes/Companies license that You’ll be working for.
- Copies of your qualifications.
- Letter from the Royal Thai Police certifying the completion of criminal background checks
- A letter from your company and a copy of the signatory’s identification card to the Thai immigration office where you are applying. This should provide confirmation that the post has been offered and accepted.
- Depending on whether you’ll be working for a public or private institution, you may be asked to submit extra paperwork. Any other paperwork should be taken care of by your company.
Acceptance of a work permit application:
Once the Thai labor office accepts your application for a work permit, they will supply you with a document that must be filled out and submitted with your non-immigrant B visa application at a Thai Immigration Bureau.
A review of all of this documentation will next follow. It will be certified and you will be given a receipt and a date on which to come to collect your non-immigrant B visa if all goes according to plan.
Once you have this, you may obtain your work permit as soon as it is available and begin your legal job in Thailand.
The Experience Of A Teacher to change Tourist Visa To A Work Visa in Thailand
This is the story of one ITA graduate who applied for a non-immigrant visa in Thailand during Covid-19. Keep in mind that the situation is changing, and each province or institution may have a different or updated method.
Because to Covid-19, the procedure of applying for a non-immigrant B visa in Thailand has altered and may be quite cumbersome. Before the pandemic, a teacher would go to a nearby country to apply for a Non-immigrant B visa. Now that the borders have been blocked, instructors are unable to employ this method.
The only option to change your tourist visa right now is inside Thailand. To do so, you’ll need the approval of the immigration department to submit 19 papers. The following are examples of needed papers and fees:
- The S. Embassy has notarized and authenticated college transcripts and degrees (The embassy in Thailand is only open by appointment and is scheduled two months in advance).
- Those documents were translated into Thai and approved by the legalization office of the Foreign Ministry of Affairs in Bangkok.
- The lease and contract for the property are written in both English and Thai.
- Multiple documents provided by your employer;
- You may get government-issued immigration papers from your landlord.
- Your 60-day visa will be extended to a 90-day visa for a fee of 1900 baht.
- 6 form issued by customs and a T.87 form from Thai Immigration.
- TEFL certification in Thai and English.
- An application form signed by your employer and witnessed by an immigration official – someone from your school must accompany you to immigration.
- Passport photos.
- An employment certification from the Thai Ministry of Labour Employment Department.
- A letter of cooperation from the Thai Ministry of Education.
- A cost of 2000 baht is required for the conversion procedure.
- Signed and multiple copies of the above forms.
- Copies of all of your passport’s pages signed.
- Each page of the above copies must have the school’s official seal stamp.
As you can see, this isn’t a comprehensive list of all the paperwork and fees needed in the conversion process. Many of these documents must be issued within a month of each other to avoid being considered void. Note that visiting any of the above-mentioned agencies is comparable to visiting the DMV in the United States. You are given a numbered ticket and must wait several hours for each service. You must get authorization from your school to be absent from work. There is a chance that your pay could suffer as a result of your missing hours. All of these documents must be submitted 15 days before your tourist visa expires. More information can be found on the immigration website here.
