Visa & immigration services in Thailand
Thailand sorts foreigners by the purpose of their stay, and the rules around each purpose keep moving. We work out which category your situation actually supports, build the file that matches it, and tell you plainly which parts of the timeline are ours and which belong to an authority.
Most people arrive here with a length of stay in mind — a year, five years, indefinitely. Thai immigration does not start from that question. It starts from purpose: employment, business, study, family, investment, or simply visiting. The category you qualify for is decided by what you will be doing in the country, and the length of stay follows from it. Getting that order right is most of the work.
Asia Relocation Thailand runs that assessment before any form is filled. We look at your employment or business status, your family situation, where you are physically standing today, and — the part that decides everything — what evidence you can actually produce. Then we say which route stands up and which one will be refused. A file prepared slowly costs less than a file rejected quickly.
We work with two groups, and they need opposite things. Those still outside the country need a category confirmed and an application filed with a post abroad, on lead times nobody in Bangkok controls. Those already in Thailand need an extension granted before the current permission runs out, sometimes a conversion from one category to another, a re-entry permit before they travel, and the address reporting that runs quietly in the background for as long as they stay. Both groups are on this page.
Immigration rarely travels alone. A lease is signed against a visa, and a work permit is granted against a job that has to exist on paper. Our relocation and moving teams sit inside the same country team, so housing and shipment are planned against the immigration calendar instead of being reconciled after one of them has already slipped. If your file spans more than one country in the region, start from our regional visa & immigration hub.
Six situations, and the route each one leads to
Start from where you are rather than from a letter code. Each line names a situation; the category that fits it — and the page explaining that category — sits inside.
Working for a Thai employer
Employment takes two separate documents from two separate authorities: a Non-B visa on the immigration side, and a work permit issued by Thailand's Department of Employment. Neither covers the other, and they have to stay aligned at every renewal — a change of employer, job title or work address touches both. We assess eligibility against your employment status, prepare the company-side paperwork with your HR contact, and keep the two documents in step. Details on work permits.
Running or investing in a promoted business
Companies promoted by the Board of Investment go through a different door. Visas and work permits for promoted projects run via the One Stop Service for Visa and Work Permit, now folded into the Thailand Investment and Expat Services Center alongside the Immigration Bureau and the Department of Employment. It is a separate channel with its own document standards, open only to companies that actually hold a promotion. We handle the applications for your assignees and their families — see BOI immigration support.
Investing personally in the country
Residence built on a qualifying personal investment rather than on a job. The eligibility question comes first here, and it is the difficult part: what you intend to invest, in what form, and whether that meets the criteria as they stand on the day you apply. We assess it before opening a file, and we tell you when it does not qualify rather than filing and hoping. Details on the investment visa (IM).
Family, dependants, study and long stay
One category covering very different lives: a spouse or dependant joining a resident, a student enrolled at a Thai institution on an ED visa, and long-stay residents who are not working. The Non-Immigrant O-A issued for long stay is open from age fifty, granted for up to a year at a time, and prohibits employment of any kind — which regularly surprises people who planned to consult on the side. We match the sub-type to the arrangement you actually have. Details on B / ED / O non-immigrant visas.
Coming to look before you commit
A visitor visa is the honest answer for a scouting trip: come, walk the neighbourhoods, see the schools, meet the employer, then decide. The file itself is light — passport, itinerary, proof of accommodation, and an invitation letter where one applies. What matters is knowing when this is a bridge and when it is a dead end, because converting to a long-stay category afterwards is not available in every case. Remote workers weighing long-stay options usually start from a different profile, covered in our DTV guide. Details on the tourist visa (TR).
Already in Thailand
The half of immigration work that never appears in a relocation brochure. Extensions of stay, conversion from one category to another, re-entry permits before you leave the country, and the address notification every foreigner staying beyond ninety days owes the Immigration Bureau. These are calendar obligations rather than events: they come due whether or not anyone is watching them, and the penalty for missing one falls on you, not on your employer. We watch them. Details on additional immigration services.
Four things you have to keep current once you live here
Getting a first visa approved is a project with an end date. Keeping a status valid is not — it runs on dates you did not choose, and most of the trouble we are called in to repair started as a diary entry nobody kept.
Extensions run on your date, not on ours
Permission to stay is granted for a period and ends on a date printed in your passport. An extension is applied for before that date, with a file the immigration office accepts on the day it is presented. We start early enough that a missing bank letter is still a problem with a solution.
The 90-day report is not an extension
Anyone staying beyond ninety days must notify their address to an immigration officer every ninety days, within a short window around each due date. The authorities are explicit that this notification is in no way equivalent to a visa extension. Two obligations, two sets of consequences.
Leaving the country can end your stay
A single-entry permission is spent the moment you fly out. A re-entry permit obtained before departure is what preserves it. It is one form, taken care of ahead of the trip — and it is among the most common and most avoidable ways a valid stay is lost.
A work permit is tied to a job, not to you
It names an employer, a position and a place of work. When any of those change — a promotion, a new office, a restructure — the permit has to change with it, and the visa behind it follows. Companies that reorganise quietly tend to discover this at renewal, which is the expensive moment to discover it.
Local, accountable, and priced up front
On the ground in Bangkok
An immigration desk that deals with the offices in person and follows how requirements are being applied today, not only how they were written.
Eligibility before paperwork
We check that a route is genuinely open to you before opening a file. When it is not, we say so and propose the one that is — including when the honest answer is to wait.
One coordinator, end-to-end
The same person from the eligibility check to approval, and the same person when a renewal comes round two years later. No handovers, no re-explaining your file.
Fixed-scope pricing
You approve the route and the cost before we start. Government fees are set by the authorities and quoted separately, so the two are never blended into one number.
Dates tracked, not remembered
Extensions, permits and address reporting sit on a calendar we keep for you, so nothing lapses into overstay while you are busy doing the job you came for.
Handled in-house
Immigration, home search, coordination and moving are done by our own staff rather than passed to a broker. One team stays accountable for the whole file.
Four steps, and what each one depends on
Eligibility assessment
We review your employment or business status, your family situation, where you are standing today, and the evidence you can produce. The output is a route — or a clear reason why there isn't one yet.
Scope and quote
A written, fixed-scope proposal setting out what we do, what you supply, and what an authority decides. You approve it before anything is filed.
File preparation and filing
We assemble the documents, arrange translation and legalisation where required, and file with the right office. Applications made from outside the country go through the official Thai e-Visa system, and each post sets its own document list and lead time.
Renewals and reporting
Approval is where the calendar starts, not where it stops. We hold your dates for extensions, re-entry permits and address reporting for as long as you stay in the country.
Visa & immigration FAQ
How do you decide which route fits our situation?
Is a visa the same as permission to work?
We are already in Thailand. Can our status be changed without leaving?
Does the 90-day report extend our stay?
Why do requirements differ from one embassy or immigration office to another?
When should we start a renewal or an extension?
Can you handle a whole team, and their families?
What does your fee cover?
Visa & immigration guides for Thailand
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Read →Tell us where you stand, and we will tell you what applies
Arriving, already resident, or facing a renewal — describe the situation and Asia Relocation Thailand comes back with the route, the evidence it needs, and a fixed quote. If nothing currently fits, we will tell you that too.
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