I know of a few sites for teaching, but wondered if members had any other links for an experienced ESL teacher and IELTS examiner. Thinking of returning to live in BKK.

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How much do farangs make in Bangkok? English teachers, and other occupations? A farang in a sauna who teaches English told me that it's very hard to get a work permit for other than an English teaching job--unless you get into a big international company (Thailand does not want farangs taking up jobs in Thailand).

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That farang was very wrong. Work permits are very, very easy. It's finding a job that's the hard part, because farangs are so expensive and there are so many qualified Thais out there who are so much less expensive.

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...qualified in what???? Sorry, I could not resist..he,he!

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Not sure I get it.

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" ......How much do farangs make in Bangkok? English teachers, and other occupations? A farang in a sauna who teaches English told me that it's very hard to get a work permit for other than an English teaching job--unless you get into a big international company (Thailand does not want farangs taking up jobs in Thailand)."



1. As ICON rightly pointed out, getting the work permit is not difficult, getting a good position is difficult, and you must have a contract of employment before you and your employer can apply for your work permit.

2. Salary for farangs? How long is a piece of string? Depends on the outputs expected from the job and the knowlegde, skills and experience needed. I'm aware of farang paid up to around 250,000BAht a month after tax, and maybe there are farang being paid even higher. These amounts are rare, for jobs where the person is seen as one of perhaps a very small handfull of world experts in very complex engineeering fields, etc.

English teachers? Again, how long is a piece of string, salary in this job varies enormously, perhaps at the low end mickey mouse schools just 20,000 a month and perhaps also without a work permit, and perhaps no guaranteed salary at all.

Highly qualified / highly experience English tutors in Thai universities can earn well over 100,000Baht a month but many universities expect a masters degree in English and in teaching English, some even require a Ph.D. Usually comes with a small guaranteed salary and work permit, with additional teaching hours which can quite lucrative.

3. Like pretty much all countries, Thailand has a list of occupations which must be filled by Thai nationals and foreigners are not allowed to work in these occupations.

4. Go to Thaivisa.com/forum and explore the comprehensive threads there on this subject.

5 "(Thailand does not want farangs taking up jobs in Thailand)." Why do you say that?

Where did you get this gem?

There are in fact several hundred thousand foreigners (Caucasians, Singaporeans, Chinese, Japanese, French, Germans, etc., etc.) working in Thailand and most probably have a work permit, because working without a work permit is definitely not advisable.

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I know farangs who make over a million baht a month.

Most of them work for multinationals who brought them over as expats.

It is very difficult to find a job when you're in Thailand. The big companies bring their own people in from other places, mostly as a perk or reward.

It is very difficult to find a decent job here. There are almost never any help wanted advertisements that are looking for non-Thai nationals.

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What about the farangs who start small business here? I know some who operate businesses and still have to make visa runs to stay legal in Thailand.

In other Farang owned business (eg real estate) I've been told farang who work in the business as sales staff cant even make photo copies of docs - that must be done by Thai employees.

What sort of visa allows you to operate a business and employ Thais legitimately?

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Hi Guys, you need to have a company that employs 4 or more Thai nationals to get 1 work permit for a farang.Some occupations are restricted to Thais. But being a director of a company has a pretty wide interpretation. Just make sure you have a trustworthy Thai business partner, the language barrier is quite a big one! If you employ a legal firm that gives you english translation of the company documents it is much easier to follow through...and then be ready to deal with Thai employees...the end of the month usually brings in some instant resignation that you won;t be aware of until the next day! when they don;t show up...สบายๆ(sabaye sabaye!)

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Yes, minimum of four Thai employees. They don't have to be real if you're a Thaiphobe. On the books is good enough.

As for restrictions on making photocopies, that's the most ridiculous thing I've heard so far today.
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Agree with ICON.

If you have a work permit then you can basically do whatever tasks are needed to achieve the objectives of the position stated on the work permit (meaning of course a position which is NOT reserved for Thai nationals).

Actually there is a lot of totally wrong / misinterpreted / third hand information floating around about work permits which is why I suggested that the OP go to Thaivisa.com/forum and then search the easy to find threads with full and fully accurate information.

One point I will add, beware of high cost lawyers who will tell you that gaining a work permit is extremely complex and a layman cannot navigate the documents, the procedures, discussions and complex negotiations with the Labor Ministry officials, etc etc. It's all total crap.

Example, the first year I got a work permit to work when I changed jobs to a major consulting company (about 14 years ago) my Thai admin manager was very determined (for status reasons) to use a very high profile international law firm.

They quoted over 100,000Baht to gain the initial permit and 50,000 for annual renewal. I had to basically gag her to stop her proceding.

In fact it was issued using a farang operated professional business agency, and the initial quote for the permit plus the visa was about 8,000Baht . They reduced that fee by about 40% (if my memory is correct) because I have Permanent Resident status therefore a visa was not needed.

The high profile international law firm refused to acknowledge that the visa was not needed and claimed the amount of work / negotiation involved was still the same. I know that the work involved is much less (less because of holding PR) because my previous employer had established this point very clearly in the past.

If anybody needs the name of the agency I mentioned (Bkk based, lots of advanced English spoken, Thai and farang staff) then please PM me.

If your in the Pattaya area I can share the name of a professional accounting company who can do most of these things with very reasonable costs, and again lots of advanced English spoken.

LATE ADDENDUMThe same company in Pattaya is well recommended for farang who have formed a company in Thailand (with the required number of Thai shareholders / required shareholding % Thai vs Farang, perhaps for the purpose of buying house and land, or whatever), and therefore need to have an accountant and auditor prepare and lodge annual accounting and audit returns etc, and annual documents to the Thai Companies Office, etc. They are very reliable, very thorough, won't engage in anything 'smelly' and their current annual fee for all of the above is around 13,000Baht which is very reasonable compared to other agencies / law companies etc.

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Thanks for advice. I am using Thailand as a base to travel around SE Asia for my business and happily using 90 day APEC entry visas. I have an excellent accounting /legal company in Jomtien who has handled all my property purchases (farang title) and can set up a Thai company and handle visa applications at reasonable cost if needed. Just a retorical question at the moment in case I decide to locate here permanently

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Ridiculous? I agree, but it's happened to me twice at different farang owned real estate agencies !

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Someone was pulling your leg.
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hmmph! you have all written about your own adventures and no-one has actually helped MEEEEEE
5555

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