Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are talking about staffing and we are also discussing the Thai Business Visa.

The response to COVID-19 caused a great deal of turmoil in the business community throughout the last few months. One thing that definitely happened, we saw a number of usually unintentional layoffs associated with the response to COVID-19 and this had some knock on effects for foreign nationals. In some cases they may not actually see them even yet which is generally speaking especially for Thai SMEs or small businesses in Thailand involving a foreigner, you generally need to show a ratio of 4:1 so four Thai nationals to every one foreign National in terms of employees in order to maintain a Business Visa and Work Permit here in the Kingdom of Thailand. It is this sort of ratio of 4 to 1.

In certain cases you may also have where you have a Marriage Visa acting as the platform for a Work Permit, a 2 to1 ratio so again it is going to depend greatly on circumstance but there is a staff ratio requirement. Well COVID-19 or I should say the response and the shutdown associated with it, resulted in a lot of folks being laid off and in those cases where it was a company that involved a foreign national who had a Work Permit or a Business Visa, that could be especially problematic when they looked to go renew their Business Visa and/or Work Permit. For this reason, it has been our experience that a lot of those folks are looking for ways to go ahead and rectify their status as best they can because supporting documentation in a Business Visa context is key. 

For those who are unaware or overwhelmed at how to deal with this, it may be a good idea to go ahead and contact a legal professional some insight and guidance into how best to proceed in order to keep oneself in their Business Visa status and fully maintained.