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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing work authorization specifically Work Permit pre-authorization associated with a Business Visa application outside of Thailand. We are talking about a Thai Embassy or Thai Consulate issuing a Business Visa to a foreign national to come to Thailand to do business here.  

Work Permits and work authorization along with Business Visas they are sort of inextricably linked and it can create these kind of paradoxical catch-22 situations because you sort of need one to have the other and there is this dance. But yeah one of the prerequisites, generally now this is especially the case, we didn't so much see this prior to about 5 years ago depending on the country you were using but now more and more almost every Thai Business Visa application we are seeing generally is going to require some form of work pre-authorization in the form of for example the WP3. In some cases if someone actually has an issued Work Permit, that may act as the prerequisite necessary to get the Business Visa issued. But yeah there is going to be a prerequisite of work pre-authorization, pre-authorization. This can again be a catch-22 thing because you need a Thai corporate sponsor to act as the agent to request the work pre-authorization. For those looking to be self-employed in Thailand, this can create a catch-22 situation. We often times assist a number of clients in incorporating on a very basic level a Thai company in order to go ahead and deal with work pre-authorization, in order to then apply for a Business Visa, in order to then bring them into Thailand, then get their Work Permit and then deal with their Business Visa extension and then they are sort of in regularized status here in Thailand and they can deal with that on an ongoing basis. 

But yeah at the beginning, especially if you are setting up a new company, this can be quite a convoluted process. A number of our clients we find take a lot of relief in having our assistance frankly guiding them through this rather Byzantine process. So yeah, it's definitely something that if you have never dealt with it before, to the uninitiated, somebody who has got relatively limited experience with Thailand, frankly even those old hands out here that have been in Thailand for a long period of time, find that the process of dealing with work authorization and Business Visa issuance is quite a vexing endeavour. So again, it depends on the circumstances but for the most part yeah you are going to need work pre-authorization before you are going to be able to deal with a Business Visa for the Kingdom of Thailand.