Wanderlust: Expat Life & Style in Thailand June / July 2017: The Business Issue | Page 45

GPS Legal and Consulting
and responsibilities of either of those
roles while in Thailand, you are con-
sidered working. In Thailand, getting
paid a wage or salary is irrelevant —
even volunteer or charity work re-
quires a work permit.
Once your business is registered,
make sure you have the company
sponsor a work permit on your behalf,
allowing you to work and receive a sala-
ry legally. The authorities are very strict
about this policy, and if you are caught
working without a permit, you will be
immediately jailed and deported.
In most cases, you must submit your
application for a work permit to the
Ministry of Labor and obtain a pre-ap-
proval letter. The approval process takes
approximately 10 days after submitting
the completed application, which can
take a week on its own to prepare.
Once you have obtained the letter,
you are required to apply for a prelim-
inary, 90-day Non-Immigrant “B” visa
from an overseas Thai embassy or con-
sulate. You may not apply for a “Non-B”
visa from within Thailand. The letter
from the Ministry of Labor will be re-
quired in order to obtain this prelimi-
nary business visa for work purposes.
While any overseas embassy or con-
sulate will accept the visa application,
GPS Legal recommends the following
regional embassies and consulates for
a more streamlined process:
¬ ¬ Singapore
¬ ¬ Hong Kong
¬ ¬ Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
¬ ¬ Penang, Malaysia
Once back in Thailand on your new-
ly-granted visa, you must collect your
work permit. Subsequently, in the last
thirty days of your 90-day visa, you
may apply for a 1-year extension of
your business visa.
The whole process can be over-
whelming, and it helps to have an
experienced law firm guiding you
throughout. GPS Legal understands
all the intricacies and can aid you
through the entire preliminary visa,
work permit and visa extension doc-
ument preparation and application
process, without any hassles.
creative muscles once more by build-
ing on your marketing and advertis-
ing efforts. You might want to begin
with a launch party, and you should
have a press release ready to intro-
duce relevant magazines and blog-
gers to your business. You could also
enquire about running an editorial
or an advertorial to generate more
exposure.
DID YOU KNOW?
The average journalist receives
50 press releases every week
and spends less than one
minute reading each one?
A good press release should
grab the interest of the reader
from the headline down,
encouraging them to cover the
topic further, and should ideally
lead to a follow-up article.
Once you’ve got a buzz going, keep
up the momentum by being active on
social media. Depending on your prod-
uct or service, it might also be a good
idea to keep a company blog where you
share your knowledge to help estab-
lish yourself as expert in what you do
or what your product does. This could
be an essential tool as your business
grows, with the majority of marketing
tactics now built upon content. Experts
suggest that company blogs are key to
your marketing jetpack, outpacing re-
search reports, newsletters and white
papers in terms of realized results.
And don’t forget the importance
of networking beyond the computer.
Bangkok has a number of business net-
working groups and events happening
all around the city. Now that your com-
pany is up and running, building rela-
tionships with other business people
will become one of the most important
aspects of life as an entrepreneur.

When you’re launching a busi-
ness, there’s so much to do in the
beginning. A trusted law firm with
knowledgeable attorneys and busi-
ness consultants who have practical,
hands-on experience, such as those
at GPS Legal, can help you launch
your company in Thailand, so you
can get back to what matters to you:
Growing your business.
GPS
L EGAL &
C ONSULTING
CONTACT
GPS LEGAL &
CONSULTING
GPS
L EGAL &
C ONSULTING
4/F Srisothorn Place
47 Sukhumvit Soi 23
Wattana, Bangkok 10110
Thailand
T: [phone]
F: [phone]
enquiries@gps-legalcon-
sulting.com
12
PROMOTING
YOUR
BUSINESS
Congratulations! Your business is
now live. This is the time to flex those
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