Work permit vs Non-B visa: which do you need first?

The short answer: the Non-Immigrant “B” visa comes first, the work permit second. They are two separate documents from two separate ministries, and you need both before you can legally do a single day of work in Thailand — paid or unpaid.

The longer answer is what this guide covers: how the famous chicken-and-egg problem is actually solved (a pre-approval letter called the WP.3), the step-by-step sequence for a first-time arrival, what your Thai company must have in place before it can sponsor anyone, and the digital work permit system that replaced the paper “blue book” in late 2025. Everything below is current as of June 2026.

Two documents, two ministries, two different jobs

The Non-B visa (short for Non-Immigrant visa category “B”, for business and employment) is issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through a Thai embassy or consulate abroad. It controls exactly one thing: your right to enter and stay in Thailand. It does not give you any right to work.

The work permit is issued by the Department of Employment, which sits under the Ministry of Labour, only after you have entered Thailand on the right visa. It controls the opposite thing: your right to perform a described job for a named employer. It does not give you any right to stay in the country.

Because each document covers only its own function, you always need both, and they are renewed and managed separately. If your permitted stay lapses, the work permit is useless; if the job ends, the extension of stay built on that job falls away too.

The chicken-and-egg problem — and the WP.3 letter that solves it

First-timers often hit an apparent paradox. The embassy wants evidence that you genuinely have approved work waiting in Thailand before it issues a Non-B. The Department of Employment will only issue a work permit once you are already in Thailand on that Non-B. So which comes first?

The answer is the WP.3 pre-approval letter. Before you travel, your Thai employer files Form WP.3 with the Office of Foreign Workers Administration at the Department of Employment. Processing takes roughly two weeks, and the letter confirms that the authorities have pre-approved your future work permit. It is a pre-approval only — not the permit itself, and never a substitute for it.

Most Thai embassies require the WP.3 (or equivalent pre-approval) for first-time employment-based Non-B applications and will reject a file without it, though practice varies from post to post. The letter is typically valid for about one month, so book your travel promptly: you need to enter Thailand and complete the work permit while it is still fresh.

Step by step: from job offer to a one-year stay

Here is the full first-arrival sequence as it works in 2026, for both employees and hands-on directors of Thai companies.

1. The company gets its house in order. Registered capital, Thai staff ratio, and up-to-date tax and social security filings — see the prerequisites section below. Nothing else moves until this is right.
2. The employer files the WP.3. Around two weeks of processing; the letter is then valid for about one month.
3. You apply for a single-entry Non-B at a Thai embassy or consulate abroad, attaching the WP.3 and company documents. On arrival, a single-entry Non-B gives you a permitted stay of up to 90 days.
4. You enter Thailand. Since 1 May 2025 there is no paper TM.6 departure card — you complete the TDAC, the Thailand Digital Arrival Card, before travel. Keep the TDAC number; you will need it later for online 90-day reports.
5. The work permit is applied for and issued in-country. Applications now run through the e-Work Permit system (more on this below). Government fees are modest: THB 100 to apply, plus THB 750, 1,500 or 3,000 depending on whether the permit runs up to three months, six months or one year. Only once the permit is issued may you start work.
6. You extend your stay to one year. Before the initial 90 days run out, you apply at the Immigration Bureau for a one-year extension of stay based on employment. In practice the decision takes one to two months, during which you remain in Thailand on an interim stamp.

One caveat on the extension: if you leave Thailand without first buying a re-entry permit, a single-entry extension of stay is voided the moment you fly out. It is a cheap document and a brutally expensive mistake.

What Immigration checks at the extension stage

The one-year extension is where the Immigration Bureau looks hardest at both you and the company. Under Immigration Bureau Order 327/2557, your salary must meet a nationality-based minimum: THB 50,000 per month for nationals of Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan; THB 45,000 for South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong; THB 35,000 for most other Asian countries, Eastern Europe, Russia and Central/South America; and THB 25,000 at the bottom of the scale.

The company must also show real substance: audited financial statements, the PND.50 corporate income tax return, PP.30 VAT returns, the PP.20 VAT certificate, a shareholder list, and revenue that plausibly covers the foreign salaries it pays. A company that exists only on paper will not carry an extension. (If your books are shaky, fix them first — our note on common Thai audit mistakes explains where companies usually trip.)

What your company needs before it can sponsor anyone

For an ordinary (non-promoted) Thai company, the Department of Employment and Immigration apply two headline tests per foreigner, not per company:

• THB 2 million in fully paid-up registered capital for each work permit. This drops to THB 1 million if the foreigner is married to a Thai national and can show the marriage certificate. A company is generally capped at 10 permits, unless it paid at least THB 3 million in corporate income tax last year or employs 100 or more Thai staff.
• Four full-time Thai employees for each work permit. Two foreigners means eight Thai staff, and so on.

How do officials verify the four Thai employees? Through the company’s monthly PND.1 withholding-tax returns and Social Security Fund records. This is why the sponsoring company’s filing record genuinely blocks or unblocks applications: a few late or missing PND.1 or SSO filings, and the work permit or extension stalls until the paperwork is cured.

If you are planning headcount and payroll around these ratios, the wider rules for employing staff are summarised in our guide to Thai labour law in 2026.

BOI companies: still much easier, no longer a blank cheque

Companies promoted by the Board of Investment (BOI) are exempt from the THB 2 million capital rule and the 4:1 Thai-staff ratio. They also process visas and work permits through the e-Expert / Single Window system and the One Stop Service Centre, typically in one to three working days — a different universe from the standard track.

But as of 2026 the BOI route comes with its own conditions. Under BOI Announcement Por. 8/2568 — effective 1 October 2025 for new projects and 1 January 2026 for existing ones — BOI companies must pay minimum salaries by position: THB 150,000 per month for executives, THB 75,000 for management, engineers, IT specialists and researchers (reduced to THB 50,000 with a relevant bachelor’s degree), and THB 50,000 for operational specialists such as technicians and supervisors, and other tiers besides. Manufacturing companies with more than 100 employees must also keep at least a 70% Thai workforce.

So the honest framing is: BOI promotion removes the capital and ratio hurdles, but it now imposes salary floors of its own. If you are weighing promotion, our overview of BOI-promoted activities in 2026 is the place to start.

After you settle in: 90-day reporting

Once you are on a long stay, you must tell Immigration where you live every 90 days using form TM.47. This is purely an address notification — it does not extend, renew or otherwise touch your visa. The window runs from 15 days before the due date to 7 days after; miss it and the fine is THB 2,000 (up to THB 5,000 if you are actually arrested over it).

The first report is made in person; from the second report onwards you can file online at the Immigration Bureau’s TM.47 portal. In 2026 the online system asks for your TDAC digital arrival card number — another reason to keep that confirmation from the day you landed.

The digital work permit: what changed in 2025–2026

The biggest recent development is the Ministry of Labour’s e-Work Permit platform, which went live nationwide on 13 October 2025. Employers register and verify their identity through the ThaiID mobile app, and new work permits are issued not as the old paper “blue book” but as a credit-card-sized digital Work Permit ID with a QR code. Existing blue books remain valid until they expire; statutory fees did not change with digitalisation.

The transition has been bumpy. Because of technical problems, the Department of Employment has repeatedly extended manual paper filing — most recently to 28 July 2026 — but only where the applicant can show proof of a technical issue with the online system. Companies eligible for the Rapid Process may file either way without proof. As of June 2026, expect the online route to be the default and paper the documented exception.

The mistakes that actually get people fined

Thai law defines “work” very broadly: any physical or mental activity, whether or not you are paid. That definition drives the two classic traps.

• Working on a tourist visa or visa-exempt entry. Running your business from a beach café, managing renovations on a property, “helping out” unpaid at a friend’s company — all of it is illegal work without a permit.
• The director trap. A foreign director with signing authority who signs company documents, attends management meetings or directs staff while physically in Thailand is working and needs a work permit. Authorities treat signing tax filings and audited financial statements as work. The accepted workaround for genuinely non-resident directors is to sign abroad, with notarisation and legalisation through a Thai embassy.
• Treating the 90-day report as a visa renewal. It is not — your extension of stay has its own expiry date and its own renewal process.
• Leaving without a re-entry permit and voiding a hard-won extension of stay.

The penalties are real. Under the current law (the Emergency Decree on Management of Foreigners’ Work, as amended in 2018), a foreigner working without a permit faces a fine of THB 5,000–50,000, deportation and a two-year ban on new work permits — the prison term for the worker was abolished in 2018, but deportation plus a ban is career-ending in Thailand. The employer faces THB 10,000–100,000 per illegally employed worker, rising to THB 50,000–200,000 per worker, possible one-year imprisonment and a three-year hiring ban for repeat offences.

If you want the whole sequence handled — WP.3, embassy file, permit, extension and the calendar of reports — that is exactly what our work permit and business visa service does, with the accounting side kept in lockstep so filings never block your application.

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This article is general guidance — not legal or tax advice. If you'd like a scoped opinion on how it applies to your specific situation, contact our team.