Questions we are asked

Save where a sector statute or the Land Code provides otherwise, there is no general ceiling on shareholding as such. What matters is that once foreigners hold half or more, the company is itself a foreigner under the Foreign Business Act B.E. 2542 and cannot carry on any activity in the schedules without permission. The usual answers are a licence, a certificate under a treaty or free trade agreement, or BOI promotion.

Not always. The Department of Employment looks at paid-up registered capital together with the number of Thai employees. As a general rule that means two million baht of capital and four Thai employees for each foreigner. BOI-promoted companies work to a different set of criteria. These figures move with the regulations and with the officer's discretion, so check them before planning headcount.

A visa governs entry and stay and comes from an embassy or from the Immigration Bureau. A work permit governs working and comes from the Department of Employment. Someone holding a perfectly valid visa still may not work until the permit issues, and working without one carries penalties for the worker and the employer alike.

Most registration work can be done under a power of attorney, but some steps cannot. Opening the bank account is the usual one — most banks want to meet the signatory — and so is collecting a work permit in some cases. We say in advance which steps need you present, so that they can be grouped into a single trip.

As a rule, corporate or personal documents issued abroad must be certified under that country's own system and then legalised by a Thai embassy or consulate, before being translated into Thai and the translation certified in turn. This takes time and should be started before anything else, because it is usually what holds the whole matter up.

Work with a defined scope — an incorporation, a work permit — is quoted as a fixed fee per matter. Where the scope is genuinely open, as with a Foreign Business Licence, we quote a range and say what moves it. Government fees and translation costs are always separate from the professional fee and are set out in the quotation.