Foreign Business Licence FBL
The permission a company treated as a foreigner must obtain before carrying on an activity listed in the schedules to the Foreign Business Act B.E. 2542, applied for through the Department of Business Development, the granting authority differing between List 2 and List 3, and issued for the specified activities only.
IN PRACTICE
What it means in practice
The licence is not a general permission to trade. It names the activities applied for, and work outside them is unlicensed even though the company holds a licence, so the description filed at the outset decides what the business may do for years. Two mistakes recur: assuming that any company with a foreign shareholder needs one, when only a company half or more foreign-held is treated as a foreigner at all, and a great many activities are outside the schedules besides; and treating the licence as the only route, when a treaty certificate or BOI promotion may open the same activity faster. Which route is open depends on the activity and on the shareholders' nationality.
THE TERM
The same term elsewhere
- ไทย
- ใบอนุญาตประกอบธุรกิจของคนต่างด้าว
- 简体中文
- 外国人经营企业许可证
- Governing law
- Foreign Business Act B.E. 2542 (1999)
ENQUIRIES
