Effective 21 December 2009, the application fee for a work-permit in Thailand rose by 600%.

There are two fees to be paid for a work-permit in Thailand, an application fee, and a successor issuance fee.  The former is controlled and set by the Work Permit Section of the Employment Division of the Ministry of Labour.  The latter is controlled and set by the Cabinet under Parliamentary approval via the Working of Aliens Act.

Resetting the issuance fee requires both cabinet and parliamentary approval, and amendment of the Working of Aliens Act.  As such, any changes are subject to public scrutiny and judgement all the way through the approval process.  This affords the opportunity for public, business, and organisational comment and criticism, as well as lobbying and media scrutiny of the justification for any cost increase.

During past proposals for increases to the issuance fee, prime critics have included the Immigration Police Division (the issuers and enforcers of visa extensions and changes), as well as Thai-located Foreign Chambers of Commerce, Consulates, and Embassies.   With this pressure, the issuance fee has only increased once in the last fifteen years (in 2002 from Thai Baht 1,000 per annum to 3,000 per annum).

The application fee was introduced without announcement in 2004.  It falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Labour and is not included within the Working of Aliens Act, therefore does not seem to require either Cabinet or Parliamentary scrutiny and approval, nor to undergo public comment and consultation prior to any changes being introduced.  When it was introduced, due to lack of public announcement, it was widely seen as a form of official “tea money” – the polite name for bribery – most especially due to the then fee being only Thai Baht 100.

As a Christmas present to the foreign working community, the Ministry of Labour increased the application fee (payable whether or not your application is successful) from 100 Baht to 600 Baht.

The Ministry is in a tight spot …

News reports, late last year, revealed a reverse-migration of transient and migrant workers back to their home countries for varying reasons, including Thailand’s internal and border troubles, the global economy, and increasing anti-foreigner sentiment apparent in foreign-public belief (whether true or not).  The Labour Ministry has to maintain offices and staff in all Thai provinces, and the costs for these have not decreased due to a reduction in “foreigner customers” for their services.  Economic effects and a general tourism decline have increased the Ministry’s Thai-nationals customer-base, inflationary pressures are driving operational costs upwards at the same time.  Overall employment-office costs would appear to be rising.

With a smaller foreign-customer base, and increasing costs, the fee increase may therefore be higher than it would have been had the number of domestic and foreign customers remained unchanged.  It is certain that had the increase been levied on the success fee, the increase itself, and the overall revenue from it, would have been smaller due to public pre-scrutiny and pressure.

The foreigners’ work-permit application fee is also paid by unsuccessful applicants, and is therefore a two-tier windfall for the Ministry, which gains from failed applications as well as the fee-increase.  Because re-application is permitted and encouraged, some foreigners are voicing opinion that this will lead to falsely rejected applications, in order to increase departmental revenues – such is the lack of trust in government offices amongst some groups of the foreign community.  However, there is marginal justification for these fears based on news from November 2009, which is related below.