When Chalong Police Station and Phuket Immigration will control at Chalong pier, early in the morning, all foreigners working illegally in the diving an boating industries as Divemasters or Dive Instructors?

Posted by Whistle-Blower on March 11, 2013 19:01

. Get legal and stay, be illegal and get out and never come back. What is so hard to understand? The country does not like nor want illegal workers without work permits.
Adhere to the law, OR the law will adhere to you !

Posted by Robin on March 11, 2013 19:06

Now go and try Nannai 1 & 2 there full of them there darn Russians and eastern Europeans, you'll not even have to chase them you'll fall over them honest .

Posted by Scunner on March 11, 2013 20:06

idiots,
phuket is not for working, its for holiday!

Posted by luttz on March 11, 2013 20:23

I wonder who reported them.

@ Whistle-blower, all the dive staff I know of which wear company shirts and are clearly working have work permits. The rest are divemaster trainees and have supporting documentation to back it up. It would be a wast of time for immigration.

Posted by NomadJoe on March 11, 2013 23:02

Lutzz. Phuket is just for holiday? What in a big traffic jam? Farangs work here legally and a lot of them. How do you think property gets sold? You are the idiot!

Posted by Bruce on March 12, 2013 01:31

Tried of whistle-blower, most of the diving Instructors have a work permit. Not all but most. Yes a crackdown would be nice since there are some without them. What about your company you use a guy name Alex, does he have one? he never wears your company shirt. So watch when you throw stones that they do not come back at you. You have eyes to see the wrong people are doing but so do many other people when you do wrong. You are not perfect so stop your ranting and raving, it's just tiring. concentrate on your doing a great job and your company being legal and let the Thai's run Thailand. They do not need help pointing things out they know the good and bad already. If they act well that is up to them.

Posted by jiminkata on March 12, 2013 06:42

I know a dozen ex pats working illegally, far more illegal than legal in fact. Kinda makes me sick with all the trouble and expense I go to to be legal. Phuket is a bad joke.

Posted by Phuketti on March 12, 2013 10:01

Wrong my friend, Alex has a work-permit since the first day he worked for us. Some competitors send already police and Immigration and we had good laugh to with them.
By the way, I would say that most diving Instructors if not all freelance Instructor in Phuket got a legal work-permit by forgery by setting up a Ltd Part with the help of greedy lawyer or accounting offices.
It cost about 30,000 Baht to make the Ltd Part and the lawyer or accounting office declare proxy Thai people as Thai Directors, Thai shareholders and the 4 Thai staffs to get a work-permit -2 in case the Instructor is legfally married with Thai spouse).
The problem is they never have 2M Baht in asset or bank garanteed to protect bankrupcy or for cheating customers and in that case the foreign Instructor will prefer to move to another county to avoid prosecution.
At the moment DSI and different administrations from Bangkok are gathering evidences to crackdown illegal businesses and foreigners working illegally as well legally with forgery documents and the process will take time.
To avoid that mess i would support the government to make compulsory to all holders of work-permit to pass a test in Thai language as UK, Germany and France do it with foreigners for their own language.

Posted by Whistle-Blower on March 12, 2013 10:22

A lot of people are have the good fortune to be able to travel and combine holiday with work on their computers.

They live in hotels, spend money where they are, don't involve in local business life and do not take work from any local people.

The local politicians have great visions about Phuket as an Asian it center, but it appears to be difficult to bring that vision to life with the current regulations.

Posted by Sherlock on March 12, 2013 13:30

@Sherlock
When you stay more than 6 months (183 days), you must pay income taxes in Thailand and get proper Visas but not staying with Toursit Visa.
Thai Administration is very naive about the way they are flouted by clever foreigners but they are learning fast at the moment;

Posted by Whistle-Blower on March 12, 2013 16:00

Whistle Blower, again you are the one that is not correct. You think the Thai Immigration and Ministry of Foreign Affairs is naive as you say. Actually, they started a crackdown in the embassy's and consulates around Thailand about 2 1/2 years ago. They do not issue tourist visa to foreigners that have been in the country more than 6 months on tourist visa already. Also, when you apply you need to have a ticket out of Thailand. I saw an illegal worker/Tourist at the Singapore embassy trying to get a visa and the lady behind the visa said no since he did not have a ticket out. (i chat with him in line he owned a bar in Patong.) If you know what is happening it other parts of Thailand in the diving Industry that you are working, you would have heard how this affected Koh Tao and Phi Phi at the time as no one has work permits there. They are employing 10 times the number of people as Phuket even in the restaurants and bars. This is why everyone is applying for Language visa's and yes, Muay Thai visa. It is the same as the Taxi situation. They are handling it in their way which is still better than the western way. Maybe it is not fast enough for you since you have been here a long time and want the Diving Industry to go back to longtail diving from the old wooden pier. Then you do no have to compete on service. Since you will be the only legal company in your mind. Oh last thing, the Immigration has been going into many business recently checking not only work permits but OTD/TAT, VAT and Shareholders. You are not the only one. You are not that special. Talk to someone other than yourself and you might have heard this.

Posted by jiminkata on March 13, 2013 06:12

@jiminkata
I am not against foreigner working in Thailand but I am for a fair and legal competition in business.
Many diving Instructors get a work-permit by setting-up a Ltd Part to work as diving Instructors but those Instructors are working as tour agents with websites and FaceBook pages to get customers and all of them are printing name card and are canvassing customers in bars, restaurants, guest-houses and even contact tour-guides by offering tea-money to get their customers instead the guides do booking through their own travel agency.
As those Instructors do not have TAT Licenses to operate oversea bookings, do not pay the expensive diving insurance (225 Baht per diver/person) with a minimun of 500 persons per year and do not have 4 fulltime Thai staff (Nearly 40,000 Baht expense per month for salary and social security).
Let see what will happen this long low season when most of Thai companies and businesses did not do enough cashflow to survive to next high season in December!

Posted by Whistle-Blower on March 13, 2013 11:00