Last updated: 25 August 2026
Sources: Emergency Decree on Managing the Work of Foreign Nationals B.E. 2560 (2017), section 102 as it stood before amendment · as amended by Emergency Decree No. 2 B.E. 2561 (2018), sections 9, 11, 13, 64/1, 102 and 103
In short
The figure you will find almost everywhere — 400,000 to 800,000 baht per worker — was repealed in 2018.
The current first-offence fine is 10,000 to 100,000 baht per worker. The bottom of the range is forty times lower.
But the current law added two things the old one did not have: a heavier penalty for a second offence, including imprisonment, and a three-year ban on employing any foreigner at all.
And there is a second, separate offence that catches people who did everything else correctly: failing to notify the registrar.
The number everyone quotes is from a repealed law
2017, repealed: Any person who takes a foreigner into work in contravention of section 9 shall be liable to a fine of 400,000 to 800,000 baht per foreigner employed.
ผู้ใดรับคนต่างด้าวเข้าทำงานโดยฝ่าฝืนมาตรา ๙ ต้องระวางโทษปรับตั้งแต่สี่แสนบาทถึงแปดแสนบาทต่อคนต่างด้าวที่จ้างหนึ่งคน
That provision was repealed by section 45 of the 2018 amendment, published on 27 March 2018.
The same amendment cut the penalty on the worker’s side on the same day — the five years’ imprisonment that is still widely reported. That correction is set out in The penalty for working without a permit in Thailand is not five years in prison.
Both figures were repealed together. Both are still quoted.
What section 9 actually prohibits
No person shall take a foreigner into work where the foreigner has no work permit, or allow a foreigner to do work beyond what they have the right to do, in contravention of this Emergency Decree.
มาตรา ๙ ห้ามผู้ใดรับคนต่างด้าวทำงานโดยที่คนต่างด้าวไม่มีใบอนุญาตทำงาน หรือให้คนต่างด้าวทำงานนอกเหนือจากที่มีสิทธิจะทำได้ อันเป็นการฝ่าฝืนพระราชกำหนดนี้
Two acts, not one. Taking on someone with no permit is the obvious one. Letting a permit holder do work outside what the permit allows is the second, and it catches employers who believe a permit settles the matter.
It says “any person”, not “employer”
The prohibition is not limited to a formal employment relationship. But the fine is counted per foreigner employed.
So someone who lets a foreigner work for them without formally employing anyone falls inside the prohibition, while the unit the fine is measured in does not obviously apply to them. We have not found anything that resolves that.
The current penalty, in three paragraphs
First offence. A fine of 10,000 to 100,000 baht per foreigner employed.
Repeat offence. Imprisonment of up to one year, or a fine of 50,000 to 200,000 baht per foreigner employed, or both.
…and that person is prohibited from employing any foreigner for a period of three years from the date on which the court’s judgment imposing the penalty becomes final.
และห้ามผู้นั้นจ้างคนต่างด้าวทำงานเป็นเวลาสามปี นับแต่วันที่ศาลมีคำพิพากษาถึงที่สุดให้ลงโทษ
For a business that depends on foreign staff, that is heavier than any of the fines. It is written into the same paragraph as the repeat-offence penalty, not as a separate provision.
Household exception. Paragraph three provides that a person living in the same household as the person who took the foreigner into work is not to be treated as a principal, an instigator or an accessory.
The second offence: doing everything right and not telling anyone
Section 13 requires a person who employs a foreigner to notify the registrar of the foreigner’s name, nationality and the nature of the work, within fifteen days of the date of employment, and again when the foreigner leaves.
Section 103 sets the penalty for failing to do so: a fine of up to 20,000 baht.
This is separate from section 9. An employer whose worker holds a valid permit, doing permitted work, is still in breach if the notification is not made.
Both sides lose future rights, not just money
The Decree uses the same device on the employer and on the worker.
- The employer cannot employ any foreigner for three years from the date the judgment becomes final.
- The worker cannot obtain a work permit for two years from the completion of the penalty, under section 64/1.
A fine ends when it is paid. These do not. Neither appears in most summaries of either side.
What we have not verified
- The deadline for the leaving notification under section 13. The fifteen-day deadline for the start of employment is confirmed; the text setting the deadline for the end runs onto a page we have not read.
- Whether any other provision penalises the employer. We have read sections 102 and 103; we have not read the whole penalties chapter.
- The twenty per cent quota in section 11. The text limits foreign staff to twenty per cent where five or more Thai jobseekers are registered for the same work in the same locality — but the final paragraph says the section applies to such work as is prescribed by royal decree. We do not know whether any such decree has been issued, so we do not say this is in force.
A note on translation
The Decree has no official English version. Every English rendering on this page is ours, and the Thai is given alongside each provision quoted so that anyone who reads Thai can check us — and so that you can take the Thai wording to a government office, where the English will be of no use.
Check with the government directly
- ratchakitcha.soc.go.th — the Royal Gazette, where both Decrees quoted here were published and where any further amendment would appear.
- doe.go.th — the Department of Employment, which receives the notification under section 13.
Take the Thai wording with you. An official will recognise it; an English paraphrase may not match anything on their side.
Sources
- Emergency Decree on Managing the Work of Foreign Nationals B.E. 2560 (2017) — Royal Gazette vol. 134, part 65 ก, page 25, 22 June 2017; section 102 as it stood before amendment, repealed by section 45 of the 2018 amendment
- Emergency Decree on Managing the Work of Foreign Nationals (No. 2) B.E. 2561 (2018) — Royal Gazette vol. 135, part 19 ก, pages 32, 45 and 48–49, 27 March 2018; sections 9, 11, 13, 102 and 103, and section 64/1 as added by its section 32
Revision history
25 August 2026 — First published.