Last updated: 29 August 2026
Sources: Emergency Decree on Managing the Work of Foreign Nationals B.E. 2560 (2017), section 67 · as amended by Emergency Decree No. 2 B.E. 2561 (2018), sections 5/1, 59, 61, 62 and 100/1
In short
There is no single answer, because the Decree sets a different clock for each route in.
- The general route — the law caps the processing time at fifteen working days and makes missing it a disciplinary offence.
- Investment promotion or petroleum — seven days, and you may work in the meantime.
- Renewal — no waiting period at all, provided you file before the old permit expires.
- Urgent or one-off work — no permit and no wait; a written notice is enough.
And the part almost nobody writes about: the 2018 amendment put the deadlines on the officials, not on you. Two of them carry penalties against the official who misses them.
The general route: fifteen working days, and what happens if it is missed
The ministerial regulation must fix the completion time from the date the application is received to the date the work permit is issued, which must not exceed fifteen working days.
If the registrar cannot issue the work permit within that time, the Minister or the Director-General shall deal with the officials concerned as the case requires; and where the failure to issue is without reasonable cause, it is treated as a disciplinary offence.
Read the first sentence carefully. Fifteen working days is the ceiling the Decree puts on the ministerial regulation. It is not a statement that applications take fifteen days.
The actual figure is set in that regulation, which we have not read. So we can tell you what the law forbids, not what the counter does.
Investment promotion and petroleum: seven days, and you work meanwhile
Where a foreigner has been permitted to work under the investment promotion law, the petroleum law or another law, the agency responsible notifies the registrar without delay. The registrar must then issue the permit within seven days of that notification.
And while that is happening, the foreigner may work in the interim, exempt from the duty to be able to produce a permit — because there is no permit yet to produce.
Note the unit. Section 59 says working days. Section 62 says days. Seven calendar days is a shorter period than seven working days, and the difference is in the text, not in our reading of it.
Unlike section 59, section 62 attaches no consequence to an official who misses the seven days.
Renewal: there is no waiting period
File before the old permit expires and you may keep working until the registrar issues an order refusing the renewal. There is no gap to wait out.
The right ends when the registrar refuses, not when the old permit expires. Filing late is what breaks it. The full provision is set out in Your Thai work permit: how long it lasts, how to renew it, and what changed in 2018.
Urgent or one-off work: no permit, no wait
A foreigner admitted temporarily to do work of a necessary or urgent character, or work of a specific occasion, which can be completed within fifteen days, may do that work upon giving written notice to the registrar. An extension of up to a further fifteen days may be requested before the deadline.
This is the only route in the chapter where work is lawful without a permit at all. Which categories of work qualify is left to a notification of the Director-General, which we have not read — so we cannot tell you whether a particular job counts.
The route itself is described in Who needs a work permit in Thailand — and who the law does not touch at all.
The deadlines are on the officials
Every guide to Thai work permits explains what the applicant must do and by when. The 2018 amendment added three obligations pointing the other way.
Rule-making must set a time for every step
The making of a ministerial regulation or such a prescription must not create unnecessary steps or impose an undue burden on the public, and must fix the time for officials to perform their duties at every step.
การออกกฎกระทรวงหรือการกำหนดนั้น ต้องไม่มีลักษณะเป็นการสร้างขั้นตอนโดยไม่จำเป็นหรือสร้างภาระแก่ประชาชนเกินสมควร และต้องกำหนดระยะเวลาการปฏิบัติหน้าที่ของเจ้าหน้าที่ทุกขั้นตอน
The second paragraph of the same section says that where the Decree requires a notification, the Director-General must prescribe a convenient and rapid method — in writing or electronically — and must also fix the time within which officials must acknowledge it.
Failing to acknowledge a notification is an offence
Any Director-General, registrar or competent official who fails to acknowledge a notification within the time fixed under section 5/1 paragraph two, without reasonable cause, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand baht.
อธิบดี นายทะเบียน หรือพนักงานเจ้าหน้าที่ผู้ใดไม่ตอบรับการแจ้งภายในกำหนดระยะเวลาตามมาตรา ๕/๑ วรรคสอง โดยไม่มีเหตุอันสมควร ต้องระวางโทษปรับไม่เกินห้าพันบาท
That provision sits in the penalties chapter — the same chapter as the penalties on workers and employers. It is a criminal penalty on the official.
We do not know whether it has ever been applied. A provision existing is not evidence that it is used. But it is in force, and it is worth knowing it exists.
The four clocks together
- General route — capped at fifteen working days; missing it without reasonable cause is a disciplinary offence.
- Investment promotion or petroleum — seven days from notification; you may work in the meantime; no stated consequence for delay.
- Renewal — no fixed period; you keep working until refused.
- Urgent or one-off work — no wait; notice is enough.
- Acknowledging any notification — as fixed by the Director-General; a fine of up to five thousand baht on the official who fails without reasonable cause.
What we have not verified
- The actual completion time. We have the ceiling in the Decree, not the figure in the ministerial regulation, and not the queue at the Department of Employment.
- The times fixed for acknowledging notifications under section 5/1 paragraph two.
- The Director-General’s notification setting which work counts as necessary, urgent or specific-occasion.
- Every fee. We have not opened the fee regulation, so this page names no amounts.
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 issues permits and receives notifications, and the right place to ask what is actually happening to your application.
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, 22 June 2017; section 67 paragraphs one and two (p. 18), which remain in force
- Emergency Decree on Managing the Work of Foreign Nationals (No. 2) B.E. 2561 (2018) — Royal Gazette vol. 135, part 19 ก, 27 March 2018; which by its section 7 added section 5/1 (p. 31), by its section 44 added section 100/1 (p. 48), and by its section 28 replaced sections 59 (pp. 41–42), 61 and 62 (p. 42)
Revision history
29 August 2026 — First published.