Last updated: 22 August 2026
Sources: Emergency Decree on Managing the Work of Foreign Nationals B.E. 2560 (2017), sections 67, 68, 69, 70 and 71 · as amended by Emergency Decree No. 2 B.E. 2561 (2018), sections 34, 35, 36 and 37, and sections 59, 62, 63 and 64 as replaced, and sections 63/1 and 64/2 as added
In short
A Thai work permit is less restrictive than most guidance says — and the reason is that three of the rules people still repeat were repealed in 2018.
- You do not have to carry it. You have to be able to produce it within a reasonable time.
- It is not tied to one job or one employer. You may do any work that is not prohibited, and changing employer is a notification, not an application.
- You do not stop working while a renewal is pending. File before it expires and you keep working until the registrar says no.
And there is no single answer to how long a permit lasts. There are five, depending on which route you came in on.
This page follows on from Who needs a work permit in Thailand. That one is for people who do not have a permit yet; this one is for people who do.
How long it lasts — five answers
The Decree sets the duration in whichever section your permission comes from, not in one place.
- The general route, section 59 — for as long as the applicant asks for, but not more than two years from the date of issue.
- Investment promotion or petroleum, section 62 — for the period the person is permitted to enter to work under that law.
- Deportees and people awaiting removal, section 63 — not more than one year, renewable one year at a time.
- Certain stateless and unregistered residents, section 63/1 — five years, renewable five years at a time.
- Border-pass holders, section 64 — temporary, for the period or season specified and in the locality specified.
Read the first and fourth together. Someone the law treats as having nowhere to return to gets five years. Someone holding a passport and a job offer gets two.
There used to be a four-year ceiling on the total time a section 63 permit holder could accumulate. It sat in the old third paragraph of section 67, and the 2018 amendment rewrote that paragraph without it.
Renewing it — file before it expires, then keep working
This is the most useful thing on this page, and the least often stated.
A permit holder who wishes to continue working shall file an application to renew the work permit with the registrar before the work permit expires.
Once the application under paragraph one has been filed, the applicant may work in the meantime until the registrar issues an order not to renew the work permit.
ผู้รับอนุญาตให้ทำงานซึ่งประสงค์จะทำงานต่อไปให้ยื่นคำขอต่ออายุใบอนุญาตทำงานต่อนายทะเบียนก่อนที่ใบอนุญาตทำงานจะสิ้นอายุ · เมื่อได้ยื่นคำขอตามวรรคหนึ่งแล้ว ให้ผู้ขอต่ออายุใบอนุญาตทำงานนั้นทำงานไปพลางก่อน จนกว่านายทะเบียนจะมีคำสั่งไม่ต่ออายุใบอนุญาตทำงาน
The right to keep working ends when the registrar refuses, not when the old permit expires. Filing late is what breaks this, because paragraph two only protects an application filed under paragraph one.
On how long a renewal runs, the current third paragraph says renewals are granted for the period requested but not more than two years at a time, and are to be granted only as far as necessary. It also opens with the words subject to sections 63 and 63/1, which is where the one-year and five-year routes above keep their own periods.
Do you have to carry it? The rule changed
The advice you will find in most places — keep the permit on you, or at your workplace, during working hours — was the rule. It is the repealed one.
2017, repealed: must have the work permit on their person, or at the place of work during working hours, so as to be able to produce it to an officer or the registrar at any time.
ผู้รับอนุญาตให้ทำงานต้องมีใบอนุญาตทำงานอยู่กับตัวหรืออยู่ ณ สถานที่ทำงานในระหว่างเวลาทำงาน เพื่อแสดงต่อพนักงานเจ้าหน้าที่หรือนายทะเบียนได้เสมอ
Current: a permit holder must at all times be able to produce the work permit to an officer or to the registrar within a reasonable time.
ผู้รับอนุญาตให้ทำงานต้องสามารถแสดงใบอนุญาตทำงานต่อพนักงานเจ้าหน้าที่หรือนายทะเบียนภายในระยะเวลาอันสมควรได้เสมอ
The old rule fixed a place. The current one fixes a time. Section 68 was repealed in full and rewritten by section 35 of the 2018 amendment.
What counts as a reasonable time is not defined in any provision we have read, and we have not found anything that defines it. So this is a change in the shape of the duty, not a removal of it.
If you lose it
If the work permit is lost, destroyed or damaged in a material respect, the permit holder shall file an application for a replacement work permit with the registrar within fifteen days from the day of becoming aware of the loss, destruction or damage.
ถ้าใบอนุญาตทำงานสูญหาย ถูกทำลาย หรือชำรุดในสาระสำคัญ ให้ผู้รับอนุญาตให้ทำงานยื่นคำขอรับใบแทนใบอนุญาตทำงานต่อนายทะเบียนภายในสิบห้าวันนับแต่วันที่ทราบถึงการสูญหาย ถูกทำลาย หรือชำรุดดังกล่าว
The fifteen days run from the day you find out, not from the day it went missing. That distinction matters for a permit kept somewhere you rarely look.
The rules and procedure for getting the replacement are left to a notification of the Director-General, which we have not read.
Changing employer or job — from permission to notification
Under the 2017 Decree, a permit named the type of work, the employer, the locality and the conditions, and doing anything outside that was prohibited. Changing or adding any of them required the registrar’s permission first.
Section 37 of the 2018 amendment repealed sections 70 to 74. The two above bound the permit holder; the other three bound the employer.
What replaced them is a duty to tell the registrar afterwards.
A permit holder has a duty to notify the registrar of the employer, the employer’s place of work, and the principal nature of the work, within fifteen days from the date of starting work, and must notify on every change of employer.
ผู้รับอนุญาตให้ทำงานมีหน้าที่ต้องแจ้งให้นายทะเบียนทราบถึงผู้เป็นนายจ้าง สถานที่ทำงานของนายจ้าง และลักษณะงานหลักที่ทำ ทั้งนี้ ภายในสิบห้าวันนับแต่วันที่เข้าทำงาน และต้องแจ้งทุกครั้งที่เปลี่ยนนายจ้าง
Read that alongside section 59 paragraph five, which gives a permit holder the right to do any kind of work that has not been prohibited by notification under section 7 paragraph one.
Together those two mean the permit is no longer tied to one position. The work must still survive the four schedules, which are set out in Jobs foreigners cannot do in Thailand, and the notification duty is real and dated. But the permission itself is not job-specific.
Three rules, one day
The 2018 amendment was published on 27 March 2018 and came into force the following day. Three separate things changed in it that are still widely reported in their old form.
- The penalty on the worker — five years’ imprisonment was removed, covered in The penalty for working without a permit in Thailand is not five years in prison
- The penalty on the employer — the 400,000 to 800,000 baht fine per worker was replaced
- The duty to carry the permit — replaced by the duty to produce it within a reasonable time
If a page tells you all three of the old rules, it has not been checked since March 2018. That is a useful test to apply to anything else it says.
What we have not verified
- The ministerial regulation setting the rules and procedure for renewal.
- The Director-General’s notification setting the rules and procedure for a replacement permit.
- Every fee. We have not opened the fee regulation at all, so this page names no amounts.
- What the Department of Employment does in practice — queues, forms and processing times. The Decree sets out rights and duties, not counter procedure.
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, receives renewals and replacements, and takes the notification of a change of employer.
- immigration.go.th — the Immigration Bureau, for anything that turns on the basis on which you were admitted.
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; sections 67 paragraphs one and two, and 69 paragraph one, which remain in force, and sections 68, 70 and 71 as they stood before amendment
- 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 34 replaced section 67 paragraph three, by section 35 replaced section 68, by section 36 replaced section 69 paragraph two, and by section 37 repealed sections 70 to 74; which by its section 30 replaced section 64 paragraph one and by its section 31 repealed section 64 paragraph four; and which replaced sections 59 to 63 and added sections 63/1, 64/1 and 64/2
Revision history
22 August 2026 — First published.