Last updated: 20 August 2026
Sources: Emergency Decree on Managing the Work of Foreign Nationals B.E. 2560 (2017), Royal Gazette vol. 134, part 65 ก, 22 June 2017 · as amended by Emergency Decree No. 2 B.E. 2561 (2018), Royal Gazette vol. 135, part 19 ก, 27 March 2018 · sections 4, 5, 8, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 68 and 101
In short
Thai law draws three lines here, not one.
- The Decree does not apply to you at all — eight categories in section 4, from diplomats to the representative of a licensed foreign company.
- You need a work permit — the general rule in section 59, which covers almost everyone else.
- You give notice instead of holding a permit — urgent or one-off work finishing within fifteen days, under section 61.
And one rule catches people out: someone admitted as a tourist or in transit cannot hold a work permit. That prohibition moved section in 2018, which is why it is sometimes reported as repealed.
This page follows on from Jobs foreigners cannot do in Thailand. Work that survives the four schedules still needs a permit.
Section 4 — where the Decree does not apply at all
This is the section most often described as a list of people exempt from the work permit requirement. That is not what it says.
This Emergency Decree shall not apply to the performance of duties in the Kingdom by foreigners solely in the following capacities.
มาตรา ๔ พระราชกำหนดนี้ไม่ใช้บังคับแก่การปฏิบัติหน้าที่ในราชอาณาจักรของคนต่างด้าวเฉพาะในฐานะ ดังต่อไปนี้
Not applying is wider than being exempt. An exemption means the law reaches you and lifts one requirement. Here the whole statute does not reach you in that capacity at all — including its definitions, its permit machinery and its penalties.
- Members of a diplomatic mission
- Members of a consular post
- Representatives of member states and officials of the United Nations and its specialised agencies
- Private servants who travel from abroad to work regularly for a person in (1), (2) or (3)
- Persons performing duties or missions under an agreement the Thai government has made with a foreign government or an international organisation
- Persons entering occasionally to hold or join a meeting, give opinions, lecture or demonstrate at a conference, training, study visit or seminar, or to perform in arts and culture or compete in sport, or any other activity as the Cabinet prescribes — and the Cabinet may attach time limits and conditions
- Persons entering to operate a business or invest, or who have high knowledge, ability or skill of benefit to the country’s development, as the Cabinet prescribes
- The representative of a foreign juristic person holding a business licence under the law on foreign business operation
Items (6) and (7) were rewritten and (8) was added by the 2018 amendment. The earlier (6) and (7) — covering educational, cultural, artistic and sporting missions prescribed by ministerial regulation, and persons the Cabinet permitted to enter to perform duties — are repealed and should not be relied on.
Three of the eight are not fixed
Items (6) and (7) turn on what the Cabinet prescribes, and (8) turns on a licence issued under another law. Reading section 4 alone does not tell you whether you fall inside it. You also need whatever the Cabinet has prescribed, which is not in the Decree.
What counts as work
The definition changed in 2018, and the change matters more than it looks.
“Work” means engaging in any occupation, whether or not there is an employer — but not including the business operation of a person holding a licence under the law on foreign business operation.
“ทำงาน” หมายความว่า การประกอบอาชีพใด ๆ ไม่ว่าจะมีนายจ้างหรือไม่ แต่ไม่รวมถึงการประกอบธุรกิจของผู้รับใบอนุญาตตามกฎหมายว่าด้วยการประกอบธุรกิจของคนต่างด้าว
The 2017 definition, now repealed, read differently: using physical strength or knowledge to engage in an occupation or undertaking, whether or not for wages or other benefit, except work the Minister prescribes.
The hinge moved. The old test was about using physical strength or knowledge; the current test is about engaging in an occupation. The phrase “whether or not there is an employer” appears in both.
Two other definitions still stand from 2017. A foreigner is a natural person without Thai nationality. An employer is an employer under the labour protection law, and also any natural or juristic person who intends to bring a foreigner to work with them.
Section 59 — the general rule
A foreigner who has residence in the Kingdom, or who is permitted to enter the Kingdom temporarily under the immigration law otherwise than for tourism or transit through the Kingdom, may work only in work that has not been prohibited by notification under section 7 paragraph one, and must obtain a work permit.
คนต่างด้าวซึ่งมีถิ่นที่อยู่ในราชอาณาจักรหรือได้รับอนุญาตให้เข้ามาในราชอาณาจักรเป็นการชั่วคราวตามกฎหมายว่าด้วยคนเข้าเมือง ซึ่งมิใช่เพื่อการท่องเที่ยวหรือการเดินทางผ่านราชอาณาจักร จะทำงานได้ก็แต่เฉพาะงานที่มิได้มีประกาศห้ามคนต่างด้าวทำตามมาตรา ๗ วรรคหนึ่ง และต้องได้รับใบอนุญาตทำงาน
Two things are packed into that one sentence. The work must survive the four schedules, and the person must hold a permit. Clearing the schedules is not enough on its own.
The tourist rule, and why it looks repealed
Someone admitted as a tourist or in transit is outside section 59 and therefore cannot hold a work permit.
In the 2017 Decree that prohibition sat in section 60. The 2018 amendment repealed sections 59 to 63 as a block and rewrote them, and the prohibition came back inside the new section 59 — while section 60 became a section about applying from outside Thailand.
So anyone who checks the current section 60, finds no mention of tourists, and concludes the rule was dropped, has read a real text and drawn a wrong conclusion. The rule is in force; it changed address.
What a permit lets you do
Section 59 paragraph five: subject to other law, a permit holder has the right to do any kind of work that has not been prohibited by notification under section 7 paragraph one.
The permission is not narrowed to one job title on the face of this paragraph. Note the opening words — subject to other law — which is where professional licensing statutes come back in.
How long it lasts, and how fast it must be issued
- A permit runs for as long as the applicant asks for, but not more than two years from the date of issue.
- The ministerial regulation must set a completion time from receipt of the application to issue of the permit, which must not exceed fifteen working days.
- If the registrar cannot issue within that time, the Minister or the Director-General must deal with the officials concerned as the case requires. Where the failure to issue is without reasonable cause, it is treated as a disciplinary offence and disciplinary proceedings follow.
- The regulation may provide for the process to be done electronically.
The disciplinary limb is written into the Decree itself. It is not a service pledge, and it is rarely mentioned in English-language summaries.
Applying from outside Thailand
Section 60 lets a foreigner outside the Kingdom apply and pay the fee through an electronic system. It also lets an employer who wants to hire a foreigner into their business apply and pay on the foreigner’s behalf. The details are left to ministerial regulation.
Urgent or one-off work — notice instead of a permit
Section 61 is the only route in this chapter where work is lawful without a permit.
A foreigner who enters the Kingdom temporarily under the immigration law in order 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.
คนต่างด้าวซึ่งเข้ามาในราชอาณาจักรเป็นการชั่วคราวตามกฎหมายว่าด้วยคนเข้าเมือง เพื่อทำงานอันมีลักษณะจำเป็นหรือเร่งด่วน หรือเป็นงานเฉพาะกิจ ที่มีระยะเวลาทำงานให้เสร็จสิ้นภายในสิบห้าวัน จะทำงานนั้นได้เมื่อได้มีหนังสือแจ้งให้นายทะเบียนทราบ
If the work is not finished in time, an extension of not more than a further fifteen days may be requested, by notifying the registrar before the deadline.
But which work qualifies is not in the Decree. Paragraph two leaves that to a notification of the Director-General, which we have not read. We therefore cannot tell you whether a particular job counts as necessary, urgent or a specific occasion.
Investment promotion, petroleum and other laws
Section 62 sets up a separate route. Where a foreigner has been permitted to work under the investment promotion law, the petroleum law or another law, the agency responsible under that law notifies the registrar without delay.
The registrar must then issue a work permit within seven days of the notification, and in the meantime the foreigner may work in the interim.
Section 68 requires a permit holder to be able to produce the work permit to an officer or to the registrar, within a reasonable time, whenever asked. A foreigner working in the interim under section 62 is exempt from that requirement — because there is no permit yet to produce.
The issue of a work permit under paragraph two shall be in accordance with the rules and procedures prescribed in ministerial regulation, and is not subject to the notification under section 7, and the work permit shall be valid for the period the person is permitted to enter to work under that law.
การออกใบอนุญาตทำงานตามวรรคสอง ให้เป็นไปตามหลักเกณฑ์และวิธีการที่กำหนดในกฎกระทรวง โดยไม่อยู่ภายใต้บังคับประกาศตามมาตรา ๗ และใบอนุญาตทำงาน ให้มีอายุเท่าระยะเวลาที่ได้รับอนุญาตให้เข้ามาทำงานตามกฎหมายนั้น
Read the subject of that sentence carefully. What is taken outside the section 7 notification is the issue of the permit, not the person. The practical effect is the same — the permit is what makes the work lawful — but the text does not say that this group of people sits outside the four schedules.
If the person’s permission to work is later extended under that other law, the responsible agency notifies the registrar promptly and the registrar records the extension on the permit.
Deportees and people awaiting removal
Section 63 allows two groups to apply for permission to work in the categories the Cabinet prescribes by publication in the Royal Gazette — a person subject to deportation who has been allowed to take up an occupation instead, or who is awaiting deportation; and a person who entered or stayed without permission under the immigration law but has been allowed to reside pending removal.
A permit under this section lasts not more than one year and is renewable for not more than one year at a time.
The penalty
Working without a permit, working outside what the permit allows, and doing prohibited work all sit in section 8. The penalty is in section 101, and it is the same one set out in The penalty for working without a permit in Thailand is not five years in prison.
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.
What we have not verified
- The Director-General’s notification under section 61, which decides what counts as necessary, urgent or specific-occasion work.
- What the Cabinet has prescribed under section 4 (6) and (7).
- The ministerial regulations that sections 59, 60 and 64/1 point to — the completion time for issuing a permit, the electronic application process, and the qualifications and prohibited characteristics an applicant must meet.
We will update this page as each is read.
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 work permits and receives the notices under section 61.
- immigration.go.th — the Immigration Bureau. Section 59 turns on the basis on which you were admitted, which is an immigration question rather than an employment one.
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), given on 17 June 2017 — Royal Gazette vol. 134, part 65 ก, 22 June 2017; sections 4 (1)–(5) and 5
- Emergency Decree on Managing the Work of Foreign Nationals (No. 2) B.E. 2561 (2018), given on 24 March 2018, in force from the day after publication — Royal Gazette vol. 135, part 19 ก, 27 March 2018; which rewrote section 4 (6) and (7), added section 4 (8), replaced the definition of “work” in section 5, repealed and replaced sections 7, 8 and 9, repealed and replaced sections 59 to 63, replaced section 68, and by its section 45 substituted section 101
- Ministry of Labour Notification on Work Prohibited to Foreigners — Royal Gazette vol. 137, special part 92 ง, page 14, 21 April 2020, referred to in sections 59 and 62
Revision history
20 August 2026 — First published.