Visa's and Work Permits
www.filmpermitthailand.com has you covered
When filming in Thailand, there are 2 x important documentation requirements for every Non Thai person on the crew:
1) – A Valid Visa.
2) – A Valid Work Permit.
There are specific requirements that need to be met in order to obtain these documents.
For those Shooting for Less Than 15 Days:
If you are shooting for less than 15 consecutive days, then you are able to come in on an ordinary tourist visa which is issued automatically upon arrival for citizens of dozens of nations, including the UK, EU, USA, Canada, Australia New Zealand and many others. For citizens of these countries, no advance paperwork is required to obtain this standard tourist visa upon arrival.
If you are shooting for less than 15 consecutive days, then you will become eligible to be granted a temporary work permit. The process is as follows: When you arrive in Thailand, your production services company (Us) will take your passport to the Labor Department and apply for your temporary work permit, and handle the entire process. You are able to obtain the temporary work permit with a normal tourist visa or tourist stamp. On rare occasions, the Labor Department may require that you visit their premises but this is usually not required.
For Those Shooting for 15 Days or More:
If you are shooting for 15 days or more, you will need a “blue book” work permit granted by the labor department and you must enter Thailand on a Non Immigrant Visa from a Thai Embassy outside of Thailand. Your local production services company will help to coordinate and arrange these documents using your general film permit as grounds for the request. Both the work permit and the blue book work permit will only be issued AFTER the film permit has been granted.
If you are shooting for more 15 days total, then you are required to have a Non Immigrant Visa from a Thai Embassy outside of Thailand. For recommended embassies, please contact your production services company. Please note, your Non Immigrant Visa IS NOT a work permit. They are 2 completely separate things. If you have a work visa, but do not yet have the blue book from the Labor department it means you DO NOT DOES NOT yet have legal work status in The Kingdom of Thailand. If you have any questions about the Work Visas or Work Permits obtained for filming inside Thailand, please don’t hesitate to contact us.