Thailand's Foreign Business Act and Work Authorization?

Añadido: 2026-05-31

[00:00:09]Hello, my name is Benjamin Hart of American attorney and the managing director of Integrity Legal here in Bangkok, Thailand. As the title of this video suggests, we're discussing Thailand's Foreign Business Act as well as work authorization. Let's just jump in here. I thought of making this video after reading recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that's pattayamail.com.

[00:00:26]Article is titled Foreigners Living in Fear as Thailand's legal system becomes a weapon. Yeah, the title on this one is a little bit hyperbolic. I don't know that anybody's living in fear.

[00:00:37]But, there is some anxiety in the foreign community regarding these crackdowns on nominees as well as some of the tightening immigration stuff. And I've had a lot of folks giving me blowback online and elsewhere regarding basically how do I put it?

[00:00:57]They're basically sort of saying, "Oh, there's ulterior motives. Thailand's economy is bad. That's why they're cracking down on all this stuff." No, I don't think so. One of the big reasons for this crackdown, I think, is that in the past year we have seen a number of incidents involving foreign nationals doing things that really, up to the past year or two, were unheard of. I mean, in in in a very real sense. And now, you know, there's ramifications for that.

[00:01:21]There's consequences. Thai immigration is getting serious.

[00:01:24]Quoting directly from this article, again pattayamail.com, quote, "At the center of many investigations is the issue of nominee structures. Under Thailand's Foreign Business Act, several sectors remain restricted to Thai majority ownership.

[00:01:37]However, for years some foreign investors have operated businesses through arrangements where Thai nationals formally hold shares while effective control allegedly remains with foreigners. For a long time, these structures were widely tolerated in tourism-driven areas because they fueled economic growth, construction, and foreign spending. That environment is now changing rapidly. Thai authorities have intensified investigations into nominee businesses across Phuket, Samui, Koh Pha-ngan, and Pattaya, particularly in tourism, hospitality, real estate, and construction sectors. Government agencies have publicly described nominee structures as economic crimes that destroy that distort local markets, inflate property prices, and reduce opportunities for foreign entrepreneurs.

[00:02:22]Recent investigations reportedly uncovered one Thai individual connected to 87 companies and one accounting office allegedly linked to 89 suspected shell companies. Authorities are also expanding the use of artificial intelligence systems to identify suspicious ownership patterns. So, again, the two main things here are one, the Foreign Business Act you Well, there's three things going on here. Usage of nominees per se, usage of nominee companies to own land, that's the big That's really a major concern by law enforcement, and it's essentially utilizing corporations, corporate structures to effectively circumvent certain aspects of Thailand's laws on work authorization and restricted occupations.

[00:03:08]I think this crackdown's going to continue. If anything, I think it's possible it may intensify, especially as we get going through the summer.

[00:03:16]I expect, you know, the cadence of these things as we start to kind of hit a new high season or going into sort of October. I always look at Canadian Thanksgiving is when sort of high season officially kicks off, but essentially, as we start seeing a new high season come online, they tend to kind of not exactly want the headlines to be all about, "Oh, we're going after foreigners and blah blah blah." So, it seems to kind of a bait going into high season, but we got a long time coming before high season is back upon us again. I think there's plenty of time to see this intensify, and again, understand it's not only about nominees, it's also about land holding and work authorization here in the Kingdom of Thailand.