What are the benefits of getting approved for a Non B visa without a work permit? Because it will still be used like a Tourist Visa (giving you 90 days in Thailand). Now if you wanted to try to extend the Non B visa for 1 year, I'm sure Immigration in Thailand WILL require you to provide work permit in order for you to get approved for that. So with that said, if you don't have a work permit, wouldn't the Tourist Visa be better as it gives you the same amount of days and cheaper?

@Marco ********

If your enter before date is 30 Sept... You enter on 15 Sept. You can stay in Thailand until 15 Nov or 15 Dec if you extend it. If you plan to travel before 30 Sept, don't apppy for re-entry permit because you can come back up until 30 Sept. But if you travel after 30 Sept, your Visa would then be expired, so you must apply for re-entry permit in order to keep the date of 15 Dec alive when you come back.

@Peter *********

You have 2 options. You can either pay 1200 Baht for a re-entry permit and then you can come back and still stay until End of February. Or when you leave in December, don't apply for the re-entry permit and apply for a new Tourist Visa and then when you come back in December, you'll have that for 60 or 90 days if you choose to extend it.

Now is the perfect chance to exit/enter before 30 Nov and you will get an additional 60 days plus 30 day extension, so you wont need to leave until End of February.

the only other way to get an extension of stay for 1 year is either marriage, have children/family or retirement 50 and older. normally people can get the extension based on work but since you are lacking the Tax documentation then there isn't any other way around that

@Tod ********

Wouldn't the re-entry permit costs add up if you have a plans to travel to more than 1 country? For example: Buy new Visa, then traveling to Japan, pay 1200 for the re-entry permit, then come back, then you pay another 1200 onwards to another country? Wouldn't you save money if you travel first, fly back on a Visa exempt, then go to your last destination pay 1000 Baht for a new Visa?

@Robert ***********

Thanks I'll look into that. However, as far as "Employment Prohibited" don't you agree that means located in Thailand? Many people who come to Thailand, are employed in their home country, or have their own business online in which they can monitor online while in Thailand, so if they do work for their business located in another country, I would think that would be fine as you are not conducting any business or working for a local Thai company or getting hired by Thai company

Robert A. Piccus It just triggers my curiosity. I'm not working while in Thailand, but I follow many people on social media that do but no one seems to have a definitive answer. I just thought physically working was illegal, but thats why I asked "what if people get paid on paypal" but the responses all said that it was illegal too... so that's why I wondered... what about genuine tourists who travel, on visa exemption, and just get paid while they blog online or ads or if they post youtube videos and they get a $100 in their paypal or something... I just don't understand. For example: you upload a Youtube video and you fly to Hong Kong and film vlogs there, and upload it and get paid for it, then go to thailand, same, you're getting paid by uploading videos while being a genuine tourist, but why is that considered illegal?

This is why I don't apply for single entry tourist visa if I have onward travel plans within a few days, not longer than 30 days, because if your passport is eligible for Visa exemption, then take advantage of the free 30 days.

I've always been curious why do they consider it illegal if you have your own business online out of the country, but are in Thailand, or any other country for that matter, and work on it from your laptop? Really you could be doing it anywhere in the world. I follow many genuine tourists on social media that have jobs like this where they get paid online for whatever they do, blogging or online consulting, but travel the world, residing in many different countries at a time, and they don't need work permits in every country they go to while they're working from their laptop.