Practice area
Find immigration lawyers in Thailand for visa refusals, overstay and deportation cases, detention and citizenship disputes. Compare firms and typical fees.
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Featured firms
International boutique law firm in Bangkok and Phuket, providing legal and tax services to investors, businesses, and private clients across Thailand
฿4,000–12,000 / hour
Blumenthal Richter Sumet & Schuler is a leading law firm in Bangkok, Thailand. We provide legal services in all practice areas.
International law firm specializing in immigration and cross-border transactions.
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Immigration lawyers in Thailand work on the contested side of immigration. Not the paperwork for a renewal, but the cases where a decision has gone against you, your status is in question, or someone is facing removal.
That splits into four kinds of work. The first is challenging a decision: a refused entry, a refused extension, a revoked permission to stay. The second is defending against consequences: overstay and deportation matters, detention, and re-entry bans. The third is protection and status: asylum claims and disputes about Thai nationality. The fourth is representation, when a matter moves into a formal proceeding rather than a counter conversation.
The single most useful thing to know is that the Immigration Act puts hard deadlines on the two main challenges. Where an official orders someone to leave the Kingdom as a person excluded from entry, an appeal goes to the Minister and must be submitted within forty-eight hours of receiving that order. Where the Director General revokes permission to stay temporarily, the appeal goes to the Immigration Commission, again within forty-eight hours. In both cases the decision on that appeal is final.
Forty-eight hours is the reason immigration problems are urgent in a way most legal problems are not. A lawyer contacted on day three is working with a different, smaller set of options than one contacted on day one.
You need a lawyer when a decision has already been made against you, when detention or removal is on the table, or when your right to be in the country is disputed rather than merely administered. Appealing a refusal sits squarely there. So does any situation where an official has raised your immigration history rather than just your paperwork.
You probably don't need one for a routine application or renewal. Extensions, retirement visas, and the annual round of reporting are handled by visa agencies in Thailand and immigration specialists, who do that work at a fraction of the cost. Employment-linked filings usually travel with the work permit rather than with a lawyer.
The honest dividing line: if the question is "how do I file this", an agency is the right call. If the question is "they said no, or they are threatening consequences, what now", that is legal work.
All firms
International boutique law firm in Bangkok and Phuket, providing legal and tax services to investors, businesses, and private clients across Thailand
฿4,000–12,000 / hour
Blumenthal Richter Sumet & Schuler is a leading law firm in Bangkok, Thailand. We provide legal services in all practice areas.
International law firm specializing in immigration and cross-border transactions.
CANDIDUCK YOUR CANDID CONSULTANT Suthawan Boonmak (Poon) Partner/Lawyer/Notary Public
Your trusted legal partner in Thailand
Bangkok-based legal team focused on residence visas in Thailand.
Herrera and Partners, is a leading law firm in Bangkok, Thailand. With a dedicated team of skilled and international lawyers in Bangkok.
฿10,000–20,000 / hour
International firm in Asia since 2006 — corporate legal, accounting, advisory and audit services across Thailand, China & the Philippines.
Experts assisting clients in conducting their businesses and protecting their rights and investments in Thailand across a wide range of legal matters.
Immigration firms in Thailand differ less in what they can do than in what they actually handle week to week. A few questions separate them quickly.
What proportion of the practice is contested work? Many firms listed on Justenda do both routine filings and disputes. Ask how many refusals, detention matters, or immigration proceedings they have run in the past year. A firm that mostly files extensions is a different proposition from one that mostly argues them.
Who can act inside forty-eight hours? Appeal windows do not pause for a firm's schedule. Ask what happens if you call on a Friday evening, who covers, and whether they will act on an instruction by phone while documents follow.
Do they visit detention facilities? For overstay and removal cases, physical access matters more than argument. Ask whether the firm attends in person, how quickly, and whether a Thai-speaking lawyer goes rather than an assistant.
How do they charge for an unpredictable case? A refusal appeal has a defined scope. A detention or removal matter does not. Ask what the fixed part covers, what is hourly, and what happens if the case extends.
Anyone who promises a specific immigration outcome is telling you something they cannot know. Appeals under the Immigration Act end in a decision by the Minister or the Immigration Commission that the Act itself makes final, and no firm controls that.
Be equally wary of anyone offering to fix a record, remove a ban, or arrange a result through a contact. Overstay and status problems are resolved through the official process or not at all, and the version of this that gets sold to worried foreigners tends to make the underlying record worse.
The quieter red flag is a firm that takes an urgent case without telling you the deadline. If nobody has mentioned the forty-eight hour window on a refusal or revocation, ask why.
Firms set immigration fees themselves, and the range is wide because the work is. A single appeal against a refusal is a bounded piece of work that most firms will quote as a fixed fee. A detention or removal matter, a dispute about Thai nationality, or anything that runs into a formal proceeding is usually hourly, because neither side can see the end of it at the start.
What is fixed is the official side. Overstay is fined at 500 baht per day, capped at 20,000 baht, and the Immigration Act also makes staying without permission punishable by imprisonment of up to two years or a fine of up to 20,000 baht or both. A departing foreigner who is liable for Thai tax, or who files on behalf of a company, applies for a tax clearance certificate within fifteen days before leaving.
Most routine applications go through visa agencies in Thailand rather than law firms, and our retirement visa guide covers the long-stay route that generates the most avoidable refusals.
Ask for a written quote before engaging anyone. For a specific situation, speak with a qualified lawyer: the firms below list their languages, locations, and the immigration work they say they take.
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Guides from Justenda editors and insights written by verified firms. General information, not professional advice.
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