Visa Services in Thailand.

Visa services in Thailand: two kinds of help

Every firm offering visa services in Thailand is selling one of two things, and knowing which you need saves money in both directions.

The first is filing help. A visa agency assembles documents, holds queues, and files applications, extensions, work permit paperwork, and reports on your behalf. The system expects these filings; the agency makes them happen without costing you a working day at a counter. The second is legal help. An immigration lawyer takes over when a decision has gone against you: refusals, appeals, overstay, detention, or a dispute about your right to stay. The dividing line comes down to one question: is anyone arguing?

Many firms listed here do both, so you are choosing a service rather than a firm type. What matters is that the person handling a contested case is a licensed lawyer, and that a routine filing is not billed like a court case.

Matching the service to your situation

Planning a long stay: the main routes are compared in this guide to long-term visa options in Thailand, and the retirement visa is the highest-volume service in the group. Coming to work: the visa and the work permit are separate documents under separate ministries, and firms typically handle them as one engagement.

Already in Thailand: the recurring work is the visa extension, granted at immigration a year or less at a time, plus re-entry permits and the 90-day notification. Settling for good: permanent residency is a long, document-heavy application that stays routine in form until a refusal makes it legal work.

Official fees are the anchor

Immigration's fee schedule is public: 1,900 baht for an extension of stay, 1,000 baht for a single re-entry permit and 3,800 baht for a multiple, 1,000 baht for a tourist visa, and 2,000 or 5,000 baht for a Non-Immigrant visa. Whatever a firm charges beyond those figures is its own service fee.

That split is the reading key for every quote in this directory. A firm that shows both numbers is easy to compare; a single bundled figure is hard to check against anything. The full set of vetting questions for the agency market, including the warning signs, lives on the visa agency page above.

Doing it yourself

Some filings need no help at all. The 90-day notification can be made in person, by registered mail, online, or through a person you authorise, in a window that runs from 15 days before the 90-day point to 7 days after it. Paid help earns its fee when the file is complicated, when documents have to come from abroad, or when a working day at immigration costs you more than the service does.

Matching the firm to the case

Ask who will handle your file. For a routine filing, an experienced case handler is enough. For a refusal, an overstay, or a ban, the answer should name a lawyer: lawyers hold a license under the Lawyers Act B.E. 2528, and no equivalent license exists for visa agencies.

Ask who goes to the counter. Some filings need you there in person, and a firm should say which before you book anything.

Ask what happens if the answer is no. Whether a resubmission is covered, and whether an appeal would stay in the same building or mean finding a second firm.

This page is general information, not legal advice. Requirements and fees change; for a specific case, speak with a qualified professional. The firms below list their languages, locations, and services.