Before your Thai employment ends, establish two things separately: the last day you may lawfully stay and the first day you may lawfully work for anyone else. Neither date can be worked out from the expiry printed on an old work permit alone.
If your current extension of stay depends on the job you are leaving, treat the employment end date as an urgent immigration deadline. Do not assume that HR's time to notify the Department of Employment gives you extra time in Thailand, or that everyone receives seven days after cancellation.
This guide covers ordinary employer-supported Non-Immigrant B arrangements and the main distinctions for BOI-sponsored specialists, LTR holders and Smart Visa holders. It does not apply the same timetable to MOU migrant-worker schemes, border workers, permanent residents or every special government programme.
Start with your situation
| What happened? | Your first safe action |
|---|---|
| I am resigning and have no next job | Ask the Immigration office that granted your current stay extension what happens on the actual employment end date, and plan a lawful replacement stay or departure before relying on the printed expiry. |
| I was dismissed today | Preserve the dismissal message and passport; contact the responsible Immigration office promptly even if HR has not supplied its signed letter. Address pay disputes separately. |
| I am joining another Thai employer | Before the old job ends, coordinate old HR, new HR, Immigration and DOE. Confirm both the next permitted-stay basis and the approval required before the first day of new work. |
| My approval is BOI, LTR or Smart Visa | Ask the programme unit to confirm the exact release/endorsement, stay and work sequence; do not apply an ordinary Non-B deadline automatically. |
For every route, record the last legally permitted day in Thailand and the first day of legally authorized new work as separate answers. The published government exit procedure addresses cancellation of an employment-supported stay; it does not make all initial Non-B admissions or independent family permissions identical.
Official source check: 21 October 2026. The Immigration Bureau's Order 12/2568, issued 23 January 2025, was read from Roi Et Immigration's official website (order clauses 3–4 and schedule 2.1, PDF pages 1 and 3). It establishes the current business-extension application framework, including employer-change supporting records; it does not, by itself, say that every initial Non-B admission expires when an employment contract ends. The separate government employment-cancellation procedure was last updated in 2023. The BOI/TIESC June 2025 bulletin documents promoted-project release and placement calculations (page 5). These sources support the scoped instructions below, not a universal grace period or guaranteed 2026 processing date. Confirm your actual cancellation, permission and work-start sequence with the responsible office.
First identify the document that actually supports your stay
People often call all of these documents a “work visa”, but they do different jobs.
| Document or approval | What to check when the job ends |
|---|---|
| Non-Immigrant B visa or e-Visa | Its validity concerns use for entry. It is not, by itself, your current permission-to-stay deadline or permission to work. |
| Arrival permission | Read the latest arrival stamp. Someone still on an initial admission is not necessarily in the same position as someone already holding an employment-based extension. |
| Extension of stay | Identify the ground on which Immigration granted it. If it depends on the old employer, the end of that employment can end the basis for staying. |
| Work permit or applicable work-authorisation mechanism | Establish whether it remains valid and what must be cancelled, updated, notified or newly approved for the next role. |
| Employer or BOI support | Check which legal entity, promoted project and position support the approvals. A new contract does not automatically move those approvals. |
The Thai embassy's explanation of visa validity and permitted stay distinguishes the entry document from Immigration's permission after arrival. “Valid until” on an e-Visa is not a promise that you can remain until that date.
If you have not received an employment-based extension: Order 12/2568's business-extension criteria do not themselves settle the expiry of an initial Non-B arrival admission. Show Immigration the visa, arrival stamp and work-permit record. Ask whether ending this job affects this particular admission, whether a cancellation is required and what date governs your departure. This guide does not assert that every initial Non-B admission ends immediately, or that every such admission necessarily survives resignation unchanged.
If your stay is independently based on a qualifying family relationship or another ground, establish whether that ground still holds. The labour notifications and permission for a new job remain separate questions.
A practical timeline: who must do what?
“Before” steps below are planning recommendations unless a specific official deadline is identified.
| When or event | Employee's action | Employer's action | What the timing does not mean |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before agreeing the final date | Identify your stay basis; collect records; ask Immigration and DOE for the transition sequence. | Old HR confirms the real employment end date and signatory. New HR checks its eligibility and prepares the replacement case. | A signed offer or an HR appointment does not preserve stay. |
| Ordinary employment-based extension: employment ends | Immigration's published cancellation instructions say to report on the last working day at the office that granted the extension. Obtain the cancellation and any further permission in your passport. | Supply the signed termination/resignation notification and supporting company documents. Coordinate labour filings. | Do not wait for the later labour-reporting deadline before addressing Immigration. |
| Ordinary employer: worker leaves | Obtain a copy or acknowledgement for your records. | Notify the DOE registrar within 15 days from leaving, with the reason, under section 13. Follow the applicable permit closure/change procedure as well. | This is a notification deadline, not 15 days of stay or permission to keep working. |
| Ordinary employer: new hire | Verify lawful work authority before starting. | Section 13 generally requires the new employer's hiring notification within 15 days from hiring, subject to the applicable exceptions. | Filing after a lawful start under a notification rule is not a right to start without required work authority. |
| Permit holder starts with or changes employer | Section 64/2 requires the permit holder to notify employer, workplace and principal work within 15 days from starting, and on every employer change. Ask who will submit it and retain proof. | Help with accurate employment details and any authorised submission. | The worker's duty is separate from the company's duty. |
| BOI-sponsored employment | Check the BOI release, Immigration endorsement and work-authorisation outcome. | Coordinate release and the receiving company's approved position through the applicable BOI process. | “BOI company” does not establish a blanket extra 21 days. |
| LTR Highly Skilled: planned employer change | BOI's FAQ requires contacting the LTR unit at least one month before the old contract ends. | New HR supplies evidence that the replacement employer/role qualifies. | The one-month lead time is not a month of lawful unemployment after termination. |
The labour deadlines come from the DOE-hosted decree amendments, sections 13 and 64/2. The official DOE guidance on notification offences, pages 35–39 of the PDF, distinguishes the ordinary rules from BOI hiring exceptions and MOU arrangements. Do not transplant this table into an MOU case.
Ordinary Non-B employment: close the labour and immigration records separately
The employer's departure notification is not the whole cancellation process
Ask old HR for the DOE acknowledgement, any permit-cancellation or amendment evidence, and the dated letter for Immigration. Keep copies yourself.
The DOE exit-notification service records the employer, worker, leaving date and reason. Its public form says the departure notification cannot use a future leaving date. That is a rule for this DOE service; it does not prohibit preparing documents early or using a separate BOI advance-release procedure.
Do not reduce every case to “hand in the blue book within seven days”. Departure notification, the status of a permit and Immigration cancellation are distinct. Permit category and the proposed next arrangement determine whether DOE requires cancellation, a change procedure or a new application.
The amended labour framework includes employer-change notifications. It is therefore also too sweeping to claim that every change must involve destroying the old permit and starting from zero. Ask DOE to identify the correct transaction for the permit you actually hold.
The employee must resolve the employment-based extension
The government's termination instructions direct the foreigner to the original Immigration office on the employment end date. They say the employment-based permission ends when its basis ends and also address family members whose stay depends on that basis.
For the procedure described for Immigration Division 1, the published document list includes:
- A letter addressed to Immigration, signed by an authorised company director, clearly stating the employment end date.
- A company or partnership registration certificate certified within the preceding six months.
- A certified copy of the authorised director's ID or passport.
- The employee's original passport for the cancellation endorsement.
These are the published Division 1 items, not a guaranteed complete checklist for every office or occupation. Ask about copies, the work-permit/DOE record, local forms and each dependant's documents. The instructions warn that if the leaving date is missing, the letter's date is treated as the leaving date.
Your resignation email, the company's DOE receipt and an Immigration cancellation endorsement perform different functions. Do not leave the process with only the first two.
What about the supposed seven-day grace period?
Do not count seven days unless Immigration has actually given you a dated permission or departure instruction covering them. Order 12/2568 clause 4 (official PDF page 1) provides a departure instruction for an unsuccessful extension applicant with insufficient eligibility, tied to the permitted-stay expiry or notice; it is not a blanket seven-day grace period triggered by resignation. Clause 3 separately addresses being allowed to remain during a pending extension decision, with its own conditions. Do not import either provision into an unrelated employment cancellation.
Ask the office, before cancellation:
- Can it accept the proposed replacement stay application in time?
- If not, is any short permission or departure period available in this case?
- What procedure and documents are required, and what exact date will be recorded?
- Does the resulting endorsement permit another in-country application, or require departure?
A short departure deadline is not permission to work. Nor should you assume that a fee receipt, online booking or application submission extends your stay. This review did not verify readable current primary text establishing a general seven-day entitlement after ordinary employment cancellation; none is promised here.
If no replacement or further permission is granted, arrange departure by the deadline that applies to your case. Do not use overstay as the planned gap between jobs.
Changing employers without an unlawful gap
The aim is to coordinate an approved sequence, not to “transfer the visa” informally.
Before leaving the old job, ask both HR teams to complete this handover:
- Identify both routes. Ordinary to ordinary, ordinary to BOI, BOI to ordinary and BOI to BOI can require different handling.
- Check the receiving employer and role. A job offer is insufficient if the company cannot supply the required sponsorship evidence or the occupation has additional restrictions.
- Confirm the labour transaction. Ask DOE whether the existing permit can be handled through the applicable employer-change process or whether a new permit is required.
- Confirm Immigration's sequence. Establish the office, cancellation date, replacement filing, personal-attendance requirements and lawful stay during any consideration period.
- Make the new start date conditional on lawful authority. Do not perform the new job simply because the old card has not expired or new HR has submitted papers.
- Keep a departure fallback. If the in-country sequence cannot be completed lawfully, prepare for an overseas visa application rather than assuming approval will arrive in time.
The documents to have ready for review include your passport and immigration pages, current work-authorisation record, old-employer release letter, new signed employment contract and the receiving company's supporting pack. This is a coordination folder, not a replacement for the official checklist.
An existing permit is not proof that the new job is authorised. Equally, employer-change notification provisions should not be mistaken for a universal rule that no valid permit can ever continue through a lawful change. Get the applicable route, status and start date established for your case.
A re-entry permit is also not a replacement for a new employment basis. Review travel separately using our re-entry guide; do not rely on a previously issued re-entry permit to rescue a stay whose underlying basis has ended.
BOI employment: use the promoted-project process
Working for a company that has BOI promotion does not, on its own, tell you which immigration route you hold. Check whether you were approved as a foreign specialist under that promoted project, rather than holding an ordinary extension or an LTR visa.
The BOI Single Window instructions from October 2022 distinguish ordinary-business from BOI, industrial-estate and petroleum cases. More recently, BOI/TIESC's June 2025 bulletin, issue 90, page 5 says the new promoted company must first obtain an approved position before the old company submits the specialist-and-family release request (Single Window item 5). Both employers must coordinate the sequence; a new offer alone is not the system approval.
For BOI-to-BOI moves, BOI's September 2024 example and June 2025 bulletin, page 5 show the old company's release followed by receiving-company placement, with a deadline that depends on the actual remaining permission. The 2025 examples use release submitted on 13 June, with receiving-application deadlines of 19 June or 16 June, depending on the prior stay expiry. The two examples show why the receiving company should obtain its case-specific deadline, not assume it has 15 days after resignation.
Why “BOI gives you 21 days” is misleading
The June 2025 BOI/TIESC bulletin, page 5, describes the Single Window release as a 15-day advance setting plus another six days, totalling 21 days from the release request submission, but never extending past existing authorised stay. In its examples, a filing on 13 June gives a 27 June release date; the last permitted day is 3 July in one case and the earlier original 30 June expiry in another. This is not an unrestricted 21-day allowance beginning whenever you stop work. The recorded stay end date may be earlier than the employee expects.
This is an official 2025 operational instruction, not a guaranteed outcome for a particular filing in 2026; the programme has separate approvals and may have later changes. Have the old and new BOI coordinators obtain the applicable release date, last permitted date, placement deadline and appointment sequence before relying on the calculation. A BOI submission alone is not a substitute for the required Immigration and DOE completion.
A material 2026 check for the receiving employer
BOI Announcement Por.8/2568, dated 5 June 2025, revised foreign-position and personnel criteria. Its stated application dates are 1 October 2025 for projects with promotion certificates issued from the announcement date, and 1 January 2026 for earlier projects.
A new placement can therefore require a fresh assessment of the role, qualifications and income evidence. Ask new HR which criteria, project conditions and exceptions apply before agreeing a start date; the old employer's approval is not evidence that the new placement qualifies.
LTR and Smart Visa holders need their own process
LTR Highly Skilled Professionals
The current LTR FAQ says BOI can assist with an employer change without cancelling the LTR visa if the new company's business meets the targeted-industry criteria. Contact ltr@boi.go.th at least one month before the old contract ends. If the new company does not qualify, the FAQ says the LTR visa must be terminated.
For an unexpected dismissal, contact the unit immediately, explain that advance notice was impossible and ask for case-specific instructions. Do not invent a retrospective grace period.
Where termination is required, BOI's LTR cancellation page sets out a request and supporting documents, a BOI notification letter, Immigration cancellation and confirmation back to the LTR unit. It also requires a separate prompt work-permit termination request through the LTR account where applicable.
Other LTR categories have different continuing conditions. Do not apply the Highly Skilled job-change rule to every LTR holder, or treat a Work-from-Thailand LTR as permission to take a local Thai job. See our LTR versus DTV comparison for those distinctions.
Smart Visa
Smart Visa is another separate scheme. BOI's management instructions require prompt written notification for specified changes, including additional employment with an endorsed organisation. Its FAQ separately addresses resignation, loss of qualifications and cancellation.
Contact the Smart Visa unit about the actual change and any replacement endorsement. Do not extend a programme-specific work-permit exemption to an unendorsed new job. Include Smart O family members in the inquiry: the FAQ describes their own cancellation steps, rather than treating the principal's cancellation as completion of every family record.
If you have no new job ready
There are several paths to investigate, but none exists merely because you have been laid off.
| Possible next step | What must be resolved before relying on it |
|---|---|
| Depart and apply for an appropriate new visa abroad | Lawful departure date, responsible mission, application jurisdiction, required new-employer evidence and permission to start work after return. |
| Apply for a genuinely qualifying family or other stay basis | Eligibility, evidence, timing and whether Immigration can process it in-country before the present basis ends. Marriage or an intended course is not itself an approved change. |
| Use a BOI, LTR or Smart transition | The specific programme's eligibility, release/endorsement procedure and separate immigration/work requirements. |
| Request short further permission or a departure period | Immigration's actual decision and recorded end date. Do not assume this is available or sufficient for another application. |
DTV is not a bridging permission for a new Thai-company job. If your actual future activity is overseas remote work, assess DTV or LTR on their real criteria through the existing comparison, not as a way to keep doing local work during a gap.
A pending LTR application does not solve the gap either. BOI's FAQ advises applicants not to terminate their existing visa merely because an LTR application is pending. That advice does not preserve an employment-based extension after its underlying employment has ended.
Sudden dismissal, uncooperative HR and dependants
If the job ends today, make the immigration inquiry today. Bring your passport, current approvals, contract, resignation or dismissal evidence and available HR correspondence. Ask Immigration how to proceed if the director's letter or company documents are missing, and contact DOE separately about the labour record. Do not assume that an employment dispute pauses immigration obligations.
Distinguish the notice date, last day actually worked, contractual employment end date and official cancellation date. If there is payment in lieu of notice, garden leave or a disputed date, have the employer and competent offices resolve which date applies. A later salary or severance payment is not evidence of continuing immigration permission.
Keep access to your passport and approvals. Request copies before access to company email disappears. Wage, severance and insurance questions deserve separate attention, but they should not delay resolving lawful stay.
For each family member, record:
- Whether their stay depends on your employment-supported status or has an independent basis.
- The cancellation or replacement procedure and whether personal attendance is required.
- Their actual permitted-until date after the change.
- Any separate work-authorisation issue for a working spouse.
Do not assume that changing your own sponsor updates every dependant automatically.
Protect final wages, provident-fund savings and bank access
These are separate from Immigration. Losing an employment-supported stay does not by itself erase wages owed, but leaving the country may complicate receiving funds. Before company access ends, request an itemized final settlement (wages, eligible overtime/holiday pay, accrued leave, notice and any statutory severance). Under the Ministry of Labour rules, an ordinary qualifying employer dismissal after three but fewer than six continuous years normally corresponds to 180 days of last wages, subject to statutory exclusions; voluntary resignation is different. The statutory three-day post-termination payment rule applies to specified wages and overtime/holiday pay after employer termination, not every bonus, fund payout or disputed benefit. Ask the labour office about the exact claim and preserve payslips, the contract and the true reason for dismissal.
Provident fund: Ask the fund manager for your own contributions, vested employer share, tax treatment, membership-termination date, withdrawal/retention choices and payment account. The SEC Provident Fund Act generally describes payment within 30 days after fund membership ends when payable, and eligible retention under applicable fund rules for not less than 90 days. These are not immigration grace periods, and your displayed balance may not equal your net payout.
Bank account: Do not assume it must close automatically when your work permit ends, or that access will be uninterrupted. The Bank of Thailand describes risk-based identity/document reviews and possible restrictions, but this is not a uniform rule for all post-employment foreign accounts. Ask your actual bank whether it can receive final wages/fund proceeds after your status changes and what documents or overseas transfer process it requires. If restricted, request the reason, evidence checklist and written case number; use the BOT consumer complaint route if the bank cannot resolve it. A complaint is not guaranteed unfreezing.
Example: An eligible employee dismissed after four complete years should ask for the statutory severance calculation separately from the Immigration cancellation, while arranging a receiving account or lawful overseas transfer before any departure. The salary or fund payment date does not extend the former work-based stay.
If you have a Thai spouse: explore an independent stay basis early
A registered marriage is not an automatic extension, and it is not a work permit. Immigration’s published Thai-wife family-stay guidance and local family criteria describe documentary and financial requirements for particular categories. For example, a foreign husband of a Thai wife may be assessed against documented 40,000-baht monthly income or 400,000 baht held in a Thai bank for the preceding two months; do not apply that example indiscriminately to every spouse/parent category or assume an investment-fund balance satisfies the deposit requirement.
The unresolved distinction matters: these published category requirements do not establish that someone already on an employment-based Non-B extension can automatically switch to Thai-family grounds inside Thailand before the job ends. Take the actual passport/stay stamps, employment-end date, registered marriage evidence, spouse's ID/house registration and financial proof to the Immigration office responsible for your current permission while it is still valid. Ask in writing whether an in-country application is accepted from your current category, what happens to any linked dependants, the exact filing cut-off and the alternative if it cannot be completed. If a lawful in-country transition is unavailable, plan the required departure and suitable overseas visa/application route before lawful stay ends. Two months of bank seasoning is not two months of permitted extra stay.
The handover record to finish before your last day
Use one shared record with old HR and, where relevant, new HR:
| Item | Record the actual answer |
|---|---|
| Present stay basis and issuing office | Category, supporting employer/project and office |
| Employment end | Confirmed date, signed letter and signatory |
| Old labour record | Notification/cancellation/change action, submitter and acknowledgement |
| Immigration outcome | Cancellation effective date and actual last permitted day |
| Next stay | Approved basis or precise remaining steps; fallback departure plan |
| New work | Applicable authority, required filing/approval and lawful start date |
| Family | Separate outcome and deadline for every affected person |
| Documents | Copies saved outside the employer's systems |
For a new employer's paperwork, use work-permit preparation; for a new basis of stay, use extension planning. Before your final working day, identify who must notify which authority, when your current stay and work permissions change, and which actual decision or receipt proves the next lawful step. A handover checklist does not itself extend your stay or authorise a new job.