Increases of up to 400% for Thai residency visas have sparked many protests from foreign husbands living with their Thai wife in Thailand and even more dramatic changes are looming behind the corner.

Immigration lawyers say they are receiving many questions from worried foreigners working or living in Thailand. Moreover, numerous websites catering to expatriates living here have been inundated with protests letters since the increases took effect, with some fees even risen with more than 400 per cent.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's government implemented increases for both immigration and visa fees on August 26. Furthermore, the Thai government plans to amend new work-permit regulations, including a much higher minimum-wage requirement for foreigners working in Thailand.

While visa fees for Thailand had not been increased for almost 20 years, work-permit regulations have been overhauled for the third time in the last 10 years.

Asked for the reasons behind the latest changes, the Thai Ministry of Labor said that it was to make it more difficult for foreigners to get settled in the country. The latest amendments are aimed at making it more difficult for foreigners to work in Thailand unless they are really qualified, and are needed and useful for Thailand and for the benefit of the Thai people, said Wirada Yuvaves, the head of the ministry's office that sets the criteria for approving work permits for Thailand.

However, it has never been easy to get a permanent residency permit for Thailand. The Thai Immigration Bureau only accepts 100 people per nation and per year with the competition between Indian applicants being the highest, said Kobkit Thienpreecha, an immigration lawyer at Tilleke & Gibbins in Bangkok.

But it is not only Indian nationals that are upset about the changes in the visa regulations for Thailand. Many of the overall 400,000 immigrant workers currently holding work permits view the increase as offensive.

Thailand has always welcomed tourists who stay for a short holiday period and come to spend their money here, said a British entrepreneur who asked not to be named. However, the moment a foreigner wishes to settle down in Thailand, the walls go up. Some of the fees have quadrupled. The cost of a residency permit has gone up to Bt191,400 (US$ 5,000) from Bt50,000 (US$ 1,250). A foreigner married to a Thai, or any of their unmarried children under 20 years of age, is charged Bt95,700 (US$ 2,450) per person.

For expatriate families with several children this might be a lot of money. Compared to small entrepreneurs with a simple business, large companies can easily cope with the fee increase, one Embassy official said.

For multinational companies doing business in Thailand, the increased non-immigrant visa and re-entry permit costs are a cost of doing business. It will in no way deter any company from deciding whether or not to do business in Thailand, a spokesperson for the American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand added.

However, we do understand that for some smaller professions and private business people, the increase may be a hardship. Among those who will suffer the most are freelance workers such as designers, small entrepreneurs, language teachers, journalists and photographers.

The only exception to the new rise in minimum salaries concerns foreign journalists. Thailand generally benefits from foreign journalists being here . . . and many are not well paid, said Banpote Kittiweera, a lieutenant colonel at the Immigration Police in Chiang Mai. A foreign journalist is only required to earn at least Bt20,000 per month (US$ 520), whereas an American or Canadian employed in any other line of business in Thailand has to earn a minimum of Bt60,000 (US$ 1,550) or Bt50,000 (US$ 1,300) in the case of Europeans and Australians, to qualify for a work permit in Thailand.