The BOI One Stop Service Center is a single desk where Immigration, the labour department, and BOI process a foreign hire’s visa and work permit together. For a promoted company with complete paperwork, that can mean same-day approval instead of weeks of running between offices.
Anyone who has done a Thai work permit the ordinary way knows the drill: one queue at Immigration for the visa, a different office for the work permit, forms that don’t talk to each other, and weeks of back-and-forth. When you’re trying to land a foreign hire on a fixed start date, that delay turns into a real problem.
BOI companies skip most of it. The short version:
- What it is: one counter where BOI, Immigration, and the Department of Employment work off a single application
- How fast: about three hours for a BOI company with complete documents
- Who it’s for: BOI-promoted companies, IEAT and Petroleum Act companies, firms with THB30,000,000+ in capital or assets, and SMART and LTR holders
- Where: One Bangkok on Rama IV since March 2025, with most filing done online before you go in
This guide covers what the OSSC is, what it handles, who’s allowed to use it, and how BOI’s faster work-permit route actually works. It also answers the question we get most from founders outside the capital: whether your new hire has to fly to Bangkok to get any of it done.
Key Takeaways
- The One Stop Service Center (OSSC) is BOI’s single desk where Immigration, the Department of Employment, and BOI process visas and work permits together, instead of you running between three offices.
- For a company with a BOI promotion certificate and complete documents, the centre can process a visa and work permit in about three hours.
- Since March 2025 the main centre sits at the Thailand Investment and Expat Services Center in One Bangkok on Rama IV Road, having moved from Chamchuri Square.
- You don’t have to be a BOI company to use it. Companies with at least THB30,000,000 in registered capital or assets, plus SMART and LTR visa holders, are also eligible.
- Most of the filing is done online through BOI’s Single Window system, so being physically at the counter matters less than it used to.
- If your company is outside Bangkok, your hire almost never has to fly down for this. The passport stamp is taken at the immigration checkpoint covering your business, and a provincially registered company files its work permit at that province’s employment office. Chiang Mai has its own BOI one-stop counter.
What the OSSC Is
The One Stop Service Center (OSSC) is one office that combines three government functions:
- Immigration handles the visa.
- The Department of Employment handles the work permit.
- BOI coordinates the whole thing, because your company’s promotion is what gives you the right to be there.
If your company is promoted by BOI, this is your single point of contact for visas and work permits.
That makes the whole process much easier. You apply for the visa and the work permit in one place, and it can be done in a few hours.
OSSC vs the Standard Route
The difference between the two routes comes down to speed and convenience.
| BOI route (OSSC) | Standard route | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you go | One counter | Immigration and the labour office separately |
| Processing time | About three hours if your documents are complete | Weeks of back-and-forth |
| Filing | Online via BOI’s Single Window | Agency by agency |
Good to know: Online filing through BOI’s Single Window works as a pre-approval. Once the application is approved there, the visa and work permit are close to guaranteed. We haven’t heard of anyone being turned down at the counter after a pre-approval came through.
What It Handles
Through the OSSC you can handle:
- Visa endorsement and issuance: getting the right non-immigrant visa for an approved foreign employee or expert.
- Work permits: issuing and renewing the permit that lets that person legally work in the role.
- Extensions of stay: renewing the visa as the assignment continues.
- 90-day reporting and re-entry permits: the routine immigration housekeeping every long-stay foreigner deals with.
Who Can Use It
The OSSC isn’t only for BOI companies, though they’re the core users. Eligibility runs to a few groups:
- BOI-promoted companies and their approved foreign employees and experts.
- Companies privileged under IEAT (the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand) or the Petroleum Act.
- Larger companies generally: businesses with at least THB30,000,000 in registered capital or assets can use the centre even without BOI promotion.
- SMART and LTR visa holders: the two BOI-linked visa programmes are serviced here too.
If none of those fit you, you’re back to the standard route through regular Immigration and the labour office, with the ordinary capital and Thai-staff-ratio tests that BOI companies are spared.
How It Works Step by Step
The filing itself happens online through BOI’s Single Window for Visa and Work Permit. The sequence looks like this:
- Register your company on the Single Window at swe-expert.boi.go.th. Credentials come back within about one working day.
- Submit the application online, with BOI, Immigration, and the Department of Employment all working from that one filing.
- Track status and pay fees through the same system, then book your appointment.
- Attend the counter at One Bangkok for the in-person steps and collection. On complete documents, a BOI company is through in about three hours.
The counter is where you collect and where anything needing a physical step happens, but the bulk of the paperwork moves before you ever go in. It’s also why a company doesn’t need someone camped in Bangkok full-time to keep its foreign staff legal.
Tip: The three-hour figure assumes complete and correct documents. It’s a throughput promise, not a guarantee, and an incomplete file simply sends you back around. Get the document list confirmed before you book the appointment rather than after.
If You’re Not in Bangkok
The main OSSC counter is in Bangkok, and the question we get from every founder in Chiang Mai, Phuket, or out on the eastern seaboard is the same one: does my new hire have to fly down to Bangkok for this?
Almost always, no. BOI approves the position centrally and the filing happens online, but you collect the result locally.
Two things make the distance easier to live with:
- BOI has seven regional offices. They’re in Chiang Mai, Nakhon Ratchasima, Khon Kaen, Chonburi, Songkhla, Surat Thani, and Phitsanulok. They give promotion advice and help with applications close to where you are, so they’re your first call even though the visa desk itself sits in Bangkok.
- The routine paperwork stays local. 90-day reports, re-entry permits, and address updates go through your own provincial immigration office, wherever you live. You only use the BOI channel for the BOI-specific steps.
Here’s how it plays out by location:
| Where you are | What that means day to day |
|---|---|
| Bangkok | Online filing through the Single Window, plus the OSSC counter at One Bangkok when you need to show up |
| Chiang Mai | Its own BOI one-stop visa and work permit counter, opened at Chiang Mai Immigration in 2019 for staff of BOI-promoted companies, plus online Single Window filing |
| Phuket | Online Single Window filing, with the work permit issued through the provincial employment office |
| Chonburi, Rayong, and the rest of the EEC | The EEC Labour Administration Center in Chonburi issues and extends SMART visas locally |
| Anywhere else | Your provincial immigration office and provincial employment office handle it, though expect to hand in supporting documents on paper |
Tip: Work permit filings now go through the Department of Employment’s own e-Work Permit portal. Since 28 July 2026 that’s the only accepted route, and paper is taken only if you can show the system was down. It’s separate from BOI’s Single Window and applies to every employer, BOI or not. Immigration firms are the ones reporting this rather than the DOE publishing a clean notice, so check the current step before you file.
Thinking about setting up with BOI?
BOI Connect matches foreign business owners with a vetted firm that handles the whole thing, from company registration to visas, tax, and ongoing compliance.