Thai work permit cancelled, can I get a tourist visa before leaving?

You can not apply for a Tourist Visa inside Thailand, it has to be done at an Embassy or Consulate. You can only extend a Tourist Visa within Thailand and that can only be done once for a cost that is about the same as applying for a new tourist visa.

I don’t think your employer can cancel your ‘visa’. They can get your work permit cancelled, but in terms of your visa at best they can withdraw their intent to hire you and thus keep you from renewing your visa.

Depending on your citizenship, you can leave the country and perhaps come back in under the Visa Exemption program for 30 day stays. But coupled with you recently expired visa for working, it may generate suspicion of trying to live in Thailand without the correct visa if you do this a couple of times in a row. The government has been cracking down on expats who used the 30 days Visa Exemption to live in the country.

You can also visit a Thai Embassy in neighbouring countries to apply for a tourist visa, which if you get one of the newer multiple entry ones gets you several 60 days entries. But again your expired visa for working may be taken into consideration, as proof you intend to reside not just visit.

• If the OP is on his original one year B visa and gets laid off, the visa is still valid. If he has been working more than one year and has used the extension service, then yes his extension becomes invalid. But if he gets a new job prior to the old work permit expiring he can maintain his extension with the new work permit. In either case, the “visa” does not get cancelled by the employer, as in the second case the visa has already expired but the OP has been given permission to remain in the country.
• There are a couple of things at work here.
  First off there is no such thing as a “work visa”. There is a Non-Immigrant Type-B visa (the B means business).
  Another thing is, IF you are on the initial entry of a Non-B visa (the first 90 days) and you lose your job, cancel your work permit, the employer cannot cancel your 90-day stamp and you can stay until it runs out. That’s because entries on a VISA can’t be cancelled
  Now on the other hand IF you are on an extension of stay (that you get from the immigration office) on the day your work permit is cancelled, you need to take that paper to the immigration office and cancel your extension and then you leave the country that day OR you buy a 7 day extension cancelled get out of Thailand in a week stamp for 1900baht.
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