Thailand tightens the screws on TM30 reporting, petition ongoing

[Ned]

Don't know if it's already been said in the previous 22 pages but the way I see it is this...

Until some rich Thai rental property owners get fed up with the TM30 and go and put pressure on Immigraion to relax the requirements, then nothing will change. Farang have no influence or hope in this game with the men in uniform. 

[Sumarianson]

It is rediculous if the requirement asks you to report your address even if it has not changed, simply because you took a holiday outside the country or if you spend a few days in another province. Any immigration requirement should follow logic and be practicable in its application. Those of us who have bought property and live there full time should be exempt from the requirement unless we move or sell which has been the practical application of the rule all along.

[ThomasThBKK]

2 minutes ago, Mangkhut said:

It took almost all day the last time I did it, ~6 hours. In a small province upcountry. And I stay less than 10 minutes from the local immigration office. 

I also travel quite a lit around on my motorbike while Im in Thailand and visit other provinces and places. If I have to spend many hours in the Immigration office after every trip outside my base province - it would add up....

 

I used to go every weekend to Trat area, Koh Chang, Mak, kood...

 

let's say we had a mauritius and a maldives trip instead this year.

[yumyai]

I did mine for my permanent home in Prachuab Khirikhan using the website and a google chrome browser on my laptop. It is a bit confusing but not impossible. You register first and then once it’s been (manually) approved by your local immigration office they send you a user ID and password. You then login to the website (or the app) and complete your reporting. The property details are in the REGISTRATION form so from what I can see you or your Thai host need to register and get a user ID and password for each place you stay more than 24 hours (excluding resorts and hotels that already report for you)

 

I then downloaded the iPhone app and checked the status of my registration at each day end. The registration was approved and I was told an email would be sent with the user ID etc. Once I had that the reporting process through the app was fairly simple and approval was very quick. 

1 August - registration request submitted

5 August - app status shows registration approved

8 August - received user ID and password by email. Logged on, completed form and got confirmation my reporting was successful

 

Based on my experience I recommend someone at ThaiVisa prepare and upload a detailed user friendly guide to the online registration and reporting process from the point of view of a foreigner using the system (the Immigration Bureau has an online guide but it’s in Thai and pretty unhelpful). 

 

Also if you regularly go upcountry to the same house(s) to visit relatives for a few days,  it’s worth doing some advance planning registering their names and properties on the system so you can then have user IDs and passwords to log in for them to report your stay there. 

 

 

[taninthai]

1 minute ago, yumyai said:

Based on my experience I recommend someone at ThaiVisa prepare and upload a detailed user friendly guide to the online registration

Someone has already done a detailed thread with all that  info but half the people can’t seem to read or comprehend what they read,so they still seem to have problems..

[lkv]

 

5 hours ago, ThomasThBKK said:

I feel scammed, honestly. 

It's not worth the money anymore. 

 

I wanted to be conveient here, work outside, invest and life here, that's gone now. 

 

Think I'll setup an unnecessary company now, hire my maid and her kids, get a work permit and pay myself a salary with my own money and then i will loophole myself till pr and citizenship ????

 

 

Exactly the shit thailand encourages. 

Set up a company for PR or citizenship to avoid TM30? ????

 

Firstly, those are not guaranteed to get, so most likely you'd be wasting your money in paying unnecessary tax. As others have stated, they aren't fooled by shell companies that just meet minimum requirements.

 

Secondly, would you like to be Thai?

 

If I had your visa, I would skip both TM30 and 90 day reporting altogether, and not visit Immigration. Make life easy.

 

If one really needs to interact with them, deal with the fines at that time.

 

Not saying you should, saying I probably would, if I had your visa.

[Vacuum]

10 minutes ago, Sumarianson said:

It is rediculous if the requirement asks you to report your address even if it has not changed

This has been going on since they introduced the 90 days report...

[Joe Mcseismic]

10 minutes ago, rkidlad said:

If you don't have a problem with it, why do you feel the need to come on here and inform of us of it? Why are you celebrating something that's caused distress to so many others? I've not been affected yet as I don't have to renew my visa until October. When I do, I can look forward to queuing up and paying 800 baht for the pleasure. 

 

Simply put; don't ask me why I have a problem with it and I won't ask you why you don't. 

If this thread was only for people that thought the TM30 policy was bad, then it would be just an echo chamber. What would there be to discuss? Sounds boring, but, what would I know, I don't have a life (note to self.......got to get out more).

Stating that I don't have a problem with it is celebrating? Not according to my dictionary.

Your last statement is just a cop out, which shows that you are not really interested in opposing views, just people to reinforce your own limited view.

[rbmcn]

4 hours ago, luk AJ said:

Great for you, but I am travelling for work nearly every week to Phuket and stay 2 nights. When I am not travelling to Phuket, I am on business trips in Asia. How can I comply with the TM30? Online doesn’t work, I am already waiting 2 months for my log in and password.


Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

I have friends who have waited over 3 months and still not received theirs.????????

[55Jay]

Our human history is littered with abuses and overreach by governments, regimes, ruling classes, races, religious groups, etc.  Humans are prone to dominating and controlling others.  The motivation isn't always pure, or justifiable, and has, on several occassions, crossed over into barking mad insanity. 

 

A conundrum between going along to get along, as long as our pesonal rice bowls aren't upset too much, and the other end of the spectrum - crusaders, activists, protestors, who seem to be endlessly up in arms about something.  The large swath in the middle are spectators with an interest in the outcome, which ever way it might go.

 

Not saying the current effort wrt to Thailand's Immigration policies rises to the level of international attention, but if you look through the lens of history, and extrapolate the trajectory, it might well be time to "put a pin in it", and at least let the powers that be know the quiet, mostly voiceless minority group they are spending a lot of time managing, is paying attention.  Respectfully, of course.

 

I suspected the ruling regime would turn their noses up at it but possibly, quietly, at some point in the future.........?  The key being, it has to be seen as being their own idea.  Not because they buckled to social pressure or external/international influence.

[taninthai]

9 minutes ago, rbmcn said:

I have friends who have waited over 3 months and still not received theirs.????????

Why don’t they go to there immigration office and ask what’s happening then?

would seem the logical thing to do right.

[gunderhill]

22 minutes ago, rbmcn said:

I have friends who have waited over 3 months and still not received theirs.????????

Check with  Tanin Thai he has all the answers, its  simple

[rkidlad]

21 minutes ago, Joe Mcseismic said:

If this thread was only for people that thought the TM30 policy was bad, then it would be just an echo chamber. What would there be to discuss? Sounds boring, but, what would I know, I don't have a life (note to self.......got to get out more).

Stating that I don't have a problem with it is celebrating? Not according to my dictionary.

Your last statement is just a cop out, which shows that you are not really interested in opposing views, just people to reinforce your own limited view.

Then point out why you don't mind it by actually explaining why it's not a problem. Simply saying you don't mind doing it doesn't help anyone. It just annoys others.

 

I mind doing it because I've followed the rules. I've given all the documentation they've asked me to supply. That's all I can do. To then turn around and ask for a new document (it's not my job to study immigration law and enforce laws onto myself when immigration don't) I had no idea about is one thing, to make me queue up with hundreds of others and pay an 800 baht fine is another. I've done my police checks. I've never been in trouble here. I don't see how reporting where I am all the time helps anyone. I could very easily just lie. 

 

Look up the word 'celebrate'. There's more than one meaning.

 

I don't have a problem with many things. But the things that don't bother me aren't necessarily the things that don't cause trouble for others.

[Call]

The latest info from immigration attached in the article, it says, YOU have to report when leaving the province you registered in to immigration officer within 48(!) hour or local police. But what about your friends, landlords, hotel owners etc, that have to report your stay within 24 hours. Double report now? First from landlords within 24 hours, then from you within 48 hours. This if you stays away more then 24 hour.

It´s all a crazy mess!

[TG911]

23 hours ago, poohy said:

IMHO telling Thais what to do never ends well, they just sulk this applies from Plumbers, electrician to these immigration chappies.

Knowing the Thai mentality complete with their limited education and IQ it Stands a perfectly good chance they will out of sheer spite just make life even more difficult.

 

Sadly ....Better the devil you know

I also get that strange feeling that this is going to fire backwards. With all good intents, a petition is not the Thai way. Especially not when brought up by aliens.

 

If anything, it's now high up the radar to get enforced even more.

 

Maybe it just would have gone away over time, or not that strictly enforced, together with so many other things which have been talked about and suddenly were gone.

 

This one not now, at least not for a while. Only thing I hope they get right ... working technology to the rescue!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[brewsterbudgen]

Thats because you probably don’t live in Bkk. That’s a real pain to go from my house in sukhumvit 101 to changwattana everytime i am leaving bkk for a weekend. I am working mon-fri and i dont have 4h to go to immigration every monday, + it cost me about 400b to go there. If you leave in the province then i understand you are fed up but many expats lives in bkk and thats not as convenient as taking just 8 mins, it takes me 4h... Until there will be a working online registration i wont stop hoping this tm 30 thing stops. The point being a criminal he won’t  comply to this registration obviously so it does not change anything for bad guys but make the life of the good ones more  difficult. 

I sympathise and I'm in a similar position. Doing it by post is a solution.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Mattd]

1 hour ago, taninthai said:

Immigration are probably thinking the same ..why do they keep coming to the office when we made other option for them...crazy ferang as always..lol

The issue is that those other options are not yet readily available, the online reporting / app is still a mess and is likely going to be offline as much as it will be online, there are others that say 'just mail it in' again not that simple, depending on the IO then the requirements change on what is required to lodge a TM.30, in most cases it is not simply a case of filling out the form, other documents are needed to be presented, as it is for registering online, a mailed TM.30 report would need a receipt back for putting in to a passport, how would you be able to verify that a) the IO received the letter and b) they have done anything about it?

 

Those that have no issue with the TM.30 are those that generally do not move about much, either within Thailand or overseas, I suspect that the attitude would be different if it was a case of having to file twice weekly, including all the backup documentation required each and every time.

I used to work in BKK and came home to Chonburi every weekend, to fully comply would have meant two reports per week, with only one of them being allowed online, nobody but nobody is going to do this week in week out, it just isn't practical, there is no mechanism in the current reporting that allows for this.

 

In reality, if Thai immigration insist on compliance, then the best way to achieve this is to make it easy, so far that is not the case, the reporting of course may get easier with time, although, I for one am not holding my breath waiting.

 

It is beyond me why so many of these reports are needed in the first place, especially for those on longer term extensions of stay etc. 

For example:

Arrive in to Thailand - Fill in a TM.6 complete with address

Apply for an extension of stay - Includes address

90 Day Reporting of address

 

A foreigner now goes to stay in a hotel in another province for a day or two, the hotel submits an online TM.30 to immigration, reporting that the person is staying at the hotel and for how long, after which the foreigner returns home, would it not be reasonable to expect that they would return to the same address that has been registered on the original TM.6, EOS application and 90 day reports?

 

If in the event the said foreigner does move to a different PERMANENT address, then fine, I can see the need to lodge a report for this change of address, I cannot find any logic in the need for immigration to get this report each and every time a foreigner goes somewhere for 24 hours or more if the permanent address remains the same.

 

As for changing the law by way of a petition, then I do not see how that can possibly work, however, it is time that the authorities realised it is the 21st century and revisited the immigration reporting requirements and at the very least make it more inline with modern day life.

[ThomasThBKK]

1 hour ago, lkv said:

 

Set up a company for PR or citizenship to avoid TM30? ????

 

Firstly, those are not guaranteed to get, so most likely you'd be wasting your money in paying unnecessary tax. As others have stated, they aren't fooled by shell companies that just meet minimum requirements.

 

Secondly, would you like to be Thai?

 

If I had your visa, I would skip both TM30 and 90 day reporting altogether, and not visit Immigration. Make life easy.

 

If one really needs to interact with them, deal with the fines at that time.

 

Not saying you should, saying I probably would, if I had your visa.

Yes you are totally right, i was just mocking the requirements and how they encourage you to jump through loopholes instead of going the legit route. Someone else held me a preach last week in the visa subsection of how i should be as legitimate as him and "just get a PR" ...

 

I do have friends in Bkk that went through PR process and got declined, people with thai kids, thai language skills and 30+ thai employes, i wouldn't even bother trying it.

The only time it makes sense to try is if you are working for a thai company anyway.

[natway09]

 I can live with it,, just ask them to revert back to being able to fill the form at any police station & file & madmen I am no coward

[chrissables]

On 8/13/2019 at 3:47 PM, taninthai said:

No but I have to buy a license to watch tv or have a dog or go fishing ,have to fill in a census form every now and the have to pay extortionate council tax every month ....now that’s stuff to moan about.

 

you didn’t answer my question so you travel and return 3 times every week?..

Dog licence? They were stopped over 30 years ago. 55555555

[metisdead]

Some off topic posts and replies have been removed. 

[55Jay]

So, this flyer about now having 48 hours to report vs. 24 - that's a change, isn't it?  I hadn't heard that until last night.  Was this a result of the of the "pointless" petition, or just ironic circumstance? 

 

We flew into Swampy on Monday @ 2315.  Caught a few winks in BKK then headed North/home at sunrise.  Jet lagging, slightly disheveled clothing and appearance from 2 long-haul flights, we carried on driving 50km past home to the Immigration office, and queued up cross-eyed to get this TM30 krap out of the way.  The annoyance factor high as the enthusiastic volunteer engaged in gossipy chit chat with my Mrs., who was not amused to begin with, much less having to, once again, fill a form to report she has a foreigner living in her house.  Me.  The printed receipt then stapled into my passport along side TM6, visa extension, re-entry permit and the previous 90-day report reminder slip....  all a mere 12 hours after I had been screened into the country by agents of the very same Thai Immigration service at Swampy.

 

Same address. Plain vanilla. Boring. Predictable. Compliant. 

 

Surely there's a common sense solution for those on a Non-O with a consistent track record for, say, 5 years? 10?  Trusted agent program, something along the lines of the US border clearance programs - Global Entry, Nexus, SENTRI, etc. 

 

I've bled all the personal data they've ever asked for, signed, in triplicate, for years.  Bank account numbers and balances, previously how much monthly income I have. Email and phone numbers.  Photos of my wardrobe, marital bed, maps to my house, vehicle information, social media, what restaurants or bars I hang out at, my dog's name.  Constant input of same same into the black hole of 3rd world adminstrative dysfunction, year after year.  Hell, I'll give 'em a frickin' blood sample for DNA, but to what end?

[roadrunner32]

On 8/13/2019 at 9:27 AM, rkidlad said:

Read a couple of reports online of landlords not wanting to rent out to foreigners because of all of this. I can't blame the landlords. I wouldn't want the hassle either. But I think a good way is to highlight every time a foreigner can't rent a place to live because of this rule and landlords not wanting to rent to them. If foreigners find it hard to rent here, that just exposes this silly law even more for what it is and the unnecessary trouble it's causing. 

 

 

I believe that this issue is easy to solve. Just the landlord give this responsibility to the tenant, if he/she fail the landlord will charge any fine on the next rent bill.

[NoshowJones]

On 8/13/2019 at 3:46 PM, DaRoadrunner said:

I can't understand why they are so paranoid about national security? What's the problem? What is the true purpose of the TM30?

 

None of us are interested in taking over the country. Someone should tell them we only came here for the pussy.

and a lot more came here to retire, marry and have a peaceful life.

[FarFlungFalang]

9 minutes ago, 55Jay said:

Surely there's a common sense solution for those on a Non-O with a consistent track record for, say, 5 years? 

A preferred customer program?Unfortunately we are not preferred.

[NoshowJones]

On 8/13/2019 at 3:50 PM, Traubert said:

Maybe the petition should have been about making TM30 reporting available online nationwide? Then everyone would be suited.

 

Except those who's time is so valuable that two minutes on the internet would be the last nail in the expat coffin.

No one should be reporting to anyone unless maybe convicted for a crime, whether it takes 1 minute or all day.

[NoshowJones]

On 8/13/2019 at 4:21 PM, rbmcn said:

Trekked up to Bkk immigration for TM30.  Been here 10 years.  Takes us almost an hour. Was told by staffers that reporting in by TM30 is unnecessary for us.????  

That's one staffer, what about the others?

[racket]

It’s clear they don’t want us anymore.

[NoshowJones]

On 8/13/2019 at 4:22 PM, gunderhill said:

you  need  to  tell  us  why?

Just because the staffers (plural) said so. 

You mean the staffers all had the same answer? In Thailand? Thai immigration?

[NoshowJones]

On 8/13/2019 at 4:30 PM, overherebc said:

Gf or wifes ID best way to go.

Even your own ID, except your passport.