TM30 Info

[CMBob]

23 hours ago, stillhereandlovinit said:

I landed back in Savanabhumi on Saturday morning, walked to the transfer desk to continue up to Chiang Mai, went through customs etc and did the TM30 in Thai Airways lounge while waiting for my connecting flight on the app. A 2 minute job.

 

1 hour ago, stament said:

You can do the TM30 stamp in BKK? Where is your TM30 place of registration, CM or BKK?

He did it online (as he mentioned he did it "on the app.").

 

I presume he's talking about the Section38 app.  I just registered for that yesterday and, after pushing the final submit button, got a "registration succesful" screen.  Then, within a minute, got an email which prodded me into clicking on a link to verify my email and whatever.  Then, within another minute later, got another email with my username and password for the system.  I don't intend to log onto the system until near the end of October upon returning from a short trip out of Thailand.....and that will be my big test to see if I can easily update the TM30 registration with my phone.

 

Stillhereandlovinit:  A couple of questions: (1) You flew into BKK and continued via the transfer system but you say you went through customs in BKK? (I've done that too but the customs part always came at CNX).  (2)  When you say you used the app, do you mean you updated (versus filing any new TM30)?  No big deal but I'm curious why you updated while in BKK as you hadn't returned to your TM30 registered address in Chiangmai as yet.

[stillhereandlovinit]

2 hours ago, CMBob said:

 

He did it online (as he mentioned he did it "on the app.").

 

I presume he's talking about the Section38 app.  I just registered for that yesterday and, after pushing the final submit button, got a "registration succesful" screen.  Then, within a minute, got an email which prodded me into clicking on a link to verify my email and whatever.  Then, within another minute later, got another email with my username and password for the system.  I don't intend to log onto the system until near the end of October upon returning from a short trip out of Thailand.....and that will be my big test to see if I can easily update the TM30 registration with my phone.

 

Stillhereandlovinit:  A couple of questions: (1) You flew into BKK and continued via the transfer system but you say you went through customs in BKK? (I've done that too but the customs part always came at CNX).  (2)  When you say you used the app, do you mean you updated (versus filing any new TM30)?  No big deal but I'm curious why you updated while in BKK as you hadn't returned to your TM30 registered address in Chiangmai as yet.

When you have a flight that starts and ends on Chiang mai you are just in transit so no need to collect your bags, there is a immigration desk (not customs, Sorry) at suvanabhumi to get your arrival stamp etc, then you go in to domestics from there for the cnx leg of the journey. You get a baggage collect sticker to proudly wear. so once you have landed at cnx you dont have to go through immigration again, but you do need to pick your bag up from International baggage at cnx.

 

In regards to doing the TM30 update, I had an hour or so to kill while I was in the lounge so I just did it there and then, no other reason. I knew I was going home anyway, I had got my new TM6 number so no other reason than i was bored.

[dcnx]

On 9/20/2019 at 2:54 PM, gwynt said:

They really don't know what thry are doing.

No one knows what they are doing here. I’m not sure why anyone thought immigration would be different.
 

Plumbers don’t know anything about plumbing, painters can’t paint, drivers can’t drive, doctors are mostly quacks, the police are the exact opposite of police, sales staff don’t know how to sell, and on and on. 

[Bruce404]

14 hours ago, stillhereandlovinit said:

In regards to doing the TM30 update, I had an hour or so to kill while I was in the lounge so I just did it there and then, no other reason. I knew I was going home anyway, I had got my new TM6 number so no other reason than i was bored.

     I am a little confused by "Stillhereandloveinit" recounting his/her using an Immigration Department app on a smartphone to file a TM.30 report on his arrival back home in Chiang Mai while sitting in BKK airport in Bangkok.  

 

     First of all, TM.30 reports are the obligation of the Thai owner, householder, or hotelier to report a foreigner's arrival.  Doing so requires logging in to https://extranet.immigration.go.th/fn24online/ using a user ID and password assigned by the Immigration Department to the owner or householder of the place.  To my knowledge, there is no smartphone app for doing such reporting. 

 

     Perhaps Stillhereandloveinit owns a condo and has obtained the online reporting privileges in his own right.  Or his/her Thai spouse or friend has given out the user ID and password, and an internet browser was used to do the TM.30 reporting on a phone, but not technically an "app".  If not, what is this app used for TM.30?

 

     I ask because I have the Android Immigration Department app usable ONLY for 90-day reports of myself (in lieu of TM.47), which works fine.  Its login and main menu page looks like the two attached screen captures.  I have explored all its sub-menus, and can guarantee it cannot do TM.30 reports of foreigners arriving in Thai lodging.  It works great for what it is capable of.

 

     It would be great if foreigners who return to their main lodging after arriving in country or routinely being reported to Immigration having just stayed elsewhere in Thailand by a hotel or guest house could use such an app.  The online website at the URL given above is not very user-friendly and is entirely in Thai.

 

     So, Stillhereandloveinit, please tell us the name of this app as available in Apple's app store or Android's Google Play.  And send us screen-captures of what it looks like (blocking out any private details).

     Thanks.

 

PS.  I have yet to read any definitive exception for having to file a new TM.30 report by the householder hosting a foreigner returning "home" from a domestic trip after the foreigner has been reported staying elsewhere, even across the street, across a nearby provincial boundary line, or at the other end of the country.  UbonJoe, what say ye about this?  Is such a claim mentioned several times in this long "TM.30" thread really true, or just another Thaivisa myth?

[Bruce404]

     Folks, I found the answer to my question, immediately above, of "Where O Where is the android TM.30 app that people mention using?"  UbonJoe alluded to the answer in another thread. 

     

     The long, disheartening answer is here: 
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/change-country-region-google-play-store/ 

 

     The short answer is that the app called "Section38" in Google Play will not appear in searching Google Play on android phones for which the Google Play app itself is set to any country other than Thailand.  This is a big Catch-22 for people who travel frequently back to home countries or elsewhere:  In its wisdom and beneficence, Google does not permit switching one's country setting to Thailand, downloading the app, and then re-setting the country location elsewhere.  Apparently, one is limited to only one country change per year, and even that may not work if one's IP address remains in Thailand.  

    Jeez.  Blame Google or blame the Immigration Department if it requested this non-availability to its foreign residents who spend much of the year outside Thailand.

    Have an old android smartphone sitting in a drawer?  Maybe dust it off, charge it up, and register a new Google account to be geo-located in Google Play to Thailand, just for using the "Section38" app.

   

[scottiejohn]

7 hours ago, Bruce404 said:

Have an old android smartphone sitting in a drawer?  Maybe dust it off, charge it up, and register a new Google account to be geo-located in Google Play to Thailand, just for using the "Section38" app.

Simple way round it is to connect your phone to your computer in Thailand, no VPN, connect to Internet sign into your google account go to playstore download and install.  I have just done it that way now as a test and it worked.

[Andrew Dwyer]

On my last 2 extensions ( a year ago + last week ) they asked for a copy of gf’s ID and tabian baan ( as my landlord ), no TM30 form filled and no receipt given.
My TM30 receipt, stapled in my passport is two years old .

Am I up to date with my TM30 reporting ??
Don’t know and don’t care !

Seems like my IO ( Ayutthaya ) have turned the TM30 reporting fiasco into a run of the mill exercise.

[My 2 cents]

On 9/20/2019 at 12:15 AM, CMBob said:

The sign there seemed to say the same thing....

We previous had a art 37, an art 38 and now an art 36 to worry about ?

Section 36 : Where there is a proper reason , the Director General or the Immigration Commission shall have power to revoke permission previously authorized the alien to stay temporary in the Kingdom , whether or not the Director General , or the official deputized by the Director General , has granted such permission. 
In the case the Director General has ordered permission to be revoked , the alien whose permission has been revoked may appeal such orders to the Immigration Commission. Order of the Immigration Commission will be final. 
The appeal of the Director General's order under paragraph 2 of this Section shall be submitted to the competent official within forty – eight hours from the time of acknowledgement of such order from the Director General and must be complied with from and fees as prescribed in the Ministerial Regulations. 
After cancellation of the temporary entry permit in reference to the provision of paragraph 1 of this Section , the alien must be notified by a written notice. In the case a written notice cannot be sent to the alien , yet the competent official has post a notice to the alien's place of stay , as previously notified , and forty – eight hours , have passed , it is assumed that the alien has received said notice. 

[Bruce404]

"Simple way round it is to connect your phone to your computer in Thailand, no VPN, connect to Internet sign into your google account go to playstore download and install.  I have just done it that way now as a test and it worked." = scottiejohn

 

    ScottieJohn's suggestion to bypass the geo-location on one's android phone in order for a search for the "Section38" app (to perform a TM.30 report for a foreigner returning to his/her lodging) only works to find the app and install it if one's master Google account is geo-located to Thailand. 

 

    All devices (phone, laptop, iPad, etc.) linked to one's Google account have the same geo-location, which does not change when one travels around the world to access one's Google account from various "overseas" IP addresses.  

    Here is what Google itself says about it.

    https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/7431675?hl=en

 

    Perhaps ScottieJohn has 2 or more separate Google accounts (and perhaps multiple @gmail.com email addresses) that allow him to access the location-restricted Section38 app from his computer when it is unable to be found by Google Play search on his phone.  One way to determine this is if he uninstalls it from the phone and tries to find it again on the phone alone.  If it shows up, it means his phone is also geo-located by Google Play to Thailand.

    

    Dusting off that old android phone in the drawer to set its geo-location to Thailand will certainly require first performing a "factory" reset to become a "virgin" phone.  Otherwise, its existing geo-location to another country is probably embedded deeply inside it and still linked to one's primary Google account.  A new @gmail.com address will most likely be necessary, too -- I don't know if having an @gmail.com email address is a requirement for setting up any new android phone.

    

 

[Bruce404]

     Here's how to create an entirely separate, independent Google account on a new virginal android phone (to be geo-located to Thailand for installing the Section38 app), or an old phone just factory-reset to erase all prior customizations made to it after it was once new:

    

https://www.greenbot.com/article/2459663/how-to-add-a-new-google-account-on-your-android-phone-or-tablet.html 

   

    The phone does not need a SIM card for cellular service if one's primary intention is to use it when WiFi service is available to perform TM.30 reporting. 

   

[jackdd]

37 minutes ago, Bruce404 said:

     Here's how to create an entirely separate, independent Google account on a new virginal android phone (to be geo-located to Thailand for installing the Section38 app), or an old phone just factory-reset to erase all prior customizations made to it after it was once new:

    

https://www.greenbot.com/article/2459663/how-to-add-a-new-google-account-on-your-android-phone-or-tablet.html 

   

    The phone does not need a SIM card for cellular service if one's intention is only to use it when WiFi service is available to perform TM.30 reporting. 

   

Since quite a while Android supports multiple users, so just create a new user on an existing Android phone, and create a new Google account with this user, then you can download the app. No need for a second phone.

[HullyGully]

I have a question:-

On the U38 app where do you find the correct entry from the drop down menu for

 

NON 0 - RETIREMENT

VISA EXEMPT - 30 days

 

I do not see tham listed

[Almer]

22 hours ago, dcnx said:

No one knows what they are doing here. I’m not sure why anyone thought immigration would be different.
 

Plumbers don’t know anything about plumbing, painters can’t paint, drivers can’t drive, doctors are mostly quacks, the police are the exact opposite of police, sales staff don’t know how to sell, and on and on. 

True true true

[scottiejohn]

21 hours ago, Bruce404 said:

ScottieJohn's suggestion to bypass the geo-location on one's android phone in order for a search for the "Section38" app (to perform a TM.30 report for a foreigner returning to his/her lodging) only works to find the app and install it if one's master Google account is geo-located to Thailand. 

Wrong!  My phone and sole Gmail a/c originated in the UK.  The phone did NOT find  the app on it's own but doing as I posted above worked.  Before shooting the messenger have you actually tried what I suggested?

 

PS;  I said in my earlier post that I "signed into my Google a/c" which implies that I was in my account and then went to the store.  What I meant was I found the app in the store on the computer and then used my log in details to download from the store.

[Bruce404]

On 9/27/2019 at 8:38 AM, scottiejohn said:

Simple way round it is to connect your phone to your computer in Thailand, no VPN, connect to Internet sign into your google account go to playstore download and install.  I have just done it that way now as a test and it worked.

 

Wrong!  My phone and sole Gmail a/c originated in the UK.  The phone did NOT find  the app on it's own but doing as I posted above worked.  Before shooting the messenger have you actually tried what I suggested?

 

PS;  I said in my earlier post that I "signed into my Google a/c" which implies that I was in my account and then went to the store.  What I meant was I found the app in the store on the computer and then used my log in details to download from the store.

Edited 10 hours ago by scottiejohn
PS added

    Actually, I did try ScottieJohn's suggestion. I used a Windows 10 laptop machine, an up-to-date Chrome browser indicating it was logged into my Google account (USA), and was at the Google Play webpage: https://play.google.com/store/apps 
    
    Search at the Google Play webpage failed to find the "Section 38" app, whether searched with or without a space between "Section" and "38", or with both spelling versions in the search box.  See the attached screen capture image.  Scrolling down through hundred of other "hits" also fails to find anything resembling "Section 38" for TM.30 self-reporting of foreigner arrival in one's lodging.
     
     To help us better understand ScottieJohn's ability to download the Section 38 app, I suggest he visit his computer's Google Play webpage at https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/7431675?hl=en.  There he will find details on how to change one's "Google Play country", which can only be done on an Android phone, not a computer.  
     
     Then on his Android phone he might follow the first instructions 1. and 2. to reveal his current Google Play country (far below):

     

  Then perhaps he can take a screen-capture of the country indicated, block out his real name for privacy purposes, and share the image to prove to the rest of us that his Google Play country is indeed the UK.  Of course, perhaps the Immigration Department, for some reason, blocks the app for Google-Play locations in the USA, but not for the UK, to search, find, download, and install this very desirable app.

 

     I attach a second image illustrating the kind of screen capture I hope ScottieJohn can share with us.

    
Change your Google Play country

To change your country, you need to set up a new country in Google Play. To set up a new country, you must be in that country and have a payment method from the new country.

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Play Store .

2. Tap Menu   Account  Country and profiles.    

 

PS.  The "TM6" is a strange app for printing out a typical Departure/Arrival card (and perhaps being pre-assigned its TM-6 number), as one is handed by flight staff while en route to Thailand, or can pick up just before the Immigration check-in desks at international Thailand airports.  How anyone would have access to a printer while en-route or standing in line for Immigration beats me.  Does anyone find it useful to print it out before starting one's travel, when the blue-ink-on-white-thin-cardboard form is readily available in flight and at destination?

[scottiejohn]

1 hour ago, Bruce404 said:

To help us better understand ScottieJohn's ability to download the Section 38 app, I suggest he visit his computer's Google Play webpage

I suggest you read what I wrote and said how I have downloaded the section 38 App.  In particular read my PS to my post No 44 and stop making life difficult for yourself and others!
I have now installed and uninstalled 38 on two differnt phones of my own and a first time visiter (a friend who trusted what I was trying to do) to CM on 5 occassions in the past 48hrs.  On only one occassion did I have to "log into" my account after attempting to download the app.  (I believe that was because I was using a VPN on the phone at that time-not on the computer) Every other time it downloaded straight away.
It is very rare that I ever have to use log in credentials to download anything from the store.
Whilst typing this I just downloaded two apps to two different phones with no google "log in".
Try keeping it simple and stop logging in first.  Just download.
 

[Wongkitlo]

HI Almer,
Luckily it is not like that!
For starters, nobody will know that you made a trip to another province unless you stayed at a Hotel/guesthouse that asked for your passport so that the Hotel could do the mandatory TM30 filing of your stay.  Also if you are with your wife/girlfriend and her ID-card was used for checking into the Hotel, nobody will know.
TM30 compliance is ONLY checked when you visit your provincial IO for an extension of stay (for most of us, that would be once a year).  And most IO's also don't care whether a TM30 has been filed after a trip to another province (why should they, it is already outdated information when you do your application).
They do however expect a TM30 to be filed after your return from a trip abroad (the reason being that you will have gotten a new entry/departure card TM6 and the number of that card has to be on the TM30 filing).
So the Golden Rule is: Don't bother/worry about intermediary TM30s and just ensure that a current TM30 has been filed from the place where you are staying when applying for an extension of stay at your provincial IO.
Note: If your 'home' is your own or wife's house, register the house on the IO TM30 website, which will allow you or your wife to file a TM30 of yourself or any friend/foreigner staying at your house.
 

The whole system is flawed. As you said easy to get someone else to register at the hotel for you. Even if you register and they report your arrival to immigration they don't know when you leave the hotel. You can register at one hotel, go to another province and stay wherever,commit any crimes you want and then leave the country then come back and register another tm30 and your records would show you were still at the first hotel till you left the country. How can it possibly help them stop crime. It is just a means for immigration to collect some money from unwitting foreigners and make them waste alot of time and money along the way travelling to immigration.

Sent from my Lenovo TB-8304F1 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Bruce404]

2 hours ago, scottiejohn said:

I suggest you read what I wrote and said how I have downloaded the section 38 App.  In particular read my PS to my post No 44 and stop making life difficult for yourself and others!
I have now installed and uninstalled 38 on two differnt phones of my own and a first time visiter (a friend who trusted what I was trying to do) to CM on 5 occassions in the past 48hrs.  On only one occassion did I have to "log into" my account after attempting to download the app.  (I believe that was because I was using a VPN on the phone at that time-not on the computer) Every other time it downloaded straight away.
It is very rare that I ever have to use log in credentials to download anything from the store.
Whilst typing this I just downloaded two apps to two different phones with no google "log in".
Try keeping it simple and stop logging in first.  Just download.
 

First, a correction.  I misspoke earlier:  There can be a difference between the location of one's "Google account" (and perhaps one's @gmail.com account, if it has an official location), and the country where one's "Google Play account" is located.  So, my previous references to "Google account" should be corrected to refer to "Google Play account".  Thus, one might have a Google account in the UK, while one's quite distinct Google Play account is linked to Thailand.

 

That being said, with all due respect to ScottieJohn's claims that downloading the Section38 is easy using his computer, I suggest he prove the country to which the Google Play account that applies on multiple devices (computer, phones) is assigned by providing a screen capture from his Android phone, the only place one can determine this fact.  I did so on a prior page of this thread. 

 

Perhaps by using different Android phones, separately registered as different accounts with Google, he has achieved one Google Play account geo-located to the UK and another one linked to Thailand.  

 

ScottieJohn, be kind enough to show us, as Google advises by this technique:

  

     "1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Play Store Google Play.
     "2. Tap Menu Menu and then Account and then Country and profiles."

 

A screen capture of his "County and profiles" settings that shows the country assigned for his Google Play account (not his separate Google account) can perhaps save others a lot of wasted time and frustrating effort in fruitlessly following his instructions ("no VPN required").  Thank you.

 

Many long-term and part-time expatriates in Thailand for various reasons may not want to set their Google Play account to this country, which will bar them from resetting it to their home country or somewhere else for at least one year:

 

https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/7431675?hl=en