Stay where you have registered - or face 4,000 baht fine, warns Immigration

[MaxiMaxi]

We must never forget that we are not in our country and they consider us lemons and lemons have to be squeezed and by yhe way also our countries want taxes and try to squeeze us in any possible way and thais are learning quickly.... :D 

[jamie2009]

3 minutes ago, MaxiMaxi said:

We must never forget that we are not in our country and they consider us lemons and lemons have to be squeezed and by yhe way also our countries want taxes and try to squeeze us in any possible way and thais are learning quickly.... :D 

Yes but they are 'biting the hand that feeds them' !

[MaxiMaxi]

On Wednesday, October 12, 2016 at 1:23 AM, Maestro said:

 

Whether you stay inist rso inifferent hotels or in two different private resideances during your stay in Thailand, the letter of the law applies equally. Whether the immigration offices in the areas where you stay enforce the law equally in both situations is another question and is unpredictable.

I think that Is more related to a stable residency. If a person has a visa o stay permit and Is registered at a fix home and goes somewhere for a weekend doesn't happen anything cause Is a visit. The problem rises when the week-end becomes a stable living for long time In a different addres then have to be done the change formality.

[MaxiMaxi]

5 minutes ago, jamie2009 said:

Yes but they are 'biting the hand tnat feeds them' !

Yes sure they do...like every where gov people (peoisle) have this stupid mentality and have to follow the order that a more stupid boss Is giving them. They just have to save their ass and their job and Income.....

Same old story

[MaxiMaxi]

On Thursday, October 13, 2016 at 3:09 PM, Mattd said:

The lawsinregifrding the TM30 and TM28 are relatively simple, however, complying with them in some cases is not!

 

TM30 - Up to the householder or their representative to fill in and report to immigration within 24 hours of the 'alien' residing.

TM28 - The long term 'alien' should give this to immigration to register that this is their permanent address, it should tally up with a TM30 somewhere along the line, it is not intended for tourists, it is for the 'alien' that is staying in Thailand long term, either working, retired or for whatever reason. i.e. somebody on a non-immigrant visa, who is doing yearly extensions and 90 day reports etc.

 

The problems arise, as has been mentioned before, when somebody like me has a residence in one province and works in another Monday - Friday.

Which address do you report as your permanent one on the TM28......?? (in my case, the children live at the weekend address and I consider this to be my actual home)

in this case, then a TM30 should technically be submitted twice per week, one for the weekend address (who simply cannot comply with the 24 hour rule due to the weekend!!) and one for the residence for the work period.

In my case, the weekend one would be relatively easy, albeit a PITA if weekly.

The weekday one would rely on my landlord doing this every week, this is a Thai guy that works all over the world and isn't here often, plus his wife has a young family to look after, so not exactly practical to actually do in reality.

 

Like kittenKong, I've been living in Thailand for close to 27 years and didn't actually realise this was all necessary until recently, it has all come in to the forefront due to the Bangkok bombing, since which there are several cases of people being fined, not being able to get residency letters from immigration etc. certainly not isolated cases now.

 

Like most things in life, to achieve compliance it is far better to make the compliance as easy as possible, I for one would much prefer to do things by the book, however, given the number of reports that would have to be done over the course of one year and the number of people it inconveniences, (not just me, if it was only me, then it wouldn't be so bad), then compliance is really not as easy as it might be in other cases, I'm certainly not the only one in this situation, hundreds, if not thousands are.

 

Everybody has to put an address on the TM.6 upon arrival in to Thailand, I'm quite sure that immigration do not have a system that can physically check that address against a TM30 report that, in theory, should be submitted within 24 hours of the arrival in to Thailand, it would be an administrative nightmare!

Long termers must also put an address on a TM47 when reporting for the 90 days.

So immigration basically get a long term person's address several times by several means.....

Tourists may well change hotels or accommodation several times in a holiday, yes, the hotel may be complying by reporting, but imagine trying to track it all.

Is any of this information actually being put in to a centralised immigration database???

 

Regarding the hotels reporting, I'm not entirely convinced that they all do, I've have stayed in several nice, big chain hotels in Bangkok and have only ever checked in using my Thai drivers license, not only does that not give them the TM6 number (a part of the reporting requirement) up until August last year, it had the wrong passport number on it for about 3 years!!!!

 

Immigration has a system that can trace all movements of a person If each hotel has correctly reported It. Had personal experience at Pkt Imm where they saw that I was In Jomtien, Bkk and Patong before the last addres I was filing In that occasion....

[Rimmer]

An off topic troll post has been removed

[dragons70]

In 7 years of marriage visa extensions in 3 different provinces, I have never been asked to produce a TM28 or TM30. This year in Jomtien, my wife was fined 1600 baht, even though I own the residence. Some will say that Jomtien immigration are merely enforcing the law, but after years of ignoring this requirement, I'd suggest that the decision to start imposing fines for this has more to do with the Army's crackdown on police corruption. New fines are required to make up for a lack of the immigration bosses "tea money" funds...

[brewsterbudgen]

In 7 years of marriage visa extensions in 3 different provinces, I have never been asked to produce a TM28 or TM30. This year in Jomtien, my wife was fined 1600 baht, even though I own the residence. Some will say that Jomtien immigration are merely enforcing the law, but after years of ignoring this requirement, I'd suggest that the decision to start imposing fines for this has more to do with the Army's crackdown on police corruption. New fines are required to make up for a lack of the immigration bosses "tea money" funds...

Maybe that explains why it's not being enforced in the main Immigration office in Bangkok?

[Jumbo1968]

The I.O. In Jomtien was giving people receipts if they were paying a fine for not reporting.

[dragons70]

5 minutes ago, Jumbo1968 said:

The I.O. In Jomtien was giving people receipts if they were paying a fine for not reporting.

So you think that just because we receive a receipt the money doesn't go to corrupt bosses? Bit naïve aint it? Police corruption in Thailand works on what I like to call a reverse pyramid scheme...the more money the lower level plebs can make for the boss at the top, the more makes its way eventually down to them...army crackdowns on Russian mafia and illegal workers in Pattaya has obviously made a serious dent on Jomtien immigration's bank account...thus the recent need to fine for TM28/30 non-compliance...next year they'll just go back to the 1979 manual and find something else to hit us with... 

[Deepinthailand]

1 minute ago, dragons70 said:

So you think that just because we receive a receipt the money doesn't go to corrupt bosses? Bit naïve aint it? Police corruption in Thailand works on what I like to call a reverse pyramid scheme...the more money the lower level plebs can make for the boss at the top, the more makes its way eventually down to them...army crackdowns on Russian mafia and illegal workers in Pattaya has obviously made a serious dent on Jomtien immigration's bank account...thus the recent need to fine for TM28/30 non-compliance...next year they'll just go back to the 1979 manual and find something else to hit us with... 

5555 nice rant but !!!

[Jumbo1968]

5 minutes ago, dragons70 said:

So you think that just because we receive a receipt the money doesn't go to corrupt bosses? Bit naïve aint it? Police corruption in Thailand works on what I like to call a reverse pyramid scheme...the more money the lower level plebs can make for the boss at the top, the more makes its way eventually down to them...army crackdowns on Russian mafia and illegal workers in Pattaya has obviously made a serious dent on Jomtien immigration's bank account...thus the recent need to fine for TM28/30 non-compliance...next year they'll just go back to the 1979 manual and find something else to hit us with... 

 

No I am not naive, yes they could have 2 receipt books, one official one for themselves ?

[Briggsy]

3 hours ago, Jumbo1968 said:

 

No I am not naive, yes they could have 2 receipt books, one official one for themselves ?

In addition to the possibility of undeclared receipted fines, due to fake receipt books or otherwise, there are many schemes where police stations (immigration are a branch of the police, of course) officially keep a percentage of the fines received in accordance with government policy and the law.

 

So, your point that there may be a financial incentive to levy these fines could well be correct on more levels than one.

[bodymassagemyfriend]

On 06/10/2016 at 10:59 AM, sahibji said:

this fine is too cheap. other kinds of punishment ought to be considered like warning in the passport and deportation upon repeat offence.

Why not wearing a yellow star also?

 

Besides my passport is my private property , nobody has the right to write garbage on it and modern countries have a database where to store this.

[mettech]

A friend also a foreigner got a fine for 800 baht with receipt or they offered a 500 tbh without receipt but the catch would be if they catch him they will charg another 500 tbh and this was in Buriram office.

[mettech]

I am also on a METV for 7 months and did my first two months visa run now going to immigration for a one month extension and I will sure see if they will charge my wife who own the family residence  it went good the last time they never mention the reporting I am at the same address since my arrival.So I am Trying to make decision where to go either chon chom or Buriram .

If any one has an idea of where it would work . Let me know.please.

[BsBs]

The more you talk to immigration the more you give them a chance to fine you, so why not being smart and going to a border where they never ask anything if you have the correct visa ?

If you look for problems you find them !

 

:-)

[mettech]

2 hours ago, BsBs said:

The more you talk to immigration the more you give them a chance to fine you, so why not being smart and going to a border where they never ask anything if you have the correct visa ?

If you look for problems you find them !

 

:-)

Thank you BsBs

This is what i was thinking and true the more we  talk the more they get us.

Tks again.