hobz

On 8/15/2019 at 9:46 AM, Vacuum said:

...and still haven't learned?

It's impossible to avoid. 

Economy in China. Strong baht.

Crackdown on zero baht tours.

Crackdown on illegal tour guides.

11 hours ago, Rob3016 said:

I really don’t get the problem here regarding the TM30.  We are foreigners here. These are their laws and they want to know where foreigners are, quite honestly I agree with Thai immigration it is not big deal. I am in and out of the Chiang Mai Immigration between 1-20 minutes at the most. Now possibility it is a bit more difficult in other Provinces, but in Chiang Mai it is no big deal. Rather than tell Immigration to get rid of it, may I suggest people share what is their specific issues Province by Province. 

Not everyone lives near an immigration office.

Some people work in Thailand and immigration is closed on weekend and they are expected to go to immigration on the Monday after traveling within Thailand on the weekend. 

If they just got the online system working well then it's all good I guess.

I already have 3 red light fines from the same intersection that switches to yellow light and then red light within 1 second and no way to avoid... Automatic camera system.  I guess I will get 12 points within a couple of years.. great and will have to retake the license test...

Some of you will question and say im at fault. Let me explain. This intersection I drive around 100 times each month. And roughly every 2 months or so it switches to yellow just before I'm going through it. On the ticket there are 2 photos. First photo shows yellow and my car just before entering. Second photo shows red and my car being in the middle of the intersection.

It's impossible to avoid because there not enough time to stop when it switches from Green to yellow when you are 1 meter from the stop line and doing 50kmh.

Theres not enough time to go through the intersection before it switches to red because it's a huge intersection and the yellow light is only 1 second long or so.

meanwhile somchai will continue driving without license and insurance.  

1 minute ago, Spock said:

Tell them '<deleted> you' and move somewhere else. I cannot see the attraction of Thailand anymore, particularly if converting an overseas currency into Thai baht. It is becoming as much of a nanny state as many of the countries that expats are fleeing.

Agreed, if I didn't have strong ties to Thailand I would definitely consider other countries. But not sure if there's much better options.. 

5 minutes ago, Whip said:

Hmmm ... I live in South Thailand, have a work permit and renewable one year visa. I have taken many holidays outside my province, mostly Bangkok, and have never run to immigration to report my residence. I just do my 90 day reporting. All is klar.

It means that your immigration office has not enforced tm30. The next time you do a 90 day report they could check your tm30 history and then you could be forced to cough up 2000

23 minutes ago, wtfracing said:

Funny you mention about car fines my wife received a fine in the mail 2 weeks ago (one week after the due date of course) so I said we had better pay it as her registration is up next month and explained she might not be able to register it but she laughed and said system been in place for 2 years and does not work so it's ok. Go figure 

Yeah, that's the word on the streets for sure. Personally I'm paying my fines anyway, I don't want to risk that their system starts working just in time for my tax registration..

24 minutes ago, CGW said:

Yet in other news today they are proposing visa free travel for Indians (& Chinese) hardly addressing the real problem are they?

Yeah, its possible that they don't really understand what they are doing... I've noticed that Thai government in general has a problem with understanding the difference between making rules and enforcing them ... They seem to be somewhat bad at second order thinking. So in this case they are actually enforcing the tm30, but they seem to not understand that the real criminals will circumvent it easily and thus they are just creating lots of work for themselves and all the law abiding foreigners.

Notice how immigration didn't respond to him pointing out that terrorists etc will not report their address anyway.. this is telling. This tells us that immigration have not thought this through.

B) it seems that Indians people abused some rules, arrived for example in Phuket, got fake marriages with Thai ladies, and disappeared in other provinces. TM 30 started to be enforced especially for them, to be able to trace where criminals or people abusing the system are. I do understand terrorists won’t provide their addresses and I pointed this out. Still, immigration seems to be strict on TM30 and TM30, once registered, is the responsibility of the Thai landlord.

I think it's extremely easy to circumvent TM30. Just print a doctored rental agreement. Use this with all your dealings with anyone who wants your address. Immigration, Banks, etc. Then just tell your real landlord that you took care of the TM30 for them and tell them that you will be responsible for any fines. Done. 

So since it's so easy for criminals to circumvent, what is the real purpose of TM30? I think it's for tracing future criminals. you may not be a criminal today, but in the future you might become one. You may have a valid visa today, but maybe not tomorrow. And then they will be able to find you easier. What do you guys think?

Ps. I'm not complaining about TM30, although I do hope they keep working on making it easy to report online.

26 minutes ago, Just1Voice said:

Up until I had a stoke almost 2 years ago, once a month for the previous 8 years, I would take trips on my CBR 250, CB 300f, or 300cc Forza for 2 - 10 days all over the north, north east, and central regions. TM 30? Never heard of it till the past couple of months. Did the small, out of the way hotels I stayed at on these trips report my 1 - 2 night stay? Somehow I doubt it. And Chiang Mai Immigration has never said a word to me. 

They just recently started enforcing it more strictly. I had to pay a fine once when I wanted to change my address. (Oh the irony) because my previous address never reported me... Also in cm.. probably around 2.5 years ago.. I guess if I didn't try to change my address I wouldn't have been fined. But then I would have to also keep doing 90 day reports etc on my old address.. pretty flawed system.. I bet I would get away with this until the day they raided my old address and didn't find me there.. and what are the odds they raid someone that didn't commit a crime etc? 0.0001% 

Whats to prevent someone from doing that? Just keep a copy of the old rental contract and keep using it for anything you report to immigration.. and if it's that easy to circumvent. Then what is the purpose of tm30? 

18 hours ago, Matzzon said:

So, now they are imcompetent. What more can be wrong? If everything is so worthless, why stay and complain?

They have announced that its going to be made and possible to do online. I guess we just have to give them some time, and comply with the rules until it gets easier.

Yeah, I think they are getting better at this online stuff all the time. 

But up to this point they have been pretty incompetent in making online systems.

The 90 day report online used to work for me for about 2 years and then suddenly it stopped working and nobody seems able to fix it.

Then there's the whole car fine fiasco that they promised would be connected to the tax registration system 2 years ago .. my friends are still not paying the fines and betting on that the system is too much of a mess for anyone to figure out that they didnt pay.. millions of unpaid tickets I heard.. doesn't exactly scream competence.

As for your suggestion. Yes , we gotta comply and give them time. But we can also keep making suggestions on how to improve the system. Like keep asking if it's possible to do online. And if it is. Then use it so that they do t scrap it. Complaining can also work if done in an organized manner... But making suggestions is usually more powerful.

3 hours ago, Berkshire said:

Exactly.  Lowering interest rates will hopefully discourage foreign money coming in, which should result in the weakening of the baht over time.  I'm constantly amazed that so many expats buy into the nonsense that the Thais are "manipulating" the THB to make it stronger.  It makes no sense....if one understands anything about international finance and basic economics. 

I don't think this will weaken the THB in relationship to Western currencies because those Western currencies will probably follow suit and lower their interest rates as well. The usd already did.

2 minutes ago, Matzzon said:

When did that become legal?

No idea, it's a complete nonsense petition. Ironically.

1 minute ago, Matzzon said:

Nah, it probably points more to the common mind. That complaining is better, even if there is a slight chance to join and be a part of a possible difference.

You will never see a majority of people sign any form of petition. You can't use that as an indicator that the petition is nonsense or not.

Just to end this nonsense debate between you and me.. look at my first post. I said that the PM Will reply with some nonsense. I didn't say that the tm30 is nonsense. 

That being said, I do think the tm30 is nonsense, but I don't think it's a big deal and it's very easy to comply with. If you browse my post history you will see me making similar comments regarding tm30 in the last. Telling people to stop complaining.

Just now, Matzzon said:

Relevance? Even worse. You complain in a forum, but do nothing about it. Sums it up, doesn´t it?

It's relevant because it points to your seriously flawed reasoning.

5 hours ago, Matzzon said:

Slow down and catch up for a minute or as long as you need to get the hold of the situation.

I am on the side of the appearently, at present time, 98,5% that seems to be able to deal with this issue without to much problems.

You seem to be on the side of the, at present time, 2,5% side of the complainers.

What side would you think is the one that most bystanders would belive is the right and acceptable one? Same rules like looking at everything in life. An insignificant percentual part of complainers will always be unseen and quickly forgotten. That´s what most people normally file in the bag of nonsense.

Btw, I found a petition "stop child p*rn from being legal on the internet." It had very few signatures. Does that mean that 99.999% of the worlds population wants it to be legal? Or does it simply mean that most people are not aware that there even is a petition? I wonder..

5 hours ago, Matzzon said:

Slow down and catch up for a minute or as long as you need to get the hold of the situation.

I am on the side of the appearently, at present time, 98,5% that seems to be able to deal with this issue without to much problems.

You seem to be on the side of the, at present time, 2,5% side of the complainers.

What side would you think is the one that most bystanders would belive is the right and acceptable one? Same rules like looking at everything in life. An insignificant percentual part of complainers will always be unseen and quickly forgotten. That´s what most people normally file in the bag of nonsense.

I haven't signed the petition. I still think tm30 is nonsense. 

6 hours ago, jerojero said:

Leftover budget? Thought they were running a deficit. Spend here there and everywhere. Why not! Taxpayers can pay for it later. Excellent governance. Sheesh!

So are they printing money like the fed? Will it weaken the baht? I hope so

How is it under control? They know who is behind the attacks? They arrested someone? 

You can't just say that things are under control without elaborating... Who is buying this nonsense? Seriously, are thai people that stupid?

Maybe somebody is trying to embarrass the government before the security meating.

For years people have been joking about that the death toll on the roads is part of population control. Now it's no longer a joke.

On 7/31/2019 at 10:16 AM, SammyT said:

To be fair, while I agree it's idiotic, it's not like that Thai Immigration haven't widely publicised this (stupid) rule is going to be enforced. Landlords who are renting to farang should know these rules. I've had no issues with my landlords doing it to-date. It sounds like it's the ones who don't want to pay tax who don't do it. 

 

Also, the 24 hour thing seems very subjective and dependant on which officer you get. Recently came back into the country but didn't get in to immigration for a few days and there was no issue at all. In and out in five minutes. 

What if you have a job?

Let's say you work Monday to Friday. You go out of province during weekend. Now you are expected to go to immigration on monday. But you are also expected to go to work on monday. 

It's ridiculous.