TM28: Thai immigration scraps requirement for foreigners to report when they stay away from home for 24 hours

[Caine]

Stopped by security at my Condo last night, saying I needed to file a T.M.69 in triplicate. Before being allowed to take a bar girl to my room. Gospel truth 

[Peter Denis]

1 hour ago, grobec said:

So a few scenarios.

1/ long stay visa holders no need to report if returning to permanent residence from domestic travel (tm28 or tm30?)

2/ if a long stay holder stays at my house do I have to report (tm30?)

3/ if a tourist stays overnight at my house do I need to report (tm30?)

4/ 90 day reports unchanged?

1/ A TM30 has to be filed within 24 hours of any foreigner returning to his permanent residence from a domestic trip, but the above will only be enforced at some 'strict' IOs

2-3/ A TM30 has to be filed within 24 hours of any foreigner staying at your house, but if that foreigner has no need to visit your local IO (e.g. for an extension of stay) there is no reason to do so as it will never be checked

4/ Yes

[Peterw42]

15 minutes ago, Tchooptip said:

I live in Samui I will go to Bangkok a few day so my hotel will send the TM30 . When  I will return return home my owner will not have to warn immigration with a Tm30 I am back home? 

TM30 requirements have not changed, if Samui wanted a TM30 in the past, they will still want one.

[Peterw42]

19 minutes ago, CFCol said:

Read the article. 

TM30 is still required if you own your property. 

Your landlord, if you rent will be required to report your return on a TM30

Its not specifically the landlord, a TM30 is done by the housemaster, owner or possessor of a property, if you rent long-term you qualify as the housemaster or possessor of the property and can report yourself.

[Thingamabob]

18 hours ago, BestB said:

I recall a large number of doom sayers who said that online petition was a waste of time and possibly could get you into trouble for signing . Those who were brave enough to start it and sign it can now laugh in your faces. 
 

well done Isaan lawyers and all who signed to get the attention and for something to change 

This has nothing to do with the 'online petition'. And while we're on the subject, in nearly 40 years I've never been asked to provide a TM28, TM30 or any of the other stuff you people continually moan about. 

[natway09]

Next step would be the non necessity to report the TM 30 upon returning from overseas 

if you are returning to the same address as on your old  departure & new arrivel TM 6.

As far as I am aware there is now no requirement to inform them after travel internally within 

Thailand

[Jip99]

7 minutes ago, natway09 said:

Next step would be the non necessity to report the TM 30 upon returning from overseas 

if you are returning to the same address as on your old  departure & new arrivel TM 6.

As far as I am aware there is now no requirement to inform them after travel internally within 

Thailand

 

 

Do you have a reference point for that 'no requirement'........................ I haven't come across it.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

18 hours ago, Jip99 said:

TM28 was enforced in my area.

 

No, this announcement does not apply to TM30. Remember, TM30 also/mainly covers hotels and guest house.

 

When BKK CW Immigration went thru their reporting crackdown phase last year for people who had traveled inside Thailand or internationally, it wasn't TM28s they were demanding. It was TM30s. And the ordinary renters or condo owner/occupants who were going to do new extension of stay applications were being fined for not having filed current TM30s, not TM28s, after having returned from travel.

 

At least here, the TM28s were always used not for reporting of short-term travel, but for when someone changed their permanent/ongoing address.

 

 

[JackGats]

TM28? Never heard of it. This is my 3rd year in TH. I live in legit hotels (TM30 assured), 10 days here, 8 days there etc. Does this mean I was legally required to report every time I came back from a "holiday" somewhere in Thailand? I don't have a permanent address either. I live off a suitcase in hotels. I thought this was legal, now it seems it wasn't.

Edited February 21, 2020 by JackGats

[Namplik]

29 minutes ago, JackGats said:

TM28? Never heard of it. This is my 3rd year in TH. I live in legit hotels (TM30 assured), 10 days here, 8 days there etc. Does this mean I was legally required to report every time I came back from a "holiday" somewhere in Thailand? I don't have a permanent address either. I live off a suitcase in hotels. I thought this was legal, now it seems it wasn't.

You don`t have to do anything, this is completely legal. And has always been.... 

[spidermike007]

I have been predicting for a long time now, that the decimation of the tourism industry is going to lead to improvements, after a degree of humiliation and shame on the part of the authorities, for savaging such a profitable industry. I can only hope the people rise up and do not permit this continued devastation of the nation by the army.

[tandor]

20 hours ago, geronimo said:

The TM 99 will soon follow .. to be completed when you shop at Big C .......

..doesn't the TM stand for TeaMoney.

[cedel]

6 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

No, you dont need to do a TM28 reporting yourself, another province 24 hours etc. You may still need a TM30  (from the property housemaster, owner or possesor)reporting your return to where you live, dependant on local office enforcement.

so still the same harrassment/problem...because I am my own condo owner !! This is not logical !

Edited February 21, 2020 by cedel

[cedel]

5 hours ago, jackdd said:

Tourists have always been exempt from TM28.

but as tourist in my own condo, I have now to report a TM30 !! Even they asked my adress 2 months before to make the visa and also on the TM6 when coming out of the plane to enter Thailand and pass immigration...another illogical rule !!

[cedel]

5 hours ago, mikosan said:

Yes, except it's now called a TM27 rather than a TM28 it seems and is required when you change the address you notified on arrival on the TM6.  It seems the 24/48 hour time limits have been waived for most, but the requirement to report a permanent change of address is still there.  There is no change to the TM30 reporting requirements.  Although I could be wrong, because, as usual, it's all as clear as mud.

TIT...this is called thai logic...but as we all know, many thai children don't listen at school,(where they should learn about logic) they don't care...

[cedel]

5 hours ago, hottrader77 said:

thai immigration have added the exceptions instead of just scrapping them because it saves face , they dont want to look as stupid as they are , the 1st time i used to come to thailand in the 1990s i could get a 1 year multi entry tourist visa or a 1 year multi entry business visa , but then immigration got greedy and less and less time allowed to stay in thailand thats why we are at the 60 day visa and then pay for an extension of 30 days , the message is clear GO SOMEWHERE ELSE WE ONLY WANT YOUR MONEY NOT YOU ! so i will be going somewhere else and they will no longer have my hard earned money !

This movement to Vietnam , The Phils , Cambodia, or simply stay in Europe where less harrassments has begun already for years....

Edited February 21, 2020 by cedel

[cedel]

5 hours ago, mfd101 said:

And after that, the pain-in-the-butt health insurance nonsense. If they could backtrack on that in the next 2 or 3 months, I would feel much relieved.

 

All we need to do is get a petition together and some publicity in Western newspapers ... Now's the time for action, with help from coronaV.

yes, and anyway, most of us have full assistance and hospitalization insurance in our home country for years..Maybe some assistances work only 3 months though..but the hospitalization insurance from my mutuality in Belgium  works 365 days and worldwide !

Edited February 21, 2020 by cedel

[Ketyo]

Can you believe that the Thai government had started to enforce a cold war requirement for foreigners to report changes of location within 24 hours. What a bunch of incompetents.

 

The problem Thailand has is that the old military people running are not educated in the modern sense. But they are governing a population in which the younger generation have with modern schooling, levels of understanding and demands.

 

The old military men went to school in the 1960s and 70s when Thailand was poor and schools were not much more than day care centres. From that low base they can never grasp the modern world. They can never know how to run a modern country. This is why they are so ridiculed.

Edited February 21, 2020 by Ketyo

[ThailandGuy]

pff only 24 hours.....   what a pittyfull system.  If every foreigner in Europe has to report this way where he is staying the world would not be big enough for all the fuzz that would create. You get access by a visa and still you have to report every freaking step you make. Land of the smiles is not what it used to be.

[thaibeachlovers]

I once attempted to do a TM 28 at Chiang Mai. The female IO not only did not understand what a TM 28 was, but became offensive, and used my phone to call the hotel and make the receptionist go to immigration.

In the end I just left and never did the TM 28 then or again.

[from the home of CC]

23 hours ago, jackdd said:

 

 

The petition was about TM30. Nothing regarding TM30 has changed.

They only added some more groups of foreigners who are exempt of TM28.

TM28 wasn't enforced anyway, so effectively nothing changed.

shhh, you'll spoil the illusion..

[thaibeachlovers]

5 hours ago, cedel said:

but as tourist in my own condo, I have now to report a TM30 !! Even they asked my adress 2 months before to make the visa and also on the TM6 when coming out of the plane to enter Thailand and pass immigration...another illogical rule !!

If you have a condo, you ain't a tourist. Tourists stay in guest houses or hotels.

Try entering on multiple tourist visas in a year now and one will get the message.

 

It's been a requirement to do TM 30 for many many years.

[from the home of CC]

9 hours ago, RobertH said:

I am going to say something that most posters here don't want to hear, but it is the truth. The online petition and the coverage in the Bangkok Post and other English-language papers were not the main reasons the government acted on this. Most Cabinet ministers don't read the English-language papers. The Immigration Police, where the petitions were sent, don't give a damn what you think. I was involved in bringing this issue to the attention of a Deputy Prime Minister. He, and the other ministers, and their staff were completely unaware of the controversy when I asked them about it. When I explained it to that minister, his immediate reaction was "that's crazy." His staff asked me to send him English-language press clippings explaining the details of the matter. They they brought the issue to the DPM in charge of the economy and the economic ministers. They were the ones who told Immigration they were creating a problem and to solve it. And the minister who brought the issue to the economic ministers is the very same minister you are all accusing of being a racist and bigot because he lost his temper a couple of weeks ago and said something foolish, that he apologized for. This is the truth. I don't care if you believe it, or not.

If this a true story then you have just reinforced my opinions of lawyers (which didn't need much fortifying). For if true, then you have this shyster trying to blow his own horn concerning this 'petition' in getting rid of the TM 30. The sad part about it is that it doesn't surprise me in the least..

[Peter Denis]

5 hours ago, cedel said:

yes, and anyway, most of us have full assistance and hospitalization insurance in our home country for years..Maybe some assistances work only 3 months though..but the hospitalization insurance from my mutuality in Belgium  works 365 days and worldwide !

HI, I am Belgian too - can you PM me the name of that hospitalization insurance please.  Thanks!

[from the home of CC]

8 hours ago, Peter Denis said:

The article is a disgrace, unless it was meant as click-bait to get everybody reacting on the errors it contains.

 

TM30 is still applicable. 

It stipulates that the owner/possessor of a hotel/guesthouse/house/condo, in short any place where people can reside, has to file a TM30 of any foreigner staying at that place within 24 hours of the foreigners arrival.

For hotels/guesthouses that's quite clear and that's why they ask for your passport (and the TM-6 departure/arrival card) when checking in, so they can report you to IO as staying at their premisses.

If they fail to do so, they can be fined 2.000 THB per foreigner/night not reported.

In case you live in your own house/condo or rent it, TM30 compliance is also applicable. 

And it means that your landlord/lady, or your (girl)friend or yourself - when you are the owner - also need to report you or any foreign guests staying at the house/condo witihin 24 hours (after arriving from a domestic or international trip).

That's all pretty clear.

 

But the confusion starts, when a newbie not aware of the above reads the 'experience' of TVF members on the Forum, boasting that they never ever filed a TM30 and that it is thus not necessary.

It is thai law (and hence necessary), but the point is that it is not always enforced by local IO.

Some IOs are very strict, and require that a TM30 is filed every time you as foreigner return to your own or rental house/condo, within 24 hours after returning from a trip to another province or abroad.  Some IOs only require that you do this after returning from a trip abroad, and some IOs do not even bother at all whether you do it or not.

Furthermore, TM30 compliance is ONLY checked when applying for a service at your local IO that needs your address (e.g. an extension of stay).  And when they check, they are ONLY interested whether a current TM30 of you staying at the house/condo has been filed. 

 

>> So in your case, your partner that owns the house where you are staying needs to file a TM30 of you arriving at the house within 24 hours of you arriving there from a domestic or international trip.

Chances are that this will never be checked/enforced when you report to an easy-going IO.

 

Note: I PM-ed you a step-by-step instruction on how to register on the IO TM30 website, which will allow you to file your own TM30s (as well as those of any foreign guest staying at your house).

Registering and filing your first TM30 will take approx 30' (if you know how to do it) and subsequent ones will take less than 2'.

yes it is a shame that this post wasn't next in line after the article, instead of the noise of the false back patting of a 'successful petition' lol  which drowned out a common sense look at it all.. 

[marquis22]

On 2/20/2020 at 9:31 PM, geronimo said:

The TM 99 will soon follow .. to be completed when you shop at Big C .......

NP there, as long as they do not include 7/11  ????

[cedel]

3 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

If you have a condo, you ain't a tourist. Tourists stay in guest houses or hotels.

Try entering on multiple tourist visas in a year now and one will get the message.

 

It's been a requirement to do TM 30 for many many years.

no, this is not true, never for yourself when you come to live in your own condo for 30, 60 or 90 days, I never were asked to "report" myself as soon as I came ..because as I said, they knew already that I was living there (asked before to enter Thailand and leave the plane  on a TM6!!) plus eventually if I stay more than 30 days my adress is asked also to get a tourist visa

[Swen]

Why anybody ask if you go out of the country? Big deal, you get a stamp when you return. Same as today, but have no longer effect on you if you are on the non-o/a.

 

What I don’t see in the replies here, is another good news: The 90 day reporting is also scrapped.

 

Only requirement now is to report if you change permanent address.

[jackdd]

1 minute ago, Swen said:

What I don’t see in the replies here, is another good news: The 90 day reporting is also scrapped.

 

Only requirement now is to report if you change permanent address.

This is wrong. 90 day reporting still required, TM30 still required, TM27 still required (TM27 has never been enforced so far).

[Swen]

30 minutes ago, jackdd said:

This is wrong. 90 day reporting still required, TM30 still required, TM27 still required (TM27 has never been enforced so far).

Please read the government document again. 90 day is gone!

Edited February 21, 2020 by Swen