Register of British citizens in Thailand

[jayboy]

 

 

Am I right in thinking that the British Embassy no longer has a register of British citizens resident in Thailand? Is it possible (and encouraged) to register one's presence with the Embassy? 

 

 

[sprq]

6 hours ago, jayboy said:

 

 

Am I right in thinking that the British Embassy no longer has a register of British citizens resident in Thailand? Is it possible (and encouraged) to register one's presence with the Embassy? 

 

 

That is what I was told a few years ago.

 

[Moonlover]

6 hours ago, jayboy said:

 

 

Am I right in thinking that the British Embassy no longer has a register of British citizens resident in Thailand? Is it possible (and encouraged) to register one's presence with the Embassy? 

 

 

You are right, embassies stopped keeping such a register quite a few years ago.

[jayboy]

26 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

You are right, embassies stopped keeping such a register quite a few years ago.

I was enquiring about British Embassy policy.Other Western embassies do keep some kind of record of their resident nationals though the methods differ, but mostly by voluntary registration.The Americans use a "warden system" which I'm told works well. I am sure that many slip through the net and many don't want to be on the radar but I would have thought most countries would want to know approximately how many of their citizens are resident.

 

 

[sandyf]

10 hours ago, jayboy said:

I was enquiring about British Embassy policy.Other Western embassies do keep some kind of record of their resident nationals though the methods differ, but mostly by voluntary registration.The Americans use a "warden system" which I'm told works well. I am sure that many slip through the net and many don't want to be on the radar but I would have thought most countries would want to know approximately how many of their citizens are resident.

 

 

You are right, UK nationals were encouraged to register with the embassy, think it came to an end with the cost cutting that saw the visa department moved to India and the embassy go up for sale.

[Moonlover]

11 hours ago, jayboy said:

11 hours ago, Moonlover said:

You are right, embassies stopped keeping such a register quite a few years ago.

 

11 hours ago, jayboy said:

I was enquiring about British Embassy policy.Other Western embassies do keep some kind of record of their resident nationals though the methods differ, but mostly by voluntary registration.The Americans use a "warden system" which I'm told works well. I am sure that many slip through the net and many don't want to be on the radar but I would have thought most countries would want to know approximately how many of their citizens are resident.

 

 

Sorry, seems I cause some confusion? When I pluralized, I was meaning all British embassies. I was living in Egypt when the registration facility was withdrawn. The reason given was much as you explain here. They had become aware that it was so much underutilized that it became meaningless.

[George Aylesham]

No - but the Embassy does encourage you to sign on to their website and this works well - I get regular updates on Consular and other matters. I imagine, that if needs must, this would constitute a register in case of emergencies.

[sandyf]

4 hours ago, Moonlover said:

 

Sorry, seems I cause some confusion? When I pluralized, I was meaning all British embassies. I was living in Egypt when the registration facility was withdrawn. The reason given was much as you explain here. They had become aware that it was so much underutilized that it became meaningless.

Thanks. A few years back there were several changes, some global and some Thai specific. I never saw any formal notice that the policy had been terminated globally and just assumed it was a result of the restructuring in Bangkok.

[crobe]

In this day and age of electronic records it is not difficult for the Thai immigration to provide to each embassy a list of their nationals in the country - drawn from the records of people incoming at airports, borders, renewing visas, 90 day reporting etc.

The relevant information is all on the passport record

Of courser there will be some who want to evade the system and there are others that may see this as an infringement on liberties but there are some good reasons to do this.

I was here during the tsunami event on boxing day 2004 and after that I was getting a lot of e-mails from people, mostly Swedish, asking either for help in locating people they had lost contact with, or more upsetting, young children where they could not identify the parents.

There are other reasons for having such a list but this is the one that springs to my mind

[Rimmer]

Two inflammatory troll posts have been removed, please keep it civil.

[ChipButty]

14 hours ago, crobe said:

In this day and age of electronic records it is not difficult for the Thai immigration to provide to each embassy a list of their nationals in the country - drawn from the records of people incoming at airports, borders, renewing visas, 90 day reporting etc.

The relevant information is all on the passport record

Of courser there will be some who want to evade the system and there are others that may see this as an infringement on liberties but there are some good reasons to do this.

I was here during the tsunami event on boxing day 2004 and after that I was getting a lot of e-mails from people, mostly Swedish, asking either for help in locating people they had lost contact with, or more upsetting, young children where they could not identify the parents.

There are other reasons for having such a list but this is the one that springs to my mind

I remember it well, I ended up running this News crew from Finland around it was not possible to rent a car, I think Finland was one of the first countries to respond to their citizens needs, within a couple of days they had a 747 on the tarmac, with medic's and medical supplies, food, clothes it was a bit chaotic at the airport and passport was a big issue. 

[Letseng]

On 1/19/2021 at 3:49 PM, jayboy said:

I was enquiring about British Embassy policy.Other Western embassies do keep some kind of record of their resident nationals though the methods differ, but mostly by voluntary registration.The Americans use a "warden system" which I'm told works well. I am sure that many slip through the net and many don't want to be on the radar but I would have thought most countries would want to know approximately how many of their citizens are resident.

 

 

Why would countries want to know? If they did, they would have kept the old registration system.

[joebrown]

Keeping an up to date register involves work and expense. These two issues are ones the UK Trade Mission in Bangkok would wish to avoid!

[jayboy]

On 1/22/2021 at 7:01 PM, crobe said:

In this day and age of electronic records it is not difficult for the Thai immigration to provide to each embassy a list of their nationals in the country - drawn from the records of people incoming at airports, borders, renewing visas, 90 day reporting etc.

It would amaze me if this was the case.It would not be easy at all.

 

It is the responsibility of embassies to have some system of knowing the numbers and basic details of their citizens resident.Different countries have different methods of doing this.We know the UK abandoned its former system but we don't know what system, if any, it has now.

 

I will pose a hypothetical situation.Suppose there was significant instability in Thailand and the Secretary of State sent the following question to the Embassy.

 

PLEASE ADVISE SOONEST APPROXIMATE NUMBERS OF BRITISH CITIZENS RESIDENT IN THAILAND OTHER THAN TOURISTS.FURTHER PLEASE ADVISE WHAT ARRANGEMENTS YOU HAVE IN PLACE TO CONTACT THEM IN CASE SITUATION DETERIORATES.

 

I wonder how the Embassy would respond.

[crobe]

2 minutes ago, jayboy said:

It would amaze me if this was the case.It would not be easy at all.

 

It is the responsibility of embassies to have some system of knowing the numbers and basic details of their citizens resident.Different countries have different methods of doing this.We know the UK abandoned its former system but we don't know what system, if any, it has now.

 

I will pose a hypothetical situation.Suppose there was significant instability in Thailand and the Secretary of State sent the following question to the Embassy.

 

PLEASE ADVISE SOONEST APPROXIMATE NUMBERS OF BRITISH CITIZENS RESIDENT IN THAILAND OTHER THAN TOURISTS.FURTHER PLEASE ADVISE WHAT ARRANGEMENTS YOU HAVE IN PLACE TO CONTACT THEM IN CASE SITUATION DETERIORATES.

 

I wonder how the Embassy would respond.

In fact this was the situation after the Tsunami, the Thai authorities did turn to the embassies to try to find out what nationals were present in Phuket and the outlying islands, and it showed up the flawed systems that most embassies have in place. Thai immigration could only produce a list of people who had entered the country in the last month, and could only provide the details from the TM.6 forms as to where these people were staying, but this was still substantially better than the embassies had 

[billd766]

21 minutes ago, jayboy said:

It would amaze me if this was the case. It would not be easy at all.

 

It is the responsibility of embassies to have some system of knowing the numbers and basic details of their citizens resident. Different countries have different methods of doing this. We know the UK abandoned its former system but we don't know what system, if any, it has now.

 

I will pose a hypothetical situation. Suppose there was significant instability in Thailand and the Secretary of State sent the following question to the Embassy.

 

PLEASE ADVISE SOONEST APPROXIMATE NUMBERS OF BRITISH CITIZENS RESIDENT IN THAILAND OTHER THAN TOURISTS.FURTHER PLEASE ADVISE WHAT ARRANGEMENTS YOU HAVE IN PLACE TO CONTACT THEM IN CASE SITUATION DETERIORATES.

 

I wonder how the Embassy would respond.

We are sorry but we cannot respond to you request at this time but it is tea break time right now.

[lungbing]

7 hours ago, jayboy said:

It would amaze me if this was the case.It would not be easy at all.

 

It is the responsibility of embassies to have some system of knowing the numbers and basic details of their citizens resident.Different countries have different methods of doing this.We know the UK abandoned its former system but we don't know what system, if any, it has now.

 

I will pose a hypothetical situation.Suppose there was significant instability in Thailand and the Secretary of State sent the following question to the Embassy.

 

PLEASE ADVISE SOONEST APPROXIMATE NUMBERS OF BRITISH CITIZENS RESIDENT IN THAILAND OTHER THAN TOURISTS.FURTHER PLEASE ADVISE WHAT ARRANGEMENTS YOU HAVE IN PLACE TO CONTACT THEM IN CASE SITUATION DETERIORATES.

 

I wonder how the Embassy would respond.

They would stick a wet finger in the air and make up a number. They would also assure the FO that a plan was in place.  Said plan would be on the back of a fag packet, but nobody would check.

[Pilotman]

On 1/19/2021 at 2:55 PM, jayboy said:

 

 

Am I right in thinking that the British Embassy no longer has a register of British citizens resident in Thailand? Is it possible (and encouraged) to register one's presence with the Embassy? 

 

 

I very much doubt they bother.  They don't give a stuff about us, so why bother recording our whereabouts?  Conversely, they do nothing for us, so why would we bother telling them we're here? 

[NanLaew]

13 hours ago, Pilotman said:

On 1/19/2021 at 2:55 PM, jayboy said:

 

 

Am I right in thinking that the British Embassy no longer has a register of British citizens resident in Thailand? Is it possible (and encouraged) to register one's presence with the Embassy? 

 

 

I very much doubt they bother.  They don't give a stuff about us, so why bother recording our whereabouts?  Conversely, they do nothing for us, so why would we bother telling them we're here? 

 

I guess some get upset when their nanny state stops being their nanny.