90-day online reporting: definitive answers!

[jsnuk]

Today, I got the low-down (dirty little secret) on 90-day online reporting:

 

The "new, improved" (unfinished) scary-farang tracking system does NOT support online reporting, due to "budget insufficiency" (i.e. funds otherwise needed for submarine warfare and procuring bogus "substance detectors").

 

The Immigration Bureau has been transitioning to this NEW system / database for the last 1-2 years.  Only farangs living in the sticks -- where some provincial IB offices are still using computers with the OLD system -- continue to be able to report online.  (Since most are married to Thais, they must be considered less of a threat ... you see, there is a logic to this.)   That finally explains the mixed messages we have been reading in this forum: it works for some, but not for others.

 

However, the big IB boss wants to convert those offices too, so that everyone can eventually share in the misery.  Once your data have been transferred to the new dysfunctional system, it is irreversible.

 

So, the only way for Bangkok-registered farangs to avoid the ritual at Muang Thong Thani -- requiring between 30-60 seconds of data entry, before you're sent on your way (in my case, after a 500 km round-trip journey, since Govt of Thailand's brilliant Covid-management regime has me staying elsewhere much of the time) -- is to report by mail.  Lesson now learned, loud and clear:  

 

** If you are registered in Bangkok, DO NOT WASTE TIME TRYING TO USE THE ONLINE REPORTING APP, on the mobile platform or desktop site. Your data will have been registered in the new dysfunctional system, which does NOT presently support online reporting. **

 

Technically, Pol Maj Gen Achayon Kraithong, IB Deputy Commander, did not tell a boldface lie when he announced in April 2021 that the online reporting system was working again after being completely shut down (without any explanation) for a few months. Because, technically, he meant that the old reporting system -- which the IB has every intention of getting rid of -- was working again ... but only for those who happen to live up-country.  At the time, he was reported to have said, with a straight face: "Online reporting is an essential channel to help reduce overcrowding at immigration offices during the Covid-19 pandemic" and "the online system can also reduce travel time and expenses".  Just not for anyone registered in Bangkok metropolis.

 

By the way, I also learned that the IB's "One Stop Centre Chamchuri Square Centre" in Bangkok, which might be somewhat more convenient, is only for those with business interests (i.e. mega-investment $$$$), not for mere mortals.

 

This information didn't come from any of the clueless, manager-less data entry clerks at MTT.  Instead, I went to the IB HQ near Sathorn -- a surprisingly quiet establishment, with little sign of activity -- to hear it directly from the horse's backside.  (Actually, the young man who explained it all to me was very polite, bright and spoke good English. Sadly, I suppose it will take a couple more decades for him to work his way up the ladder, to have any chance of influencing the "system".)

[Thailand]

Thank goodness I live in the sticks.

[Why Me]

16 minutes ago, jsnuk said:

So, the only way for Bangkok-registered farangs to avoid the ritual at Muang Thong Thani -- deleted is to report by mail. 

But aren't there recent reports on this forum of successful online 90 day reports in Bkk?

[Peterw42]

It works as of a week ago in Pattaya, we must be in the sticks.

I have some friends in Bangkok that use online with no problems, I think reports of nobody in Bangkok can use online are maybe a exaggeration

Edited June 25, 2021 by Peterw42

[Nickelbeer]

I have never been able to use online reporting. Glad that I live two blocks from Immigration.

The inability of the Thai government to implement effective online reporting is mystifying.

 

[ubonjoe]

I see no source for the info posted in the OP.

I can also can confirm that people in Bangkok have been able to to do online reports.

Until you PM me a source for your post this topic will be closed since it appears to hearsay more than fact.