90 Days Reporting Why?

[TIPSYBOB]

We were having a casual bar conversation last night and someone asked why foreigners have to report every 90 days? Nobody seemed to know apart from the fact that we have to do it.

I might be adressing this question in the wrong forum but did not see anything elsewhere.

I mean the "official" reason if anyone has it.

[lopburi3]

It is so written in the Immigration Act. In other words it is the law.

Edited October 2, 2009 by lopburi3

[BEENTHEREDONETHAT]

To annoy farangs

[Mosha]

It's the law.

[gotlost]

To create bar talk.

[OZEMADE]

We were having a casual bar conversation last night and someone asked why foreigners have to report every 90 days? Nobody seemed to know apart from the fact that we have to do it.

I might be adressing this question in the wrong forum but did not see anything elsewhere.

I mean the "official" reason if anyone has it.

Immigration want to know where you are staying every 90 days and if you move from your hotel to another hotel or resort you have to notify Immigration within 24 hours. The hotel or resort will notify them as well.

[beano2274]

The hotel might notify Immigration, how many do? not many I would think.

Also how many condo owners notify immigration that a farang is living there, I bet not many,

my old condo owner did not know about this rule, many don't know about it.

Edited October 2, 2009 by beano2274

[lopburi3]

All major hotels surly do report. That is why you are asked for passport information when registering.

[Prajak]

It's the law. Many countries have the same law. Some countries demand this per 15 days ! It is NOT YET to check if your landlord pays income tax over your rent. Once they connect those computers they will.

They want to know where you live. Grin and bear it.

[Jonathanpattaya]

It is international law and, even more relevant now than ever.

[MB1]

It is international law and, even more relevant now than ever.

So it's international law that you must report to Immigration every 90 days and not just a Thai immigration law, could you provide a link please as it's the first time I have ever read or heard that it's an international law.

By the way I really do doubt that it is an international law and do believe that you dreamt it up.

Edited October 2, 2009 by MB1

[Jonathanpattaya]

It is international law and, even more relevant now than ever.

So it's international law that you must report to Immigration every 90 days and not just Thai immigration law, could you provide a link please as it's the first time I have ever read or heard that it's an international law.

Check it out.

This is international law the only difference being, the reporting period which is at the discretion of the country granting the foreign individual the relevant visa.

[MB1]

It is international law and, even more relevant now than ever.

So it's international law that you must report to Immigration every 90 days and not just Thai immigration law, could you provide a link please as it's the first time I have ever read or heard that it's an international law.

Check it out.

This is international law the only difference being, the reporting period which is at the discretion of the country granting the foreign individual the relevant visa.

No need to check it out, The OP of this thread asked, quoted below.....

"We were having a casual bar conversation last night and someone asked why foreigners have to report every 90 days? Nobody seemed to know apart from the fact that we have to do it.

I might be adressing this question in the wrong forum but did not see anything elsewhere.

I mean the "official" reason if anyone has it. "

So on reading the OP's post he was referring to the 90 day reporting rule, you replied saying it was international law, I am unaware of any international 90 day law, and you now say,

"the only difference being, the reporting period which is at the discretion of the country granting the foreign individual the relevant visa."

Therefore there is no 90 day International law ..

Thank you.

[Jingthing]

Because we are all on a short leash and reporting every 90 days constantly reminds us who is holding that leash. Thailand is a hierarchical society and part of our place here is to be required to report every 90 days. No, I am not whining. Yes, I think its a silly requirement.

A logical requirement would be to be required report when your address CHANGES and only when it changes. Too logical.

Edited October 2, 2009 by Jingthing

[abdulrahman]

Because we are all on a short leash and reporting every 90 days constantly reminds us who is holding that leash. Thailand is a hierarchical society and part of our place here is to be required to report every 90 days. No, I am not whining. Yes, I think its a silly requirement.

A logical requirement would be to be required report when your address CHANGES and only when it changes. Too logical.

Right,to the first comment.

T.I.T. to the second.

[Jingthing]

On the other hand, there are FINES or not reporting, so maybe it is simply a good earner.

[Phatcharanan]

It is international law and, even more relevant now than ever.

So it's international law that you must report to Immigration every 90 days and not just Thai immigration law, could you provide a link please as it's the first time I have ever read or heard that it's an international law.

Check it out.

This is international law the only difference being, the reporting period which is at the discretion of the country granting the foreign individual the relevant visa.

That really is a very very silly response.

There is no such 'International Law'. All Immigration laws are subject to an individual countries requirements and statutes.

[sunnymarky]

It is international law and, even more relevant now than ever.

So it's international law that you must report to Immigration every 90 days and not just Thai immigration law, could you provide a link please as it's the first time I have ever read or heard that it's an international law.

Check it out.

This is international law the only difference being, the reporting period which is at the discretion of the country granting the foreign individual the relevant visa.

That really is a very very silly response.

There is no such 'International Law'. All Immigration laws are subject to an individual countries requirements and statutes.

international law where these posters come from or dream up such garbage

[Artisi]

[

international law where these posters come from or dream up such garbage

You can believe what you want and the more you believe the truer it gets.

[backsoon]

It's the law.

Now, this is the most intelligent answer to the OP question. This should close the matter

However, the answer to 'Why such a law is needed' is much more complicated. E.g. :

You declare one place, but stay in another...

You declare a fictitious place, that does not exist.... etc. etc. etc.

Strictly speaking, such a law is redundant, as every owner of any place must report your stay within 24hrs (even private house). This is the law.

Other reasons??? There may be a million of them, but all purely speculative...

To annoy you

To provide you with reason to talk in a bar

To keep an eye on you

To discourage you from staying too long

To remind you that you do not belong here

To collect fines when you fail to report

To make you contribute to local economy (travel costs)

To know where to recover your body if you get involved with wrong people

.........................................

.......................................

To piss off people by asking stupid questions about stupid laws

[tomwct]

The major reason is it keeps people employed!!! If you did away with this requirement, I imagine 25% of the immigration workers would be let go!!! Like any government in the world, it is very difficult to reduce the size of the government!!!

[antony77]

We were having a casual bar conversation last night and someone asked why foreigners have to report every 90 days? Nobody seemed to know apart from the fact that we have to do it.

I might be adressing this question in the wrong forum but did not see anything elsewhere.

I mean the "official" reason if anyone has it.

Immigration want to know where you are staying every 90 days and if you move from your hotel to another hotel or resort you have to notify Immigration within 24 hours. The hotel or resort will notify them as well.

I and quite a number of foreigners have our own house papers (Tambien baan) because we actually own the properties. If we move we have to go to the Amphur and get our Tambien Baan altered.

I have shown mine on numerous occasions to immigration officers and they said I still had to report every 90 days ro tell them I was still living in my own house. You must admit that it is utterly ridiculous.

[bikerlou47]

What a joke to require thousands of farangs to waste their time and God knows how many trees to report the same adddress over and over again. BUT when it comes to changing locations of immigration offices they can not send out a letter to those very addresses that everone needs to report every 90 days.

It is so written in the Immigration Act. In other words it is the law.

[Gary A]

It gives us whingers something more to complain about. It certainly makes no sense. If it were to notify immigration to a change in address, that would make sense.

[monty]

I don't mind the reporting.

Yes, there is a fair bit of redundancy here, where actually several people have to report the same stuff.

What I don't like is how they like a paper trail. Beats me where they store all those forms.

In Pattaya (Jomtien) they seem to flip back and forth between computerized and manual, mostly I get a form with the hand written date on when to do the next report, a few times got a computer print out on when to return...

Immigration alone must eat a fair few trees every year!

[samran]

might have made sense once upon a time for some obscure reason, but those days seem to be gone.

A good replacement would be the issuance of ID cards for all visa holders who have stays beyond 90 days. Similar to HK and Singapore.

[grahamhc]

I have lived in my RENTED house for over 5 years. Immigration want PROOF that I live there in the form of a bill or house book when I do my 90 day report for visa extension.

The water, electric, cable TV and Telephone are still in the name of the PREVIOUS house owner (and maybe the owner prior to that, as I cannot read Thai) so only my Broadband bill is in my name.

Therefore, without the Internet bill, I cannot PROVE that I live here, which they now demand.

The OP asked what is the official reason. I doubt if there is one. It was just something dreamt up when they were drafting the Goverment Bill and need to pad it out to make it look good and justify the Civil Servants cost.

I believe the UK only asked Aliens to advise when they move. I do not know the rules in other countries.

[lopburi3]

I suspect most of us have never been asked for more than the TM.47 and a phone number. That is my experience. There is no law requiring bills or other receipts to be shown for 90 day reports.

[Heng]

If anything, there should be micro chipped GPS armbands and tourist tracking teams located in centralized 'Bourne/Enemy of the State' computer centers... perhaps a dedicated satellite as well that truly monitor foreigner activity. There, another 10k jobs created, not to mention several billion in contracts ready to be bid on. Make me PM already.

Edited October 4, 2009 by Heng

[Guest]

If anything, there should be micro chipped GPS armbands and tourist tracking teams located in centralized 'Bourne/Enemy of the State' computer centers... perhaps a dedicated satellite as well that truly monitor foreigner activity. There, another 10k jobs created, not to mention several billion in contracts ready to be bid on. Make me PM already.

I think many of you may have forgotten that the 90 day reporting rule although a law, was not enforced for a very long time, until a lot of serious abuse of the visa system and immigration rules suddenly woke the authorities up. Do you remember the forged stamps? Agents sending passports overseas for new visas etc? That was why the 90 day rule was re-imposed, along with a bunch of other changes. So, who was to blame? If these abuses had not taken place, the rule may quietly have died.