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.

If you have a lease from the landlord, even though in Thai has your name on it, that's enough proof of your residence. This is a Pattaya Immigration thing, as I moved to Korat and is not required for 90 day reporting. It is required for one yr visa extension though.

Barry

And lately several people have walked in Pattaya (now renamed Chonburi) immigration, just filled out the tm47, handed it over with no further questions/papers asked...

my reporting gets done in BKK (i think) and ive never been asked to supply any additional paperwork, i simply fill out the tm47 and off she goes with my passport with the little lady from the HR dept.

And lately several people have walked in Pattaya (now renamed Chonburi) immigration, just filled out the tm47, handed it over with no further questions/papers asked...

Yes, that appears to be the current situation there (I did a thread about this). Just the form, no further PROOF of address needed.

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.

Doctor, humour transplant needed here...

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.

Normally YES, but remember that Pattaya Immigration makes its own "Do it or Leave Thailand" rules.

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 did suggest on another Thread that UK citizens with the new Biometric Passports only had to walk in and out of Immigration and Immigration could use an RFID scanner to log our visit. (A guy going home was asked "How was trip yourtrip to Thailand" when he approached the passport desk and he has an RFID - I mean a Biometric - Passport)

If you have a lease from the landlord, even though in Thai has your name on it, that's enough proof of your residence. This is a Pattaya Immigration thing, as I moved to Korat and is not required for 90 day reporting. It is required for one yr visa extension though.

Barry

When they DID ask for proof, it had to be under 2 months old on the bill, so your house lease would not do, as older than 2 months. Anyway, it appear that rubbish is all over. Maybe it was too time consuming with the new work load by combining the Pattaya and Chonburi offices.

AMDT: correct typos