Police Home Visits

[poppysdad]

Last Wednesday I had a strange phone call asking me if I lived at X to which I replied who wants to know, caller said he was from the police and when I asked why he wanted to know where I lived when he already had my address he replied with they were checking on foreigners living here, he knew my address but not where it was and rightly or wrongly I told him, he then stated they were coming round to see me, I replied we were not in but shopping in town, he replied see you lare and hung up.

I suspected some sort of scam so went to see a Thai friend and asked him to call the number back. He spoke to them for a few minutes and then confirmed that it was the police based at the Hua Hin immigration centre, they were checking on foreigners at their homes. He asked if I was in some sort of trouble to which the answer was no, he asked if this was normal procedure and was surprised to be told no but will be in Hua Hin, that they were currently at a development near to us and would be calling on me around 4 pm, to which we decided we should return home.

Around 4:15 our builders wife who is Thai turned up at our gate with a very smartly dressed policeman along with a man dressed in civvies who never spoke or took any interest in proceedings, she explained why he was there and like us initially suspected some sort of scam and how  she was contacted I have no idea but it was as well she was there as the policemans English was poorer than my Thai. He asked to see both our passports (my wife is also British as am I), he never even glanced at the visa pages but went straight to the photo pages where he took photo's of them and then took photo's of ourselves. He then opened a very thick folder containing I suspect up to 100 pages with names at the top and it appeared one page per person, the pages were all in Thai with many gaps where I assumed the information would be written. He then asked me to enter my fathers name and then alive or deceased, then mothers name and alive or deceased, then my wifes name and finally did we have any children and that was it leaving a great many lines blank. As they were leaving us they then said we'll shortly get a visit from a police chief who will give us advice on living in Thailand.

Now we've lived here 3+ years on OA visa extensions with my wife as my dependant, while with us there were at least 4 different neighbours at home none of who got a visit and over the past few days I've asked within our circle of friends who are spread all over Hua Hin and no-one has heard of any others getting this visit. so my questions are what is all this about, why were we selected and not others although this file did have a great many pages with names at the top of the pages so others were obviously being visited. Were we selected because of certain criteria and if so would be nice to know what it was. Anyone else had this visit?

As a footnote, our Thai friend phoned us the following day to ask how it went and he'd happily help us out if we need it - very nice of him we thought.

[likewise]

weird indeed .

[TheLaughingMan]

Omg its begun.... the falang roundup to the conentration camps is upon us! FLEEEEE! FLEEE FOR YOUR LIVES!

[likewise]

loooool

[Thules]

Extraordinary, I would be inclined to check back at the local Police Station to find our whether this was legit. or not,

Conceivably about the census that is meant to be taking place around now ?

[oceano]

The news was that they do only in Pattaya for now and are only civil people from a company, not policeman.

bye

[Farma]

If you search through the Issan forum from last year you will find posts about this.

The police in the Ubon and other areas were checking on foreigners living there. I was one of the foreigners checked.

My brother in law, a policeman, assures me it was all above board as they were requested to identify foreigners living in their area so they could keep a friendly eye on them.

The information requested was basically the same as requested from the OP. I wasn't home at the time and they asked for a recent photo from our album.

Edited September 6, 2010 by Farma

[Tropicalevo]

The information required about mother, father, children etc is normal stuff for processing long term visas here. (Retirement etc.) Presumably you had not provided this information on your visa application.

I was even asked my Father & Mother's occupation and last salary. Their address etc etc. (I told immigration that I last saw my Father in 1960 and that both my parents were dead - they said 'write anything down'.

If the guy was a genuine policeman - I would not worry too much. (Or maybe I have been here too long?)

Remember - just because you may be paranoid, it doesn't mean that the bar stewards aren't out to get you!

[davyboy]

I had a similar visit by a couple of local senior police officers about ten years back, but they only wanted to check and record my passport details, saying that they were updating their records of farangs living in the area.! Don't worry, no problems!

[astral]

We invited the local police to our wedding.

My wife thought it was a good thing to do,

the boss did not turn up, but sent a couple of his junior officers.

[Moonrakers]

When I was last at Bangkok immigration to extend my 15 day (I get to extend it by 2 months because I am married to a Thai), I was told that my wife or daughter had to be with me when they never had to be with me before.

So I dragged Mrs. Rakers out of work to meet me at immigration, which she did. My wife asked them why the change and they said that they have had a problem with farangs getting extensions from marriages of convenience where the couple doesn't even stay together. They then went on to explain that this was why they now requested the partner or child to be present, and that they ARE CHECKING the details given in order to weed out offenders.

Could have something to do with that?

Edited September 7, 2010 by Moonrakers

[jobsworth]

I don't think that this incident had anything to do with immigration.

I am reminded of a similar visit to a house in Cambodia

where I was mistaken for the householder.

The question about children I find very suspicious.

Also the photography of you and your passports I find very suspicious.

Also the man in the suit who said and did nothing.

He was probably some NGO worker.

I suspect that your visitors were connected with some NGO group

and checking you for human trafficking in children.

After all it is only foreigners who do that sort of thing isn't it?

[samran]

My personal inclination is not to worry about it.

Thai civil servants have a lot of boxes to tick and info which they need to collect cause some head honcho has asked for it. It all gets collected and promtly gets piled into folders and filed away collecting dust which no one checks again cause by the time that is done, that head honch has been promoted in the yearly promotions.

Having applied for Thai citizenship for my wife, they ask all sorts of wierd and wonderful questions. Just part of the process living in a developing country.

Mostly harmless.

[tombkk]

Extraordinary, I would be inclined to check back at the local Police Station to find our whether this was legit. or not,

Conceivably about the census that is meant to be taking place around now ?

It does sound like a census. However, with so many illegals here (like in other countries), it sounds quite normal for the government to check, even if it is just a random check. If you are legal, you shouldn't worry.