New Interpretation On 90 Day Reporting By Immigration Officer?

[Mario2008]

90 days in Thailand is 90 days in Thailand, not 92. So yes, you have to report. Do it by mail if your office allows it.

[ianh68]

A lot of immigration offices only allow you to report up to 7 days after the due date if you go in person, not if you do it by mail.

This is worth knowing since I have started doing all my 90 days by post. Thanks.

[ianh68]

The change in extension reason should be when new application is due. If not they would likely have to start over with a new entry as they said. All such extensions of stay take a month (or more) before being approved - but they provide a stamp allowing stay until approval is received. Retirement is much easier of them and application and requirement is simple and does not require visits to home and such paperwork and can be approved at local level. If you do not meet retirement extension of stay requirements at next application time you should make the change then.

You can not 'go to a different office' as all extensions must be done in your physical residence area and will be checked.

This confirms my decision to stick with my retirement visa rather than go for a marriage visa after my recent wedding. The wife agrees. Neither of us want the hassle and I do wonder why so many go down that road, is it just because the financial requirements are less?

[tombkk]

90 days in Thailand is 90 days in Thailand, not 92. So yes, you have to report. Do it by mail if your office allows it.

You are right, of course.

But Thai law makes it easy: Overstaying for one day is free, after that you pay THB 500/day. So if he overstays for two days, he pays THB 1,000. Right there, at the airport. Just needs to go through passport control half an hour earlier. There are no repercussions for an overstay, he can apply for a new visa or enter on visa-exempt as he pleases.

If he makes an extension, he has to stand in line (I don't know for how long) either at Chaeng Wattana (THB 200 taxi fare each way) or if he is lucky, at Soi Suan Plu. Fee is THB 1,900, I believe.

So, staying within Thai law, what would you do if you were in his situation?

[tombkk]

Funny thing is that the 90-day reporting is free... so I really don't get the point.

It's certainly an inconvenience, and in my view utterly pointless, but it doesn't cost anything so I don't understand your point - unless you don't comply with the regulation of course.

Believe the point is this was not required until fairly recently and many, many people have had to pay 2k or more fines for them not being aware of the new enforcement. Not to mention those who forget, get sick, in accident and such that now have a new deadline every 90 days. Although I can understand the desire to keep address information current I believe the comparison to ex-convict reporting to probation officer is valid and the fact no simple method, such as internet, has been adapted for this housekeeping process is a real shame.

Just a remark: 90-day reporting was required even before it was enforced. Dr. T., when he was PM, didn't actually change the law, he just made sure the existing law was enforced. One can argue that the reason was to inconvenience foreigners and to add some extra income for the government, but I don't know whether the extra income (fines for those who fail to report) covers the extra cost.

I do think this law needs to either be done done away with, or it should be possible to report by internet. The Thai government does use the internet, I do my PNG91 (yearly income tax report) by internet. So it's just a matter of political will and of course, budget for the software. I have not heard that a budget for it has been applied for, but then I don't follow all budget meetings of the cabinet and parliament (pretty boring stuff, if televised at all).

[tombkk]

Double posting deleted.

Edited January 8, 2011 by tombkk

[rishi]

90 days in Thailand is 90 days in Thailand, not 92. So yes, you have to report. Do it by mail if your office allows it.

You are right, of course.

But Thai law makes it easy: Overstaying for one day is free, after that you pay THB 500/day. So if he overstays for two days, he pays THB 1,000. Right there, at the airport. Just needs to go through passport control half an hour earlier. There are no repercussions for an overstay, he can apply for a new visa or enter on visa-exempt as he pleases.

If he makes an extension, he has to stand in line (I don't know for how long) either at Chaeng Wattana (THB 200 taxi fare each way) or if he is lucky, at Soi Suan Plu. Fee is THB 1,900, I believe.

So, staying within Thai law, what would you do if you were in his situation?

He isn't overstaying and the fines for overstaying have nothing to do with being late with the 90 days address reporting --- and, as ought to be clear for all having read this thread --- one can let upto 96 days lapse between 90 days reporting without being fined, jailed or tortured.

[tombkk]

90 days in Thailand is 90 days in Thailand, not 92. So yes, you have to report. Do it by mail if your office allows it.

You are right, of course.

But Thai law makes it easy: Overstaying for one day is free, after that you pay THB 500/day. So if he overstays for two days, he pays THB 1,000. Right there, at the airport. Just needs to go through passport control half an hour earlier. There are no repercussions for an overstay, he can apply for a new visa or enter on visa-exempt as he pleases.

If he makes an extension, he has to stand in line (I don't know for how long) either at Chaeng Wattana (THB 200 taxi fare each way) or if he is lucky, at Soi Suan Plu. Fee is THB 1,900, I believe.

So, staying within Thai law, what would you do if you were in his situation?

He isn't overstaying and the fines for overstaying have nothing to do with being late with the 90 days address reporting --- and, as ought to be clear for all having read this thread --- one can let upto 96 days lapse between 90 days reporting without being fined, jailed or tortured.

I only saw the "fly out of the country" part. So, he does not have to do his 90-day report, provided his extension of stay has not expired?