90 Day Reporting. Check At The Airport?

[markg]

I've been on a non-b visa extension and work permit for a number of years. The last 12 months or so, i frankly became too lazy to do the 90 day address reporting.

Yesterday i went in to get a re-entry permit as i have to fly out of Thailand shortly and the Immigration Police, who was focused solely on issuing re-entry permits, didn't mention the missing 90 day piece of paper in my passport. He stamped me up and passed everything on to a junior girl (possibly Rajabaht work experience) to write out the receipt. It was her that noticed the missing paper. I told her i must have left it at home, and she said i'd better have it when i fly out because i'll be in 'big trouble' otherwise.

I'll prudently take the 2k baht fine with me to the airport just in case, but i was wondering what the likelihood is of the airport immigration actually checking that?

(As an aside, the reason i don't do 90 day reporting is that it's useless. A colleague who lives rent-free with parents and therefore has no lease agreement, was told by immigration police that he could just fill in the form and register at my house if i agreed (we were sat next to each other) even though he stated to them that he did NOT live at my house. They waved this away saying it didnt matter - ergo, what is the point of doing the 90 day reporting to verify you live at an address that you don't. Pointless. Phuket immigration is so busy these days that its become a hassle to do this pointless piece of free bureaucracy. )

[Thanyaburi Mac]

"Pointless" it may be, in some folk's view, but it is the law, and some folks don't want to pay baht 2,000 (or more if you're "caught").

It's quite easy to mail in the report if you're too busy to bother visiting Immigration, at least a many to most offices, not mine, tho, at Sam Koke, Pathum Thani.

And, no, rather doubt that they'll notice anything amiss at Swampy Immigration.

Mac

[markg]

"Pointless" it may be, in some folk's view, but it is the law, and some folks don't want to pay baht 2,000 (or more if you're "caught").

It's quite easy to mail in the report if you're too busy to bother visiting Immigration, at least a many to most offices, not mine, tho, at Sam Koke, Pathum Thani.

And, no, rather doubt that they'll notice anything amiss at Swampy Immigration.

Mac

Yeah i know it's the law, and for 6 years i've been good about it, but the Immigration Police comments about my colleague being able to register at a house he clearly doesnt live in, coupled with the fact that immigration is now like a cattle market, it can take a couple of hours of my time to do it. I don't think you can post it in to Phuket, though you can send a proxy. Once i come back into Thailand and the clock restarts, i'll send one of the office girls in to do it for me.

[justaphase]

I know 'somebody' REALLY WELL that has NEVER done it in 10 years on various visas. In fact when he went with his school to imm in Bkk the school visa girl said to throw it away.

Up to you of course, but i cant see how they can know....

[Thanyaburi Mac]

I know 'somebody' REALLY WELL that has NEVER done it in 10 years on various visas. In fact when he went with his school to imm in Bkk the school visa girl said to throw it away.

Up to you of course, but i cant see how they can know....

"... how they can know." Well, the info IS entered in to the computer of what might be termed the "90-day Report Office" and some day, perhaps in the far distant future, this database will/may be tied into Departure Control at the various Immigration exit points of Thailand, and a fine large than baht 2,000 will/may be assessed.

I used to snail mine down to Suan Plu back before the offices were split out to the baanock, pretty painless way to comply with the law.

Mac

[lopburi3]

The information is all on computers and has been for years now so if/when the word is given there could be some serious fines levied and the 2k can easily be 5k and a little additional fine of 200 baht per day is also in the mix.

As for officer saying person can register at your house comment expect that is all they want - a method to contact him (through you) if they need to.

[phuketrichard]

I have every time i fly out take out the slip just to see if they ask for it, Never since they started issuing them have they,

In phuket there is nothing entered into a computer ( at least that i have seen and i doubt they do it after they close) all they do is fill out the form and file it somewhere.

Edited April 8, 2011 by phuketrichard

[bigbossron]

Last week went to Cambodia with 3 months late 90 days registration, no problem at all. Last year 6 months late, also on airport no problem.

Ron

[Tod Daniels]

Flying out of Thailand at least at Suvarnabhumi, I know for certain, passport control won't care if you do or don't do your 90 day check-in paperwork. That's just NOT their job!

Personally I dunno why you'd forgo it based just on "what you'd heard" no matter who you heard it from. The rules are clearly the rules here. Then again you seem not to care all that much about the 2000-5000 baht fine which can be imposed for failure to report. The only time I've seen people 'caught out' was when they were renewing another year's extension of stay, and I have seen a fair number of those first hand.

Anecdotally: I was out at Changwattana a while back, turning in a handful of passports for their 90 day reporting. I had the very next queue number to be called, but alas it was 12:00. I knew one of the officers as I'm out there a couple times a month so asked if she could 'help me out'. She graciously took the 4 or 5 passports I had with me and entered them in. This was after they'd run everyone else out and even turned off the lights to the office.

While she was doing this, I asked her if I could see what info they had on their p/c. She let me come around the desk and look. Surprisingly, they DO keep quite a lot of info on foreigners. Nationality, p/p#, p/p issued on & expiration date, DOB, sex, original visa type, type of extension of stay, last extension renewed on date, extension to expire on date, last date and point of entry into the kingdom, departure card #, last report date, and penalties assessed for late and/or failure to report. It was pretty interesting really.

In our conversation while she was doing the data entry, she mentioned their database is strictly 'in-house' (as in ONLY in that room) .. It wasn't tied into any other database either at Changwattana, the border crossings, or even the 90-day reporting offices at other Thai Immigrations locations.

She did say they would be combining their data base with the other offices and the Changwattana main database "sometime in the future" . Now with this being Thailand, that could mean tomorrow, next week, next month, or quite possibly theyll never get around to it.

Edited April 8, 2011 by tod-daniels

[markg]

Just an update.

Flew out of Thailand and back in with no problem at all. No mention made of my missing 90 day reporting paper.

As i understand it, the 90 day clock now restarts upon my re-entry to Thailand, so i will probably report my address in 89 days time.