Proof Of Visa To Be Carried At All Times..?

[paulbrun]

I think the police could round up every farang on the beach, if everyone was required to carry their passport at all times, and the beach bums would have a field day, stealing everyones bag when they went into the water, or do you take the passport into the water also?

I have a copy of mine, but never been asked for it. Passport is always at home, hidden away, except when traveling.

If the police want the 400 baht, they will get it, with or without your passport.

How about 2000 baht..!

[paulbrun]

And in future, I will carry a photo-copy of my passport / visa, with me at all times..

You have one of this fancy smart phones?

An i-Phone, which he used to talk to my wife on. For a while, I thought he wasn't going to give it back..! If you were going to suggest taking a picture of him, it did cross my mind, but I don't think it would have helped the situation..!

[paulbrun]

Or maybe I should keep some detailed photos on my smart phone, showing the passport, visa etc..? Not a bad idea..!

[noob7]

Or maybe I should keep some detailed photos on my smart phone, showing the passport, visa etc..? Not a bad idea..!

You got it!

But the idea with the picture of the cop isn't bad, too:

The 'I have friends' story works for the Burmese, so why not for you. (kidding!)

[saramsland]

And in future, I will carry a photo-copy of my passport / visa, with me at all times..

You have one of this fancy smart phones?

An i-Phone, which he used to talk to my wife on. For a while, I thought he wasn't going to give it back..! If you were going to suggest taking a picture of him, it did cross my mind, but I don't think it would have helped the situation..!

Guys.. correct me if Im wrong but I have heard previously that taking photo's of the Thai Police or Military was somewhat illegal & if it isnt I can only imagine it would only provoke the situation..

I never carry my passport unless Im going to the Airport to leave the country, hotel bookings & all other ID related requests I use my Thai Driver's License's.. however as previous posters stated.. its not your name they are looking for, its your legal position with regards to being within the Kingdom.. so no proof of an entry stamp & you can consider yourself as illegal..

I do agree, photocopies or photo's on your phone may get you out of trouble occasionally but if the BIB want your money.. they will get it.

An example.. I live on a large road in Bangkok.. I always use the overpass's whilst riding my bike, there is a police box just after one of them. Sometimes they don't bother & sometimes they will come out & stop me & fine me for using the overpass, riding outside of the left lane or just give me a hard time & as say I was riding above the speed limit or that they saw me the day before use the overpass.. its different than a road block & I can time the lights to scoot on by without giving them a chance to pull me up but if they do stop me I happily ablidge with a lil tea money.. it saves me a hassle & a lot of time.

If your only here a week.. its not a long time to carry around that 'oh so hefty' 32 - 64 page booklet in your back pocket or just 'go with the flow'

[Sydneycraig]

How much is the fine... I would rather just pay up than carry my pp around and potentially loose it...

[qdinthailand]

My nearly new Thai D.L has my passport number on it. There are 3 'extra' digits in front of the 9 digit passport number.

Obviously the police have everything they need on your D.L. to figure out if you are legit.

I do carry a simple 1 page black & white copy of passport ID page, visa and stamps in my wallet in case they are interested in 'more' but I will not carry around 24x7 something as valuable as my passport. The chances of me forgetting about it, and tossing it into the washing machine inside a pants pocket are too great.

[Tomtomtom69]

I never take my passport as it is too bulky

A poor excuse. If you don't carry a PP at all times then you risk being detained and inconvenienced. It is not only identification that is required but status, i.e. you have valid entries in you PP permitting you to be here. A Thai Drivers Permit only provides ID.

Last year I walked into a shopping mall and was stopped by uniformed police who asked for my PP. One knew exactly what he was looking for and confirmed my status as valid, saluted, thanked me and returned the PP. A group of male and female westerners were huddled in a corner, caught without PPs and one called out that I 'was lucky'. I told him there was no luck involved.

You make the choice. No PP then you risk detention.

Police check passports at shopping malls in Thailand now? What has Thailand become some kind of communist police state now? In all my years of visiting or living in Thailand i have never heard of such crap before. Why would they do something that they know is bad for tourism? In Thailand, anything that can upset tourists is evil.

[Headgame]

I live in Phuket and frankly it's just not practical to always carry my passport with me everytime I walk out the door to 7-11, the beach or whatever. However, I never walk out the door withour my iPhone and have scanned copies of my passport, visa, extensions, etc. along with birth certificate and US DL. May not be strictly legal but I will take my chances. BTW, never been asked for my passport and that includes a number of motorbike roadblocks where I've had to pay a fine because my girlfriend didn't have her TH DL. I'm much more freaked out about losing my passport than the police.

[Tomtomtom69]

I live in Phuket and frankly it's just not practical to always carry my passport with me everytime I walk out the door to 7-11, the beach or whatever. However, I never walk out the door withour my iPhone and have scanned copies of my passport, visa, extensions, etc. along with birth certificate and US DL. May not be strictly legal but I will take my chances. BTW, never been asked for my passport and that includes a number of motorbike roadblocks where I've had to pay a fine because my girlfriend didn't have her TH DL. I'm much more freaked out about losing my passport than the police.

There may be a law that says everyone needs to carry ID in Thailand, including Thai citizens who must carry their ID cards with them at all times, but I don't think it's being enforced and as you have mentioned, there are a good number of reasons to not have your passport on you. Also, Thai citizens are generally not asked to show their ID cards to be allowed entry for free or reduced rates at many attractions so I think this whole passport thingy is a racist double standard. But fortunately, it is rare to be asked to show your passport in public. Even in border areas with Myanmar, where I have travelled to many times, I have never been asked for my passport at police checkpoints (only my driver's license in one instance) because westerners are not normally considered to be your stereotypical drug smugglers, people smugglers nor will they be mistaken for illegal Burmese immigrants here in Thailand. As my Vietnamese friend always tells me whenever he joins me on these sorts of trips, it is an advantage to have me in the car, because as a westerner and a fluent Thai speaker, I always get either waived through or given only a short Q&A session at these checkpoints. My friend was however asked for his passport once, but NOT me (and I was the one who showed it to the policeman who had trouble figuring out how to read the immigration stamp). On another occassion, me the friendly, Thai speaking foreigner past through another checkpoint in Bangkok late at night after picking up some Australian musicians for an event a couple of days later. They were asked for their passports, but again NOT me. In the second instance, I didn't have my passport on me, nor was I afraid if they had asked me as I could have given them a legitimate excuse. In the first instance, I only had my passport on me as we had travelled across to Myanmar at Mae Sai and back earlier the previous day, otherwise I probably wouldn't have bothered bringing it along.

Having said all that, it is a good practice to carry at least a copy of your passport with you not so much for random checks but rather in the event that your actual passport goes missing.

Frankly, I don't think the ordinary police should be doing the job of immigration; in the US that is illegal and would cause a level of outrage at least as big as Arizona's plan to allow police the power to check people's immigration status if they suspect the person could be in the country illegally (which I believe has already been ruled as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court). In Thailand, the official policy and what many posters here have alluded to, is that your everyday police can use the "power" of racial profiling to just randomly ask any old foreign-looking person for their passport, never mind that Thailand is, as far as I'm aware NOT a police state, except perhaps in the three southernmost border provinces plagued by a decades old insurgency, but that's another story.

Edited November 8, 2012 by Tomtomtom69

[noob7]

Frankly, I don't think the ordinary police should be doing the job of immigration[...] In Thailand, the official policy and what many posters here have alluded to, is that your everyday police can use the "power" of racial profiling to just randomly ask any old foreign-looking person for their passport, never mind that Thailand is, as far as I'm aware NOT a police state, except perhaps in the three southernmost border provinces plagued by a decades old insurgency, but that's another story.

You are right, it's simple not their job. But they needing tea money.

Since checking Burmese people (I have connections) becomes a high risk for the average policeman, they are in the need for fresh tea money ways. And the 'normal' tourist would rather pay, than to f$%k around with the police.

But what I'm still wondering about, is the 'cash on scene' thing. I know policeman, who wouldn't even take 1 or 2k on the road, fearing a fellow BiB could see, or someone could take a picture about. As long, it isn't with a receipt, it will not find the 60% way into the tip box for all in the station. No policeman want a angry boss, worrying, that money still ends, before the month, because of him!

Edited November 8, 2012 by noob7

[david555]

Frankly, I don't think the ordinary police should be doing the job of immigration[...] In Thailand, the official policy and what many posters here have alluded to, is that your everyday police can use the "power" of racial profiling to just randomly ask any old foreign-looking person for their passport, never mind that Thailand is, as far as I'm aware NOT a police state, except perhaps in the three southernmost border provinces plagued by a decades old insurgency, but that's another story.

You are right, it's simple not their job. But they needing tea money.

Since checking Burmese people (I have connections) becomes a high risk for the average policeman, they are in the need for fresh tea money ways. And the 'normal' tourist would rather pay, than to f$%k around with the police.

But what I'm still wondering about, is the 'cash on scene' thing. I know policeman, who wouldn't even take 1 or 2k on the road, fearing a fellow BiB could see, or someone could take a picture about. As long, it isn't with a receipt, it will not find the 60% way into the tip box for all in the station. No policeman want a angry boss, worrying, that money still ends, before the month, because of him!

ask any old foreign-looking person

why using this line ? it is most the not 50 years old who are overstaying as not so many options to stay long time ????

[Langsuan Man]

My nearly new Thai D.L has my passport number on it. There are 3 'extra' digits in front of the 9 digit passport number.

Obviously the police have everything they need on your D.L. to figure out if you are legit.

I do carry a simple 1 page black & white copy of passport ID page, visa and stamps in my wallet in case they are interested in 'more' but I will not carry around 24x7 something as valuable as my passport. The chances of me forgetting about it, and tossing it into the washing machine inside a pants pocket are too great.

My new five year drivers license has my passport number on it, exactly as it appears on my passport. No extra digits

[Maestro]

How much is the fine... I would rather just pay up than carry my pp around and potentially loose it...

There is no fine because the inability to show the passport instantly when asked to do so is not a violation of any law, but you can be held in custody on suspicion of being in Thailand illegally until the passport is produced for verification that your presence in Thailand is legal.

[merijn]

10 years here and stopped many times and never once been asked for my passport apart from at immigration. must just be lucky.

Me too. 22 years. Never carried it except when there is some bureaucratic necessity. I travel to other provinces at least once a month, catch flights, check into hotels, rent cars. Never have my passport. Reading what some have to say, I've either been extremely lucky or we live in a parallel universe.

Same here, Over 23 years in Thailand with a lot of traveling and never asked for my PP.

I have a 5 year DL with PP number and i use this for almost everything.

The PP number should be enough for them to check the status.

Maybe luckly.

[fakename]

Since most of us have a copy machine at home, is it such a big thing, to have copies of the necessary pages of your passport, and dont have to worry when you approach a check point? In the long run, it will save a lot of problems.

Another thing, this is Thailand, not America, or Europe. Thailand has its own laws, and ways to enforce them. If they want to look at your passport in the mall, do you think it would be to your advantage to argue with them? They can stop anyone they want, and search, arguing will only get you into more trouble.

The police check points move around all the time, sometimes from hour to hour, so you will never know where they are. They are usually in a place where you cant turn around to avoid them, and I wouldnt advise trying. They have been at this a lot longer than you have. Probably mostly looking for narcotics, but could be anything, stolen bikes, or guns. I havent noticed that they stop more farangs than Thai's, but then I dont hang around with a score card to count, and I dont think anyone else does.

[noob7]

Since most of us have a copy machine at home,

Have we?

I think, the 'smart'phones are much more available, as 'copy' machines, at home!

The police check points move around all the time, sometimes from hour to hour, so you will never know where they are.

Most times, you need only to break, as soon you see a bunch of Thais with motorcycles, waiting at the side of the road.

Also the red flashlights are easy to spot. And most of the time, there is a 7/11 (or similar) just before their checkpoint. Ok, not for the Karon Checkpoint, but all the others, I passed by, in the last weeks....!

Maybe the OP did run in on of these:

http://www.phuketgaz...rges-19379.html

I do not think, that this checkpoints came along with a cashier, but I might be wrong. But as long they don't wanna or can do the paperwork at the checkpoint, it was a try, to scam tea money for only a few pockets, methinks.

I'm pretty sure, a phone call from the wife to the station could have lighten that up.

Maybe a question about the telephone number of the officer for a recall, and to which station should the wife go,to show the receipt for the passport, could have saved a little time, too.

Edited November 9, 2012 by noob7

[Ajaan]

If you have an Android phone, get the app "Camscanner" and as soon as you arrive in Thailand, scan in your arrival card (you should already have your passport scanned in). Problem solved.

[NoshowJones]

I never take my passport as it is too bulky, since getting my DL I use that instead, only been stopped once, looked at DL and waved me through.

I went to Pattaya with my wife for a short break, normally I only take my Thai DL with me when I travel in Thailand, but on this occasion I had my passport with me as I had business with it. The hotel I was booked into would not accept my DL and insisted on my passport. They then checked it and started questioning my visa stamps, I questioned this and was told that they were acting on police or immigration regulations. I have travelled and stayed in hotels in Pattaya and many parts of Thailand before, and my DL was always accepted. So if your staying in hotels, your passport may not be enough.

[NoshowJones]

I never take my passport as it is too bulky

A poor excuse. If you don't carry a PP at all times then you risk being detained and inconvenienced. It is not only identification that is required but status, i.e. you have valid entries in you PP permitting you to be here. A Thai Drivers Permit only provides ID.

Last year I walked into a shopping mall and was stopped by uniformed police who asked for my PP. One knew exactly what he was looking for and confirmed my status as valid, saluted, thanked me and returned the PP. A group of male and female westerners were huddled in a corner, caught without PPs and one called out that I 'was lucky'. I told him there was no luck involved.

You make the choice. No PP then you risk detention.

I have a Thai Driving License which is an ID, it does not have my passport number on it but a 13 digit number like a Thai ID,

My Thai 5 year DL has my passport number on it.

[Estrada]

The only official identification recognized by the Thai government is your passport. It does not matter if you are on a visa, visa exempt entry or extension of stay.

I never travel very far from home without my passport. A copy might get you by but if you are a long way from your passport it could be very long wait in a lock up waiting for somebody to bring it you.

Try carrying a passport in hot humid weather let alone Songkran. I hardly ever carry my passport except when I need it for Banking transactions as the Banks no longer accept a driving licence as proof of identity. I have never been asked to show my passport when stopped by the Police in 30 years, however whilst they do not ask for my identity they do ask to see my Wife's I.D. If she hasn't got it she can be asked to produce it, but they never have only not allowed her to enter a particular club or Soi in the Entertainment zones. I keep my passport in a safe place not in my pocket in this climate and well out of the way of pickpockets.

[PETERTHEEATER]

I never take my passport as it is too bulky

A poor excuse. If you don't carry a PP at all times then you risk being detained and inconvenienced. It is not only identification that is required but status, i.e. you have valid entries in you PP permitting you to be here. A Thai Drivers Permit only provides ID.

Last year I walked into a shopping mall and was stopped by uniformed police who asked for my PP. One knew exactly what he was looking for and confirmed my status as valid, saluted, thanked me and returned the PP. A group of male and female westerners were huddled in a corner, caught without PPs and one called out that I 'was lucky'. I told him there was no luck involved.

You make the choice. No PP then you risk detention.

I have a Thai Driving License which is an ID, it does not have my passport number on it but a 13 digit number like a Thai ID,

My Thai 5 year DL has my passport number on it.

Yes, but it does not show your status i.e. evidence to show that your presence in the Kingdom is covered by a visa, extension of that visa or residence. I agree that a Thai Dl or a copy of your PP will usually suffice but not when an official is out to require proof.

[chrisinth]

I never take my passport as it is too bulky, since getting my DL I use that instead, only been stopped once, looked at DL and waved me through.

I went to Pattaya with my wife for a short break, normally I only take my Thai DL with me when I travel in Thailand, but on this occasion I had my passport with me as I had business with it. The hotel I was booked into would not accept my DL and insisted on my passport. They then checked it and started questioning my visa stamps, I questioned this and was told that they were acting on police or immigration regulations. I have travelled and stayed in hotels in Pattaya and many parts of Thailand before, and my DL was always accepted. So if your staying in hotels, your passport may not be enough.

Hotels seem to be different. As far as I am aware, every establishment offering accomodation has to provide an up-to-date list of all guests registered there to the police station every 24 hour period. (Please correct me if I am wrong on this).

The easiest form of proof of identity is a scan of the relevant pages of your passport. I think in your case, the hotel was taking the additional step to make sure their paperwork was correctly in order.

[noob7]

I never take my passport as it is too bulky, since getting my DL I use that instead, only been stopped once, looked at DL and waved me through.

I went to Pattaya with my wife for a short break, normally I only take my Thai DL with me when I travel in Thailand, but on this occasion I had my passport with me as I had business with it. The hotel I was booked into would not accept my DL and insisted on my passport. They then checked it and started questioning my visa stamps, I questioned this and was told that they were acting on police or immigration regulations. I have travelled and stayed in hotels in Pattaya and many parts of Thailand before, and my DL was always accepted. So if your staying in hotels, your passport may not be enough.

Let your/the wife rent the room!

[noob7]

I never take my passport as it is too bulky

A poor excuse. If you don't carry a PP at all times then you risk being detained and inconvenienced. It is not only identification that is required but status, i.e. you have valid entries in you PP permitting you to be here. A Thai Drivers Permit only provides ID.

Last year I walked into a shopping mall and was stopped by uniformed police who asked for my PP. One knew exactly what he was looking for and confirmed my status as valid, saluted, thanked me and returned the PP. A group of male and female westerners were huddled in a corner, caught without PPs and one called out that I 'was lucky'. I told him there was no luck involved.

You make the choice. No PP then you risk detention.

I have a Thai Driving License which is an ID, it does not have my passport number on it but a 13 digit number like a Thai ID,

My Thai 5 year DL has my passport number on it.

My one, too. But it's the old passports number.

[Dork]

I never take my passport as it is too bulky, since getting my DL I use that instead, only been stopped once, looked at DL and waved me through.

I went to Pattaya with my wife for a short break, normally I only take my Thai DL with me when I travel in Thailand, but on this occasion I had my passport with me as I had business with it. The hotel I was booked into would not accept my DL and insisted on my passport. They then checked it and started questioning my visa stamps, I questioned this and was told that they were acting on police or immigration regulations. I have travelled and stayed in hotels in Pattaya and many parts of Thailand before, and my DL was always accepted. So if your staying in hotels, your passport may not be enough.

In Pattaya? What a joke? Why didn't you laugh at them at walk out?

[bob4you]

Here in Pattaya it only costs B60 for a laminated wallet size of 1st page of passport and visa.

[asiaexpat]

Every house owner or hotel where an alien stays is required to file a TM 30 form with immigration. In order to complete the form, a passport is required since that is where all the information for the form is located. A DL does not have all the data that must be reported. During my recent stays at hotels in Issan and central provinces I was asked to present my passport if I made the reservation or checked in. If a Thai family member made the reservation and checked us in, no request for passport.

[fakename]

Are the police really going to look at your cell phone, and try to determine if your status is up to date? Is it so hard to have copies of the three or four pages that you need, and keep in a plastic bag? Are they going to talk to your gf on the phone, and what are they even going to talk about with her?

If I get stopped, I just to continue on as soon as possible, not have a pissing contest. Anyway, most of the check points that I have seen, are in good places,, so there is no turning around, or popping in to a 7/11.

[asiaexpat]

If you use a copy of your passport be sure to include the TM6.