Passport Issue

[diwata]

Hi, just a quick question about passport. Is it legal in Thailand to take someone else's passport. Example, if a Thai girlfriend took your passport and keep with her and said she will return it in 5 days. Is that legal?

[mahjongguy]

The passport doesn't belong to you. It belongs to your government.

Merchants (e.g. motorbike renters) and lenders may not hold your passport as collateral, nor may you offer it as such.

Girlfriends cannot for any reason withhold it from you. If that is the case, it is theft of your government's property. Of course, you may have very good reasons not to report that to the police.

[Gsxrnz]

Um.......does that mean that your GF took your passport?

[jrtmedic]

Always keep control of your passport. Never give it to anyone and never , ever give it to the g/f !

[tinhead]

Canadian government (passport Camada) will investigate anyone who is known to have lost control of their travel document, even if for a temporary period and done in a voluntary manner.

[jrtmedic]

Canadian government (passport Camada) will investigate anyone who is known to have lost control of their travel document, even if for a temporary period and done in a voluntary manner.

Most , if not all, Western Governments would take the same stance.

[IMA_FARANG]

Nowadays the U.S. embassy will be quite concerned about exactly when, where, and how you lost your passport when you report that fact to them.

Maybe a few years ago they wouldn't but not now.

Never give your passport to another person.

It may be "government property" but you are responsible for it's use.

[Colabamumbai]

You sure are a newbie, you do not give your passport to anyone, she is probably having false documents made as we speak.

[Colabamumbai]

If this is the case, and she has your passport, I would be off to the police department about now. Stolen passport report. You are not going anywhere with out that.

[Nowhereman60]

A very, very, very stupid move on your part.

[Gsxrnz]

Give the guy a break, he hasn't actually said that he gave the passport to his GF, he gave an example of "if his GF took the passport".

Let's wait and see if he answers the question before we have him convicted of gross stupidity.

[diwata]

Yes, I actually thought that passport belongs to the government not to the individual but I wasn't sure about it. Now this anwers my question. It didn't happend to me directly but someone very close to me and this is not the first time, it happend to my other friend as well few years ago. Now I know what to do when this happens again...hope not to me. This issue was resolved. The passport was returned today and tomorrow is a new day :-) Thanks a lot guys for the replies!

[jrtmedic]

The only question left to ask is --------------------

What was the passport used for whilst not in the possession of the holder ?

[diwata]

If they have good connection to the goverment, is it possible that they can revoke the visa? Because that's what we were afraid of.

[Suradit69]

^{Is it legal in Thailand to take someone else's passport.}

Why would it be legal for someone to take anything of yours?

If they have good connection to the goverment, is it possible that they can revoke the visa? Because that's what we were afraid of.

A good connection to the government? Someone's girlfriend is some high level operative in the Thai government?

Immigrations is cancelling visas because some girl got ticked off at a foolish farang who is clueless?

Someone's been watching too many B movies starring Sylvester Stallone or Steven Seagal.

[diwata]

Ok got your point. So not possible then. That gave us peace of mind.

[OJAS]

This thread does, however, beg the question as to what would happen were Immigration to lose your passport if you had to leave it with them overnight for (e.g.) extension of stay stamping purposes (as I believe is the practice at Jomtien). Has this actually happened to anyone, or are my concerns merely another example of B-movie fiction?

[jrtmedic]

OAJS YES !

The OP should be concerned about where the passport has been and who the cloned passport has been sold to !

[diwata]

The owner of the passport will leave the country soon as the visa is going to expire. We'll see when he comes back.

[stoli]

I have your passport. Don't worry, you will get it back. (At least it will look a lot like yours. Thanks.)

[Soutpeel]

This thread does, however, beg the question as to what would happen were Immigration to lose your passport if you had to leave it with them overnight for (e.g.) extension of stay stamping purposes (as I believe is the practice at Jomtien). Has this actually happened to anyone, or are my concerns merely another example of B-movie fiction?

Allow me to answer that question with a question, what is probability of immigration actually losing a PP in an office enviroment ?.......misplace it possbily, but actually lose it so its never found ?

highly unlikely me thinks

[Soutpeel]

If they have good connection to the goverment, is it possible that they can revoke the visa? Because that's what we were afraid of.

if they have very very good connections in immigration suppose it could be possible, but in this case one supposes this is a p*ssed off GF who has come out of bar, so would say in almost all cases that the GF concerned doesnt have the "connections" need to do something like this

However on a related topic in the case of WP's, all it takes is a Thai national, as an employee to lodge a complaint with the DOL about a farang working in the same company and the WP can be revoked immdediately, and before some calls me and say BS.....I have see it happen twice in the last 11 years