House Visit by Mae Sai Immigration

[sgtsabai]

My wife had to fill out "report for foreigner staying...." for my O-A extension in 2013. So yes, it is enforced in some places.

[thairastawoman]

These people should never know where we leave and this is a good reason enough to never apply for this kind of visa !

[Carib]

These people should never know where we leave and this is a good reason enough to never apply for this kind of visa !

Please go find your brain.

[carlyai]

I am on a retirement visa but we are building a house in isaan and will eventually move from our house in pattaya to isaan. The house in isaan is in the family compound, so unlike pattaya i wont have the house paper book to show our change of address when we finally completely move.

My questions are: when im up country looking after the house building can i do my 90 day report to any immigration point or do i have to drive back to pattaya and report.

And, when we move to isaan how can i show our new location when the house is on the compound land? We have been married for 26 years and both working in aus before. The money for the house construction is my wifes .

[villagefarang]

If it is an actual house, then you will be given a house number by the village headman and you will most likely be assigned meters for both water and electricity. Until that happens you could use one of the other house addresses in the compound. The 90 day report can be mailed in, making it unnecessary to drive there to make a report in person.

[laislica]

For those of us married to Thais, your wife must also report your presence to immigration on the appropriate form.

Of course, plus any other foreigners who may stay over with you.

That is not true for very immigration office. In fact it would be very few offices that ask your wife for the TM30 form. My wife has never been asked for it.

Even reporting you guests would be a rarity for it to be enforced. Many offices would probably just tell you it is not needed so they wouldn't have to deal with it.

Whilst what you say is true, until you know how your immigration office responds to the notification, I suppose it would be safest to supply the info and see what they say. I have read on this forum that the lack of the notification has come back to bite at a later date.

Better safe than sorry?

[Sydebolle]

They've dealt with all those illegal Burmese and sent back more than one million - so now it's time to clean up on the alien farang front too

[Tomtomtom69]

I had immigration turn up at my house once they were in civilian clothes but had there IDs around there necks they were very polite checked our passports had a glass of water and went on there way, there excuse was that they were on the lookout for illegal Burmese workers and I suppose because of the size of the Villa they no doubt assumed we had maids/gardeners they seemed amazed when the wife told them we both looked after the place ourselves for a moment I thought they were going to then insist we had work permits me doing the garden and the mrs doing the cleaning , that was over four years ago and they have never been back. As we live high up in the jungle they did give us a phone number to report anything suspicious .

Thailand is not a DIY culture - Thais think: "let me get someone else to do something in my own home that I'm too lazy to do myself". No wonder very few Thais except the technically minded can even change a car tyre in the event of a blowout - nearly always someone else will do it for them (and there's no shortage of qualified or perhaps not so qualified people who are able to do so and help out nearby if you ask around). I asked a good Thai friend of mine if he has ever changed a car tyre (he did suffer a puncture once) and this guy is quite intelligent, he is an IT whizz and runs his own online business. "No", he stated. "Too complicated - I called someone to help".

Of course it's NOT illegal to work on your own home, or in your own home. If it was, I'd be openly advertising for someone to clean my xxxx and flush my toilet for me because as far as I'm concerned, that's also work (albeit it only takes 5 seconds) just as much as cleaning the floors or mowing the lawn is.

For the record, I do all the work in and around the house myself, by helping out my Thai fiance and her family, who also do everything themselves. I mow the lawn, I tend to the garden, do some occasional cleaning and wash the dishes, do the laundry. Simple tasks that any member of any household anywhere in the world is expected to do. My American neighbors however seem unable to mow their own lawns - they hire some Cambodians who come over and do whatever work that needs to be done using awfully noisy lawn edgers (rather than a proper lawnmower like I own and use) or saws to chop down trees.

Edited July 30, 2014 by Tomtomtom69