New: Criminal background check consent for extension of stay

[BKKSnowBird]

There're asking but if your here I would write no warrants and then they would have to figure it out. I had DUI'S many years (over 10 years ago), these are misdemendors not FELONIES!

Your police record will only show criminal records that are active within 5 years because you are on probation which means your not suppose to be here anyway. But unless a judge is looking at your records a police record would show only current probllems much like when a renter has a police check to rent an apartment. In the USA it would state no warrants at this time. But, remember if its a FELONY that's different. Good Luck.

I thought a DUI was a felony in the US?

Also, depending on the state, a misdemendor never goes away. Some states you can hide it after a few years.

I had a misdemendor over 10 years ago but showed up when I rented an apartment.

[watso63]

Many coutries restrict the entry of foreigners into their country. One of the restrictions commonly used is that one has not been convicted of any (serious) crime.

You can for example forget of legally entering the US with a conviction regarding drugs, even if it was 20 years ago.

That is not a human rights violation.

Not having a dig at you here, but just interested:

OK...how is it possible for Ozzy Osborne (a fine upstanding UK citizen) et al to live in the US? From what I read it seems most of the Hollywood luvvies, rock stars, you name it are on something, many have convictions yet are free to go wherever and are welcomed with open arms and hordes of fans. Or are they special?

That's why a legal clarification would be useful when being asked to sign a Thai written declaration and under what article of law. Yes, it's their country, but come on, what are we suggesting here, Mormons, Amish, non child abusing priests etc as acceptable long stayers only?

Edited September 12, 2014 by watso63

[Mario2008]

Not every conviction leads to a deny of entry. Just as not every conviction in leads to a denial of entry to Thailand. They do look at the crime itself.

[Thaiready]

In the UK they have no authority to make criminal record checks except in very specific circumstances. You can't just do a criminal record check on anybody you please.

Peanuts. HR of many companies do just that day and night. Checking candidate's name against dabases of pedofiles (which are public), whatever else there is available to check, trawl social media. When applying for a job you give them your acknowledgement.

What could be new in Thai now is just that tell you they are (or may be) doing that and you are aware. Everyone has been photographed at border crossing. Face recogition software these days can dig you out from whatever anonymous (as this one) Forum they want.

Of course, sporting a new tatoo or being a breeder of pitbulls won't stop visa extension but something else might.

In the UK only the person can get their Full Criminal Conviction Police Report, there are more crimes than pedos! This the person takes to their employers or Immigration. The only way to get a full report.

A lot of good that does

[MrWorldwide]

The obsession with pedophiles is distracting - I'm more concerned with people who have a history of violent crime. I acknowledge that the rape of a child falls into that category, but I've met several Poms who freely admit to having seriously hurt people over the crest on their t-shirt : are these the folk you want to be competing with for space on the footpath each day ? Nice enough blokes over a beer but God help me if I was silly enough to walk around with a Man U shirt on ......... fortunately they couldnt give a toss about Rugby of any persuasion. Paranoid ? Maybe, but thus far it's worked to my advantage.

[animatic]

Baby shot in the head,

granny with a drugs conviction shot in both hands and both legs,

and they are worried about vacationing people applying for visa extentions legally.

Clean up your own house before waving the red flag at all others.

How can you be certain that the baby shooter and granny weren't foreigners?

Well the thai name was a hint.

[Time Traveller]

Very few countries in the world (maybe could count on one hand) that require criminal background check for temporary visitors. In thailand half of the security CCTV cameras don't even work. Many laws are not even enforced. Why would this be of great importance all of a sudden?

It's not realistic that immigration for a 3rd world nation would spend so much time and money doing criminal background checks on temporary residents. It simply ain't happening.

However, it may happen in the future that a recent criminal background check from your own country and that you provide for them may be one of the required documents to get your extension of stay. We do know that every year they want extra documents at our expense

Edited September 12, 2014 by Time Traveller

[ParadiseLost]

I will happily sign such a form. I suspect the beach-bum pothead scumbags might run for Cambodia .... Good riddance!

So the money laundering drug dealers and mafia types staying in the 5 star resorts and private villa's are your preference then...

[ParadiseLost]

So are they doing these checks on the millions of migrant workers coming over the border? lol

Apparently they are responsible for all the crime in Thailand so maybe their own countries want that info from RTP?

[limbos]

Here's the text on the form, text is provided both in Thai and English language, I will only copy English text;

Consent to Disclosure of Information

Place of writing

Date, month, year

To; Commander of Immigration Division 6

I, name address etc, hereby authorize the Immigration Division 6 to disclose following criminal record information to be used for the purpose of an approval of extension of temporary stay in the Kingdom. If any contents, however, be found untruthful, the Immigration Division 6 shall have a full right to legally proceed against me in court and my permission of staying in the Kingdom will be revoked.

1. Are you currently having any criminal or civil cases pending in the Thai Court or the Court of jurisdiction outside Thailand?

No

Yes, number of cases, please clarify

2. Have you been imprisoned by the judgement of the Thai Court; or by a lawful injunction; or by the judgement of the Court of jurisdiction outside of Thailand, except when the penalty is for petty offense or negligence or is provided for as an exception in the Thai Ministerial Regulations?

No

Yes, number of cases, please clarify

I confirm that all information above are truthful

Signature

Name of Applicant

Edited September 12, 2014 by limbos

[craigp]

Here's the text on the form, text is provided both in Thai and English language, I will only copy English text;

Consent to Disclosure of Information

Place of writing

Date, month, year

To; Commander of Immigration Division 6

I, name address etc, hereby authorize the Immigration Division 6 to disclose following criminal record information to be used for the purpose of an approval of extension of temporary stay in the Kingdom. If any contents, however, be found untruthful, the Immigration Division 6 shall have a full right to legally proceed against me in court and my permission of staying in the Kingdom will be revoked.

1. Are you currently having any criminal or civil cases pending in the Thai Court or the Court of jurisdiction outside Thailand?

No

Yes, number of cases, please clarify

2. Have you been imprisoned by the judgement of the Thai Court; or by a lawful injunction; or by the judgement of the Court of jurisdiction outside of Thailand, except when the penalty is for petty offense or negligence or is provided for as an exception in the Thai Ministerial Regulations?

No

Yes, number of cases, please clarify

I confirm that all information above are truthful

Signature

Name of Applicant

So I've got absolutely nothing to worry about regarding any petty crime I may have be involved in as an adolescent. Good!

[waynethor]

Interesting and not surprising either.

If this is the new policy, at least it is much more REASONABLE than demanding that we supply our own police reports from home countries after we have lived HERE for several years!

Personally, I have no problem signing that form.

Some people will.

But you can't blame Thai officials for wanting to screen people this way. That seems normal for any country.

OP ... WHICH office was this?

It will be interesting to see whether this is a glitch or the beginning of a new national policy.

I have no objection to the Immigration Police doing criminal checks, and they should, but I'd never sign a form that I couldn't read. The OP said it was almost all Thai with a bit of English and I can't read more than a few words of Thai. I think signing anything for Thai officials that someone can't read is too chancy.

I assume you can read Thai and that's why you wouldn't have a problem.

But if they ask for your bank information, then definitely don't sign it. 555

[ubonjoe]

Since the consent form is addressed to "Commander of Immigration Division 6" that tells me that this is only being done in the south. Division 6 is responsible for the southern region of the country.

[Jingthing]

Interesting and not surprising either.

If this is the new policy, at least it is much more REASONABLE than demanding that we supply our own police reports from home countries after we have lived HERE for several years!

Personally, I have no problem signing that form.

Some people will.

But you can't blame Thai officials for wanting to screen people this way. That seems normal for any country.

OP ... WHICH office was this?

It will be interesting to see whether this is a glitch or the beginning of a new national policy.

I have no objection to the Immigration Police doing criminal checks, and they should, but I'd never sign a form that I couldn't read. The OP said it was almost all Thai with a bit of English and I can't read more than a few words of Thai. I think signing anything for Thai officials that someone can't read is too chancy.

I assume you can read Thai and that's why you wouldn't have a problem.

But if they ask for your bank information, then definitely don't sign it. 555

You took me too literally.

[watso63]

If it was something that could be provided at consular level, then fine, but it's not and neither is passport renewal for UK citizens which is farcical at the moment with an average 12 week processing period. Trying to juggle that alone isn't easy for many that travel between countries regularly, getting full page visa stamps, extensions of stay, re-entry permits, work permits etc. Surely, it would be easier in this "globalised and modern" world of ours for restrictions of travel to certain country's to be encoded in the microchip or stamped, annotated, written in the passport.

[kimamey]

It is about time they started checking, but should be done before they first the original visa. They will need a lot of luck checking in some of the worst countries that have criminals entering LOS, Nigeria, Kenya, Pakistan come to mind.

Always nice to see a bit of racism punctuate the day, huh?

It's not racism just a fact that the police and justice systems aren't the same everywhere. In this very country there's an acknowledged bias in favour of anyone with money or influence.

Having said that it's done for OA visas so I don't know why it isn't done for all of them.

[digitalchromakey]

Here's the text on the form, text is provided both in Thai and English language, I will only copy English text;

Consent to Disclosure of Information

Place of writing

Date, month, year

To; Commander of Immigration Division 6

I, name address etc, hereby authorize the Immigration Division 6 to disclose following criminal record information to be used for the purpose of an approval of extension of temporary stay in the Kingdom. If any contents, however, be found untruthful, the Immigration Division 6 shall have a full right to legally proceed against me in court and my permission of staying in the Kingdom will be revoked.

1. Are you currently having any criminal or civil cases pending in the Thai Court or the Court of jurisdiction outside Thailand?

No

Yes, number of cases, please clarify

2. Have you been imprisoned by the judgement of the Thai Court; or by a lawful injunction; or by the judgement of the Court of jurisdiction outside of Thailand, except when the penalty is for petty offense or negligence or is provided for as an exception in the Thai Ministerial Regulations?

No

Yes, number of cases, please clarify

I confirm that all information above are truthful

Signature

Name of Applicant

This is exactly what I was asked to sign in Phuket.

This is not a consent to a Thai criminal record check, it is a self declaration with a caveat about being untruthful.

[sandyf]

I was about 6 weeks to get my yellow book because of the police background checks, and that was about 5 years ago. I assumed it was standard procedure for yellow books, is it not the case?

Strikes me as natural progression, is it not a requirement for the OA visa?

[pjthefey]

I sincerely hope they don't start requiring federal CBCs from everyone seeking long term visas.

[Rant]

Korea is somewhat rabid when it comes to CBCs for English teachers, and having been through it once I can say that it is an enormous pain in the butt. Not only can it become expensive if for whatever reason you have to make multiple requests, but you have to wait 2-4 months just to get your results. No one at the FBI even looks at your documents for most of that time so if your finger print wasn't clear or the FBI database was inaccurate and you need to have it corrected, you can easily spend over half a year just waiting for your documents to get your visa.

In my case, 11 years ago I was wrongfully accused of assault, a judge dismissed the case in court, but the FBI never got the memo to remove the charge from my record. I was denied my Korean visa, had to go through the local state patrol for the state the charges were in to have them send the record update to the feds more than a decade later, and I ended up stuck in the states 8 months longer than anticipated and It cost me a fairly well paying job in Korea.

[/end rant]

Edited September 12, 2014 by pjthefey

[gk10002000]

The problem with things like this is the information security. How much personal information does the form ask for and how is it controlled. Name, age, birth date, even passport number are out there. But now add the USA Social Security number? now a person is at a lot of risk if this information gets in the wrong hands. Now a thief can start putting all the pieces together and with a call in to your bank, claiming to have forgotten the password or something, can now in many cases get access to your accounts, start transferring or withdrawing things, etc.

[Aceman80]

One problem with these supposed checks are that immigration/police forces/Thailand only have "few" treaties,other countries are safe,they cannot share confidential information.

[RecklessRon]

In the UK they have no authority to make criminal record checks except in very specific circumstances. You can't just do a criminal record check on anybody you please.

This a new one on me. Are you really suggesting that individual police officers need to obtain explicit permission from senior officers or even the courts before they can routinely access their own computerised rogues' gallery database?

No but in most western countries individual police officers MUST be able to show a REASON why they did each and every check - if and when asked. They cannot just run someone's name for the fun of it (or for friends or money).

[jacky54]

The from is only asking about custodial sentences, not all criminal convictions.

[BigC]

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I have a different type of visa but there wasn't anything on my application. Sounds like a good idea though.

I see it as pointless. Only if one is one the run then yes the aurthorties should know but i doubt that if they are on the run then they shall admit to it.

As people have committed a crime and served their time then they have done their time and paid already.

Like one said in countries where there is not a national data base it shall be impossible to check. Plus in Thailand allot of people with criminal records have them wiped even for murder.

I know a Thai that got into England who did 6 years for murder.

So it is like th pot calling the kettle black.

Speaking of black i need a strong coffee. early doors for me. laters

[evadgib]

Here's the text on the form, text is provided both in Thai and English language, I will only copy English text;

Consent to Disclosure of Information

Place of writing

Date, month, year

To; Commander of Immigration Division 6

I, name address etc, hereby authorize the Immigration Division 6 to disclose following criminal record information to be used for the purpose of an approval of extension of temporary stay in the Kingdom. If any contents, however, be found untruthful, the Immigration Division 6 shall have a full right to legally proceed against me in court and my permission of staying in the Kingdom will be revoked.

1. Are you currently having any criminal or civil cases pending in the Thai Court or the Court of jurisdiction outside Thailand?

No

Yes, number of cases, please clarify

2. Have you been imprisoned by the judgement of the Thai Court; or by a lawful injunction; or by the judgement of the Court of jurisdiction outside of Thailand, except when the penalty is for petty offense or negligence or is provided for as an exception in the Thai Ministerial Regulations?

No

Yes, number of cases, please clarify

I confirm that all information above are truthful

Signature

Name of Applicant

Does anyone know if the form has a number and whether a download template is available?

Edited September 13, 2014 by evadgib

[PoorSucker]

Samui immigration asking for criminal record background checks on visa extension applications

Reports are coming in that new forms are being handed out at the immigration office in Samui to those who visit the office to renew/extend their visas and marriage extensions.

The forms are asking for details of any previous criminal convictions in the applicant’s home country and for details of any ongoing criminal proceedings.

The forms also ask for permission to conduct criminal background checks and state that those giving incorrect information will be prosecuted and may face jail time as well as having their visas revoked.

-- Samui Times 2014-09-11

[debrakfurlow]

I don't know who's FBI another poster used, but in every city there is at least 1 designated office by the FBI that has electronic fingerprint available and I got my report back in 5 days. First iv en heard of it taking 5 weeks. My whole retirement application with LA only took 15 days.

[BigC]

When they mean criminal back ground checks, that can be a very wide area. from people doing 7 days for not paying fines, to rape and murder, drug dealing and people not paying tv licences, people done for drink driving

people on suspended sentence but not custodial.

Loads of other crimes like ABH where people got 1 year probation instead of 1 year inside.

England is a bit of a funny place as they have laws where if you have a fine then you have something called time spent which means you only have a record for 5 years but they are supposed to wipe your file but they don't even with cautions. they keep on file for life.

[limbos]

Here's the text on the form, text is provided both in Thai and English language, I will only copy English text;

Consent to Disclosure of Information

Place of writing

Date, month, year

To; Commander of Immigration Division 6

I, name address etc, hereby authorize the Immigration Division 6 to disclose following criminal record information to be used for the purpose of an approval of extension of temporary stay in the Kingdom. If any contents, however, be found untruthful, the Immigration Division 6 shall have a full right to legally proceed against me in court and my permission of staying in the Kingdom will be revoked.

1. Are you currently having any criminal or civil cases pending in the Thai Court or the Court of jurisdiction outside Thailand?

No

Yes, number of cases, please clarify

2. Have you been imprisoned by the judgement of the Thai Court; or by a lawful injunction; or by the judgement of the Court of jurisdiction outside of Thailand, except when the penalty is for petty offense or negligence or is provided for as an exception in the Thai Ministerial Regulations?

No

Yes, number of cases, please clarify

I confirm that all information above are truthful

Signature

Name of Applicant

Does anyone know if the form has a number and whether a download template is available?

No number on the form, I got mine filled out and completed, from my accountant and just copied the English text. One of the first things I did was looking for a number on the form!

Edited September 13, 2014 by limbos

[RTH10260]

In the UK they have no authority to make criminal record checks except in very specific circumstances. You can't just do a criminal record check on anybody you please.

Peanuts. HR of many companies do just that day and night. Checking candidate's name against dabases of pedofiles (which are public), whatever else there is available to check, trawl social media. When applying for a job you give them your acknowledgement.

What could be new in Thai now is just that tell you they are (or may be) doing that and you are aware. Everyone has been photographed at border crossing. Face recogition software these days can dig you out from whatever anonymous (as this one) Forum they want.

Of course, sporting a new tatoo or being a breeder of pitbulls won't stop visa extension but something else might.

In the UK only the person can get their Full Criminal Conviction Police Report, there are more crimes than pedos! This the person takes to their employers or Immigration. The only way to get a full report.

I guess in most European countries with their privacy protection laws the Thai police will have no access even with this waiver. The police would need to prove that they themselves have a bonafide criminal investigation going on and require such background information for the case. To successfully retrieve foreign governmental information the Thai police would need to sendvtheir request thru diplomatic channels and the proper embassy to make the local request.