Just wonder about this, and this forumpart looks the best for it, as its mainly visa-related:

Assume you go to Thailand every year and make some kind of visa. All the times the very same things must be supplied: the forms with the very same info repeated all the times, 2 passportfoto's, flight details, for some also financial statements.

In 5 years that would mean 10-exactly the same for me, foto's etc. I simply assume they are kept safely-all those financials would look promising for burglars- but does anyone know for how long they keep all that? And DO they actually anything with it-except collecting? (of course in a real case of emergency they would have access to it for further details).

Not sure about now but in the past such paperwork sometimes served a second life as paper bags for snacks sold on the street. But you do have the alternative to stay at home and avoid such paper trail. I suspect the easy path of social media is a lot easier for those looking for fast money however.

At immigration offices, I have found others' paperwork on the back of forms I have filled out - recycled paper. Scary, actually. Before I throw away old copies of passports, visas, etc in my files, I obliterate anything "useful" to an identity-counterfitter before it hits the trash. I wish they would, too.

I have always wondered myself where all that paperwork goes. The consulate office in Penang and etc are very small.

The best you can do is block out any overly sensetive data, like part of the account # on a bank statement. But everything else must be legible. They should shred or burn the paperwork once it has been held for [x weeks or months].

Even local immigration office. It's a lot of paperwork, whether a western foreigner or (to a lesser degree) a regional foreigner like Cambodian, Myanmar, etc.

Edited December 10, 201510 yr by 4evermaat

Actually I was thinking of homebase, Amsterdam, where there are not recycled paperbags on the street, where papershredders are easy and cheap to get, and anyone assumes that such private paprs are kept in reasonable safety.

Still this system remains based on usual practice of the 50/60ies of last century and misses all new developments.