Temporary stay in another province

[Felt 35]

I will stay 3 weeks in the province where my wife have started in a new job and live in a condo to see if I also could like to live there! Do I need to visit the immigration in that province to tell them I will be there for three weeks? I have informed the front management at the condo that "I`m there" and that I think its their duty to inform the Immigration but it seems they dont care because they already know my wife. What is the correct procedure in the above scenario? Btw, I hold a retirement visa.

 

Thanks

Felt

[BritTim]

Theoretically, there are all kinds of reporting requirements, some that tend to be enforced when you have contact with immigration, and some ridiculous regulations that are thankfully ignored. If you do not need to contact immigration for other reasons during that period, I would say do not worry about it. At worst, you will be faced with an affordable fine, but it is unlikely to come to that.

[Felt 35]

Thanks for the reply. I think I choose to ignore whatever requirements there eventually are or not. If I move here it will anyway not be before next year.  However I`m a bit surprized that the condo management (Well known condo chain in Thailand) where my wife live take the reporting system to Immigration so lightly when Immigration all over the country generally have increased their scrutiny of foreigners.

Edited September 1, 2016 by Felt 35

[Briggsy]

Perhaps this is because

 

a) It is a "well-known condo chain"

b ) they know immigration almost never come out to check records or inspect rooms.

c) the whole immigration address reporting compliance effort is based around matching up addresses, bits of paper and dates when a foreigner has a specific reason to go to an immigration office. They then take the opportunity to levy a fine and also are able to inform head office that they are enforcing compliance. Win-win (for them).

d) If the condo did aim to comply with the law, it may lead to fines (see c) above) and a considerable loss of staff time waiting around for immigration to deal with them.

e) there is no paper trail if the condo has been rented by your wife.

[Peterw42]

Hotels report to immigration. Condo management do not report to immigration. The owner or lease holder of the condo is responsible to report. 

[elviajero]

It is the condos responsibility to report you are staying there, not yours. The only report that 'technically' should be made by you is to the local police, but that is not enforced so you don't need to do anything.

[BritTim]

2 hours ago, elviajero said:

It is the condos responsibility to report you are staying there, not yours. The only report that 'technically' should be made by you is to the local police, but that is not enforced so you don't need to do anything.

 

My understanding (perhaps, incorrect) is that the responsibility is with the owner of the specific condo unit, not the condo management. In any case, the OP does not need to worry unless he later needs to deal with the wrong immigration office that believes the foreigner should pay any time the silly address reporting regulations are not adhered to by anyone.

[Peterw42]

14 hours ago, elviajero said:

It is the condos responsibility to report you are staying there, not yours. The only report that 'technically' should be made by you is to the local police, but that is not enforced so you don't need to do anything.

 

You are incorrect, the condo management are not responsible to report to immigration.  Some condo management do rentals, even though they are not supposed to. Even then they are not a hotel and are not the house master of the condo. The owner or lease holder is the house master and responsible to report.

Condo management collect fees and clean the swimming pool. Who is staying in a condo is nothing to do with them. The only time they may get involved us if someone is doing illigal short term rentals.

[silent]

9 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

 

You are incorrect, the condo management are not responsible to report to immigration.  Some condo management do rentals, even though they are not supposed to. Even then they are not a hotel and are not the house master of the condo. The owner or lease holder is the house master and responsible to report.

Condo management collect fees and clean the swimming pool. Who is staying in a condo is nothing to do with them. The only time they may get involved us if someone is doing illigal short term rentals.

Agree but like everything else "you don't always need to do" that if nothing ever comes from it, was a waste of time.

Example the same question I frequently live with my wife taking care of Grandchildren at her children's house in a different province. For quite some time, I didn't bother and didn't know for sure if even required by me as much as the home owner to notify there was an enemy lurking in the midst almost like I assume is the OP's question over all the sense it makes.

 

After occassional consequences in my home country from not bothering with stupid bureaucratic matters, it tends to be bothersome after awhile if I don't err on the side of caution in this country. Call me stupidly paranoid of the possibilities due my attitude problem towards stupid authoritarians with a chip on their shoulder and getting the luck of the draw with someone making the rules as they go along because of their own lack of knowlege. That we all know never happens here.

 

It took maybe 10 minutes to fill out the form after getting it across to the family what I thought I had to do, them sign, whatever it took to get to the local immigration and maye another 10 there Now I don't have to worry at all when they pull me over and want me to blow into their new little toy again after having to make a U turn and likely the only farang they've seen driving a red car in 5 minutes.

 

[performance]

If you do your silly and asking for problems. 3 weeks is nothing. Keep it quite and low key. 

[SteveSamui6262]

Simple.  Immigration advised me I only need to do my 90 day report of residents, regardless of any domestic travel.  Traveling away from your residents does not need to be reported.  If you decide to relocate, then report your new residents at your NEXT 90 day report interview, not before. 

[BritTim]

49 minutes ago, SteveSamui6262 said:

Simple.  Immigration advised me I only need to do my 90 day report of residents, regardless of any domestic travel.  Traveling away from your residents does not need to be reported.  If you decide to relocate, then report your new residents at your NEXT 90 day report interview, not before. 

 

That is the pragmatic enforcement practiced by many immigration offices. It is not actually the letter of the law. Believe it or not, a 24-hour stay at any new location is legally supposed to be reported, not only by the householder on the TM-30 form, but also separately by the traveler themselves. The latter report is, thankfully, never enforced unless you have seriously upset someone. On return to your normal place of abode, this ridiculous procedure is legally supposed to be repeated. As you say, immigration officials tend to be somewhat pragmatic even over the TM-30 forms.

[Briggsy]

5 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

 

You are incorrect, the condo management are not responsible to report to immigration.  Some condo management do rentals, even though they are not supposed to. Even then they are not a hotel and are not the house master of the condo. The owner or lease holder is the house master and responsible to report.

Condo management collect fees and clean the swimming pool. Who is staying in a condo is nothing to do with them. The only time they may get involved us if someone is doing illigal short term rentals.

You are assuming this is a block in which each individual room or unit can be bought and sold and has a title deed.

 

Many "condos" nowadays are not of the above type. They are simply apartment blocks with rooms for rent.

 

The OP has not stated which of the above 2 types of rented room his wife has rented. If the latter, you would be incorrect in your advice.

[BritTim]

1 hour ago, Briggsy said:

You are assuming this is a block in which each individual room or unit can be bought and sold and has a title deed.

 

Many "condos" nowadays are not of the above type. They are simply apartment blocks with rooms for rent.

 

The OP has not stated which of the above 2 types of rented room his wife has rented. If the latter, you would be incorrect in your advice.

 

You are correct that precision in cases like this matters. The advice for "condos" is correct. If, in fact, guidance was needed for an apartment building, then the rules are different. However, I have found that, usually, people know whether they are in an apartment or a condo (unlike the confusion where they do not know if they have a visa, visa exempt entry or extension of stay).

[dotpoom]

Myself and the Mrs go on driving holidays arount Thailand about 8-10 times a year...we have stayed in all sorts of acco,odation for up to 4 weeks at a time.
Never dreamed of going near an Immigration office.

[elviajero]

11 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

 

You are incorrect, the condo management are not responsible to report to immigration.  Some condo management do rentals, even though they are not supposed to. Even then they are not a hotel and are not the house master of the condo. The owner or lease holder is the house master and responsible to report.

Condo management collect fees and clean the swimming pool. Who is staying in a condo is nothing to do with them. The only time they may get involved us if someone is doing illigal short term rentals.

I didn't say it was the condo managements responsibility.

 

Neither the owner or lease holder are necessarily the house-master. The house-master is the person named in the Tabien Baan and isn't necessarily the owner. The leaseholder could be a house-master or possessor. The house-master, owner or possessor of the property can make the report.

 

The simple point I was making is that, based on the information given, it is not the responsibility of the OP to make the report. 

[thaibeachlovers]

On 2 กันยายน 2559 at 1:47 PM, BritTim said:

 

That is the pragmatic enforcement practiced by many immigration offices. It is not actually the letter of the law. Believe it or not, a 24-hour stay at any new location is legally supposed to be reported, not only by the householder on the TM-30 form, but also separately by the traveler themselves. The latter report is, thankfully, never enforced unless you have seriously upset someone. On return to your normal place of abode, this ridiculous procedure is legally supposed to be repeated. As you say, immigration officials tend to be somewhat pragmatic even over the TM-30 forms.

And WHAT number form is the one a farang is supposed to use to report to the police? Do tell.

In all my many, many years in LOS I have NEVER heard of such a requirement.

 

The only time it might be a problem would, IMO, be if one went for an extension and the owner of wherever one is staying had not reported such, IF the imm officer decided to be pedantic.

Even then, it would be the OWNER that gets fined, not the renter.

 

However, given the very small chance of such an eventuality when I do my extension, I shall be ensuring a TM30 is filed before I do such.

[chrisinth]

22 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

And WHAT number form is the one a farang is supposed to use to report to the police? Do tell.

In all my many, many years in LOS I have NEVER heard of such a requirement.

 

The only time it might be a problem would, IMO, be if one went for an extension and the owner of wherever one is staying had not reported such, IF the imm officer decided to be pedantic.

Even then, it would be the OWNER that gets fined, not the renter.

 

However, given the very small chance of such an eventuality when I do my extension, I shall be ensuring a TM30 is filed before I do such.

 

I think BritTim is referring to the TM28. I, like yourself, have been living here for a few years and have never used this system, also have no intention of starting to either. However, following the requirements of the form below is apparently meant to be done:

 

 

tm28.pdf

[elviajero]

28 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

And WHAT number form is the one a farang is supposed to use to report to the police? Do tell.

In all my many, many years in LOS I have NEVER heard of such a requirement.

 

 

The form is TM.28

 

Immigration Act. Section 37

4. If the alien travels to any province and will stay there longer than twenty – four hours , such alien must notify the police official of the police station for that area within forty – eight hours from the time of arrival. 

 

Fortunately this law is not currently, usually, enforced. Neither is the one that requires us to report to the police when first arriving at the address given on the arrival card.

[ubonjoe]

Nobody enforces the stay of over 24 hours in another province part of the form since it is basically unenforceable.

The only time immigration wants the TM28 is if you change addresses and then they don't enforce the 24 hours.

[phetphet]

I took a completed TM.30 to Samui Chaweng Police station to report myself as staying at my own house. I just wanted the receipt as proof of address.

 

The Superintendent refused to do it, even though I pointed out where it said "At Immigration or local police office". He just pointed at the bottom of the page where is said Immigration Officer under the signature line.

Would not budge, even though I said it would save me a long journey to Nathon.

 

So off I went to Samui Immigration... Please can I report with this TM.30 form?

 

First girl looked at it, then just laughed. Then they passed the form around a bit.

 

Then one said "Who are you reporting?" I said "Myself."  Her "Are you working?" Me, "No. I just want you to give me a receipt that I have reported."

Her, "Cannot"  Me, "Why not?" Her "You can only do online."

 

After that I just gave up.