Report from Interrogation Office....body odor worse than fine.....

[KhonKaenKowboy]

Even though my extension is almost three months away, and so is my next 90..I decided to take care of this TM30 Business,  As an owner occupant of a CM condo for three years; it had never before occurred to me to do it.  Got a Yellow Book two years ago, and always did my 90s..often online.  I flew into BKK from the US last week, and the next day I mailed in a TM30 that they received the next day.  I kept copies of everything I sent.  No receipt today (reports state they won't send)...so I get to Interrogation Room 3 at 13:20.  The main building was pretty tame, but it did have notices on the exterior stating TM30 receipt would be required for visa extension.  A mix of people sitting in front of building 3, perhaps, waiting on their landlords.  The room is about 1/10th the size of the other waiting area.  Greeted by a lady at the desk.  I tell her I was there to confess.  She asked for my passport, which I gave her, and I told her I mailed in the papers the week before.  She gives the passport to a guy on a computer...goes back...then starts asking me for documents like yellow book/passport page.  I had all that.  She hands me a blank TM30, and I showed her my copies, and showed her my registered mail receipt.  She tells me I must be fined because my yellowbook was from last year...didn't matter that I had very recently re-entered.  She took all the copies, unsigned, and went back tot he computer, and perhaps they found them, but I still had to pay 1600 THB...got a receipt, and the bottom part of the original I had mailed them.  I asked if I needed to come back after trips to BKK or Chiang Rai..he said "only after leave the country and come back."  About three fourths of the clients were Thai...they were coughing up the 1600, too.  And a few frantic farangs, who were told that they were not authorized to file the form......very bad news for them, if their 90 was due or extension due in the next day.  Was out of there in about 12 minutes, total.

 

Do I feel like I was extorted?  Yes.  Does my government do worse <deleted>?  All the time.  Is there anything I can do about it?  Just vote with my wallet, and realize that there is absolutely no one here who is the voice of the expats when dealing with 11th hour surprises like this....and we have virtually no leverage as a group when addressing such matters.  At least I didn't give 2000 THB to the Bozos at the Consulate.  Time for a Heineken...a cold one form the LG, of course.

Edited October 11, 2016 by KhonKaenKowboy

[NancyL]

The fine was justified because you should have filed when you moved into the condo.  

 

What would giving 2000 baht to the U.S. Consulate have done to help in this situation?  They can issue  a document that serves the same purpose as a Certificates of Residency, but not a document that replaces a TM30.

 

What could a "voice of the expats" do to help people faced with 11th hour surprises like this?  The CEC e-newsletter, the blog Don's Life in Thailand, this ThaiVisa.com forum, the Chiangmai Christian Community Classified's excellent resource, websites of some of the visa agents, etc, etc have all drawn attention to the need to have a current TM30 AND receipt when you go to apply for a one-year visa extension.   

 

And finally, who had the body odor in the office? 

[CMBob]

2 minutes ago, NancyL said:

 And finally, who had the body odor in the office? 

 

Wasn't me....heck, I showered this past weekend at least once I think....

 

It might be helpful to note that the OP was at the old Immigration office at the airport and that he took care of this TM30 business at the back building (not the main Immigration building immediately west of the parking lot).  Also, it might be helpful to note that after the original TM30 is filed, all you need to bring to the same office after you've re-entered the country is your passport with your original TM30 Receipt of Notification.....and the Immigration dude/gal will check it out on the computer and then plop another circular stamp on the same TM30 Receipt of Notification.  And, finally, although the law says you must do it within 24 hours, they've told me "within 7 days of re-entry" twice and I lately (September) got my new stamp 5 days after I re-entered without any problem at all.

[KhonKaenKowboy]

Attention was drawn, when it was already too late, without any grace period, with total redundancy of information provided to them countless times.  And it was likely one of your "club" members stinking up the entire office.  The girl at the desk made one of those funny Thai lady noises, when he approached thee desk, kind of  in between an uuuugh  and a eeeeeeww.  

 

I would agree that foreigners living in houses they bought their gf, are a lot more likely to have been in compliance with this, but, as stated, there were many Thais in there paying up (or off), so you really can't deny that this is 11th hour BS, let alone that this is the only province where they are doing it.  And you have the whole internet in front of you, Nancy, why don't you show us the first time you mentioned having your TMM30 in your passport.  And as recently as 2 hours ago, there still is discussion on when a reappearance is required.  

Edited October 11, 2016 by KhonKaenKowboy

[NancyL]

The ThaiVisa search function can be helpful.  It seems we were talking about TM30s almost a year ago.  I mentioned having the receipt in my passport on  November 26, 2015.  Maybe earlier, but can't be bothered to look any further.

 

Any while it does seem to be redundant and onerous, CM isn't the only province that's requiring it.  There were  recent reports of 4 foreigners being fined 4000 baht each for not living at the address listed on their TM30 in Pattaya.

 

 

[Thailand]

The simple difference between having a TM30 in your passport a few months ago and now is that there is now an enforced requirement to have  the TM30 in your passport to renew extensions of stay etc and quite possibly when submitting 90 day reports. 

 

A significant change.

[Dipterocarp]

I'm a Condo owner filed TM30 on On Oct 3. My question to IO was was if I go to BKK for one night do I have to file again. "YES", within 24 hours, "next time show receipt no fine."

[Thailand]

Certainly looks like implanted chips or ankle bracelets would be easier to monitor, oops, forgeting about IT capabilities here, scrub that suggestion.

 

But I guess the same applies with immigration keeping up with TM30,TM28, TM whatever. Based on other IT failures it would be surprising if they had any system that can cross monitor the multitude of different forms at this moment in time?

[KhonKaenKowboy]

3 hours ago, Dipterocarp said:

I'm a Condo owner filed TM30 on On Oct 3. My question to IO was was if I go to BKK for one night do I have to file again. "YES", within 24 hours, "next time show receipt no fine."

I asked a similar question saying "Chiang Rai or Bangkok" and he said only when I re-enter the country...but then again, it was a whole week later...I can't see them matching it up with hundreds of thousands of hotel rooms reporting daily.  They are about a half step beyond MS_DOS and amber monochrome monitors in there.