You must report to an Immigration office withiin 24 hours of arrival in Thailand!

[mlmcleod]

My wife went to Jomtien Immigration to have her Student Visa extended.  She did a Visa run for this on September 20, 2016.  She has an arrival card and Visa extension through December 19, 2016 from Nongkhai!  When she tried to have her Visa extended downstairs she was told to go to the office on the 2nd Floor with the owner of our rental condo.  She returned with the owner and everything was approved except there was one more officer that she had to see.  When she saw this officer she was told that she owed a 22,000 baht fine since she did not notify the Jomtien office of her arrival in September.  The fine is 200 baht per day according to the officer.

 

I have a few questions:

 

1. Is there a legal requirement to notify Jomtien Immigration within 24 hours of her arrival in Nongkhai?

2. or is this a shakedown?

 

No one I have contacted has ever done this reporting!  If this policy is legal and correct many, many ex-pats are at risk.

 

Please advise?

 

thanks,

Mikael

[ubonjoe]

From the immigration act.

Quote

Section 38 : The house – master , the owner or the possessor of the residence , or the hotel manager
where the alien , receiving permission to stay temporary in the Kingdom has stayed , must notify the
competent official of the Immigration Office located in the same area with that hours , dwelling place or
hotel, within 24 hours from the time of arrival of the alien concerned. If there is no Immigration Office
located in that area , the local police official for that area must be notified.

 

Section 77 : Whoever fails to comply with the provision of Section 38, shall be punished with a fine not
exceeding 2,000 Baht. If said person is a hotel manager, he shall be punished with a fine from 2,000 Baht
to 10,000 Baht.

They should of fined the homeowner since they were there. The max fine is 2000 baht and there is no dailey fine as you can see in section 77.

[Dipterocarp]

The fine for owners in Chiang Mai is 1600 Baht been going on for a few months.

No proplemm complying with the rules but I have owned a condo more than 8 years and I think it would have been sporting for

Immigration to give some prior given notice regarding enforcement of TM30. 1600 baht is fair as it is not more than 2000 but I would have preferred to

get a nice dinner with that. 

 

According to Jomtien officer  interpretation I should have been fleeced more than 584,000 Baht! Amazing how they come up with this stuff.

[elviajero]

It depends on what they are fining your wife for.

 

As UJ has advised the maximum fine for the Owner/House-master/Possessor not reporting that she is staying at their property (TM.30) is 2,000 baht, BUT there are laws that require foreigners to report arrival/changes of address.

Section 37 : An alien having received a temporary entry permit into the Kingdom must comply with the following :

2. Shall stay at the place as indicated to the competent official. Where there is proper reason that he cannot stay at the place as indicated to the competent official, he shall notify the competent official of the change in residence , within 24 hours from the time of removing to said place.

3. Shall notify the police official of the local police station where such alien resides, within twenty – four hours from the time of arrival. In the case of change in residence in which new residence is not located the same area with the former police stations , such alien must notify the police official of the police station for that area within twenty – four hours from the time of arrival.

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. 

 

If your wife is in breach of any of the above laws then she can be fined 5,000 baht plus 200 per day.

Section 76 : Any alien, alien, who fails to comply with the provisions of Section 37(2),(3),(4)or(5) shall be punished with a fine not exceeding 5,000 Baht and with and additional fine not exceeding 200 Baht for each day which passes until the law is complied with. 

 

They might be able to legally justify the fine, but the laws I've quoted don't, as a rule, get enforced.

 

[thetruth revealer]

Apparently sometimes they get enforced, unexpected and it seems to hit hard.

[wobalt]

What has section 37 to do with that, what the OP reported? She made a visa run, not moved the residence..

[alocacoc]

May be I don't get the point here. A quick summary of my history;

 

1. I don't know if my land lord or owner ever regsitered me. Probably not. The owner stays in Australia and the landlord the chaotic in person.

 

2. At the 1st. August 2016 I went to the Immigration Soi 5 to apply for a Exension of my METV. I had to fill a form with my address. As proof of my address I gave them a 3bb invoice. With that, they put a paper into my passport "Receipt of Notification". This slip contains my address

 

3. At the 12th September i applied for an SETV in Vientiane. On that Visa i got another 30 days extension at the same immigration. With my paperwork, i handed out again a 3bb invoice. I got told, It would be not necessary since I'm registered already and she pointed to the "Receipt of Notification" in my passport.

 

So, actually this is similar to the situation of the OP, apart from the outcome.

 

Today morning i arrived from Mukdahan after another Visa run. Must i do something? My address in Thailand hasn't changed and the "Receipt of Notification" is still in my passport.

 

Do i understand something wrong?

[ubonjoe]

33 minutes ago, elviajero said:

They might be able to legally justify the fine, but the laws I've quoted don't, as a rule, get enforced.

 

It would be over the top for them to use that section.

This is met by doing the TM6 on arrival.

 

Quote

2. Shall stay at the place as indicated to the competent official.

 

[steve187]

i think she did comply with sec 37, but did not comply with sec 38

[elviajero]

13 minutes ago, steve187 said:

i think she did comply with sec 37, but did not comply with sec 38

I'm 100% sure she didn't comply with 37.3. No one does.

[elviajero]

1 hour ago, ubonjoe said:

It would be over the top for them to use that section.

I agree.

 

I was simply pointing out that if they can somehow justify breach of section 37 the 200 baht fine could be charged. 

[wobalt]

I'm 100% sure she didn't comply with 37.3. No one does.

Have a look at the political situation Thailand in 2522 and before, then you might understand why many paragraphs are not enforced by today.
And something is missing from 37.:
The provision of ( 3 ) and ( 4 ) shall not apply to any cases under Section 34 by any conditions as prescribed by the Director General.
Section 34 : aliens entering into the kingdom for a temporary stay may enter for the below listed activities...10. Study or observation

[elviajero]

42 minutes ago, wobalt said:

Have a look at the political situation Thailand in 2522 and before, then you might understand why many paragraphs are not enforced by today.
And something is missing from 37.:
The provision of ( 3 ) and ( 4 ) shall not apply to any cases under Section 34 by any conditions as prescribed by the Director General.
Section 34 : aliens entering into the kingdom for a temporary stay may enter for the below listed activities...10. Study or observation

I'm aware of that. Are you aware of the conditions prescribed by the Director General that exclude cases under section 34 from complying with section 37. 3, 4? I'm sure you don't. 

 

Regardless. I'm simply pointing out to the OP that a 200 baht fine applies to breaches of Section 37. 2, 3, 4 and if immigration can justify using those laws then they can justify the fine.