Swedish Tourist Applies For Visa, Arrested For Not Carrying Passport

[Sophon]

as you need your ID card in your country, even if your driving licence is valid too

Depends on where you come from. I don't need to carry a ID card in my home country, in fact there is no such thing as a national ID card here.

Sophon

[Vespa]

as you need your ID card in your country, even if your driving licence is valid too

Depends on where you come from. I don't need to carry a ID card in my home country, in fact there is no such thing as a national ID card here.

Sophon

In USA , as an adult you must have a vaild ID with you at all times to be able to prove your identity .

Some states can also arrest you for vagrancy if you have less than $3. with you !

In Thailand you must have your passport with you - in the course of 10 years I have only ever been stopped once.

[sriracha john]

as you need your ID card in your country, even if your driving licence is valid too

Depends on where you come from. I don't need to carry a ID card in my home country, in fact there is no such thing as a national ID card here.

Sophon

In USA , as an adult you must have a vaild ID with you at all times to be able to prove your identity .

Since when? Is this some recent Homeland Security/Patriot Act nonsense?? If not, that is is a bogus statement.

Some states can also arrest you for vagrancy if you have less than $3. with you !

...and this 1862 (or whenever) law is applied just how often? There's also some states that can arrest you if walk down the street with a pig on Sunday afternoons... but, if you are so inclined to do that activity, do they actually implement and enforce the law?

In Thailand you must have your passport with you - in the course of 10 years I have only ever been stopped once.

... as with many things here, your mileage may vary.

Edited December 19, 2006 by sriracha john

[Scott]

In the US--you do not have to carry an ID and if you do have an ID you do not have to show it to a police officer unless he tells you why. There is no national ID card and most people have only a driver's license. If you don't have a driver's license you probably don't have an ID card. You are, in spite of what it may seem, not guilty of anything until proven so in a court!

Here in Thailand they can do a lot of things--and they do. Prior to the tourism campaign "Amazing Thailand" a lot of people were stopped and passports checked, bars were given urine tests etc. During the tourist campaign the police (as I understand it) were asked to back off a bit and they did, so there was a lull in the problems associated with police checks.

They will/do occasionally check residences as well. I lived in a large apartment building and the police came and checked the rooms of all the foreigners living in the place--and it was a lot. I worked for the embassy at the time and had an embassy ID card on file with the apartment manager and I was the only one not checked--Presumably because of the diplomatic immunity thing (although I wasn't high level enough to have immunity, they seem to not bother anyone with an embassy ID).

Most "searches" of rooms was done politely. People were asked to open the closet and a few drawers etc. A few people decided they didn't have to put up with that crap, and their rooms were absolutely demolished--mattress out of the room, everything in the refrigerator taken out, clothes taken out of all the drawers etc.

Those people who weren't home, were let in by the apartment manager. All the paper work on file was checked first. They spent about 6 to 8 hours in the building. Oh, and they weren't looking for anyone in particular. The following day, they were at another building down the road.

[brazil]

Totally agree. I have been stopped a couple of times by the "2 cops on a motorbike" in the very same area.

Don't know if they were the same guys but the procedure was as you describe.

yeah the area from emporioum to ekamai bus station is the juristiction of the thong lo police, so sounds like the same section of police stopped you as well as myself and many of my friends in that area.

[prighas]

About a month ago, I had to file a police report for missing documents. It was late night and the police in charge was happy to use my Thai driving license as means for identification.

[roblin]

I was refused to rent a motorbike, they wanted my passport, no copy. Showed me a bunch of passports in their box belonging to a bunch of tourist the police could arrest. Maybe motorbike-rentals should get a comission at the police station

[tc101]

What is the rule about photo copies of the passport? I always have one of those in my wallet.

[Tony Clifton]

I wonder if getting a photocopy stamped when renewing would somewhat shut them up?

[Sunny Valentine]

Simple answer here - never leave your passport with anyone for any reason, read it, copy it, touch it but that's all. You wouldn't hand over your ATM card so why hand over your passport since that is arguably more valuable!

Well, to follow your advice here 100% would mean you're looking for trouble.

My O Visa extensions almost always required I leave my Passport at the Immigration Overnight. I did not get a personalized receipt, just a small piece of laminated Paper with a number.

What do you suggest here: "Sorry officer no can give you Passport for Visa!"?

There is more than one Thai law that is impossible to follow, as they are incongruent.

I have never had a problem at the few times I was checked, prsenting a copy. But I am aware that I break a stupid (and also not too often enforced) law here every day. And some times I am left with only the choice of which law I break? Overstay or not carry passport?

Sunny

[Tony Clifton]

Simple answer here - never leave your passport with anyone for any reason, read it, copy it, touch it but that's all. You wouldn't hand over your ATM card so why hand over your passport since that is arguably more valuable!

Well, to follow your advice here 100% would mean you're looking for trouble.

My O Visa extensions almost always required I leave my Passport at the Immigration Overnight. I did not get a personalized receipt, just a small piece of laminated Paper with a number.

What do you suggest here: "Sorry officer no can give you Passport for Visa!"?

There is more than one Thai law that is impossible to follow, as they are incongruent.

I have never had a problem at the few times I was checked, prsenting a copy. But I am aware that I break a stupid (and also not too often enforced) law here every day. And some times I am left with only the choice of which law I break? Overstay or not carry passport?

Sunny

Another fine example mentioned here many times before. Renewing a driver's licence a few days before expiry, people have been told to come back once it has expired.

[robint]

hi guys

I can confirm that this scam does occur quite regularly along the Thong Lor area

FYI You must carry some reasonable form of identity at all times in a foreign country. Think of the scenario where you are alone and have an accident where you become incaqpacitated/unconscious etc. Noone will know who you are or where you live. You must carry the business card of your hotel/room number as a sensible precaution.

I always carry photocopies of passport, visa, driving license etc, wrapped in a cellophane CD cover to keep them dry.

It works for me.

Also have your mobile so you might call someone.

Once you get stuck inside a police station the costs mount up unless you can afford to be really stubborn about it and have the patience and tenacity. Its a well known shakedown

BTW another scam is right outside Emporium and along beside the Queens Park area. Dont smoke in that area or chew gum, or eat anything. The cops have been known to deliberately throw a cigarette butt behind a lone flang and stop you for littering. Automatic fine 2000 baht and its your word against theirs even if you have never smoked in your life. YES THIS REALLY HAPPENS

With these new super regs for tefl teachers, my guess is that it wont be long before these guys will be randomely questioned on the sky train. They stand out so obviously with their smart attire and obligatory black brief case - no way do they look like tourists.

[Rinrada]

Simple answer here - never leave your passport with anyone for any reason, read it, copy it, touch it but that's all. You wouldn't hand over your ATM card so why hand over your passport since that is arguably more valuable!

Well, to follow your advice here 100% would mean you're looking for trouble.

My O Visa extensions almost always required I leave my Passport at the Immigration Overnight. I did not get a personalized receipt, just a small piece of laminated Paper with a number.

What do you suggest here: "Sorry officer no can give you Passport for Visa!"?

There is more than one Thai law that is impossible to follow, as they are incongruent.

I have never had a problem at the few times I was checked, prsenting a copy. But I am aware that I break a stupid (and also not too often enforced) law here every day. And some times I am left with only the choice of which law I break? Overstay or not carry passport?

Sunny

In this case you are dealing with (dont laff ) an OFFICIAL Government representative and even your little bit of paper with the number on it says that the Royal Thai Gov have your PP in their safe possession and are processing it in accordance with the Immigration Laws of the country etc and in receipt of said bit of paper ( a chit) you are complying with said regulations....officially.....

Common sense dictates that you have a copy of it stashed away just in case you have to call YOUR Embassy and inform YOUR Gov representativee that the Royal T Gov have lost ,mislaid or stolen their ( its not yours) "request" to allow you rite of passage sanctioned doc..etc.....and they will get you a NEW one.....

However as an earlier poster wrote ref hiring a car /motor bike ....

NEVER..NEVER..EVER give the most valuable bit of cardboard that you have in your possession to some little back street grubby fornicator who is trying to rent you anything....YE GODS WOT would YOU/Anybody be THINKING of..........

give away your virginity first ..thats less valuable.....

[jbsears]

Two years ago the same thing happened to me on Thonglor. I was waiting to get a taxi at night on Christmas and two cops came up on their motorcycle. They patted my pants and checked my wallet. Luckily, I had a photocopy of my passport so they let me be. I was also stopped another time on Ekkamai entering my soi in a taxi. The police were stopping every car entering the soi and checking i.d.'s. This time I had my student id which stated that my passport was kept at the university's international relations office.

Think they are just trying to get some extra money for New Year presents.

[sriracha john]

some little back street grubby fornicator

give away your virginity first ..thats less valuable.....

[nikster]

Tourist applies for visa, arrested for not carrying passport

At a routine check for identification the tourist was arrested while walking with two Thai friends near Thonglor BTS sky-train station, Sukhhumvit road. Not having a passport he was arrested, despite carrying a original Swedish driver's licence and explaining the situation to the police.

During my 14 or so years in Thailand I have never carried so much as a photocopy of my passport and I was never asked for ID by the police. As for these routine checks, I never saw nor heard of one being performed however I only rarely visitted Bangkok spending most of my time either around Pattaya area or Saraburi.

Are these routine checks a new thing requiring me to carry passport ID during my impending return to LOS for a short visit? Alternatively will my Malaysian expatriate identification card, carrying both photo and passport number, suffice or are the police checking visas?

Sounds a bit like a scam to me. Thai travel agency staff member has a cop friend / relative waiting outside for the hapless schmuck who has just handed over his passport to selectively enact another one of the myriad of outdated-but-lucrative laws of LOS. Do I sound cynical?

While not impossible, it does sound a bit far-fetched. Paranoid, some might say. I mean, really, you could pick any random farang, no one has their passport with them.

Much more likely this police officer just had a bad day and/or the farang talked back too loudly or forgot to smile... we don't know what's happened but I think we all agree that this doesn't happen often.

I remember when I got caught speeding I showed the police my U.S. driving license, nothing else. Good enough for them, 200 baht and a smile and I was on my way (with receipt). And the Thai gf got some friendly advice for the road ahead - more speed control check points, but if we get caught again just show the receipt

Edited December 19, 2006 by nikster

[Tony Clifton]

I remember when I got caught speeding I showed the police my U.S. driving license, nothing else. Good enough for them, 200 baht

200 baht IS something else.

Worth no more than scumbag mafia members extorting money as they please. What an insult, and they call themselves ROYAL Thai Police officers.

The upcoming overhaul of this police force should also include the help of the public in getting rid of these roaches.

Edited December 19, 2006 by Tony Clifton

[bkkmadness]

I've been stopped and searched a few times, never had a problem with the photocopy of the passport. I usually throw in some comment about 'The immigration officer at Suan Pau (spel?) told me this was fine to use as ID." just to stop them from trying to kick up a fuss.

[Scott]

There are different branches of the police. The traffic police are a whole different cup of tea than the immigration division. Different divisions are going to be looking for different things and are going to be willing to accept different things as identification. The traffic police have never cared what I showed them--before I had a Thai driver's license, they would settle for almost anything--as long as there was payment on the spot.

Immigration police may be willing to not detain you with only a driver's license, but that will usually only give you enough leeway to go and get the proper documents--they know that you are probably legally here with a driver's license. This also depends on if it's a random check, a check of an apartment building or some other place where they can or can't track you.