Foreigners' 'TM6' immigration form necessary for security: Nattorn

[tomacht8]

32 minutes ago, Trouble said:

What's the big problem?  They take only a few minutes to fill out. Too much complaining here about something so insignificant.

you're right. But why at all fill a predominantly useless card with handwriten data, while they taking the most important data from the passports digital anyway. Even if the additional handling of this TM6 card only causes 5 seconds per passenger, result this with 150.000 passengers per day in over 200 extra working hours for the Immigration staff daily.

No wonder then about long waiting times

 

Edited August 11, 2017 by tomacht8

[SABloke]

“For Thailand, the form is important as it is the tool for us to get and keep information about foreign visitors when they stay in Thailand,” he said.

 

You can write whatever you damn well please on the form regarding residence etc so I don't see how it helps - Thai officials seem to somehow think that criminals follow the rules regarding their "processes".

[eeyang wah]

14 minutes ago, tryasimight said:

The HOTEL MOTEL HOLIDAY INN phone number.

 I'd love to be there when being a smart arse backfires big time.

Me too. Just hope it's not me.

[eeyang wah]

4 minutes ago, SABloke said:

“For Thailand, the form is important as it is the tool for us to get and keep information about foreign visitors when they stay in Thailand,” he said.

 

You can write whatever you damn well please on the form regarding residence etc so I don't see how it helps - Thai officials seem to somehow think that criminals follow the rules regarding their "processes".

Hit the nail on the head. The people that all these checks are supposed to catch are the exact same people that will not be caught by these checks. 

But you know what they say: ya can't fix stupid. 

[gk10002000]

10 hours ago, Briggsy said:

I'll translate the commander's comments.

 

"TM6's are a massive money-spinner for persons connected with immigration senior management and any suggestion of their demise will be fought tooth and nail by me until an even bigger payer has been put into place to replace it."

And of course this gives Thai people jobs.

[DavisH]

I would have thought the TM form should just be for tourists getting visas on arrival. For other kinds of visas, immigration already has bags of information on us...that form has sat in my passport for years. If I don't depart, what information are they getting from me that immigration doesn't already have? It's nonsense. 

[Jim7777]

8 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

Corruption does not work well with computers that leave logs and traces that lead back to the persons responsible.



Paper with rubber stamps that anyone with access to is much better for letting bad guys in for a price.

Actually anytime you enter the country and clear immigration you're automatically already logged in the computer in their immigration database or whatever they call it.  Whenever you enter the country when they take your biometrics you're in the computer system. How do you think they keep track of people on non-o visa extensions?  How do think they keep track of 90 day reporting?  That's also how they would know if you were to remove any stamps from your passport because all your travel is in fact logged in their computers.  Including if you're just here as a tourist.  

 

All foreigners in Thailand are logged into their immigration database otherwise they'd have no way to track us.  For example if you're on a non-o visa or a non-o visa extension and fail to get your next extension on time and just stay here eventually you will be flagged in the computer by immigration as an overstay.  Then eventually the police will be coming to your house looking for you, and as long as you were honest about what your address is on your TM-6 and when doing your 90 day reports they're gonna know where you live.  Also when doing 90 day reporting you have to show your Tambien Baan or rather house papers I'm sure I probably spelled that wrong, but that is also logged in their computer when you report you can even see them logging it in to their computers.  

 

Even if you moved and failed to inform immigration or lied about your address if you were to be flagged in the immigration database as an overstay the cops are gonna be looking for you.  When they find you they're going to want to see your passport if you don't have it that's no problem all they have to do is run your finger prints through the system and they will identify you.  Remember when you entered the country they took your biometrics and stamped your passport so they will know who you are and what your status here is.  

 

All those computers at immigration offices and at the immigration desks at the airport aren't there just for decoration they do in fact log you into a database in their immigration system.  I've never done this before personally I always do my 90 day report in person but people can even report online somehow so obviously you are logged into an immigration database.  

 

Even if you are just here for 30 days without a visa, as a tourist which I did the first few times that I visited here when I was working in Tokyo before I retired from the military and then I retired here in Thailand on my marriage visa, or just on a 60 day tourist visa you are still logged into their immigration database.  When you entered the country and they took your biometrics you were in fact logged into their computer database.  

 

As far as why they still use the TM-6 form whenever you arrive or depart the country I don't know.  I assume it's probably so there's a paper trail in case they have computer problems or something I don't know.  

 

I don't claim to be an expert on this stuff by any means but I do know what I'm talking about because I've been all over the world.  I've been to over 50 countries, and lots of other countries also use a very similar form which is an arrival/departure card which looks exactly like the TM-6 here in Thailand.  

 

I remember when I lived in Tokyo I used to have to travel back and fourth from Tokyo, Japan to Seoul, Korea on government business (TDY) constantly, usually like once a month for the 3 years that I was stationed there.  And whenever the plane was getting ready to land in either Korea or Japan they'd start passing out the arrival cards to all passengers which looks exactly like Thailand's TM-6.  When I was in military I never really thought much of it or took it seriously I would just kinda scribble in my home address in Tokyo or just write JW Marriott Hotel whenever I was going to Seoul, Korea.  Sometimes immigration in Japan and Korea would make me redo it or chew me out about it because back then I didn't realize how important the form was.  

 

I learned the hard way after I retired and began living here in Thailand as a civilian how important that little form is.  When I was in the military I used to tear them out of my passport.  After I retired from the military and began living here in Thailand as a civilian I learned the hard way that you NEVER remove the departure card from your passport.  Because the first time I ever went to an immigration office here in Thailand they were like "WHERE IS YOUR TM-6????"  They were about to send me to the police station to report it missing but luckily I didn't throw it away I still had it in my bag and I found it.  Then the immigration officer stapled it back into my passport and she told me very sternly but nicely and professionally at the same time to never remove that TM-6 from my passport ever again.  That's when I first realized how important that all my immigration paperwork is not just the TM-6 form.  

 

I had to learn the hard way because I was used to traveling on government business in the military for 21 years.  That's why I began traveling so much because I was military for 21 years.  And I learned the immigration systems all over the world just from traveling so much like most people do just by doing it.  

 

I was in the Army and I spent half of my career in the regular Army Special Forces.  I spent the entire last half of my career as an Operator in a classified Special Mission Unit based in the Washington, D.C. area, they are commonly referred to as SMUs.  In the SMU was when I began traveling commercially extremely often that's why I have so much travel experience and that's why I've been to over 50 countries.  Once I got a taste of traveling internationally and especially living in this part of the world I liked it so much that I never wanted to leave or stop seeing the world.  I don't like the term "Ex-Pat" because I still consider myself an extremely patriotic American.  I spent 21 years in the Army half my career in Special Forces and the last half of my career in a classified Special Mission Unit with 5 combat tours, 3 tours in Afghanistan, 1 tour in Iraq, and 1 short tour in Yemen.  So yeah I still most definitely love my country.  Plus my pension pays our bills so I've got absolutely no complaints.  

 

Ironically when I first joined the Army back in 1994 I was originally an office worker called a 71 Lima which is a Clerk Typist, but I got assigned to 3rd Special Forces Group on Fort Bragg, NC and made a lot of friends.  A Special Forces Master Sergeant who was my 1st Sergeant at the time took me under his wing and mentored me and he talked me into going through Special Forces Assessment and Selection known as the Selection Course (SFAS).  So I went but I didn't make it the first time because I got injured during the course IT IS HARD!  So I went back to work and my 1st Sergeant who was mentoring me worked with me and trained me and got me into the kind of physical shape required to pass their Selection Course.  He taught me all kinds of skills required to pass the course like Land Navigation and everything you need to know to pass Selection.  I was already in very good shape but to pass the course you have to be adapted to carrying A LOT OF WEIGHT!  And you have to be an expert at stuff like Land Navigation without a GPS with only a map, compass, and a protractor, and things like Small Unit Tactics lots of stuff.  My 1st Sergeant who was mentoring me taught me everything that I needed to know to pass SFAS and then I had to learn the rest on my own and from the instructors.  

 

So I went back to the Special Forces Selection Course and I made it the second time I went through and got selected and went through the whole course the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC) and that took over a year but I eventually graduated and got assigned back to 3rd Special Forces Group on Fort Bragg as an 18 Bravo which is a Special Forces Weapons Sergeant.  

 

It was harder for me to get into Special Forces because I was never an Infantryman I started out as a paper pusher.  I never went through Ranger School either just Airborne School but everyone in Special Forces is required to be Airborne Qualified.  

 

Sadly my mentor my old 1st Sergeant died before I graduated.  He was on a peace time mission in Senegal in West Africa and died of a heart attack running one morning back in 1998 before the war.  You should Google him his name was Master Sergeant David K. Thuma.  He was a VERY GOOD MAN, he was like a father to me.  

 

After 9-11 we were in Afghanistan by October 2001 for our first tour.  After my 3rd tour in Afghanistan in 2003 was when I got recruited into the Special Mission Unit based in the Washington, D.C. area.  So I went through their Selection Course and I made it then I went through their Operator Training Course (OTC) and passed it after over a year of training all over the states but most of it was in Virginia.  Regular Army Special Forces training is all on Camp MacKall, NC and on Fort Bragg, NC.  Special Mission Units are separate from regular Army Special Forces.  

 

When I first got assigned to the Special Mission Unit we lived in the Washington, D.C. Baltimore area for the first 5 years and that's when I began doing some serious traveling all over the world.  I traveled more with the SMU than I did in regular Special Forces, mostly on my own.  

 

In 2008 through 2009 I did my first tour to Iraq with the Special Mission Unit which was my 5th combat tour.  In the SMU we wore civilian clothes only.  After I got that job I never wore a military uniform ever again.  Obviously I can't write about the details of that unit because they are classified and I don't want to go to prison lol.  

 

After I got back to DC from Iraq they assigned me to their Tokyo Field Office in Japan only a few months after I got back.  That's when I started traveling all over Asia.  I met my wife in the states 24 years ago and she just happens to be a Thai citizen and a United States Permanent Resident.  So whenever I took leave when I worked in Japan we visited her family here in Thailand that's when I originally decided that I wanted to retire here after seeing the cheap cost of living here.  On my pension we live like royalty here.  

 

Before I got assigned to Tokyo my wife was about to become a United States citizen we had the paperwork filled out and ready to submit.  BOY AM I GLAD THAT SHE KEPT HER THAI CITIZENSHIP!  We never completed the process of getting her U.S. Citizenship so now I'm able to live here legally on my non-o visa for as long as I want which will probably be for the rest of our lives.  And since she's also a United States Permanent Resident we can both fly back home to the states and visit home anytime we want.  So we get to have it both ways 

 

When I was stationed in Tokyo I didn't just go from Japan to Korea all the time I used to have to travel all over this part of the world (Asia) I even spent a week in China once.  Anyway now that I've gone and told you my life story pretty much every country I've ever traveled to via commercial air makes you fill out an arrival and departure card especially in this part of the world I know Japan and Korea does it to.  

 

I'm not saying there's no corruption there's corruption all over the world including in the United States.  Although the TM-6 form is not just a piece of paper with a rubber stamp as you stated whenever you enter and depart the country it is always logged into their immigration computers and into a database that they do in fact keep on all foreigners living here and visiting here.  Nowadays everything is online including here in Thailand.  

 

I don't mean to sound condescending I'm just saying that's how it works.  They most definitely use computers and they do have logs and traces of everything here.  As far as why they still use the TM-6 form I don't know that's just their procedure I'm guessing that they want to keep a paper trail as well as an electronic trail in case of a computer glitch or something.  

 

Pretty much every country I've ever traveled to makes you fill out an arrival card just as the plane is landing and at land border crossings as well.  Countries in the Middle East use arrival cards as well at the airport immigration and at land border crossings as well as they do in this part of the world.  

[Thian]

10 hours ago, Fairynuff said:

Utter nonsense.  No forms used for Cambodia Malaysia and Vietnam. The latter 2 have visa exemption and apparently don't have security concerns 

Is no nonsense sir, it's the first and best chance to ask "how much is your yearly income? " and the government wants to be the first.

[blackcab]

11 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

Corruption does not work well with computers that leave logs and traces that lead back to the persons responsible.



Paper with rubber stamps that anyone with access to is much better for letting bad guys in for a price.

 

Interesting you say that. Every immigration stamp used to stamp a person in or out of Thailand is unique and registered to an individual immigration officer.

 

Look at the edge of the stamp and you will see a continuous line of numbers and/or letters, such as "RW50" or "S1253" in the attached photo.

 

When an immigration officer leaves their desk they take the stamp with them. At the end if their shift their stamp is securely locked away.

 

Lots of countries do the same thing.

[andres]

In autonomous countries need to keep an eye on everything to do within its boundaries

 

[Jim7777]

41 minutes ago, Thian said:

Is no nonsense sir, it's the first and best chance to ask "how much is your yearly income? " and the government wants to be the first.

I've never been to Vietnam so I don't know about them but Cambodia sure does require them.  I've been to Cambodia multiple times. I haven't been to Malaysia since 2010.  

[Jim7777]

39 minutes ago, blackcab said:

 

Interesting you say that. Every immigration stamp used to stamp a person in or out of Thailand is unique and registered to an individual immigration officer.

 

Look at the edge of the stamp and you will see a continuous line of numbers and/or letters, such as "RW50" or "S1253" in the attached photo.

 

When an immigration officer leaves their desk they take the stamp with them. At the end if their shift their stamp is securely locked away.

 

Lots of countries do the same thing.

Looks like my passport lol a mess of ink.  

[Jim7777]

1 hour ago, SABloke said:

“For Thailand, the form is important as it is the tool for us to get and keep information about foreign visitors when they stay in Thailand,” he said.

 

You can write whatever you damn well please on the form regarding residence etc so I don't see how it helps - Thai officials seem to somehow think that criminals follow the rules regarding their "processes".

True but if you write whatever you damn well please on the form you better hope that you don't get caught.  Sometimes the police do check houses and apartments where foreigners are known to be living.  I see the cops on my street once in awhile checking.  

[Jim7777]

46 minutes ago, blackcab said:

 

Interesting you say that. Every immigration stamp used to stamp a person in or out of Thailand is unique and registered to an individual immigration officer.

 

Look at the edge of the stamp and you will see a continuous line of numbers and/or letters, such as "RW50" or "S1253" in the attached photo.

 

When an immigration officer leaves their desk they take the stamp with them. At the end if their shift their stamp is securely locked away.

 

Lots of countries do the same thing.

Yep there's that to I forgot about that one.  

[Jim7777]

11 hours ago, Fairynuff said:

Utter nonsense.  No forms used for Cambodia Malaysia and Vietnam. The latter 2 have visa exemption and apparently don't have security concerns 

I've never been to Vietnam so I don't know about them but Cambodia sure does require them.  I've been to Cambodia multiple times. I haven't been to Malaysia since 2010 so maybe they stopped requiring them I don't know.  Then again I haven't been to Cambodia since 2015 so I guess they might have stopped requiring them I don't know.  I do know that the last times I was in Cambodia and Malaysia they most definitely did require them.  

[SABloke]

Just now, Jim7777 said:

True but if you write whatever you damn well please on the form you better hope that you don't get caught.  Sometimes the police do check houses and apartments where foreigners are known to be living.  I see the cops on my street once in awhile checking.  

The TM.6 only asks for your first place of residence (it could be the airport hotel) - since every hotel should be registering you into the immigration database anyway, wasting time processing the form seems useless to me. Long term residents have 90 days, TM28s, TM30s etc being processed and only the latter 2 might be checked and so then why should these people need to fill in the TM.6

[Jim7777]

1 minute ago, SABloke said:

The TM.6 only asks for your first place of residence (it could be the airport hotel) - since every hotel should be registering you into the immigration database anyway, wasting time processing the form seems useless to me. Long term residents have 90 days, TM28s, TM30s etc being processed and only the latter 2 might be checked and so then why should these people need to fill in the TM.6

I am actually a long stayer on a non-o and I report every 90 days and the required form is actually a TM-47.  One of the things I have to show them is my last TM-6 card and they want a copy of it.  Then again I've read that a lot of different immigration offices do ask for different things some of them aren't on the same page.  

[SABloke]

37 minutes ago, Jim7777 said:

I am actually a long stayer on a non-o and I report every 90 days and the required form is actually a TM-47.  One of the things I have to show them is my last TM-6 card and they want a copy of it.  Then again I've read that a lot of different immigration offices do ask for different things some of them aren't on the same page.  

The fact that any Tom, Dick or Harry can do the 90 day report (TM47) on your behalf with zero documentation to PROVE your current place of residence (disclaimer: statement applicable to Chaeng Wattaana), shows how little applicable value it has. My point was that if long term people are completing processes that have close to zero value then the TM.6 is worth about as much as a promise from Big P. 

Edited August 11, 2017 by SABloke

[Jim7777]

1 hour ago, SABloke said:

The fact that any Tom, Dick or Harry can do the 90 day report (TM47) on your behalf with zero documentation to PROVE your current place of residence (disclaimer: statement applicable to Chaeng Wattaana), shows how little applicable value it has. My point was that if long term people are completing processes that have close to zero value then the TM.6 is worth about as much as a promise from Big P. 

I honestly couldn't care less they can run their immigration system anyway they want and as long as it doesn't hurt us I don't care.  Personally I do my own 90 day reporting in person and I keep my extensions and all my paperwork in order so I don't have any problems and so I know I'm square with immigration.  At the end of the day all I care about is my wife and I and making sure that all of my immigration stuff is taken care of so we don't have any problems.  And so far so good everything's been just fine for the last 3 years of living here because I make sure that I'm following their laws very carefully.  I just do whatever it is that they ask and I don't question it or worry about whether or not it makes sense I just do it because I love living here and I don't want to mess up a good arrangement.  We have it really good over here and I wouldn't want to do anything to mess that up.  

[Jim7777]

1 hour ago, SABloke said:

The fact that any Tom, Dick or Harry can do the 90 day report (TM47) on your behalf with zero documentation to PROVE your current place of residence (disclaimer: statement applicable to Chaeng Wattaana), shows how little applicable value it has. My point was that if long term people are completing processes that have close to zero value then the TM.6 is worth about as much as a promise from Big P. 

Also who am I to question their rules, I'm a guest here in this country and I want to remain a welcomed guest for many years to come.  

[hawker9000]

15 hours ago, darksidedog said:

While the comment about people just turning up and the authorities wanting information is fair enough, they have no way of checking on the spot if the information being given is honest, so in itself there is a problem to address. More importantly though, many people coming here do have visas, which means the authorities already have those peoples information. Massive amounts of time and money could be saved if visa holders are exempt from the TM6 and would only be required for those arriving without a visa.

"which means the authorities already have those peoples information"

 

Technically true, but ignores the reality of government bureaucracy.  Visas are dispensed by the foreign ministry.   Immigration is an arm of the RTP and therefore doesn't have the information collected by the consulates when they issue visas.   What "massive amounts of time and money" could be saved by eliminating the TM6, anyway?   Airlines hand them out.  Passengers fill them out.  Eventually somebody probably just throws them out.  They just vanish down the rabbit hole.  They look like they're designed to be computer read, but I very much doubt that happens.   In a dire emergency, I guess the RTP could send somebody rooting through the haystack, but as seldom as that must happen, I doubt anything more than somebody's nap time is lost.

[retoohs]

don't see the problem, they hand the form out on the plane where I fill it in then I line up in the Thai only queue with my Thai partner and through in no time

[meatboy]

their database is a complete mess.

my departure card has been stapled in my passport since i arrived 2009,yet i have done all my 90day reports and my extensions the past 8yrs.yet i cant register on line to do my 90day report,WHY i am not in their DATABASE.

[Get Real]

20 hours ago, khwaibah said:

BULL SHYT. Thats what computers are for. Come out of the dark ages.

Yes it´s necessary. Don´t you really think that the T.M. 6 information is put into a computer? At the same time you have a piece of paper where the foreigner signed that it´s truthful.
Can´t be better. Nothing to discuss. The T.M. 6 is much needed and appreciated. If no have all the criminals that already base themselfs in Thailand would get it more simple to hide, and we don´t want that, do we? As for everyone that don´t do crimes or anything wrong it´s nothing to worry about and works more for your safety in the country.

Get things striaght before levaving totally bla, bla comments.

[wgdanson]

8 hours ago, Jim7777 said:

Actually anytime you enter the country and clear immigration you're automatically already logged in the computer in their immigration database or whatever they call it.  Whenever you enter the country when they take your biometrics you're in the computer system. How do you think they keep track of people on non-o visa extensions?  How do think they keep track of 90 day reporting?  That's also how they would know if you were to remove any stamps from your passport because all your travel is in fact logged in their computers.  Including if you're just here as a tourist.  

 

All foreigners in Thailand are logged into their immigration database otherwise they'd have no way to track us.  For example if you're on a non-o visa or a non-o visa extension and fail to get your next extension on time and just stay here eventually you will be flagged in the computer by immigration as an overstay.  Then eventually the police will be coming to your house looking for you, and as long as you were honest about what your address is on your TM-6 and when doing your 90 day reports they're gonna know where you live.  Also when doing 90 day reporting you have to show your Tambien Baan or rather house papers I'm sure I probably spelled that wrong, but that is also logged in their computer when you report you can even see them logging it in to their computers.  

 

Even if you moved and failed to inform immigration or lied about your address if you were to be flagged in the immigration database as an overstay the cops are gonna be looking for you.  When they find you they're going to want to see your passport if you don't have it that's no problem all they have to do is run your finger prints through the system and they will identify you.  Remember when you entered the country they took your biometrics and stamped your passport so they will know who you are and what your status here is.  

 

All those computers at immigration offices and at the immigration desks at the airport aren't there just for decoration they do in fact log you into a database in their immigration system.  I've never done this before personally I always do my 90 day report in person but people can even report online somehow so obviously you are logged into an immigration database.  

 

Even if you are just here for 30 days without a visa, as a tourist which I did the first few times that I visited here when I was working in Tokyo before I retired from the military and then I retired here in Thailand on my marriage visa, or just on a 60 day tourist visa you are still logged into their immigration database.  When you entered the country and they took your biometrics you were in fact logged into their computer database.  

 

As far as why they still use the TM-6 form whenever you arrive or depart the country I don't know.  I assume it's probably so there's a paper trail in case they have computer problems or something I don't know.  

 

I don't claim to be an expert on this stuff by any means but I do know what I'm talking about because I've been all over the world.  I've been to over 50 countries, and lots of other countries also use a very similar form which is an arrival/departure card which looks exactly like the TM-6 here in Thailand.  

 

I remember when I lived in Tokyo I used to have to travel back and fourth from Tokyo, Japan to Seoul, Korea on government business (TDY) constantly, usually like once a month for the 3 years that I was stationed there.  And whenever the plane was getting ready to land in either Korea or Japan they'd start passing out the arrival cards to all passengers which looks exactly like Thailand's TM-6.  When I was in military I never really thought much of it or took it seriously I would just kinda scribble in my home address in Tokyo or just write JW Marriott Hotel whenever I was going to Seoul, Korea.  Sometimes immigration in Japan and Korea would make me redo it or chew me out about it because back then I didn't realize how important the form was.  

 

I learned the hard way after I retired and began living here in Thailand as a civilian how important that little form is.  When I was in the military I used to tear them out of my passport.  After I retired from the military and began living here in Thailand as a civilian I learned the hard way that you NEVER remove the departure card from your passport.  Because the first time I ever went to an immigration office here in Thailand they were like "WHERE IS YOUR TM-6????"  They were about to send me to the police station to report it missing but luckily I didn't throw it away I still had it in my bag and I found it.  Then the immigration officer stapled it back into my passport and she told me very sternly but nicely and professionally at the same time to never remove that TM-6 from my passport ever again.  That's when I first realized how important that all my immigration paperwork is not just the TM-6 form.  

 

I had to learn the hard way because I was used to traveling on government business in the military for 21 years.  That's why I began traveling so much because I was military for 21 years.  And I learned the immigration systems all over the world just from traveling so much like most people do just by doing it.  

 

I was in the Army and I spent half of my career in the regular Army Special Forces.  I spent the entire last half of my career as an Operator in a classified Special Mission Unit based in the Washington, D.C. area, they are commonly referred to as SMUs.  In the SMU was when I began traveling commercially extremely often that's why I have so much travel experience and that's why I've been to over 50 countries.  Once I got a taste of traveling internationally and especially living in this part of the world I liked it so much that I never wanted to leave or stop seeing the world.  I don't like the term "Ex-Pat" because I still consider myself an extremely patriotic American.  I spent 21 years in the Army half my career in Special Forces and the last half of my career in a classified Special Mission Unit with 5 combat tours, 3 tours in Afghanistan, 1 tour in Iraq, and 1 short tour in Yemen.  So yeah I still most definitely love my country.  Plus my pension pays our bills so I've got absolutely no complaints.  

 

Ironically when I first joined the Army back in 1994 I was originally an office worker called a 71 Lima which is a Clerk Typist, but I got assigned to 3rd Special Forces Group on Fort Bragg, NC and made a lot of friends.  A Special Forces Master Sergeant who was my 1st Sergeant at the time took me under his wing and mentored me and he talked me into going through Special Forces Assessment and Selection known as the Selection Course (SFAS).  So I went but I didn't make it the first time because I got injured during the course IT IS HARD!  So I went back to work and my 1st Sergeant who was mentoring me worked with me and trained me and got me into the kind of physical shape required to pass their Selection Course.  He taught me all kinds of skills required to pass the course like Land Navigation and everything you need to know to pass Selection.  I was already in very good shape but to pass the course you have to be adapted to carrying A LOT OF WEIGHT!  And you have to be an expert at stuff like Land Navigation without a GPS with only a map, compass, and a protractor, and things like Small Unit Tactics lots of stuff.  My 1st Sergeant who was mentoring me taught me everything that I needed to know to pass SFAS and then I had to learn the rest on my own and from the instructors.  

 

So I went back to the Special Forces Selection Course and I made it the second time I went through and got selected and went through the whole course the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC) and that took over a year but I eventually graduated and got assigned back to 3rd Special Forces Group on Fort Bragg as an 18 Bravo which is a Special Forces Weapons Sergeant.  

 

It was harder for me to get into Special Forces because I was never an Infantryman I started out as a paper pusher.  I never went through Ranger School either just Airborne School but everyone in Special Forces is required to be Airborne Qualified.  

 

Sadly my mentor my old 1st Sergeant died before I graduated.  He was on a peace time mission in Senegal in West Africa and died of a heart attack running one morning back in 1998 before the war.  You should Google him his name was Master Sergeant David K. Thuma.  He was a VERY GOOD MAN, he was like a father to me.  

 

After 9-11 we were in Afghanistan by October 2001 for our first tour.  After my 3rd tour in Afghanistan in 2003 was when I got recruited into the Special Mission Unit based in the Washington, D.C. area.  So I went through their Selection Course and I made it then I went through their Operator Training Course (OTC) and passed it after over a year of training all over the states but most of it was in Virginia.  Regular Army Special Forces training is all on Camp MacKall, NC and on Fort Bragg, NC.  Special Mission Units are separate from regular Army Special Forces.  

 

When I first got assigned to the Special Mission Unit we lived in the Washington, D.C. Baltimore area for the first 5 years and that's when I began doing some serious traveling all over the world.  I traveled more with the SMU than I did in regular Special Forces, mostly on my own.  

 

In 2008 through 2009 I did my first tour to Iraq with the Special Mission Unit which was my 5th combat tour.  In the SMU we wore civilian clothes only.  After I got that job I never wore a military uniform ever again.  Obviously I can't write about the details of that unit because they are classified and I don't want to go to prison lol.  

 

After I got back to DC from Iraq they assigned me to their Tokyo Field Office in Japan only a few months after I got back.  That's when I started traveling all over Asia.  I met my wife in the states 24 years ago and she just happens to be a Thai citizen and a United States Permanent Resident.  So whenever I took leave when I worked in Japan we visited her family here in Thailand that's when I originally decided that I wanted to retire here after seeing the cheap cost of living here.  On my pension we live like royalty here.  

 

Before I got assigned to Tokyo my wife was about to become a United States citizen we had the paperwork filled out and ready to submit.  BOY AM I GLAD THAT SHE KEPT HER THAI CITIZENSHIP!  We never completed the process of getting her U.S. Citizenship so now I'm able to live here legally on my non-o visa for as long as I want which will probably be for the rest of our lives.  And since she's also a United States Permanent Resident we can both fly back home to the states and visit home anytime we want.  So we get to have it both ways 

 

When I was stationed in Tokyo I didn't just go from Japan to Korea all the time I used to have to travel all over this part of the world (Asia) I even spent a week in China once.  Anyway now that I've gone and told you my life story pretty much every country I've ever traveled to via commercial air makes you fill out an arrival and departure card especially in this part of the world I know Japan and Korea does it to.  

 

I'm not saying there's no corruption there's corruption all over the world including in the United States.  Although the TM-6 form is not just a piece of paper with a rubber stamp as you stated whenever you enter and depart the country it is always logged into their immigration computers and into a database that they do in fact keep on all foreigners living here and visiting here.  Nowadays everything is online including here in Thailand.  

 

I don't mean to sound condescending I'm just saying that's how it works.  They most definitely use computers and they do have logs and traces of everything here.  As far as why they still use the TM-6 form I don't know that's just their procedure I'm guessing that they want to keep a paper trail as well as an electronic trail in case of a computer glitch or something.  

 

Pretty much every country I've ever traveled to makes you fill out an arrival card just as the plane is landing and at land border crossings as well.  Countries in the Middle East use arrival cards as well at the airport immigration and at land border crossings as well as they do in this part of the world.  

Been here 9 years. NEVER had my fingerprints taken, and NEVER needed, or had, a Tabien Ban to do my 90 day report.

[maewang99]

in case anyone is wondering why we don't have these things in the hyper security conscious USA.....

we are security conscious... to put it mildly, yes?

Thailand AIN'T more security paranoid than the USA is.

so WHY?


you only know the answer when you can no longer ask WHY.

...... computer software requires creative, literate people. and not many things really are simple. this one is.

i.e. Gates, Zuck and Elon are also famous as avid book readers....

..... ooooo.... I don't know if Bezos is also a book reader, he's not particularly known for his summer book reading lists.. but didn't Amazon begin by selling................. huh! what do ya know.... books!

oooooo.... hee hee!!! :-) :-) :-) hmmmm........
 

so EVERYTIME you see one of these cards, and have to fill one out.... and then make one zillion copies of it and sign it until you get a new one someday................ think about WHY. 

this one is REAL SIMPLE.

:-)





  

Edited August 12, 2017 by maewang99

[Thian]

2 hours ago, retoohs said:

don't see the problem, they hand the form out on the plane where I fill it in then I line up in the Thai only queue with my Thai partner and through in no time

 

Last time we were at the airport my wife stayed with me in the qeueu for 3 hours. When it was her turn finally the officer asked why she didn't use the Thai only lane. Because she wanted to travel with me she replied. The officer didn't tell her that i also could take the Thai only lane.

 

I don't understand why i have to fill in that tm6 form since the embassy already got ALL info from me when i applied for the visa's. Also i'm married to a Thai so why treat me like a criminal?

[BangkokNicky]

could be worse my wife recently got a new passport and went to gov house near the old airport 4 pages wasted on stamps talk about being excessive that is crazy to say the least  on stamps .. 

[DerekMarshall]

22 hours ago, webfact said:

foreign travellers are still required to fill in the “TM6” immigration form for authorities to collect information on their travel. 

Right!!!!

 

But isn't that an obligation of guest houses and house owners where foreigners stay - ya know to fill in a form and inform immigration of the details of a foreigner staying attheir house/guesthouse etc etc? 

 

Kinda makes TM6 useless...only details different to the form homeowners are obliged to send are related to immigration check point used (point of disembarkment) and flight no or mode of transport into the country, which is something API has. 

Possible solution: Oblige rail and bus/mini van operators to provide such info and not only airlines. 

[elgenon]

"For Thai passengers, the bureau is in the process of amending Article 18 of the immigration law to exempt Thais from filling in the TM6 form, because basic information of Thais is available on their passport. "

 

 

Isn't that same info available on all passports? Duh.