Foreigners must still fill in ‘TM6’ immigration form for security reasons

[bkkcanuck8]

They could free up a lot of immigration officers on departure.  You put your passport in a machine to read it.... it prints a receipt... you then go into a funnel lineup and the lady there sees the receipt and either directs you to A or B queues.   A just takes the receipt and you enter the airport.  B is for those that have to have followup by immigration (i.e. overstay).    What is currently handled by n immigration officers could be handled by a fraction.

[newcomer71]

6 hours ago, rooster59 said:

In a Facebook Live interview with The Nation’s founder Suthichai Yoon yesterday, Nathathorn explained that under Thailand’s policy to promote tourism, authorities allow citizens of more than 60 countries to travel to Thailand without a visa, so Thai authorities do not have their information prior to their arrivals.

Why notb ask suggestions to your neighbor Malaysia? They abolished the form years ago and they give 90 days no hassles...

Oh no. But you and your country are SPECIAL... 

[stephen tracy]

47 minutes ago, dotpoom said:

What's the big deal, you fill out the form on the aeroplane in a few seconds.

  Same with the 20,000 Bt. ....a big fuss about nothing.

   Maybe Mammy can do it for those who have problems with it....Opps forgot.....she's busy today being made a fuss over.....now she IS something worth fussing over.

It's not the actual filling out of the form that's the problem. It's a problem with massive queues at immigration in a country that promotes itself as a tourist destination. So making the TM6 smaller does nothing. Even a young child could work that out faster than it takes to fill one out.

[cumgranosalus]

"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"

 

perhaps they should find another tool? my passport is digital with a chip for a start.

[cnx355]

6 hours ago, BangkokNicky said:

more bloody excuses

I agree.  Always excuse and no improvement.

 

For exemple, Vietnam (  Malaysia too ) do not ask your address at immigration.  And Vietnam is also serious about security.

 

The hotel and private home owners will have report you.

 

The difference in Vietnam ,they are serious about this. They have heavy  fines the home owners or the hotels, but not the expat or the tourist. This is not the responsibility of the visitor,

 

Here in Chiangmai,  , if your renew an  extension and have been abroad ,   the  landlord or hotel have to  report you using TM 30.

You have to pay the fine ( 1600 B usually) if the landlord does not do it.  

 That you live at the same address for many year does not count,

 

Why do you have to pay the fine for another person or hotel, Beaucause they will not give your  extension if you do not pay.

Why they do not go after the landlord ( Thai or foreigners,. )

I would understand that if you do not tell the landlord he can not report you.

 

Maybe too much work.....or some landlord  will be unhappy.

 

 

Edited August 12, 2017 by cnx355
syntaxt error

[OmegaRacer]

1 hour ago, Ricardo said:

Perhaps you're not on a long-stay visa ?

 

There are numerous threads on it, they began enforcing it a year or more ago, and these days it's difficult/impossible to get an annual-extension (mine's by-reason-of retirement) unless your landlord/wife has done a TM28 and registered you as an alien, living at your long-term home-address.

 

Mine got fined the usual B1600 for not having done so.

 

You then get a TM30, which is stapled (like a TM6) in your passport, and return to your local IO within a few days(they don't currently insist on 24-hours) to report you're home again, they date-stamp your having reported once again, on the slip in your passport.

 

 

I'm on a non b with marriage extention, several years already. I do the usual arrival card form and my 90 days. Never been asked for anything else. 

Chachoengsao province 

[hakancnx]

One have to understand that the TM 6 form costs a few baht. 25 - 35 millions times that will be big money for some....

So it will not go away easy...

[khwaibah]

1998 Saudi Arabia had the same dark age belief and system. 1999 they came into the 21st. century and did away with their arrival cards. It had something to do with that new fangled contraption called the computer and their desire and ability to learn. Thailand your still in the dark ages.

[animatic]

"...In response to criticism that travellers to several European countries do not require such a form, the immigration chief said those countries require travellers to apply for a visa before entering, which provides all their details. “Their authorities know in advance whom they allow to enter their countries,” he said...."

 

Not always the case at all.

For Thais they must get a visa for Shengen Europe, but not everyone. Why do they assume the same as they get applies to all?

 

 

[DerekMarshall]

7 hours ago, rooster59 said:

The Immigration Bureau is in the process of amending the immigration law to exempt Thais from filling in the TM6 form, because basic information of Thai citizens is available on their passport. 

Holy [email protected] what o you know...same basic info is Available on my Passport as my Daughters Thai passport! 

 

I'll put this one down to good old Thai Logic! 

 

Incidentally, in Malaysia, the country that caught, arrested and extradited the Indra shrine bomber after he entered and passed through Thailand,  no such forms are required but fingers are quickly scanned. Fat lot use TM6 form is for national security when 25k THB is handed over not to stamp a passport! 

[DerekMarshall]

1 hour ago, cumgranosalus 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"

 

perhaps they should find another tool? my passport is digital with a chip for a start.

They do. 

 

Landlords and hotel/guesthouse owners must report the details of foreigners staying in their premises! Your passport only tells of when you arrived, where and when you left and where you left. Inbetween a mystery..nothing a TM6 form fixes either! 

[garvon]

What a load of codswallop. In addition to this TM6 we have to report next day to immigration to report our address which is already on the TM6 and if this id not enough we have to report again in 90 days to report our address again.

Suffice to say you don't have to have an MBA to know where all the staff are employed and the reason there is not enough staff at the airports.

Just simply amazing.

 

[Khun Paul]

Excuse me for being a little dense, prior to 9/11 and other Civil plying retrictions, I thought NOW Airlines have a duty to forward to the planes destination the passenger manifest, which should then be able to highlight the bad people before they even land, so the reasons given of security are really just an excuse for screwing up peoples time after landing here.

 

That is of course if they actually know how to get the information and process it correctly.   

[Sydebolle]

All the relevant security data are found in the passport these days. Apart from machine readable two-liners many passports these days have a biometric chip. This is sufficient for Europe as they just store the passport details. 

Unless the visa features also machine-readable two liners it is not traceable, which embassy/consulate issued the relevant visa. The information on the TM6 is nothing but a repetition of what is written in the passport. The reference if first time/repeated visitor, visa number, length of stay and place of stay are - in all fairness - not traceable during the short stay of the average tourist. Putting the "Oriental" as the place they stay does not mean that they stay there - impossible to check on short notice - same with length of stay (as the duration permit is granted according to passport/visa) - hence the Tourism helms would have to manually process those 30 million TM6 forms - go figure! 

Given the many visa types Thailand has, combined with the huge span width of visa-free admission (zero to ninety days), it remains a real challenge for the Somchais behind the immigration counters to decipher the TM6, given the fact that hand writings are in many cases almost illegible, specially if the airplane was on a bumpy inbound track. 

Some countries still use these cards. The immigration swipes the passport or, if done, the visa stripe through the machine to establish the record; a photo is taken and the card is scanned with a bar code. All three appear on the screen of the immigration officer with a green tick or a red cross. Latter is the result from a database the Thai immigration has (or not). On departure the card/passport/photo is taken again, the computer verifies the bar code again and shows a green tick for ok or a red cross meaning "check for something". But yeah, you need a will to please the local needs as well as not keeping money spending tourists in queues longer than most flights from within Asia.

[Happyman58]

Prime Minister i going to help you out here No need to send air-force into help Thanks very much Just send somebody with a bit of authority and get those lazy immigration officials sitting there and come out and Mann those booths It is just that simple

[Wake Up]

As I was seeing the three hour immigration line at Swampy I thought to myself all the TV critics must be correct. Thailand is crashing and no Thai person knows how to do anything correct in tourism or government. Granted I don't agree with everything Thailand but I certainly think overall this is a great place to live and vacation and thais must be doing something right.  Also thailand allows) for the time being) people to online criticize the government and Thai people. My guess is this government  changes their allowance of online Thai critics and all the TV Thai haters can one day gripe about being asked to leave Thailand. Can't wait to read all the " Thailand says I have to leave Thailand posts"  and "Thais don't know how my leaving will crash their economy rants" and " how can Thailand possible exists without my expertise rants."  Peace. 

[Pilotman]

The form is not the problem, the  lack of officers to process at peak times is the issue and in that regard, Thailand is no different to many  other countries that I visit, including the UK, most European airports and the US major hubs.  In addition, so we have to fill in a form, so what.  We have to  tell the authorities  where we are living and if we move or travel around,, so what, we have to check in with them every 90 days, so what.  We are guests and frankly,  in these days of increasing terrorism , I wish the UK and Europe were as diligent at tracking their aliens, and we are aliens here.  They are trying to make me and my family safer and they have my full support in doing that. Simple answer to those complaining, ff you don't like it, leave, its not your country anyway any more than its mine.  

[Bluespunk]

Pesky foreigners. 

 

Got to keep an eye on them. 

[Psychic]

It's more PR less like the old saying that a lock only stops honest people.

The TM 6 basically does nothing to people who want to beat the system.

They'll just lie about where they are going to stay.

All other information is available on the passport.

So maybe they could use their manpower more efficiently.

Thai citizens and long stay foreigners already have their information on file.

As for visitors, perhaps all their passports could be pre-screened from airline passenger logs and only those deemed necessary of further scrutiny be stopped and questioned.

That should be able to be automated so it can be done electronically and those with "flagged" passports could be intercepted.

If they got rid of all the other nonsense for ex-pats it would also free up manpower to actually go after bad guys.

If you have complied with the rules for a sufficient period of time, perhaps it would be appropriate to say "notify us of any changes and report once every, say, 3-5 years so we can verify."

I'm not holding my breath. This intense bureaucracy and massive paperwork seems to be embedded 

[ujayujay]

21. Century.....still not arrived in LOS. Whats about the many Visaholder living here. Give each a Barcode and they will self check in to TH on unmanned digital Counter by international Airports. Just a idea.....

[phantomfiddler]

I would love to do a bit of travelling, but the prospect of being stuck in an immigration line for 5 hours terrifies me. Is there some way that the elderly (74+yrs) can get through a little faster ? I went to a booth over to the right after being informed that this was the place but, true to form, there was no-one manning the station !

[Maestro]

8 hours ago, rooster59 said:

The Immigration Bureau is in the process of amending the immigration law to exempt Thais from filling in the TM6 form, because basic information of Thai citizens is available on their passport. 

 

It is not the immigration law, ie the Immigration Act B.E. 2522, that requires the TM.6

[StevieAus]

6 hours ago, Ricardo said:

After the first few months when this was so, that one isn't currently being applied up here in Chiang Mai, it's only for return home after having left the country.

 

So they don't need a TM30 if you've been travelling to other provinces for a few weeks, but they do if you've just come in from overseas, when you completed a TM6 for Immigration at-the-airport.

 

Don't try to understand it, your brain will overheat, and may even explode !

That was the advice from our local immigration office in CHIANG MAI province only when leaving the country

Yet even though I have my own yellow house book my wife has to sign the form.

Another example of inconsistencies between government departments

[melvinmelvin]

rather frightening to think of how dangerous it is to travel within the Schengen area.

a quite large group of countries without TM6 or similar

 

funny that European governments are not concerned about security

 

 

[habanero]

6 hours ago, Ricardo said:

After the first few months when this was so, that one isn't currently being applied up here in Chiang Mai, it's only for return home after having left the country.

 

So they don't need a TM30 if you've been travelling to other provinces for a few weeks, but they do if you've just come in from overseas, when you completed a TM6 for Immigration at-the-airport.

 

Don't try to understand it, your brain will overheat, and may even explode !

Apparently most of you make your life more difficult than it has to be. You don't need to fill out a tm30 Everytime you travel within Thailand. If you have an immigration office that is a stickler about tm 30's and you don't want to deal with it, Just check out of your hotel and check back in later. If ever questioned, say that you left and came back later. You are only required to report if it's over 24hrs. Also,you don't need to report anything if you stay within your province. In all the years here, my husband has never reported being somewhere else. Immigration is all for it.

 

[Pilotman]

3 minutes ago, melvinmelvin said:

rather frightening to think of how dangerous it is to travel within the Schengen area.

a quite large group of countries without TM6 or similar

 

funny that European governments are not concerned about security

 

 

quite right 

[Negita43]

is this reporting a new thing.

 

I have been overseas many times in 6 years here but never ever reported until my  90day was due after re-entry.

[melvinmelvin]

14 minutes ago, Negita43 said:

is this reporting a new thing.

 

I have been overseas many times in 6 years here but never ever reported until my  90day was due after re-entry.

 

same with me, I never do it

 

no, it is not new as far as I understand,

but some immigration offices are keen on this, other offices are not keen on getting a TM30 after

you have spent a weekend in HongKong or Singapore

 

[Shaunduhpostman]

Nothing like being informed in advance three times or so in one week about something you'll have to do that in fact you have been required to do all along and been doing all along. Is it not bad enough that we have to do it that we now also have to be reminded that we will have to fulfill the rather trivial requirement daily in the news? It's kind of like they really want to say something else but just don't know how to say it and we are supposed to figure it out what it is they are really trying to say with this "news" item appearing again and again and again.

 

BUt if we just take this at face value that there is nothing else they are trying to tell us, one has to ask Is it really such an issue? Is there something I just don't grasp here? Should I like try and take a month long summer course at the Sorbonne on how to fill in Thailand's TM6 to a superb and perfect level?

 

Or maybe it would be enough if I just work a few hours a day everyday for the next few months on my penmanship and do independent research to confirm the accuracy and validity of information I will be asked to furnish on arrival in Thailand, such things I have always just assumed were correct and accurate such as my address and my name. Tho, I suppose if we go to a foreign country we should be open minded enough to consider that such things as our name and address may not be what we thought they were. Perhaps what they have in mind here, is that they would like us to be better prepared to fill out that form when it comes time to do so.

[sawadee1947]

10 hours ago, rooster59 said:

He warned that if there was further chaos at any of the airports, those in charge must be held responsible.

insiders were told these people have to run one time round the airport shouting " Prayut is great"