TB Immigration Information Letter No. 058/23: TM30 reporting is mandatory for a visa extension
Reporter: heng-kie
First, thank you for the detailed document overview for the 60 day family extension. I would like to add from my own experience that many Immigration offices also ask for proof of the TM30 notification. If you do not have this, you can still obtain it there, provided you behave decently on the spot. With the standard fine of course.
I myself had reported this to the police, Tamluat, of my place of residence there, which was about 135 km away from my Immigration office (Maesot). This was not official, but my well-intentioned action was understood and I still received the required TM30 without penalty.
So again no criticism, but a possibly useful addition.
Reaction RonnyLatYa
Thanks for the addition.
Yes, the TM30 should always be included. But I actually assumed that everyone already knew that you always need a TM30 for any immigration application. This is now a permanent requirement at every immigration office. These are standard requirements.
I have therefore limited my response to the additional requirements needed to obtain a 60-day extension. As they are also stated on the immigration website. Of course, the standard requirements must also be added, such as passport photo, 1900 Baht, passport, copy ID page, copy Arrival stamp, TM30... But if you don't have a TM30, they always allow you to fill it out yourself at immigration. You will also receive the fine, but they should actually send it to the address manager, but that will never happen of course.
Just imagine that the person responsible for that address is now their superior. But actually they shouldn't fine you in this case either.
Officially, immigration legislation still states that you can also report this to the police station. Although that mention in the legislation dates from many years ago when there were only immigration offices in tourist places. You could also contact the police. Although in most cases this will lead to the question of what a TM30 actually is and what they should actually do with it. That was no different in the past.
But it is still there.
Just look here:
“According to section 38 of the 1979 immigration act, “House owners, heads of household, landlords or managers of hotels who accommodate foreign nationals on a temporary basis who stay in the kingdom legally, must notify the local immigration authorities within 24 hours from the time of arrival of the foreign national.” If there is no immigration office in the province or locality of the respective house or hotel, the notification is made to the local police station."
https://www.immigration.go.th/en/?p=14721
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I have had to deal with it in 3 provinces that I have extended my visa, only in Chiang Mai. I didn't have a yellow tambien job then. Over the last few years with a yellow tambien job on hand, I haven't gotten a comment about it yet.
Is this more the exception than the rule?
TM30 is demanded just about everywhere these days.
If not previously exceptional or perhaps not in the smaller immigration offices.
Roughly the last 5 years anyway.
When I lived in Bangkok a few years ago, this was not yet asked. Now it is.
Does the TM30 have an expiration date? My copy is certainly more than 5 years old.
Condo resident Bangkok, owner. Permanent residence in Thailand.
I travel to a random foreign country for a few months every year, with a Re-entry Permit.
Do I have to request or confirm a TM30 again upon return?
Thank you for the response.
The rules say yes, but I've never been asked about it in Bangkok in recent years.
Now I live in Udonthani and I have never been asked about TM30 there. I have a yellow book but the house belongs to my father-in-law on paper. He doesn't even know where the Immigration Office is.
By the way: my former colleague from Canada, living in his own condo in Bangkok, went to Immigration with TM30 (a few years ago when there was such a fuss about it) and they didn't know what to do with him. Apparently never heard of a foreigner owning a condo in Bangkok. Going home empty-handed.
I was never asked this before in Bangkok because I lived there for 10 years.
Until the last time and that was 5 years ago during my last year extension there and she wanted to see the slip. That's when the fuss started.
By the way, I reported it by post in Bangkok and it worked fine there.
Having a yellow book does not make any difference.
TM30 is arrival at an address.
You can only obtain a yellow booklet if you already live there.
Yes, the only circumstance that requires you to hand in a TM1 (!) is when you arrive at an address in Thailand from abroad, always. And do this within 30 hours (unless Immigration has a weekend or public holiday and is closed), then you do it immediately afterwards.
This is usually not necessary if you return with a re-entry and return to the same address.
Your old TM30 will then remain valid.
But that depends on your immigration office
If you return from abroad to the same address at which you were registered before your departure, you do not need to submit a Tm30 notification again.
As long as you stay at that address, your TM30 also remains valid
If you return with a re-entry, most immigration offices will not ask you to report it again.
You can then continue to use your old TM30 wherever required. It remains valid.
Dear Ronnie
When I returned from Belgium in 2022 and went to register at the immigration office in Chiang Mai (not a small office) for TM30, the officer asked me if I still lived at the same address. I replied in the affirmative and he told me that it was not necessary.
This was also confirmed to me by two different people at the Pattaya immigration office in February this year during my annual visa application. If you are the owner and always stay at the same address, not fashionable???
I didn't write anywhere that you have to make a new TM30.
As long as you return from abroad with a re-entry and return to the same address, you will usually not be asked to make a new one
Depends on your immigration office.
If I have been following social media lately, it seems that immigration in Pattaya is turning things around again and is being asked again on every return.
Maybe you should inquire about it.
It is not unusual for them to blow cold one day and warm the next.
Dear Ronnie
As far as immigration Jomtien is concerned, I can tell you my own very recent experience after I returned to Thailand as an owner for the first time in more than a year and a half at the end of November. Because this was a new obligation for me, I received extensive information from the young lady at the relevant counter. This confirmed to me that I must make a new declaration every time I re-enter Thailand through any border. Because I specifically asked about this, she also said that I must attach a copy of my chanot every time.
The digital age and the fight against paper waste are still delayed here. But who is even remotely surprised by that?
In Thailand, AI is certainly not needed to create visual representations of the aging process of farangs. Don't we submit an average of 8 passport photos per year? In addition, there are also digital photos that the various immigration posts take themselves for (year) extensions, re-entry, 90-day notification, etc.
I asked 2 civil servants about it 3 years ago and each time I received a different answer. The latter told me that it is unnecessary if you do not change your address. I think it just depends on who you ask and when you ask.
I thought I had already read something like that... about Pattaya anyway.
Like I said before, I'm actually not surprised. I never knew it other than that it is that way today and different again tomorrow and the day after tomorrow still different. It used to be like that.
Especially in such immigration offices, it is best to first obtain information before you go there and then the question is whether you have obtained the correct information.
I didn't write anywhere that you have to make a new TM30.
As long as you return from abroad with a re-entry and return to the same address, you will usually not be asked to make a new one
Depends on your immigration office.
I returned from a holiday abroad last year.
During my last 90 day report, I asked Udon immigration whether reporting was necessary.
The answer was yes and I will do the same during my next 90 days.
He clearly assumes that there was no rush because I have lived at that address for some time.
As I said before it depends on your immigration office.
Usually if you return with a re-entry, it is not necessary, but it is best to inquire
My wife is the owner of our house. I help her pass on the TM30 reports online. I have not been able to discover whether you can print proof of that registration. So we make a screenshot of the registrations and print it out. We then give this to the guests so that they have proof that they have been registered.
Has a form been devised that I should use? Is that included somewhere in the online notification?
Normally you can print it, I understand, but I haven't logged in to say anything meaningful about it myself.
But normally that print screen is sufficient, although it will indeed be easier if you could print out the proof
In January I will be staying with a friend in Bangkok. He makes a TM30 report to the owner of the apartment. We then go to a hotel in Phuket for 10 days, after which we return to the same address. Does a TM30 report have to be submitted again?
Officially that should be the case, but don't think Bangkok takes into account travel within Thailand and when you return to your first reporting address.
And there are several immigration offices that apply this.
By the way, if you don't come into contact with immigration during your stay (extension), I wouldn't worry too much about that TM30.