This week we were informed by the NL association Hua Hin/Chaam of a notice from the Immigration that everyone (tourist, expat) should carry their passport from now on.
A few weeks ago, friends experienced a kind of raid in Chang Mai where everyone had to show their passport. A copy was not accepted and the persons had to report to the police station with a valid passport within 24 hours. Yesterday I read several times on this blog about people who always carry a copy with them. Today advice to leave your passport in the hotel safe etc. Apparently the rules have been dusted off and polished again.!
Immigration must be informed of this if you stay longer than 24 hours outside your province of residence. Hotels, guesthouses etc should do that for their guests. Homeowners, estate agents, etc. must also report the residence of foreigners within 24 hours. Maybe they already do that, but when I read what they have to fill in (type of visa and when it expires, arrival card number, how and when you entered Thailand), I have my doubts whether this is actually done (properly). Now we don't have much to do with that, but what about when you go on a family visit (a few days) etc. There is indeed a form (TM28) for this kind of thing. Had never heard of or seen it. Or will family from the Netherlands come over? Apparently I have to report this to the homeowner, who in turn has to report it to the immigration/police.
Can this be checked? the immigration indicated: on your arrival card you must indicate where you are staying and that should therefore be confirmed within 24 hours by the hotel, home owner, etc. If you live here, you will of course have a statement from the immigration in your passport.
The fines range from 2000 to 20.000 baht.
I don't know if it will all go that fast, but with a visa you always remain terribly dependent!
Submitted by Ko
In the Netherlands, hotels and guesthouses must also provide the so-called hotel notes at the request of the police. These should then be examined by the (aliens) police to see whether everything is correct with regard to entry and residence and alerts.
If you are staying with family, you can register the tourist via the internet with the police.
A copy of a passport is not always accepted at checks, even in the Netherlands. In the event of an arrest, the original passport must be brought to the police station. Incidentally, in the Netherlands, public road checks will only be carried out if the police are authorized to investigate an offense/misdemeanor or other act (witness/declarant) for which identity must be recorded.
The reporting obligation for tourists has been abolished in the Netherlands, as it is no longer necessary according to the EU (but it is still allowed, so far the Belgians have adhered to it). See:
https://www.thailandblog.nl/expats-en-pensionado/visa/meldplicht-vreemdelingenpolitie-schengen-afgeschaft/
I think the rule in Thailand is that you must report within 48 hours, this should be done by the accommodation (555), or you yourself at private accommodation. In practice nothing happens. Hua Hin immigration had announced stricter ID and reporting requirements. But what exactly is Kees already about with his link to ThaiVisa. Thank you.
Hello…
I have never seen all those details on my arrival card, let alone the police will check them here in Pattaya, because they don't speak English…
I've been living here for a year now, and since I was robbed after 3 months, where I lost my pass, and I stayed here illegally, I only have a copy of my pass under the saddle of my motorbike... I don't get two overlook the same problems… By the way, still have to meet the first agent here to collect your money. ask, because then they will have a lot of work here in Pattaya, and they don't like that...
Don't think it will go that fast...
Kind regards… Rudy
And what if you have to hand over your passport as collateral to rent a motobike?
Greetings
It is forbidden to hand over your passport to third parties. This is stated in the Dutch rules for passport holders and advice from the Dutch Embassy in Bangkok and Thailandblog has written an article about it.
The vast majority of motorcycle rental companies ask for a sum of money (usually Bht 5000) OR if you don't want that, your passport. You must of course show your passport for identification and to avoid mistakes when copying the data, the landlord usually makes a copy of your passport.
Have never issued my passport!
Landlord makes copy of passport or driver's license.
NEVER GIVE YOUR PASSPORT AS SECURITY, if you want to rent a motorbike for example. A copy is enough. NEVER DO IT!!! If you get trammelant, just get your passport back. This can cause big problems !!! Khan Jan.
Make sure you have some copies with you. Don't have it done, but do it yourself. You can do before you leave, simple right?
Hello.
@Uglykid.
I've been renting a motorbike here for a year, and ok, those people know me by now, and I'm going to buy one myself, but I'm only giving a copy of my int. passport, nothing more, they don't even ask for your driver's license.
In any case, never give your passport as collateral in Thailand, because if they do not return it, you will be in serious trouble here due to possible damage, and see my message above, I can speak about that!
If a rental company won't accept copy, which I doubt very much, just go to another company, which is very good advice!
Kind regards… Rudy.
Thanks for your good advice, want to ride the Mae Hong Son loop in January as well as tours around Chiang Rai.
Looking forward to! Greetings
That's not something new. In Thailand, the law has long existed that you must be able to identify yourself at all times. For foreigners, this only goes through the papspoort. For the Thais with their ID card.
Uglykid, you should never ever hand over a passport as collateral, remember
date.
When renting a motorbike, only your driver's license may be used as collateral or proof
handed in. Make sure you carry the landlord's rental contract with you.
A driver's license is enough. Rental contract is not necessary at all. If you own a house, do you have to carry your title papers with you? The landlord who does not accept a driver's license is not serious. Then go to another landlord. If you show them where you live, you'll be on the list for the next burglary right away. Just enter the name of a local major hotel and you're done.
Better read, Rebell.
It's about the rental contract for the motorcycle, of course!
Indeed, the motorcycle rental contract also states that you have provided your driver's license as collateral. A copy of your driver's license and that rental contract (in addition to the passport that you have with you) should be sufficient to identify you.
The rules will probably be applied less strictly once the junta ends.
Hello everyone, nothing wrong just keep walking.
This was a local idea of Hua Hin and is contradicted by Deputy Commander Voravat.
Everyone only needs to have a copy of their passport or driving license with them.
In the event of violations or illegal matters, a passport must be shown later.
Look, this sounds logical and nothing has changed.
Info from Thaivisa who checked the wrong info from The Nation.
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/747736-no-need-to-worry-says-bangkok-immigration-commander/
Editors: In principle, Thailandblog does not post English texts. A summary and a link will suffice if you want to draw readers' attention to this article.
Reporting visitors is in the Dossier Visa Thailand.
https://www.thailandblog.nl/wp-content/uploads/Versie-2014-3-Bijlage-bij-Zestien-vragen-en-antwoorden.pdf
Page 28 – Whereabouts report.
or the original text
http://bangkok.immigration.go.th/en/base.php?page=alienstay
Nothing new and has been mandatory since 1979. It is form TM28 or TM 30, depending on the situation.
Hotels usually do this for you. Homeowners usually don't even know it exists.
As you say, dust off laws and polish.
Carrying the passport has always been mandatory, but usually a copy is (was) also accepted.
It is important for a copy that all stamps are visible.
The passage No. 38 of the 1979 law you quoted is ONLY intended for owners of home and land owners and/or hotel managers, who host foreigners there.
The information from the NL association (IMIGRATION) is about the ID requirement for Thailand visitors (and also Thais). Nothing new because you always have to be able to identify yourself in the Netherlands. Any official document with your photo on it meets that requirement. So also your Thai driver's license, which you have received at least on the basis of your passport, Thai home address statement and NL driver's license.
The fact that you have a Thai driver's license or a Thai home address does not mean that you are legally resident in Thailand. This is what people want to see
“The passage No. 38 of the 1979 Act you quoted is ONLY intended for owners of home and land owners and/or hotel managers, who host foreigners there.”
Are there others?
If you stay in Thailand illegally, you will never get a Thai driver's license. That should be clear because then you can't show a yellow book. You only get the yellow book if you can prove where you live. One is related to the other. He who has a yellow book knows what questions = requirements are asked.
There are other options. For example, read the comments of other bloggers, especially Franky's.
The fact is and remains that as an expat you must always be able to identify yourself. That is Thai law and it can be followed, with or without a Thai driver's license. The extent to which this law is enforced is on another page. However, you should not complain if you are checked for this in Thailand.
If you are in Thailand illegally, you probably will not get a driver's license.
But of course you can also become illegal after you have already received your driver's license.
Evicted from your girlfriend's house and not enough money left in the bank to extend your visa, for example.
Rebell sorry that is not correct I just received my 1 year and 5 year valid driver's license on presentation of the form with passport photo which you can request or buy at the immigration service .. with me there is absolutely no Tambien Job or yellow book to use come
Just a lease no more
I live in pattaya
Tambien job is the -yellow book-. My vision was correct, because you must be able to submit a residence statement. That is also allowed / possible with a rental contract, which I do not own. Because my house is my property, I have a tambien job.
A rental contract alone, as it is said here, does not get you a driver's license. I think more documents are needed there, for example your Dutch driver's license?
You can easily pick up a “certificate of residence” at Immigration, just like Piet says
A Tambien Baan is only a practical booklet so that you can easily confirm your address.
A Tambien Job is not proof that you own the property.
You should not exaggerate the importance of a Tambien Baan. It just saves you having to go back and forth to Immigration to confirm your address every time you need it.
Read more about it here
http://www.thailandlawonline.com/article-older-archive/thai-house-registration-and-resident-book
@Ronny,
My booklet is blue and can I assume that I am the owner of our house?
And those other mentions.
Honestly, I've never heard of it, so I've never given any information to anyone.
It is easy for the burglars guild if it is known who has been gone for how long.
LOUISE
Louise
Whatever color your booklet is, it is a registration of persons at an address and NOT proof of ownership.
It is issued by the municipalities and not by the “land department”.
Every Thai family living under the same roof has a blue Tambien Baan, as it is proof of their legal residence. It contains all the names of those registered at that address.
Don't assume that they all own the property in which they live, because they can show a Tambien Baan.
Usually foreigners have a yellow booklet, but that you have a blue one is not exceptional, even unimportant.
Perhaps less known, but what also happens is that married foreigners are added to the blue book of the Thai partner.
I think the link is clear.
http://www.thailandlawonline.com/article-older-archive/thai-house-registration-and-resident-book
As for the other rules/laws.
There may be more rules/laws that you (and I) don't know, but just because we don't know them doesn't mean they don't exist. That is a matter of control over its application.
The rules that I know, or find, I share on TB with the readers..
For example, “the notification of the foreigner on arrival” was already in the Dossier Visa Thailand when it first appeared. So nothing new.
My intention with this is only to inform.
Everyone does what they want with that information.
If someone does not agree with those rules/laws, or decides not to apply them... fine, fine, it really doesn't matter to me. It really doesn't make me sleep any worse.
You can read where these last rules come from in the Immigration Act.
Be sure to read sections 37 and 38.
Of course you can also read the entire document,
Immigration Act
http://www.immigration.go.th/nov2004/en/doc/Immigration_Act.pdf
Forms TM 28 and 30 (and several to download)
http://www.immigration.go.th/
Of course I also have to submit my Dutch driver's license
On only the Tambien Track you absolutely not only get your driver's license, you also have to submit your driver's license or you didn't have a driver's license and had to take a full exam again.?
I just got my 1-year and later 5-year driver's license on a rental contract and my Dutch driver's license and the immigration paper after taking 3 simple tests, color blind, reaction speed, depth
Tambien job is absolutely not necessary
Thank you for your experience in this. As I already said; different Thai municipalities enforce different laws - or invent them themselves. You can confront them with enforcement in other municipalities, but that is counterproductive. In Sa Kaeo you must present a rental contract or, if you own a house or codo, a yellow book. It becomes very special when you live with the family. Then the head of this family and the village chief may show up and declare, almost under oath, that you live there. That's crazy. I think so too, but you can't pass by those specialists in the Sa Kaeo city hall. So just do what they ask.
Copy in your pocket and if they ask for it you have to visit the police within 24 hours seems to me a perfectly workable situation.
The "raid" in Chiang Mai mentioned above was not intended to check the carrying of a passport. It was a joint action by immigration, tourist police and police to check work permits, residence permits and visas. Those who could not prove their lawful residence had to do so the following day. So it wasn't "because they didn't have their passport with them"
Showing a Thai driver's license instead of a passport at the check, is that also accepted?
It's not all that fast. If you behave normally you won't show your ID in every neighborhood. By the way, your passport number is on your Thai driver's license. Here in the Netherlands you are also obliged to identify yourself, who here always has this with him, despite the obligation?
Correct.
I have lived here for 8 years now, experienced two coups and many many violent demonstrations. Never had to show my passport. But also don't go looking up the places lest I be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I know people who have been driving around drunk for 20 years and have never been stopped.
They usually use shortcuts to avoid being stopped.
Does this mean that it is allowed to drive around drunk in this way?
I can understand that you have to identify yourself at home and abroad, but if you go from one region to another and have to report to the police or relatives
seems excessive to me.
I went on holiday in Hungary in the early 70s with a visa, during my wanderings there I also had to report to the police every day, perhaps I was seen as a spy from the west.
Think the regime will tighten the strings.
Note: take your Thai driver's license with you when you go out as identification.
Leon
If I read correctly, should I report this to immigration first every time I go to Bangkok for a few days - to the embassy, for example? That's 75 km. from my home, there and back 150 km.! Agree to go to another country, but only to another province? That's a bit far fetched, I think. I've lived here for 6 years now and never before have I had to register with immigration before going to another province and never had any problems with that, so now I do?
Just read what's in the statement. You must be able to identify yourself at any time wherever you are in Thailand. If you spend a few days in Bangkok, I assume that you spend the night in a hotel? Then this report will be made for you by the hotel. For this you may / must always sign the overnight stay form at the hotel counter and you are done.
I drive all over Thailand almost every week without reporting anywhere, except at the hotel. The rest is arranged by the hotel.
@Foodlover: My Thai driver's license has an ID number on it, but that is definitely not the number of my passport, not even that of my ID card.
Good heavens Roger:
If you stay in a (larger) hotel, they will do it for you automatically. Theoretically you have to report if you are staying with family, but that cannot actually be checked…
So I would continue to breathe slowly.
Well, I have been coming to my wife's village on leave for more than 15 years now and there is always a guard post with soldiers and border police, but they have never asked me for a passport, although I am talking about the road from Chanthaburi to the Korat (317) we live not far from the famous "Khao Soi Dao waterfalls" or border market (for the visa runners) with Cambodia at about 15/20 km from the village, but have been stopped several times for traffic errors that I have never even come close to have committed but that is another story….
By the way, we will arrive on Sunday 3/8 for one month 🙂
Perhaps those traffic errors will be reduced if you ask for proof of payment?
Then persistence becomes less attractive.
@Jasper: Since I live here I never stay in a hotel in Bangkok, but in a rented apartment and there they never ask for any document or ask to report me, so where is the control? :)
I live in CM in a block of 60 apartments. I've never had to show my passport. An agent comes every day. and mention his name and time he was there. That's all. Only at the end of the month do they come with two agents. Then one comes to receive the bribe. Presumably they come with two because one is not or less to be trusted. The second is usually a higher placed to see the white cords on his uniform.
Actually, a list of those present should be delivered every day???
Stopped once for identification in Thailand. I only had a ticket from my hotel with me and that was enough.
For many years I have been staying 3 months a year in a rented bungalow just outside Nong Khai. The owner must register me at immigration within 24 hours of my arrival and for this I will receive a kind of “residence permit” that, together with a copy of my passport (my pass number is also on the residence permit), forms a fully approved identification. I also always carry a copy of my int. driving license with me when I travel through Thailand on my 125 cc for weeks. I have only been asked for my driver's license and have always been approved.
However, the owner once almost had to pay a fine because she had not registered me within 24 hours of my arrival in Thailand (!) because I had spent the night in Khon Kaen on my way to Nong Khai. This fact was happily accepted.
I live in small village in Isaan
There is a weekly check in the main street by the police
I am always stopped and asked for and shown my Thai driver's license
Also on the way back when I go home fifteen minutes later and usually by the same agent
When asked why I am stopped so many times, the officer's answer was that he could only practice his English with me !!! He asked me to use different words so he could learn a little more..
The first words that came to mind then were definitely not in any English textbook…
That was exactly my thoughts Hans! Politely explain in good English that you don't have ID, that it's still at home for security. See how he reacts.
You can then test whether he can explain the law in English or whether he can discuss it in English. He may soon get fed up with it (your behavior or practicing English…).
As a tourist, always have a copy of my passport with me and sometimes a Dutch ID card. Passport is kept safe. Didn't need any of those papers except at the border. We rent a vehicle, etc. in the name of my girlfriend and, where necessary, with the back of 1 of the 2 driving licenses (car, motorcycle) that we do not need on that day. And smile and say hello when you check.
It just depends on how you approach the local inspector. I am occasionally asked for my driver's license during my trips and after a “sawadee krap” from my side, every time after studying my int. driver's license responded with: “Honlèn! Footbon! Very good! You can go.” I have never been asked for my passport, not even very close to the border with Myanmar and Cambodia.
If you approach the opponent in a friendly way, you almost never have a problem. I have that setting too. In the end, those people are just doing their job. Working on it is always fun for me. Being inconvenient at the slightest opportunity is not what gets you any further.