Questioner: Jacob
Do I still need to register if I am going to stay for a maximum of 10 days in a small village outside Phetchaburi at the home of my Thai wife's son when we fly together from Chiang Mai to Hua Hin next week?
My 90 days are valid until January 23, 2023. If so, do I need to re-register at immigration in Chiang Mai when I return? I have lived in Chiang Mai at the same address for 30 years.
Reaction RonnyLatYa
1. Officially, the arrival of a foreigner at an address must be reported by the address manager with a TM30. So much for the official rules.
2. I wouldn't worry too much about those 10 days with your son, but your decision of course.
3. The address manager of your place of residence in Hua Hin will also normally have to report your arrival there. I don't know if they will do that.
4. If you return to the address where you are officially registered with immigration (including with the 90-day notification) you normally do not need to be reported to that address again upon return.
But I don't know the local rules that Chiang Mai applies about this. They can always be different, but I suspect not. Perhaps there are readers who are aware of the local TM30 rules in Chiang Mai. And if no one has reported you during that entire period, they will not know that you have been away, of course.
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When you return to Chiang Mai you can easily report back with your old TM30. Just drop by the TM30 shop/counter and show your previous TM30 slip from your home address. They will then update your address in the system as back to your home address.
Perhaps I shouldn't say it: Just do nothing when you visit friends or acquaintances or family. You don't look for immigration and immigration doesn't look for you either. No one knows where you are and finds it important where you are and if you do get into trouble at any time, just say that you are just on your way to immigration. I once reported that I was somewhere else, but when I returned to my hometown I went to immigration to report myself back home and they really didn't understand what I was doing!!
It is a nonsensical rule, especially for people who have lived in Thailand for a long time and who only need a lot of paper and with which they do nothing afterwards!
On October 25, I returned to Chiang Mai and reported to the emigration office, both in Central Festival and at the airport. At both places I showed my passport (Retirement Visa) with entry stamp in Bangkok Suvannabumi on the basis of a re-entry stamp). In both places I asked "what should I do" and in both places the answer was: "nothing".
My passport contains a 90 day notification form as well as a TM 30 form from before I left for Europe.
In Chiang Mai, practice therefore appears to be in accordance with the current amended regulations. (I live in Chiang Mai in a permanently rented apartment.)
Asked personally at immigration in Chumphon:
If you do not leave the country, you do not have to do anything, no reporting to immigration and no new TM30.
Only necessary if you leave Thailand and return, even if it is to the same address as before.
That is information from the immigration office in Chumphon.