Thai immigration officials recently shrugged off expat concerns over the renewed enforcement of an old immigration law, the TM30 Form.
According to Thailand immigration attorneys, the TM30 Form requires landlords and accommodation owners to report the comings and goings of foreigners to an immigration office within 24 hours.
In a meeting at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand to air grievances over the controversial TM30 Form, immigration officials stated that it’s “not that hard” to comply with the requirement and that’s it is necessary for national security reasons—despite no recent security concerns rising to prompt such strict renewed enforcement of the TM30 Form.
“A couple years ago, we had many cases happen in Thailand… Terrorists were coming to Thailand making some things not good happen,” said first immigration division commander Maj. Gen. Patipat Suban Na Ayudhya.
The renewed enforcement of the TM30 Form led to outrage among expats, leading to a popular petition to abolish the requirement making the rounds on the internet.
Foreigners living in Thailand say the TM30 Form places a huge burden on long-term expats in the country.
As an example, a foreigner living in who wants to make an overnight or weekend trip from one province to any other of Thailand’s 76 other provinces would be required to check-in with immigration upon arrival to their destination and upon returning home.
The immigration officials present at the meeting stated that this could be easily done through online reporting, but some landlords housing expats have waited weeks just to receive a password for the reporting app.
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