Thailand 90 Reporting of Residence
December 24th, 2011 by adminOne common complaint of foreign investors, long term retirees and foreigners married to Thais is the 90 day reporting of the address where they are staying. This applies to all people that have a 1 year visa in that every 90 days they are required to go into an immigration office and turn in the 90 day report paper. This can be burdensome on business persons and the elderly as some immigration offices can be quite some distance from where the foreigner resides. Also this adds additional burden on the immigration officers with more useless paperwork. A 1 year visa should be exactly that, 1 year without having the burden of reporting in every 90 days and filing more paperwork. Failure to report on time will amount to a 2,000 baht fine.
With some factories such as Sanyo closing and leaving Thailand due to the flood and other problems it may be prudent for Thailand to do away with useless and burdensome requirements such as the 90 day reporting for foreigners staying in Thailand. At least if the government really thinks they need this repetitive and basically useless information every 90 days then they could setup an online reporting system which would save the foreigners travel time and expense and the immigration officials having additional paperwork and backlog of people waiting in the offices. An online system could be designed quite easily saving everyone additional work and headaches.
Hopefully Thailand will see the light of making things better for foreigners residing, working or investing or they may see many more foreign companies and long term residents move to other more advanced countries that are welcoming foreign investment and providing comfort and security for foreigners residing in their country.