Soi 102 Immigration moving to Prachuap

[nickehuahin]

Now you can get rid of the need to travel to the new Immigration Office to file your 90-day report to Immigration

I was speaking to my lawyer, Somsak Chopaka, at the Siam Law Firm the other day concerning a Work Permit. The subject came up about the Immigration Office moving approximately 120 kms from Hua Hin to Prachuap on March 20, 2009 and that this move will be a tremendous inconvenience for every foreigner who is required by law to notify Immigration if they intend to stay in the Kingdom more than 90 days and must do this for each 90-day period. This would be very time consuming, quite expensive and too far to go by motorbike.

Attorney Chopaka advised me that his Law Firm has formed a new service called Immigration-Link Courier Service that will travel to Prachuap weekly to handle the entire process of filing the notification on behalf of foreigners for a reasonable fee. The service commences on Monday, March 23, 2009.

He said the process is very simple. The foreigner only needs to follow these few easy steps:

1. Fill out the TM.47 Form for Alien to notify of staying longer than 90 days;

2. Copy all your passport pages up to the latest arrival stamp and sign every page;

3. Copy the Arrival/Departure Card TM.8 front and back;

4. Provide the previous Notification of staying over 90 days (if any)

5. Bring the above to his office located at 13/59 Soi 47/1. Petchkasem road. Hua Hin. His office is conveniently located and is nearly opposite to the Cabinet Interior Shop.

6. Next day you con pick up the Receipt of Notification from his office.

His office is equipped to do the photocopying if necessary.
If you require further information, you can telephone the representative at 080-582 2929. And you can converse in English, Swedish or Thai.
This is a greatly needed service and immigration-Link Courier Service can do it all and save you time and money.

I would post their web site, but I'm too new in this forum to be allowed to post it

[dtaai-maai]

Would be interesting to know how much this 'reasonable fee' is!

Copy all passport pages? Why on earth would you need to do that for 90-day reporting?

Welcome to the forum, Nick.

[nickehuahin]

You don't need to copy all of your passport pages. Only up until the latest arrival stamp. If you have a new passport, this would be only a few pages.

The price for this service is posted on their web site. Unfortunately I'm not yet allowed to post web sites on this forum, but the service cost is as I understand set to 900 Baht.

The lawyers office would check that all your documents are in order before filing them and they would also take responsibility that it will be accepted.

I think this is one of the best ideas ever. Sure, it will cost some money to do it, but at least it removes the hassle of having to drive all the way down to Prachuap. The drop-off location is very handy and with ample parking.

[dtaai-maai]

Hmm

[buksida]

If the move does go ahead the only ones to profit from it will be these legal companies - expect similar services to start cropping up as they did when immigration was originally down there.

Now if the HH immigration office were smart they'd offer their own service, undercut the law firms, and offer a guaranteed stamp, another fortune to be made there!

[Pundi64]

I for one am really GD mad about always having to line someone's pockets to do visa stamps and all the other BS we have to do to stay in this country. I am just going to wait to see what Imm. officers come up with, before I start talking paying people to take papers down there, and then oh oh !!! What I forgot one, whoops, you need this form, in triple, , ya I can just see it now. You've passed the time allotment on renewing your 90 days visa, sorry, you have to go to Bangkok to start the whole retirement visa entry permit from scratch, square one again.

[richard]

Buks

Come on, since when did western logic apply here in Thailand?

[lomuamart]

I was at Imm yesterday and I think there are two separate issues:
1. Getting annual extensions to Non O or B visas. These will probably have to be done locally - wherever that is. The locality is where your file is and reside, so that makes sense.
2. 90 day reporting - I specifically asked whether it could be done anywhere if I was on holiday somewhere around Thailand and the answer was "yes anywhere" which also makes sense.
However, it would be good to hear from any other members who can maybe confirm what Imm told me about the 90 day reporting.

[CraigDunn]

As Buksida says, we can expect every law firm and "law firm" in town to offer a 90-day reporting service. I'm also told it can be done by post.

It's the yearly renewals that require our personal presence. Prachuabkhirikhan may not be as exciting as Sukhumvit or Panthip Plaza, but a once-a-year trip followed by lunch on the beach is not such a hardship.

Another issue much talked about right now is the requirement for every new arrival to register with immigration within 24 hours. You know, when you check into a hotel and fill out the form, the MIB have got you tagged, but if you have your own house or have other private arrangements, they want you to report to Immigration.

Does anyone know for sure if this is correct or false?

Oh Happy Daze! Fly in from Europe or where-ever, bus or taxi down here, and then just nip on down to Singkorn before you put your kettle on.

Mai bpen 'rai. t.i.t.

I'm still hoping they'll find a local solution - better for everyone.

cd.

[hhfarang]

Ok, this OP is IMO just another greedy someone trying to take advantage of a bad situation to rip off foreigners. The Identical post appears on other forums as well as this one.

First, you can, and have always been able to copy your passport and inserts and mail them to your provincial immigration office for your 90 day reporting (along with the form of course). They will return your date stamped portion of the form and a blank one for you to mail in the next time. All this costs is the local postage and some small baht copying costs. To pay a law firm to do this for you is ridiculous.

Second, I have heard that you can do your 90 day reporting at your local police station. I have never tried this so this is unverified, but if the Hua Hin immigration office does move, I will try it to see if it works and will report back on this forum. The mail option is for sure legal and I know people in other provinces who use it.

Third, there is a strong move underway to keep the immigration office in Hua Hin, even if the associated leases have to be paid by foreign residents. It is being organized now (by the Swedish Society and others) and I am not sure how far this will go but people are serious about keeping them here as it is a major convenience to have a local office where most of the foreigners live.

Don't panic or start paying someone to do 90 day reporting runs for you yet.

Moderators, this post about the service is a blatant advertisement as it appears identically on other forums. I believe this violates the rules of this forum.

[Super Joe]

First, you can, and have always been able to copy your passport and inserts and mail them to your provincial immigration office for your 90 day reporting (along with the form of course). They will return your date stamped portion of the form and a blank one for you to mail in the next time. All this costs is the local postage and some small baht copying costs

Hi hhf, are you definately able to post to your local immigration office, do you know someone who has done it for sure ? as official procedures say postal's have to go to Bangkok (as extract below). Because I was looking at this and thinking postal's are now not an option as they are stipulating local provinces and therefore not Bangkok:


SJ

[Super Joe]

IF Immigration does move then that's a fact of life we'll have to deal with.

Can't find the 'heavy sarcasm' font, but here goes anyway .........
By my reckoning over half the farang population will be delighted with these new services of doing the reporting for you for the 900 Baht quoted.
These are the people who whinge, moan and physically give birth to kittens over having to deal with immigration and having to negotiate through the most dense of jungles that is Soi 102.
Now for effectively 500 Baht (the other 400 you'd have to spend on fuel if going yourself) you only have to deal with immigration once a year.
So one of life's most stressful tasks has now been lifted off our shoulders for just 28 Baht per week ....... can't you feel it ?

SJ

PS: There are lots of companies planning these services and with the 7 day leeway they can be lined up to do many on one trip, therefore the cost will come down.

[lomuamart]

I'm sure that reporting to BKK by post from anywhere is still an option. The realities of it all are here:
http://www.immigration.go.th/nov2004/en ... age=90days
but, as usual this could change at a moments notice.

[Super Joe]

That's what I wondering Lomu, whether the new reg about local province only supercedes this !?
If not, then this will be the cheapest option instead of using an agency.

SJ

[hhfarang]

I'm not saying that this is the final or correct word on the subject but here is an article from the Bangkok Post (written by an imm lawyer) on Feb 1st this year.

Pay particular attention to the paragraph in bold type...

FOREIGN RESIDENTS IN THAILAND: The 90-day notification thing II

Published: 1/02/2009 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Spectrum

Last time we talked about the notification foreigners who are not classified as immigrants must give the Thai immigration authorities every 90 days. This time we will begin the explanation of how, when and where you must make the notification.

The Immigration Act says you must give the notification "as soon as possible" upon the expiration of the 90-day period. In practice, this means you must give the notification within seven days before the 90-day period is up or within seven days after its expiration.

If you were unable to give the notification as a result of a medical condition or had some other really good reason, an immigration officer can review the documentation and has the discretion to extend the period to accommodate your excuse. There is no guarantee about this, though, so you should do everything you can to do it on a timely basis.

How do you file the notice if you will be in Thailand more than 90 days? You must fill out Immigration form TM.47, which you can get from an immigration office or download from the Immigration website, http://www.imm.police.go.th.

The TM.47 form is in both Thai and English and you can fill it out in English. It's a simple form, asking for your nationality, passport number, arrival card number and your full address, including tambon, amphur and province.

One TM.47 form must be filled out for each member of your family who is not a Thai citizen. Parents can sign for small children.

Usually somebody at an immigration office will be glad to go over it with you if you have questions, and many immigration officers speak some English. It's your responsibility, not theirs, however, to understand what you're signing.

Where do you file form TM.47? You can file it by registered mail, but the date of registration must be at least seven days before the 90-day period expires. Included in the package must be:

the completed TM.47 form

copies of all pages of your passport

copies of both sides of the arrival/departure card (form TM.6) in your passport

copy of the official receipt for filing the last TM.47, if you've filed any in the past (This should be stapled in your passport if you did the last notification in person.)

a five baht stamped, self-addressed envelope.

The package should be sent to the following address if you live in Bangkok:

Counter 3 (90 days registration)

Immigration Bureau, 507 soi Suan Plu

Sathon Tai road

Thung Mahamek

Sathon

Bangkok 10120.

If you live outside of Bangkok, the TM.47 must be sent by registered mail with the above documents to the immigration office nearest you. If you live outside Bangkok and send it to the address above in Bangkok it will be bounced back to you without being registered.

The stamped, self-addressed envelope will be mailed back to you containing the receipt of notification we'll tell you about in the next article.

Neither we nor individual immigration officers with whom we talked recommend filing the TM.47 by registered mail because of the possibility of lost documents. We will talk next time about methods of delivering the TM.47 in person and how you can get a residence permit to avoid the whole 90-day filing requirement.

James Finch of Chavalit Finch & Partners finch@chavalitfinchlaw.com and

Nilobon Tangprasit of Siam City Law Offices Limited nilobon@siamcitylaw.com

For more information visit

http://www.chavalitfinchlaw.com