Transcript of the above video:  

As the title of this video suggests, this is everyone's least favourite topic in the expat community here in Thailand, namely TM30, arguably one of the more annoying anachronisms of the Immigration Act of 1979. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Chonburi Immigration Bureau tightens address reporting. Quoting directly: "A recent change in procedure at Pattaya-Jomtien Immigration (and Sri Racha) means that all foreigners requiring a service must have a TM30 form receipt in their passport dated," (and this is key) "dated since their last arrival in Thailand. This bureaucracy is quite separate from the 90 days reporting for expats which remains intact." Quoting further: "The change in procedure means that a requirement is now extended to any foreigner seeking a re-entry permit, a renewal of a one-year extension of stay (including Retirement and Marriage Visas,) extension of the Elite, certificates of residence for driving license, opening bank accounts etc. All these categories must now have a TM30 Immigration receipt in their passport issued after their most recent entry into Thailand by air, land or sea. A TM30 receipt issued before the last entry to Thailand will be regarded as out-of-date and no longer acceptable." That is the key to this video; that is the thrust of this video. That is a big change.

I did another video contemporaneously with this one where I posed the question: "Have they effectively resuscitated the old TM28 which was the very annoying form that people going back a couple years ago were supposedly having to fill out if they moved, not moved but just spent a night for example in a different place other than what is on their standard TM30? So, for example, people that own a condo, they even have a yellow book, those folks had to fill out a TM28 if they live in Hua Hin, they want to take a vacation in Phuket, stay in Phuket for 2 days, going back a couple of years ago, in theory you were supposed to have to fill out a form TM28. They got rid of that, they created the TM27 and did some new regulatory stuff to effectively phase that out. Well guess what? It looks like, at least in the Jomtien-Pattaya Immigration Office and I am here to say up in Bangkok TM30 can be something of a nettlesome issue as well, but it looks like look just filing one TM30 and then saying, okay that is where I live, and then you may leave; people go back home for holidays, see family and then they come back to Thailand, their principal place of residence as a retiree here, yeah if you have to then go and do something for example a later Visa Extension, you are going to have to have had a TM30 that is valid from the date of the last entry. So again, effectively this is looking like something akin to the old TM28. We will certainly keep you updated on this channel as this situation evolves.