Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question are foreigners in Thailand "on parole". I thought of making this video after reading a recent email from a viewer, quoting directly: "Can you do a video specifically on article 37 and article 38 in regards to Immigration?" What they are talking about here is the Immigration Act of 1979, and they did me the courtesy of sending me the section specifically. Under Section 37, Subsection 3, quote: "Shall notify the Police Official of the local police station where such alien resides within 24 hours from the time of arrival. In the case of change in residence, in which new residence is not located in the same area with the former police stations, such aliens must notify the police official of the police station for that area within 24 hours from the time of arrival." Quoting further: "If the alien travels to any province and will stay there longer than 24 hours, such alien must notify the police official of the police station for that area within 48 hours from the time of arrival." I'll get into that in a moment. Quoting further: "If the alien stays in the Kingdom longer than 90 days, such alien must notify the competent official at the Immigration Division in writing concerning his place of stay as soon as possible upon expiration of 90 days. The alien is required to do so every 90 days. Where there is an Immigration Office, the alien may notify a competent Immigration official of that office." Quoting further, from the email specifically, not from the actual Act: "Specifically Section 37 part 3, 4 and 5, what is responsible for foreigners? What is your opinion of this and why are visitors exempt but those of us who live here are treated like we are on parole? How does it differ from someone being on parole?" 

Well it doesn't differ a lot from folks on parole in this sense. You don't have a right to reside in Thailand. If you go further in the Immigration Act, you'll see that there are provisions for immigrants; another term for that would be Permanent Residents and they don't have to deal with 90-day reporting for example, that's 90-reporting. 

Now one subsection to this, again Subsection 4: "If the alien travels to any province and will stay there longer than 24 hours etc., etc., they have to notify relevant authorities”. We've discussed this in prior videos. That is the enabling piece of legislation that created via regulation, what is called the TM28. That has effectively been phased out in favour of what's called the TM27 and the TM27 only pertains to those who have entered Thailand illegally. So effectively if you will, the Immigration apparatus became aware of the fact that having to notify vis TM28, this was years ago, having to notify via TM28 every time you go to somebody else's, basically if you stay the night at somebody else's house, they said "yeah that's overly cumbersome, we're going to effectively phase that out and make it only pertain to those who enter the Kingdom illegally." 

That said, back to the issue of parole and not to sound like too much of a downer, but look all Immigration systems to one degree or another are going to treat foreign nationals within that nation as someone who is a guest. So in that sense, those folks are on parole. Now why don't tourists have to deal with this? Well tourists don't stay in Thailand long enough for these mechanisms to kick in. Tourists are exactly what they appear to be. They are people temporarily travelling into Thailand; they are not here living here. That is a major, major difference and it's a difference that I don't think many people really fully comprehend when they are looking at this from the spectrum, from the perspective I should say of an expat, is they say "well why don't tourists have to deal with this?" Well they are tourists; they are here temporarily; they are in, they are out; they are hello, goodbye. If you are living in Thailand, the Immigration Act does stipulate certain protocols that you have to undertake in order to maintain ongoing compliance and that does include address reporting albeit they have truncated that. There's no longer the need for the 28 if you just so happen to stay in some other province for a brief period of time. But that said, you still have to deal with TM30 address reporting and you still have to deal with 90-day reporting to Thai Immigration here in the Kingdom of Thailand.