Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the TM6 and TM30 forms. As discussed in a prior video I made regarding the fact that the Interior Minister here in Thailand, Anutin Charnvirakul basically put forward a proposal to suspend if you will the TM6 card even at land and seaports. Before there was an order on the books to suspend usage of the TM6 card at Thai airports, at air checkpoints with Thai Immigration, but now we are seeing a situation wherein they are expanding the "suspension" - I put that in quotation marks because it's one of these where they say it's a "suspension" but it looks an awful lot like they are making a permanent change insofar as it's no longer going to be required that you have that little slip of paper stapled into your passport when coming in and out of Thailand via either a land or a sea border. That little slip of paper is the TM6, what we used to call the arrival/departure card, you fill it out, you put your address and things on it; you have to keep it in your passport and then when you leave the country you go ahead and utilize the TM6 to do that. 

So I thought of making this video after we made that prior video and then I read this comment quoting directly: "Hi, as a retired foreigner living in Thailand, my preference would have been to retain the TM6 and junk the TM30 as in Chiang Mai, you are kept waiting for hours to process that TM30. The online version is hit and miss and cannot be relied upon."  Yeah I have heard this from other folks. I did a video in the past regarding the fact that TM6 had effectively been scrapped and it resulted in sort of more emphasis being placed on the TM30 especially as regards when you need something from Thai Immigration like an extension of your Visa status or things like residency documentation pertaining to one's address here in Thailand. And I know a lot of people kind of feel like "hey it would have been nice just to keep the TM6 and not worry about the TM30." 

That said, nothing is going to change on that. The TM30 I think we are stuck with now at least for the foreseeable future; I don't think that's going anywhere. And again, the TM6 has been phased out; I don't see a scenario where it is going to be phased back in any time soon so this is basically the situation we are in at this point. In many ways I think it is probably - especially for Tourists - the TM6 was just kind of something, it was just an extra, it was almost a superfluous document for tourists in my opinion. So from that standpoint I think getting rid of the TM6 is a good idea. I do understand the expats and this thinking that yeah it was kind of nicer to just inform them of your address on your TM6 and then not worry about this TM30 stuff. But it looks like at least for the foreseeable future, we are going to have to be dealing with TM30 here in the Kingdom of Thailand.