Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the "TM30 Debacle". I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Phuket News, that is thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: Phuket Immigration demands title deeds, home walk-throughs for permit to stay extensions. So just is a preface here Thai Immigration Office down in Phuket seems to be taking a much more proactive and they are taking a very stringent approach to enforcing Thai Immigration Law especially in the context of extensions of stay; asking for a lot of documentation that quite honestly a lot of other local Immigration Offices don't seem to be quite as concerned about. But from what at least I have heard anecdotally, Phuket seems to be, there seems to be a lot going on down; there seems to be a large influx of foreigners coming in to Phuket and there seems to be a large amount of foreigners among that influx who are trying to remain in Phuket on a more permanent basis. So Phuket Immigration may have their own local reasons for requesting more information and documentation. 

In any event, I thought of making this video after reading the following excerpts from that article. Quoting directly: "The requirement for a foreigner to provide a copy of a Chanote title," (so Chanote Title it is like a freehold title; Chanote means title, it is kind of a little bit redundant but Chanote is a Title Deed.) Quoting again: "The requirement for a foreigner to provide a copy of a Chanote Title for a property the foreigner does not own appears to be an attempt by Phuket Immigration to hold foreigners staying in Phuket responsible under Section 38 of the Immigration Act which applies only to landlords and householders". Yeah, that makes it sound like it's only the landlord that is required to deal with that. As we discussed going back now this has been years ago talking about TM30 and TM28 which was relevant at the time; TM 28 has effectively been phased out but even if you are leasing you could be considered a householder even though you are not necessarily the holder of the title deed. Quoting further: "During the TM30 debacle, it was confirmed by previous Phuket Immigration chiefs that applications for a one-year permits to stay will not be refused for information that foreign applicants are not required to provide under Immigration Law.” So there seems to be some discrepancy down there and Phuket News seems to be doing a pretty darn good job of following up on this with regard to whether or not foreign nationals need to provide this sort of extraneous documentation pertaining to where they are staying. And again, I think it is, Thai Immigration and let's be clear, this is clearly a Phuket Immigration issue. We are not seeing these issues up here in Bangkok, I am not hearing about any of this going on down in Pattaya or Hua Hin for the most part but again each Immigration Office can deal with things differently and they are sort of "boots on the ground", they have to deal with the situation as it arises in their jurisdiction so different places may take a different approach to dealing with Immigration matters. If you talk to folks that live up country for example, there are certain provinces where the Immigration Office is like the Maytag Repairman's Office. There is nobody coming in because there are hardly any foreigners that live in that given province and when somebody goes in to deal with an Immigration matter it takes an hour, it is pretty laid back because there is not a lot going on. 

Again Immigration Division 1 down here in Bangkok is the furthest thing from that. When you are dealing with Immigration Division 1 down here in Bangkok you are talking about some pretty significant again case load they have to deal with. Those folks they are pretty overworked quite honestly and they kind of act accordingly.

That said, down at Phuket Immigration they seem to be taking the issue of address reporting pretty seriously which then does cause one to ask is TM30 effectively going to be a major issue when you are down dealing with Immigration Extensions in Phuket? It would seem that it is a concern for now. Again this article goes back to the beginning of this month, we are filming this in May. Who knows what the future holds with regard to this. We will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.