Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Immigration, we are kind of comparing it a little bit with Cambodian Immigration specifically in the context of the TM30. For those who are unaware, those who come to Thailand who are foreign nationals and wish to remain in Thailand on a prolonged basis, you are going to have to go ahead and file what's called a TM30 if you are in Thailand for more than 90 days at a stretch. TM30 is basically an address reporting form that you have to file with Thai Immigration letting Thai Immigration know where you reside, where your address is. This whole thing was the cause of a lot of a brouhaha going back about 4 or 5 years ago. TM30 was a major cause of consternation. It was kind of brought back out of mothballs after years of kind of being in disuse as a statutory provision, as a practical thing that was done associated with Thai Immigration. It has come back and now it is sort of part of the regular overall process of dealing with Thai Immigration on a regular basis. Quite honestly, the 10 years I was here I didn't deal very much with TM30, it just wasn't something that really came up very often, me myself. Now I had a tendency to do business trips on a quarterly basis, maybe that was some of the reason I got to avoid it. Long story short it is still there; it's still something to deal with.

I thought I am making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Pattaya expats recommend changes to Immigration and driving license rules. Quoting directly: "A general finding of the expat survey was that there is need for an online reporting system for all, with the initial address remaining correct until the foreigner changes it electronically. Some well-informed expats referred to the Foreigners in Cambodia Database which allegedly has these merits across the border." 

Well I always kind of take with a grain of salt any time somebody says well I was over in this country and they do this at Immigration a lot better. Maybe, I don't know. Cambodia might be doing TM30 way better than Thailand. Quite honestly, I think TM30 could be handled better. The whole thing is based on a legal requirement that was promulgated in 1979 so I think we can all agree that there have been major changes in the way that we create and store information and probably we could deal with TM30 in a much more straightforward manner. Frankly I think TM30 information should just be incorporated into one of the other Immigration forms, for example your extension application, just put it in there. Just have a TM30 section, fill out your address and stuff as part of dealing with the Thai Immigration Form and move on. At the end of the day, Thai Immigration doesn't really listen to me so I doubt that is ever going to come to fruition, but again the thing to take away from this video is yeah TM30 is a thing here in Thailand. Is it better or worse than the Cambodian system as they are dealing with it? I don't know. Clearly the Cambodian system has this. Again when I hear anything associated with online platforms associated with Immigration in Southeast Asia, the hair on the back of my neck usually goes up because I am usually sitting here thinking of all the myriad ways that it doesn't work and in some cases you might end up with a situation where it is really efficient and works great. It has just been my experience over time that it is not really all wine and roses when you are dealing with an online Immigration system. So yeah, the Cambodian system may be better than TM30. I don't think it would be all that hard to be a better system than the TM30 system we have here in Thailand. That said, I don't know that that is a foregone conclusion and again that's something I am probably going to take with a grain of salt.