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Thailand Visa Extension: Issues Associated with 90 Day Reporting

Transcript of the above video:

In this video, we are going to be talking about Thai visas, specifically 90 day reporting for those who are in non-immigrant status and extended non-immigrant status in the Kingdom. What are we talking about here? We are talking about folks who are in B status, O status, ED status, retirement visa status etc. There are other types of categories that are non-immigrant in nature such as media, IB category etc. Any of these non-immigrant categories, probably with the exception of those who are in the country on official status or diplomatic status, which is categorized generally in Thailand as F1. F1’s, this doesn’t really apply, but everybody else that is in non-immigrant status, this video is probably going to apply to you.

What are we talking about? Well, pursuant to Thai Immigration regulations, those who are not immigrants in the Kingdom, defined in the categories I explained a moment ago, those folks who remained longer than, well, as long as, or longer than 90 days in the Kingdom, need to report their address and physical presence and actually have to do this with immigration authorities in Thailand. The 90 day reporting requirement is somewhat cumbersome. I know many who feel it is something of an annoyance. I think it was a kind of an arbitrarily set amount of time. The thinking I think was that folks who are in that status probably were here temporarily but for a prolonged enough period of time, that Immigration wanted those folks checking in, at least periodically. Since the time that these regulations came into force, various aspects of the immigration apparatus have somewhat changed, most notably, became in my opinion relatively more difficult to become a permanent resident which thereby didn’t require a 90 day reporting anymore. For those that are interested in permanent residence, there are other videos on this channel that speak directly to Thai permanent residence but that being said, as it sits now, the system we have to deal with is every 90 days, one needs to report their address and this is important to know. There’s an exception. If one leaves the country and returns, so long as that individual has a re-entry permit and there’s a specific video on this channel with respect to Thai re-entry permits,  so long as that person has a re-entry permit,  the individual in question, it re starts the clock with respect to 90 day reporting. So what are we talking about? An individual is in Thailand on a 1 year B visa, the individual’s lawful presence in Thailand has come to 85 days. They’re looking at maybe, “oh I have to go ahead and do my 90 day reporting. If they stay in Thailand, then when their day count hits 90, they need to go ahead and do something and go ahead and get their reporting done but if for example on day 89, they fly out of the country to go ahead and deal with business in Singapore, and fly back in 2 days later, the 90 day reporting requirement clock starts again from that re-entry. And I think the thinking behind this policy is, Thai Immigration wants the individual alien to check in with Immigration, some form of Immigration every 90 days. That form of immigration can be a checkpoint upon leaving and reentering but they basically want that individual to see a Thai Immigration Officer once every 90 days, be it down at Chaengwattana here in Bangkok or at the various provincial immigration administrative offices. They want to see those folks either in person or they want them to go ahead, or not go ahead but they are okay with those individuals leaving and coming in. This also comports with the scheme that underlies the 90 day multi (I shouldn’t say 90 day) the multi entry visa scheme, so the 1 year multi entry visa, the individual on a 1 year multi entry visa has to do a border run every 90 days in order to maintain their status. Again, the thinking I think seems to be, or the policy behind all of these regulations, seems to be a foreign individual living in Thailand, needs to check in with some immigration officer, somewhere every 90 days. That can be a border crossing, an immigration agent or that can be going down and checking in with the local immigration office if one is in the Kingdom on an extension.  That being said, basically, I hope that this distils down and refines everything associated with 90 day reporting. I get questions a lot regarding 90 day reporting as folks tend to not really understand that yes,  if you are on an extension, you have a reentry permit, you  leave and come back,  the clock restarts upon your reentry. From that date forward, you need to check at the 90 day mark but if you leave again between that date and the subsequent 90 day then the clock restarts again and it can keep restarting. Again, the policy reason behind this seems to be Thai Immigration wants foreign individuals to be checking in with immigration once every 90 days. Whoever they check in with as far as immigration goes, that seems to be largely left up to the individual but they do want to want to see you check in with immigration authorities within 90 day periods.