Pattaya Immigration - submitting the 90-day address report

[Dodger]

If they had an on-line system that was reliable I'd be the first one the use it - but they don't - so I don't.

Random report rejections built into the system forces users to go the immigration in-person so they can make sure you're really here and not trying to trick them. This theory is as plausible as anything else when dealing with a system that's totally saturated with corruption.

My father told me once..."the last person you want to trust is a person who trusts no one". It took me years to figure out what he meant by that.

[Gaybutton]

Random report rejections built into the system forces users to go the immigration in-person so they can make sure you're really here and not trying to trick them.

If that is the case, then why even have the online system in the first place? And the paperwork requirements include nothing to show evidence that you're actually living where you say you're living, so even a personal visit to immigration for submitting the 90-day report doesn't prove a thing and it is still easy to trick them if you want to. That is part of the reason why these reports are so ridiculous. Anyone who doesn't want immigration to know where they actually live and has half a brain would have no problem getting away with it.

It's bad enough that this useless reporting is forced upon us, but at least I don't live very far away from the immigration office. But if I did live far enough away so that going to immigration involves a real trek, I'd be awfully upset if my online submission gets rejected for no discernible reason.

By the way, I agree with your father . . .

Making it as difficult as possible ensures that some of their customers will give up & go to an agency to do the job. Helped along with some tea money.

If that is what is going on, it would come as no surprise to me. At least before, anyone could take your passport to immigration and take care of the report. I used to see agents carrying in several passports at once. Whether they still can do that, I don't know, but my guess is if visa agents can take care of the 90-day address reports for their customers, they won't need any of that same paperwork that we have to show up with.

[Dodger]

Just an Opinion:

As long as the responsibilities for running Immigration belongs to The Royal Thai Police, under the direct leadership of a General within the police ranks, the types of unanswerable questions we're asking now will continue for at least another epoch.

IMO the running of Immigration (Kingdom-wide) should belong to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). With the administration of regional Immigration offices assigned to a trained civilian workforce who would perform their tasks IAW MFA Immigration Laws and Policies.

In this structure the Thai police would only get involved as requested by the MFA and/or regional Immigration when laws have been violated by foreigners, although they would have no authority whatsoever in creating (or changing) Immigration laws or policies.

The Royal Thai Police are also supporting an arrangement with thousands of Agents to bypass the very Immigration laws and policies they're supposed to be enforcing which further exacerbates the problems being encountered now.

In short: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stays in lockstep with the Thai Embassy on Visa requirements (all visa types), and runs the regional Immigration offices, and the police only get involved when they need to chase the bad guys...and leave the good guys alone.

If Immigration was structured this way the 90 day report we're talking about would have never been invented. This is nothing but a policing tool...and a half-baked one at that...and has absolutely nothing to do with Thailand's Immigration (Visa) laws.

[Gaybutton]

the police only get involved when they need to chase the bad guys

Wouldn't that be akin to a dog chasing its own tail . . . ?

[Dodger]

Wouldn't that be akin to a dog chasing its own tail . . . ?

Absolutely.

Big Joke was manning the roost at Immigration until the other dogs got ahold of his tail.

Figure that one out!

Big Joke, the The Police Major General in Charge of Thailand's Immigration, gets ousted because of his criminal dealings with the gambling underground. Ironically, this is the same guy who was looking the other way when those thousands of agents I mentioned earlier were (are) performing illegal visa transactions in plain sight.

Having the police in charge of Immigration is identical to having the wolf guarding the hen house.