Online Immigration Reporting for Expats Now Functional

After being inaccessible for several months, the website used by the Bureau of Immigration for the mandatory 90-day reporting for foreigners in Thailand is up and operational. Tourists, expatriates and their landlords can now use the website again to update the Bureau.

According to Immigration Bureau deputy commander Police Major General Achayon Kraithong, the website is an essential tool maintained by the Bureau to allow mandatory reporting to continue despite the pandemic.
The website helps the Bureau avoid congestion and huge crowds at its offices and adheres to public health measures including social distancing.

The website has been a major pain point for expatriates and other foreigners that have been living in the country. Its disappearance for the past months has made reporting difficult due to the imposition of public health measures.

Even before the website became inaccessible, expats have already complained about the difficulty of using the website to file reports. They reportedly experience errors when trying to save the accomplished TM47 or 90-day form using the website.

With the website now up and running again, Gen. Achayon said that expats once again have a convenient option for filing their 90-day reports without exerting a lot of effort and spending money on travel expenses.
90-day reporting is mandatory under the Immigration Act. The Act requires foreigners to update the Bureau of their current whereabouts every 3 months. The Act also mandates landlords who have foreigner tenants to do the same using a separate form called TM30.

Landlords must file the reports within 24 hours of the expat’s arrival at their properties.
In addition to filling up the form via the website, mobile users can also download the pertinent documentation through the Section 38 app for Android and iOS.

With the country formally adopting the vaccine passport system, the Tourism Authority of Thailand has announced that they have launched the Entry Thailand online platform. This platform will enable tourists from abroad with vaccination certificates to look up information on how they can visit the Kingdom again.

The website makes available a host of information on how vaccinated tourists can prepare for their future visit to Thailand. These include data on documentary requirements and information on current government policy governing partial or full reopening to foreign tourism.

Under the government’s reopening plan, vaccinated tourists will be able to reduce their quarantine period from 14 to 7 days. They only need to present in addition to the usual documents for Immigration, the certificate proving their receipt of two doses of a vaccine registered with Thailand or the World Health Organization.

Thailand has currently relaxed its restrictions on foreign tourist arrival, and will debut the Sandbox model in July.

The plan will have Phuket lift the mandatory 14-day quarantine, which means vaccinated tourists will no longer have to serve a 14-day quarantine. Instead, they will be “sealed” inside selected places in Phuket, which they can tour under supervision by authorities.

If they are found negative for the virus after 14 days, they will be free to visit other areas in Thailand.

Source:
BangkokPost