Thailand's foreign entrepreneurs are shy because the stringent TM30 immigration rule

The organization, which represents Thailand's foreign business community, has broken its silence on the decision of the country's immigration office to fully apply a burdensome immigration law (TM30) dating back to 1979. According to the organization, Thailand's foreign entrepreneurs are reluctant to abide by the TM30 Immigration Office's stringent immigration rules, as it jeopardizes business-to-business operations without any clear security risks.

For months, foreigners working and living in Thailand have been thinking about the dramatically increased reporting requirements for immigrants under a regulation called TM30. However, the Joint Foreign Trade Chamber of Thailand (JFCCT) issued a statement late last week that there is an urgent need for rethinking. The umbrella organization also sent a letter with "concerns and recommendations" to Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda.

"The ease of doing business is a hallmark of a country's attractiveness for trade, investment and tourism," said Stanley Kang, Taiwan's chairman of the JFCCT. "The now reintroduced TM30 Rule, which has been disregarded for years, reverses these good achievements. Our neighbors do not have this continuous tracking requirement, "added Stanley Kang.

Critics also fear that the TM30 regulation could discourage skilled foreign workers and further harm tourism. The advocates of the TM30 regulation, however, insist that the regulation only serves the safety of tourists and the country.

The much-debated topic about the TM30 notification procedure, which is already part of the immigration law since 1979, is obviously far from over, reports the British BBC in one of their articles. Many expats are being lured into a bureaucratic confusion by the TM30 form, the BBC reports

As reported by the Nikkei Asian Review, the Thai immigration authorities are sending shivers through the foreign business community, long-term expatriates, students and retirees following a full reinstatement of a burdensome immigration law or its TM30 dating back to 1979.

"Under Section 38 of the 1979 Immigration Act, homeowners, householders, landlords or stewards of hotels housing foreigners legally resident in the Kingdom must inform local immigration authorities within 24 hours of the foreigner's arrival," he said recently the Thai immigration office.

Critics see the claim as a relic of the Cold War dredged from a bureaucratic silo, and compare it with some in neighboring Myanmar (formerly Burma) rules that restricted the movements of foreigners for decades after General Ne Win seized power in 1962 would have.

Meanwhile, Thai immigration officials downplay the problems and recite the mantra "the law is the law". National security comes first, they emphasize again and again.

Police Major General Patipat Suban Na Ayudhya, the Supreme Commander of Immigration Division 1, has directly linked the operation to terrorism. "There were many cases in Thailand a few years ago," he said during a panel discussion in mid-August 2019 in the Foreign Correspondents, Club of Thailand. "Many terrorists came here and did not do anything good for my country," he added.

"Things have changed a lot in Thailand and around the world," police colonel Thatchapong Sarwannangkul, an immigration superintendent, said at the same presentation. "Criminals are getting stronger day by day, and that's why we need to strike a balance between national security and what we can do."

A Bangkok-based Western security analyst told the Nikkei Asian Review that the terrorist threat to Thailand has not increased significantly and that other factors are at stake. "It's a cumulative feeling that foreign crime has gotten out of hand rather than terrorism," he said. "This is a very conservative bureaucracy and it is very typical that when faced with new problems, they pass a 40 year old law - they are now moving backwards to solve the problems of 2019."

Thatchapong said compliance issues with the so-called TM30 rule are exaggerated - "trust me, it's not that hard". At the same time, however, he admitted that he now had to work every night until 10:00 pm to work on the relevant papers.

While the vast majority of foreign visitors enter the kingdom on a 30-day visa issued upon arrival, most foreigners with a longer visa must report changes to their address within 24 hours - including weekends to the city to private accommodations. You must also report your return to the immigration office using the TM30 form.

This may be through a personal visit to an immigration office, through the transmission of an authorized intermediary, by sending a registered letter or through the use of an online system. Non-compliance leads to fines ranging from 800 to 2,000 baht (23.50 and around 60 euros).

Since the law was passed 40 years ago, hoteliers have been required to provide the immigration authorities with the appropriate TM30 registration forms for foreigners. It uses the standard forms filled in by guests on arrival. The new requirement that private landlords - some of whom own land - have to similarly inform the authorities of foreigners visiting or renting their land has been very patchy in some provinces and not in Bangkok or other parts of the country. Until the last months, the TM30 form has been dispensed with in most cases.

At the time of entry into force of the 1979 Law, far fewer than 2 million tourists arrived in Thailand each year, but there was a large influx of refugees from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. This followed the fall of Indochina in mid-1975 and the invasion of Vietnam in late 1978 in Cambodia.

Immigration control is a very different process today. The forecasts for legal arrivals in 2019 now exceed 39 million, of which about 11 million are Chinese and 2 million are Indian.

Although the TM30 form should be submitted by the landlord or owner, foreigners applying for an extension of the visa must provide the required documentation or pay a fine.

"It's the foreigners, not the landlords, because it's the foreigners who actually pay the fines," said Penrurk Phetmani, an immigration lawyer with Tilleke and Gibbins International, Thailand's oldest law firm.

Foreigners need to understand conflicting information from various law firms and immigration agencies. In a recent British arrival at Suvarnabhumi Airport, Thailand's most important international gateway, immigration officials were politely but completely unanswered for TM30 requirements.

"We do not get the right information, and without the right information, you can not expect employees to meet your needs," said Christopher Bruton, executive director of Dataconsult, who oversees the business development in the region. Bruton described the 24-hour reporting requirement as "extremely demanding" and suggested extending it to something more manageable.

In a country where an efficient postal service is operated, the processing of the registered postal service takes more than three weeks. And the online service is nowhere near reaching the targeted "Thailand 4.0" status the country has promoted to attract foreign investment by moving to a "value-driven economy fueled by innovation, technology and creativity," he said

Some applicants have waited more than six weeks for their online passwords, according to the immigrants officials should be issued within seven days. After the access, the applicants encountered a poorly designed website, which often shows disruption and also causes long loading times.

The password delays seem to be due to the processing times within the immigration, while the officials are trying to verify the information before the appropriate permits are issued.

There has been a long history of complaints that, due to staff shortages, it may take longer to pass through immigration at Thai airports than is common in most neighboring countries. But high-ranking Thai immigration officials do not seem to agree with their overburdened juniors at the counters.

"Our job is to make sure that [the officers] do the job properly," said Police Chief Krissana Pattanacharoen, spokeswoman for the Royal Thai Police (RTP), to Khaosod English. "We are their superiors. If they can not do it, there is no option but to impose penalties. "

Sebastian Brousseau, the French-Canadian general manager of law firm Isaan Lawyers in northeastern Thailand, recently launched a website to raise awareness of the problems caused by the new TM30 requirements. Within 10 days, around 5,000 signatures were collected. To date (7th September 2019) there are already 6,041 signatures.

Despite the concerns and the now well-known petition against the TM 30 form, the Thai Immigration Department said it simply continued to apply sections 37 and 38 of the Thai Immigration Act to "strengthen security in the country" and keep an eye on foreigners while they are in the country visiting one or the other province.

The petition, which meanwhile has signed nearly 5,000 Thai expats, is politely drafted, but will probably not succeed despite all efforts. The inconvenience to some foreign expats who have to report their whereabouts when changing their reported address is outweighed by the need for national security, as described by the Thai authorities.

The fact that a group of foreigners could possibly change the Thai laws to make things more convenient and useful is also virtually unimaginable, reports the well-known website Thai Visa. Even if the petition changed and adjusted the laws, it could take years, Thai Visa suspects.

The bottom line is that they should not have high hopes for any changes to the immigration law and the TM30 form.

"The law must be logical, rational and efficient," said Sebastian Brousseau, French-Canadian general manager of law firm Isaan Lawyers. "Foreigners, even if we are not citizens of Thailand, have a voice, and we should have a dialogue with immigration to solve some of our problems. At the moment I see a regression. I have clients leaving Thailand because they do not feel welcome, "he said.

Richard Barrow, an English expatriate, wrote in his widely acclaimed blog: "Some have commented that it resembles an immigration that smashes a mosquito with a sledgehammer. For some reason, they do not seem to care what damage it does. "

Observers are following Thailand's stance up until 2016, when a former immigration officer, Police Lieutenant General Nathathorn Prousoontorn, coined the slogan "Good guys in, bad guys out." His youngest successor, 55-year-old policeman General Sompong Chingduang, came to work in May.

Chris Larkin, director of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and member of the Advocacy Subcommittee, promotes the issuance of pink passports for long-term foreigners, which are already being successfully used by some 2 million migrant workers from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

Larkin said that the 400 mostly middle-sized members of his chamber were "worried but not yet very worried" about the TM30 issue. "Most people who invest in Thailand know that they are investing in a country where regulatory challenges exist in one way or another. It 's annoying, but it' s not a deal breaker yet. It's very easy to come to Thailand, but it's "much harder to stay here longer," he said.

Sources: maxlehmann, Thai Visa, Nikkei Asian Review, thailandtip, gtrider, thaiimmigration, thaizeit