Thailand Visa 90 Day Reporting

Once your Non-immigrant visa has been extended, don’t go thinking that your trips to the local Immigration department are over.  Delusions than you do not need to venture to the immigration department until a year later are a fallacy.

All foreigners staying in Thailand for more than 90 days must report to the nearest Immigration department every 90 days and complete a very short form with your current address.  This process is free although obviously it takes time, money and effort to visit Immigration.

You can report to Immigration 7 days before the due date or up to 7 days after the due date.  Failure to report may result in a fine of between 2,000 and 5,000 baht with 2,000 baht being the norm.  Waiving the fine is becoming increasingly less common.

The interesting part about the 90 day reporting is that many people never do it.  That’s right, they never do it.  Some long-term residents have never done it – and they have never had a problem!  It is said that once you start doing it, you cannot stop – or if you do stop, you risk being fined!

Failure to report every 90 days is an offence, but unlike other immigration rules, like overstaying, it is not that much of a big deal.  But in the interests of being squeaky clean and 100% legal, you should do it.

Conjecture surrounds the issue of 90 day reporting and whether you need to do it if you leaved the country – or does the 90 days “reset”?  It used to be that if you left the country then the 90 days would resent and the count would start upon your arrival back in Thailand.  That made sense for all you are doing is reporting your current address to Immigration, something which you already do upon arrival into the country, but it does seem that some immigration officers / branches believe that exiting the country does NOT reset the 90 day count and that you must discard the time out of the country and simply the follow the date on the last 90 day reporting slip.  I can’t help but feel this all seems rather bureaucratic.