Thailand to eliminate a lot of red tape for foreigners just in time for you!

In the past couple of years people coming to Thailand either as visitors or expats were being exposed to an increasing amount of government prying and information gathering. While the Royal Thai Immigration claimed that these steps were taken to reduce crime, it was often seen as a method of collecting money when fines would be levied for even the smallest mis-step in the rather convoluted process.

After several years of declines in tourism and also a rather large exodus of long-term residents or people deciding to retire elsewhere such as Cambodia, Vietnam, or the Philippines, the government has finally addressed the issues and dare I say, apologized for a bit of it.

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In my travels around the world I have noticed a decrease in the amount of countries that even bother with "Arrival / Departure" cards. I know there are a few but Thailand's was definitely one of the most prying that took some time to fill out and asked certain questions like "religion" "income" "profession" "marital status" "place of birth" (huh?) , and also the exact address where you were going to be staying.

Let's say you booked at the Sheraton on Sukhumvit, or you only know that you booked on such and such hostel on Khao Sahn road; or even worse, that you planned to do what all backpackers used to do and simply turn up and figure out a place to stay once you got to a particular city or area. None of this was allowed anymore - they needed to know precisely where you were staying and if you didn't know the answer to that question, you were not allowed to enter until you either booked something or made up a plausible lie.

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Several years ago, this card was eliminated for all Thai citizens but kept on for everyone else. Oh, if you managed to lose your departure card while touring around Thailand you were in for a patronizing talking to as well as potentially a fine when you try to leave.

It was funny to me that when it was announced just a few days ago that this system was going to be phased out that the reasoning was something along the lines of "We have to maintain huge warehouses to store these forms and no one really knows where any of the individual cards are when we need to retrieve them - which is very rare" - I'm paraphrasing a translation but basically they were announcing something that I always suspected - this paper isn't actually used for anything after you submit it.

My group of pals somehow ended up being friends with one of the Immigration guys in Krabi and he told us over copious amounts of whisky, that mostly they just throw them in the trash.

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The dreaded TM-30

If you dont' stay here a long time this is relatively irrelevant because while it does apply to all visitors, the hotels you stay at submit this form without you even knowing about it. Basically, it was a system so that all non Thais can be tracked at all times during their stay.

I used to own a small hotel and this was an arduous process for my staff and took a very long time to complete. It hardly seemed worth it seeing as how my rooms were as cheap as $5 a night.

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Anyway, the real hullabaloo about this was that international businesses were complaining that they don't have time for this because the expats who live here and have a professional job (of which there are hundreds of thousands) were now required to submit a form before they ever leave their city of residence if they were going to be away from their own home for more than 24 hours. It doesn't matter the reason: Business trip, family vacation, popping over to a friend's house in the next city, random hookup with a ladyboy, passing out in a ditch on the other side of town.....the government needed to know where you were staying at all times.

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_{mam... we need to see your TM-30}

One completely disillusioned government official suggested that they could develop cheap "tracking bracelets" for all non Thais.

A lot of people, like me, refused to participate in this Orwellian system and while it was unlikely to be enforced, there were hefty fines if they decided to bust you.

The crazy thing about this is the fact that people who do manage to come into Thailand with bad intentions such as drug trafficking or terrorism (which is what this is meant to track, primarily) aren't going to participate in it anyway, so what was the point?

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tl; dr

Thailand receives around 20 million tourists per year. This is a lot of pieces of paper that no one is ever going to look at in all likelihood. The tourism minister and one of the higher ups in Immigration did something extremely rare in Thailand: They admitted that they were wrong about these seemingly excessive and rather useless paperwork.

The great news is that they are meant to be creating an app that can be downloaded for free and that someone can perform their arrival information with just 4 clicks. Some people might suggest that this technology could be a way of introducing the "tracking bracelet" and the government doesn't even have to pay for it! I suppose there is some logic to that but ultimately you are in charge of the privacy of your own phone.

In my opinion this is a step in the right direction because those of us that live here and don't cause any problems for anyone else (which is nearly all of us.) Hitting us with more and more reports and papers that must be submitted is a very frustrating experience.

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For those of you visiting during SteemFest, you likely will still have to fill out one of these forms as the app they are developing will take some time (2-3 months was suggested a week ago, so that means it will be 6 months.) However, it will be a momentous occasion for you, because it may be some of the last forms of that sort that are ever used.