Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing 90-day reporting and we are comparing this to visa extension as well as re-entry permit. I thought of making this video after reading a recent email that was actually sent to us by a viewer of our channel. Quoting directly: "Dear Ben, I am told, possibly incorrectly, that the 90-day period does not get reset to zero when you extend your Visa or have other business at Immigration. On August 8, I notified my address twice - once at the visa extension form and once at the re-entry application so logically, and that is a tough call I know, I should not have to notify again until November. However I re-entered Thailand on 24th May so if what I am told is correct, I should have to file a 90-day report next week. If you can bear to address the tedious subject of 90-day recording yet again in your useful videos, perhaps you could offer some guidance on this. Kind regards." Yeah and thanks for the email. Yeah this is one that actually really annoyed me before I got my Thai citizenship, I was still dealing with Non-Immigrant. It actually caused me to end up basically taking a trip oftentimes to put Phnom Penh for the weekend every quarter sometimes to just clear my head but also to deal with this.

So okay. I am going to quote this again. "I notified my address twice. Once on the Visa Extension form and once on the re-entry application." Yeah, no you didn't. They don't view that as the same thing. 90-day reporting does not automatically occur just because you extend your Visa. I made that mistake myself in prior circumstances. The same thing goes for re-entry permit. Just because you went in, you filled out a form that has your address on it for re-entry permit, it's not the same thing as 90-day reporting; ne'er the twain shall meet, they don't have any bearing on one another. I made the same assumption myself; it's really annoying, makes absolutely no sense. One would think that when you check in with Immigration and on that form for your extension, you fill out your address that that would be sufficient, it is not. 90-day reporting is a separate function unto itself. 90-day reporting here in Thailand is something you have to do regardless of whether or not it happened to coincide with your Visa Extension and/or your re-entry permit application. So just because you have notified your address via another form with Thai Immigration for example, in this case extension or re-entry application does not mean you have met the requirement for 90-day reporting.

I actually got fined myself for that, way back in the day. It was kind of back when they brought this back. There was a time, going back 15 years ago, probably the first 5 to 7 years that I was here, they weren't doing 90-day reporting. It was sort of like TM30, it just kind of popped up out of the blue and they started requesting it and we started having to deal with it. I remember being at Immigration and I had done my extension, I can't remember why I was there, but I had done an extension. I was down there for something I don't even remember why and they said "oh you didn't do your 90-day report and they threw a red stamp in there and made me pay a 2,000 Baht fine. I just remember being really hacked off about it and also that the Immigration Officer kept sort of looking down their glasses, looking down their nose over their glasses at me, looking at me like it was somehow my fault. It's like yeah thanks so much. All this bureaucracy and I am supposed to know that this form is not the same as that. It's two separate lines, two separate things. 

Yes, I thought of making this video because that email brought up a really good question which is just because you are extending your Visa doesn't mean that you are automatically doing your 90-day report. The same thing can be said for the re-entry permit process. Just because you file that does not mean you have done your 90-day report. 90-day reporting is its own separate and exclusive process unto itself.