Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing production of a passport for Thai Immigration purposes. I thought of making this video after reading a recent comment on our channel, quoting directly: "Yes, yes, some old stuff, simple, however let me give you something to ponder. I have many guests and do online TM30, easy. However, like lately, some silly folks from USA refuse to show their passport as they are concerned about ID theft. Never mind that normal hotels will demand them; never mind that the cash exchange and rental shops will, so WHAT? They trust me less than all the local scammers. Really? End result could be problems for me if they need stay in the Land of Smiles longer than planned, whatever reasons. I nearly told them don't leave the USA and enjoy watching stupid brainwashing news." 

Well I don't know about the stupid brainwashing news but what I can say is yeah folks, if you are in Thailand, you are a foreign national, a USA passport holder whatever, there are going to be times you are going to have to produce your passport for Immigration purposes. One example, I believe this person who was making the comments owns guest house, they are complying with Thai Immigration Law which requires the filing of a TM30 form. People got into me, there was another video where I was talking about TM30 and I said well if you are in a Tourist Visa status, you don't really need to worry about if you are under 90 days. The point I was trying to make there and the presumption I made was that you were in a hotel and so the hotel would just do your TM30 and then sort of whatever you did, as long as you didn't stay longer than 90 days wasn't really something that you needed to worry about. I also may have conflated my thinking about, well or general thinking about 90-day reporting which is you don't have to deal with 90-day reporting if you're not here for 90 days. But my major presumption was these folks were staying in hotels, which again I guess I get to be burned in the comments every time I am not explicitly precise in my exact language in all of these videos, which I make for free by the way just FYI, but the long story short and the reason for this one is look yes, you are going to have to produce your passport if you are a foreign national in Thailand from time to time. I myself have gotten a little frustrated with this and it does seem to be especially an American thing, I don't know if news channels over there just constantly go on and on about the possibility of ID theft but honestly ID theft is not something I have ever seen an issue with here in Thailand. I have never really seen that problem per se. Yeah a little bit in the sense of, especially back in the day, Khao San Road would have like fake IDs on sale, things of this nature but this ID theft in the context that I think a lot of Americans think of it, I am not saying it's impossible to happen here, I am not even saying it doesn't happen here, it is just I don't think it is quite the frequent occurrence that maybe some people do. Meanwhile yeah, if you are a foreign national here and you are staying in a place, they have got to file a TM30 on you and therefore they are going to need to see your passport. Hotels require this, it is just the nature of the beast. I mean when ever I go over to Cambodia I always have to present my passport to the hotel clerk when I check into my hotel in Phnom Penh for example. It is the same over here in Thailand, it's just the way it is.