Transcript of the above video:

I thought of making this video after reading a recent comment on our channel, quoting directly: "Not sure about outsourcing but wish they had a TM30 counter at all International Airports to enter the data after arrival for residents." 

So I made a video recently about the prospect of outsourcing aspects of Thai Immigration. I think I made it abundantly clear in that video that I thought it wasn't the greatest idea. I also think that trying to compare things like outsourcing passport services with Immigration functions, while seemingly the same thing really aren't when you look at it at the end of the day. Then this comment was put up on there and I thought they brought up a good point which is the notion of a TM30 counter. As we have discussed in other videos, TM30 is a document which is generally filed with Thai Immigration associated with one's address here in Thailand. It's effectively an ongoing address reporting, different from 90-day reporting. TM30 is sort of a one-off function for your main residence and then every time you arrive in the country and as we have gone over with the cancellation of arrival/departure cards - they no longer use those, at least not at the airports anymore - TM30 kind of came back to the forefront. It was kind of on the back burner for a while, now it is back in the forefront because they are not using arrival/departure cards that tell people where somebody is going to stay and TM30 has come in to sort of pick up that slack. 

So I think it's not a terrible idea if we had TM30 counters, effectively a counter the airport. You arrive in Thailand, you get through Immigration, you walk up to a counter, you fill out a form, you throw it in the hopper and boom off can go, you let them know where you are living and that's your TM30 done and dusted. Again Immigration services unfortunately do not operate on a sort of maximal efficiency model, so I don't necessarily think that this is going to be something that's going to be happening anytime soon. That said, it is worth making a video of for no other reason than to remind people that yeah TM30 is something you still need to deal with from time to time. Mostly where people will find themselves getting jammed up by TM30 is when they have to go deal with Immigration and need something from them - visa extension for example, also letters of residence associated with things like banking - TM30 factors into all of that. But yeah could they make it more convenient? I think they could. Putting up something in the airport to allow people who want to just go ahead and fill out their TM30 on their way out of the airport, probably not a terrible idea.