Photocopy of your passport still good enough? Read this

[windwalker]

Today went to Immigration with my passport after which I had a number of other errands to run. Then I said to myself "are you crazy" to carry my passport risking the loss of it. It cost me a great deal in terms of effort, money and time to get my retirement visa and to lose the passport at this stage of the game would be a disaster. So immediately back to the condo and the passport into the safe before continuing on.

Even worse would be carrying it in areas of bars, clubs etc at night. But each to his own.

[TOQ]

Even worse would be carrying it in areas of bars, clubs etc at night. But each to his own.

That is about the only time I do carry my passport. I don't want any problems in cased the BIB come around and decide to do some farang passport checking.

[Gaybutton]

It cost me a great deal in terms of effort, money and time to get my retirement visa and to lose the passport at this stage of the game would be a disaster.

Actually, that part would be the least of your problems. Immigration has a record of everything. They would re-issue your visa and even print out a duplicate departure card for you. There are no fees for any of that. All you would need would be your new passport and a copy of the police report.

In case of a lost or stolen passport, the first thing to do is report it to the police and get a police report. Your embassy won't issue a new passport without it. Don't forget about passport photos.
Your embassy will charge for a new passport, though - at least the American embassy charges.

[windwalker]

After some thought on how much I have invested in my current passport in the past few years it easily exceeds 30,000 TB so sure don't want to lose it and start over. But, as I said, each to his own.

Chances of being "arrested" for not having passport on me are far less than being killed/injured crossing a street or having a motorbike accident but no one stops crossing a street or riding on a motorbike or a car. At least that is my opinion.

[Gaybutton]

Chances of being "arrested" for not having passport on me . . .

The good news is there have been no further reports of farang arrests for not carrying their actual passport. Most likely now you can carry a photocopy without having to worry about it, although I can't guarantee that. The trouble is there is no way to predict if or when the authorities will start those arrests again.

Most of the time these "crackdowns" don't last very long, whether it's some sort of passport crackdown or anything else. They usually last a couple days and rarely more than a couple weeks. Then any evidence of an ongoing crackdown vanishes. The only exception is the beach vendors. The military still regularly shows up at the beach - armed with tape measures. Woe be unto any concessionaires who even slightly exceed their space allocation. One of the latest "crackdowns" was to be on traffic violators, including motorbikes going the wrong way. I have yet to see or hear anything to indicate this "crackdown" ever even begun, let alone lasted very long.

As long as I've lived here, nearly every so-called crackdown turned out to be nothing more than a joke.

[christianpfc]

In case of a lost or stolen passport, the first thing to do is report it to the police and get a police report. Your embassy won't issue a new passport without it. Don't forget about passport photos. Your embassy will charge for a new passport, though - at least the American embassy charges.

You have to report to the police station of the area where your passport was stolen. Police in Silom even wanted to know if my passport was stolen (Songkran 2013) on the right or left side of Silom road (that would be a different police area). German embassy charges, too. And not little! And if you want your new passport in 4 instead of 8 weeks (!!!) you have to pay an express (!!!) fee.

[Jogger]

“I also want to ask for cooperation from all tourists to carry their passports or a photocopy every time when they go out.”

( I have added the emphasis)

quote from Metro Police Chief:


See:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/904 ... all-times/

[Gaybutton]

quote from Metro Police Chief

The problem is nothing seems to be standardized. As far as I can tell, everything seems to be arbitrary and at the whim of the individual police officer. While one officer might readily accept a photocopy, what can you do about it if another officer won't?

I'm not saying that people have to carry their passport. I'm saying to just be prepared to deal with it if you're unfortunate enough to have an encounter with an officer who won't accept a photocopy.

Chances are none of you will ever be stopped and asked to produce your passport. Nevertheless, the possibility exists, especially if you happen to be in a venue that's open beyond its licensed operating hours and/or is allowing under age customers, and that's when they stage a raid. Most of the time, that's when farang find themselves in trouble. Other than that, you're probably perfectly safe with a photocopy.

[Alex]

If they are serious about National Security, they should issue credit card sized ID cards to all foreigners who are in Thailand legally - and make it compulsory to carry them at all times. From a security point of view, accepting photocopies is a joke, and asking foreigners to carry their original passports is asking too much. So that's my proposal: Abolish the entry and exit stamps, extension stamps, etc., give a photo ID to each and every foreigner instead. Since they would be issued locally, the police could easily verify that they are genuine and whether or not the foreigner's permission to stay has expired. Problem solved, and it's obviously a nice money maker, too. The immigration check in would take a bit longer, but the check out could then be automated.

[Gaybutton]

they should issue credit card sized ID cards to all foreigners who are in Thailand legally

You know why it's unlikely that will ever happen? Because it's a damned good idea. It's a "Why didn't anyone think of that before?" kind of idea. Sometimes I can help the feeling that really good ideas are verboten in Thailand.