90-day reports and TM30: who files what, and when

People mix these two up constantly, partly because both are about your address and both have a form number instead of a name. They are different obligations, and they usually fall on different people.

	90-day report (TM.47)	TM30
Who files it	You, the foreigner	Whoever houses you — landlord, owner, hotel
When	Every 90 days of continuous stay	Within 24 hours of you moving in
Legal basis	Immigration Act, Section 37(5)	Immigration Act, Section 38
Fine if missed	2,000 THB when late; more if caught	Up to 2,000 THB; hotels 2,000–10,000 THB
Fee	None	None

Neither appears on the Immigration Bureau’s published fee list: filing costs nothing, only missing it does.

The 90-day report

Who has to do it. Any foreigner on a temporary stay permit who stays in Thailand longer than 90 days in a row. In practice that means people on long-stay visas — retirement, education, business, marriage, DTV, LTR. A visitor on a visa-exempt entry (30 days, plus a 30-day extension) never reaches 90 days, so never files one.

The count restarts every time you enter. Leave the country — for a weekend in Malaysia or a month at home — and on re-entry the count starts again at day one. Someone who travels every couple of months may never have to file at all.

The window. From 15 days before the due date to 7 days after it. Filing inside that window is on time. After it, you pay the fine.

Four ways to file:

1. In person at the immigration office for your area, with your passport, the TM.47 form signed by you, your departure card (TM.6) if you were given one, and previous 90-day receipts if you have them.
2. Through someone else holding your authorisation — the Immigration Bureau accepts this explicitly. The TM.47 still has to be signed by you, not by them.
3. By registered mail, Thailand Post only. Bangkok’s Immigration Division 1 wants the envelope to arrive at least 15 days before the due date, and says processing takes around 30 days — so this is the method for people who plan ahead.
4. Online, at tm47.immigration.go.th, up to 15 days in advance. The result comes by email within about three days. The online system does not accept you after a change of passport — report once in person with the new passport, then go back online.

What it costs to miss. Late filing is a fine of 2,000 THB. If you are caught without having filed at all, it is higher: the Immigration Bureau’s central page says 5,000 THB, Bangkok’s Division 1 says not less than 4,000 THB plus daily fines. The Act itself caps it at 5,000 THB plus up to 200 THB a day until you comply (Section 76). Either way: set a reminder.

TM30

Whose job it is. Section 38 of the Immigration Act puts it on the “house-master, owner or possessor of the residence” — or the hotel manager — not on you. They must notify immigration within 24 hours of a foreigner arriving to stay.

Hotels, guesthouses and serviced apartments do this as routine when they scan your passport at check-in. You will not notice it happening.

If you rent privately, it is your landlord’s obligation. They can file online at tm30.immigration.go.th, in person, through a representative or by registered mail. Ask them for the receipt and keep a copy with your passport: it is your evidence that the notification was made.

If you own the condo you live in, you are the owner — and so the person Section 38 is talking about.

The fine for not filing is up to 2,000 THB for a householder, and 2,000 to 10,000 THB for a hotel manager (Section 77). It is the landlord who owes it, but it is you who is standing at the immigration counter when the missing notification becomes a problem, so it is worth checking it was done.

If you would rather not deal with either

Both are simple once you have done them once. But if you are stuck with a first report, a passport change, or a landlord who will not file, it is the kind of thing that is easier to hand over than to fight with.