Originally Posted by
toddaniels
^It is an often quoted "urban myth" that foreigners must carry their passports all the time in Thailand.. However, there is actually NO law or rule on the record stating this.. The thai version says "valid identification" and that a passport can be asked to be seen, not that it hasta be on your person 24/7.
In fact a while back that wingnut in Phuket who runs the Southern Division of Immigrations came out with the statement that in his area foreigners needed to all carry their passports.. It didn't even take a full day before the head of Immigrations in Bangkok came out with a retraction, saying that no, foreigners most definitely didn't need to carry their passports on their person.
A copy of it, is certainly good enough for most of the b/s reasons you're likely to be asked for it. If it doesn't suffice, they (who ever wants to see the real thing) can lug you back to your room, hotel or where ever you stay to see it.
Conversely the terp80, could have just winged his way here once he got his new passport, garnered a 30 day visa exempt stamp, applied in Bangkok for a single entry 90 day Non-O visa, two weeks later went back and got it stamped into his passport and then 45 days after that applied for a yearly extension of stay based on being over 50..
Still that year long multi-entry Non-Immigrant Type-OA is valuable to have as it gives a year's permission to stay until stamps on every entry for the validity of the visa itself. Playing the dates right you can get almost 2 years in country..