Also, if you've got any overstay marked in your passport, many of those companies will not provide a service to you. The last one I used specifically mentioned it on their website.

There are companies that offer access to the fast track immigration lanes in Thailand. They are legitimate companies, I use them all the time. They do not, however, offer guaranteed entry to the country. That is up to the Immigration officer. They do indeed meet you at the gate before immigration with a name card. 3,000 baht is expensive though. Shop around.

Every non Thai citizen entering the country is required to have a TM30 filed regarding their residence. Hotels do it for you. When you rent a condo, you will need to make sure it’s done either by the landlord or yourself. Which type of visa, or extension of stay you enter the country on has no bearing on this whatsoever.

Ok, so just wait till you get there then. If they say you need TM28 and TM30 they'll give you the forms. They have forms. They like forms :)

I'd take what's needed for both and find out when you get there, or call them and ask. Isn't it similar paperwork you need for both?

It does, but it takes about a minute to do it online.

It’s in Thai. If your landlord is registered in the system just get him to do it and screenshot the result so you have proof it’s been done.

Wearing? I'm not sure what you mean. We didn't get that far into the conversation because they weren't crossing the border. They don't all have passports so whether or not they would've needed the Myanmar day pass was completely beside the point as it wasn't going to happen.

I'm not sure what you mean about constantly being subjected to this bureaucracy either. Countries have arrangements with each other about how they allow their citizens to travel across borders. Laos allows Thai citizens to enter with their ID cards. Myanmar is a hotch-potch of ex drug lords with sketchy authority granted to them in each of their little fiefdoms in exchange for dressing their paramilitary gangs up in the national army uniform and has odd rules and regulations about who can enter the small regions near the border (but not travel further in country).

At this particular border, Myanmar doesn't allow Thai citizens to cross the border unless they have the correct paperwork. There is a reciprocal arrangement where Myanmar citizens are allowed into Thailand to work on day passes. Most countries would require foreign citizens to have at least a passport in order to cross the border.

Seeing as all there is on the other side is a pretty shitty market it wasn't really an issue. If we had wanted to make a day trip out of it we would have got the necessary paperwork. I was just bouncing in and out to get another 30 day stamp so, no big deal really. We went to the market on the Thai side after I came back. It was fine.

Yeah they were told they would. Not all of them have passports though so that wasn't an option. I'm not sure what they would've needed from the Myanmar immigration though, if they would've needed the ฿500 day pass or not. We didn't get that far into the conversation.

My family came with me to Mae Sai and weren't allowed to cross the border into Myanmar because they only had their ID cards with them. If they wanted to use their ID cards to cross over, they would've needed to go to their Amphur office and get some kind of paperwork to go with it.