TerraplaneGuy

When I went a couple of months ago (see above) I didn't have a letter or affidavit from my embassy and wasn't asked for one. But as I recounted above, I had to beg to get next-day pickup because they said it would take a week. I just can't understand why something so straightforward takes so long.

Did you find a good shipper? Did you have a look at Seven Seas and DHL? I'm looking at shipping about 10-20 boxes to Bangkok from Canada. Any info appreciated.

I'm not Thai but I've been living here a long time, so I don't have a licence from my home country but I do have a Thai drivers licence.

I meant at Bang Chak (Sukhumvit soi 99). Site is not letting me edit my post lol.

Has anyone recently got an international drivers licence from Thai Dept. of Land Transport? I'm thinking of going to the office at Phra Khanong in Bangkok but there doesn't seem a way to book an appointment online. Just walk in? From their website the requirements seem to be passport (and copy), residence certificate (and copy), Thai drivers licence (and copy) and 2 photos. Anything else?

Excellent! Maybe it was luck or they liked your faces 😉 I can see the advantage of having the boxes arrive with you, but did you compare the cost of shipping them separately? Would it have been cheaper?

Thanks. So what about bringing boxes on a commercial flight, do they check at the airport or can you just wheel the stuff out? Whenever I've arrived at Suvarnabhumi I notice a desk to declare stuff but no procedure actually requiring you to go there and it's been wide open to just exit. Just wondering about the procedure.

What about customs duty? I understand most kinds of goods are subject to import duty although there's apparently an exemption for personal or used effects up to THB20,000. Did you have to pay anything at the airport? I assume it's not easy to just roll 14 boxes past the customs desk that asks if you have anything to declare ... or maybe it is?

OP update: I went this week and although the office was almost empty (about 8 expats, as it's low season) and plenty of staff, the officer told me it would take a week! I could not stay in Samui that long, had flown down just to get stamps transferred. I begged him repeatedly to get it same day, said it was an emergency, and finally he agreed I could pick up the next day (not same day although I was there before it opened). He made it clear he was angry. "You force us to work until midnight!!". As if it takes hours to transfer a couple of stamps lol. But there was NO charge.

OP Update: After getting numerous opinions that transferring at Chaeng Wattana is impossible if you got your stamps at a different office (including from lawyers and agents) and that Suvarnabhumi doesn't do it, I bit the bullet and flew to Koh Samui for the transfer. Arrived before it opened, had everything ready, officer told me it would take 7 days! This despite that there were very few people at the office (it's low season now) and plenty of staff. I told him I had flown down specifically for this, had to return to Bangkok the next day for urgent stuff, etc. etc. He said no. Said I should have done it at Chaeng Wattana!! I told him it's not possible, he said it is, they just have to call Samui office, etc. I begged relentlessly and finally he agreed to do it for pickup the next day. "You're going to make us work until midnight!" he said. But at least the ending was happy, this morning I showed up to pick it up and got it with the correct stamp transfers. As others have said, this kind of thing is idiotic. Visa and entry stamps are a NATIONAL matter, as is everything with Immigration. You are not getting a visa to Surat Thani province, you are getting a visa to the Kingdom of Thailand. Any office (especially the central office at the capital) should be able to transfer these stamps, it's not a question of issuing new ones, just moving the darn things from one passport to another. But instead they forced me to pay for a flight and hotel in Samui. Well, I guess I did my part to boost the tourist industry lol.

Do you recall whether you got it done same day or had to come back the following week for pickup?

I'm not doing an extension, I'm transferring stamps to a new passport and my challenge is I want to do it at CW but my last stamps were done in Koh Samui. Hence thinking of an agent.

Is @thaivisacentre a reliable agency?

Thanks. You're right, my last TM30 says Samui. But you raise an interesting point. Some people here have said it is impossible to get stamps transferred at Suvarnabhumi. Yet I know I've seen posts on older threads by people saying they have done it at the airport. Did you end up transferring stamps there? Because one option I was thinking of was simply to take a quick trip to Malaysia or wherever and get my extension of stay and re-entry stamps transferred to my new passport at Suvarnabhumi.

Chaeng Wattana - BKK. I'm trying to get my stamps transferred to my new passport there. The issue is that I only recently moved back to BKK so my last extension stamp was done in Koh Samui and people say CW is reluctant to do this seemingly straightforward procedure in such cases, instead sends you back to the office you got your last stamp at. I don't want to have to go to Samui for this. I'm thinking an agent could possibly get it done at CW.