Michael Hare

Three weeks ago my wife and I flew up to Luang Prabang for a long weekend. It was my first time out of Thailand since 2019. Since then I have got a brand new passport in 2020 and a new certificate of residence book in 2021 (blue one was full up. The new book is white). I have had PR since 2004. Immigration in Ubon Ratchathani where I live, took over one hour to do the reentry permits in the passport and white book. The application forms were first written and then all the data put into the computer. We flew out of Don Muang on Air Asia. When I went through departure immigration my PR confused the person there. I was drawn aside and told to wait. My books were carried to another desk and the guy there looked into his computer. Finally after 15 mintues the departure stamps were put into both books and I could go. Coming back on arrivial I had similar problems. I think the young officer at the desk had never seen a PR certificate of residence book before. She took the books to a more senior officer. After carefully looking at both books he asked me "Don't you travel out the country very often these days"? I replied that was correct, but I do a lot of traveling within Thailand. My wife now wants us to travel more to avoid these small problems again. I often think that with all these special visa being issued, that us PR holders have been forgotten.

That is interesting. I got a multiple re-entry permit in February 2020. I didn't use it. At the moment I have no plans to leave Thailand in the near future. But when I do, it will be interesting to see if I am charged an extra fee.

When I did my PR application back in 2001, I had to get a certificate of no criminal record from my home country (NZ) and from the Thai police in the city where I live (Ubon Ratchathani). For the NZ certificate, the NZ Embassy in Bangkok got it for me. For the Thai certificate, I just popped along to the main Ubon police station and got it from the head of police there (whom I knew as he was a school friend of my wife).

In my PR book and Alien book there is no mention of my passport number. The main thing is to have the reentry permit in your new passport if you are using that to reenter Thailand using your new passport. I am not sure how you can do that. I guess you depart from Thailand using your old passport with the rentry permit and then you get your new passport in your home country with no reentry permit. I think you then must show the old invalid passport at Thai immigration when you return, showing your reentry permit and the also new valid passport to actually enter. I always get my new passports mailed to me through the post from my home country. My embassy will not issue passports.

These motor bike accidents with tourists seems to be occurring nearly every week. Hiring a motorbike just is so dangerous. Especially if one is a visitor and not used to the dangerous driving here. Why not rent a car? I know renting a car is more expensive (900-1,200 baht/day) but if one is only on holiday for a few days, then the overall expense is not much. I have lived in Thailand since 1974 and whenever I go to Krabi, Koh Samui, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai I rent a car. In Bangkok I use taxis.

No need to inform immigration about travel dates. Just go and come back before September 2024.

https://tohsang.com/khongchiam/

Same here. Every five years at the local police station here in Ubon Rarchathani. Only need the red book and a few photos.

All you need is the red PR book and a passport size photo or two.

Strange. I have lived in Thailand for over 30 years and I have never come across petty bribes and using third parties in cases where I can do the work myself.

From reading the above posts about the difficulty of getting PR it seems to me to be different processes involved with different applications. I applied through the yearly country quota system which is in December of each year. Others it seems to me, apply any time of the year through a business application process. This may be more difficult. With my application, besides all the personal documents, I had to show taxes paid and that I had worked successfully in Thailand and my presence and work had benefitted Thailand in a significant way. On the day of submitting my application I joined a queue of about 8-10 people. From memory at the first desk my application was looked at and maybe a few questions were asked. Didn't take long. None of this 3 hour grill. I think I paid a small application fee which I received a receipt for. With waiting in the queue I was in and out in about 1 hour.

Completely agree. Straight forward process but it took time, especially getting all the documents that were in English translated into Thai. I contaced my embassy in Bangkok and they got the police report from my home country. Likewise, I popped along to my local police station in Thailand and got their report. I did make mistakes with copies of my tax reports as I didn't know that copies of every page had to be signed. Even then, some documents had to be done again but that was no problem. And I flew down to Bangkok four times for interviews etc. On the fourth visit I got my PR.

Do everything yourself. Straight forward.

Not quite on the topic, but if anyone wants a range of food for dinner, the new Centara Hotel puts on a good buffet dinner every Saturday and Sunday evening.

Try https://www.facebook.com/jayjaycarrentubon/ They may have a car and driver