Arkady

5 hours ago, Sheryl said:

I recently looked into this as I had Lasik 18 years ago and have cataracts now though not yet needing surgery.

 

The main issue is that the surgeon needs to have the exact measurements of your eyes prior to Lasik, especially the corneal power. So get that data now from your Lasik provider - even if you don't have cataracts now, you likely will sooner or later and you don't want it to be when your Lasik provider has gone out of business or otherwise no longer able to locate your records.  If newly getting Lasik, get that information and store it for future use.

 

It is also advisable to have the cataract procedure done by an opthalmoligist experienced in doing so on Lasik patients. Dr. Roy at Rutnin is one such.

 

 

Thanks a lot for that.  That was exactly the information I wanted for my own wife who is also contemplating Lasik for her near sightedness.

I fully endorse Dr Roy.  He did my macular hole and cataract surgery in  both eyes which were an hour and a half procedures.  A very knowledgeable and competent surgeon.  He told me about the Jetrea injections for macular hole which were not yet approved by the Thai FDA at the time and which he personally thought would not be a reliable option, just so I could know there was another option to surgery I could have overseas, if I wanted to look into it.  I did look into it and found a top surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital who concurred 100% with Dr Roy's approach to my case and and also declined to use Jetrea, which was already in use in the UK. He said his only experience with Jetrea was operating on patients who had been unsuccessfully treated with it by other surgeons (who often exaggerated the benefits).  Probably treatment with Jetrea or other injectable drugs will be refined enough in future that certain types of retina surgery will no longer be needed but it seems that more work is needed.   Perhaps Dr Roy wouldn't have mentioned Jetrea to patients who would have been confused by additional options but he knew I had an interest in researching my eye condition and had already seen specialists overseas about it.

I read somewhere that having lasik places limitations on the types of multifocal IOLs that can be implanted when you later need cataract surgery, or makes them less effective.  Has anyone heard anything about this?

12 hours ago, aussieinphuket said:

90 pct of villas and a much smaller percentage of condos would be owned this way if thailand changed it antiquated laws about minimum 3 directors per company and 2 must be thai and control 51 pct it wouldnt happen or maybe to a much lesser extent..

A  Thai company only needs one director who doesn't have to be Thai.  I was the sole director of a Thai company, as a foreigner, for about 10 years.  

On 8/12/2018 at 11:16 AM, Tocher said:

I had both lenses replaced after separate incidents of detached retina about six years ago and for a couple of years I enjoyed perfect vision with no side effects apart from an initial period of adjustment as my brain got to grips with my being able to see again (I was -11 and -9). The total cost was about 350,000 Bt. and each procedure entailed just one night in hospital and was actually quite a pleasant experience. No post op pain at all.

 

But as the years have gone by my eyesight has deteriorated again and I am back to wearing glasses  (I'm now -1.5 and -2 so not drastic). Lens replacement does not guarantee 20/20 vision for ever. On the plus side I don't think I'll ever get cataracts.

 

I can recommend Rutnin Eye Hospital on Asoke Road, excellent staff and facilities.

I paid a total of B340,000 for cataract surgery along with vitrectomy and macular hole repair in both eyes at Rutnin.  I thought the cost was reasonable as macular hole repair is a delicate procedure that can easily be messed up, involving peeling 2-6 microns of membrane from the central part of the retina. AXA PPP covered all costs.  Results from all parts of the procedures have been good, I am glad to say.  I don't know what it would have cost in the West but an OCT retina scan and a consultation with a top retina specialist at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London cost me GBP 250, whereas the same thing at Rutnin was B5,300.  Both my British and Thai retina specialists are world class in my opinion.  I don't know if the same differential exists with surgery fees.

21 hours ago, Thaiwrath said:

It would be absolutely impossible to enforce, unless people are prepared to wait, literally, hours whilst the I.O. checks the validity of the documentation given to them, showing insurance.

Absolutely right. If they want to do this, it would make sense to restrict it to people applying for visas which, for most nationalities, are for longer term stays than transit visas. The embassies and consulates and Immigration town offices have time to review the insurance documents. Thais have to get medical insurance to visit Western countries, so on a reciprocal basis it would fair dos.  However, to make it more viable for long term stayers, they should come up with some type of insurance that allows foreigners to get treatment at private or government hospitals that is reasonably priced and doesn't cut people off at 70.

17 minutes ago, Wake Up said:

I am 58 and have cataracts and appreciate your post. The Rutnin doctor diagnosed my cataracts and told me I could have surgery now but probably should wait and get yearly check ups and do the surgery later. 

I think there's optimum time for both the patient and the surgeon.  Easier to remove (obliterate with ultrasound) the old lens when it's ripe but not overdone. The patient notices more benefit from the surgery when it's progress to a certain stage and it is more worthwhile taking the risk.  Cataracts usually develop quite slowly and the patient will not notice any visual impairment in the early stages. However, they progress at different rates in different people, so the surgeon might think you could last many years without needing the surgery.  The problem I had with cloudy vision needing laser surgery after the cataract procedures is much rarer when you just have cataract surgery alone and don't have a vitrectomy and gas injected into your eye.  So probably no need to worry much about that and it is easily fixed anyway.

Rutinin is definitely the place to go, if it is convenient for you.  It is the only specialised eye hospital in Thailand and I don't think charges any more than any other private hospital. Other hospitals might employ an ophthamologist who is only so so just to fill a slot but Rutinin only does eyes, so it is likely to be extremely picky about who it takes on.

43 minutes ago, atyclb said:

 

i have zero commercial interest in any medical facility.  some interesting and fascinating historical perspective. 

 

 

LASIK surgery is already a big hit in USA, but the story behind this radical technique takes us to Bogota, capital of Colombia.

 

The Russians pioneered the technique before LASIK by opening up the eye to reshape the cornea with a scalpel or other cutting instrument.  They discovered the process by accident while treating car accident victims who had glass in their eyes. In the late 70s they moared a hospital ship in offshore waters opposite Larnaca in Cyprus, promoting it to tourists on shore.  I know two people who had the surgery there while on holiday, having not known about it before they went.  Both were quite pleased with it, although the full benefits were not permanent.  My former boss was one of them, formerly a life-time wearer of coke bottle glasses and contacts with -6 shortsightedness.  He eventually had to go back to wearing low powered contacts as the effects wore off but was happy that he could see enough to go the bathroom etc without glasses in the middle of the night and that, if he wore glasses they were no longer the coke bottle type.

As mentioned by Jerry, floaters, which are very common after cataract surgery, are another consideration following cataract surgery.  Most of them dissolve and go away but you can be left with some permanent floaters which your brain will try to adapt to. I have a floater which I originally mistook for a mosquito and tried to swat it.  It is still there two years later but I am still much better off after surgery, as I would have lost my entire central vision without the macular hole surgery.  Cataract was just an add on.  

30 minutes ago, Dionigi said:

I had my lenses replaced at Bangkok Pattaya hospital seven years ago. The procedure was painless, one night in hospital and antibiotic eye drops for a couple of weeks to ensure no infections. You are shown exactly what your sight will be after the operation. This does not give overall vision at any distance but for me the problems are small. It does not last forever as if the original problem was weak muscles around the eye then they will continue to weaken. This is why the operation should only be carried out if you have been a number of years and the prescription for lenses has not altered.

I found that I have a halo around lights at night time and was told that it would go away although it has decreased it is still noticeable. Overall I am well pleased with the operation and would recommend anyone to talk to the doc at Bangkok Pattaya hospital to find out if they are suitable and how much as the cost differs.

You point out another significant issue to do with cataract surgery.  Because the the IOLs need some space for seating in the capsule, their diameter is always going to be fractionally shorter than the natural crystalline lenses they replace.  That means you get some light scattering around the peripheries of the IOL that results in the halo effect at night, particularly noticeable from car headlights when driving at night.  The perception of this is normally a bit less pronounced when the procedure is indicated by the presence of actual cataracts.  This is because cataracts tend to cloud the crystalline lenses from the outside in, rather than clouding the whole lens equally.  Thus cataract patients have often already been experiencing the halo effect caused by light scattering around the the clouded peripheries of their crystalline lenses before surgery.  So the halos caused by the IOLs may not be much worse than the effect caused by the cataracts.  Patients having cataract surgery performed before they have cataracts should expect to notice a more pronounced halo effect.  The effect doesn't go away or improve but your brain can adjust so that you don't notice it so much.  

One of the problems associated with soft contact lenses, which many people having IOLs implanted before they have cataracts opt for, is a worse halo effect.  You can read reviews of the different brands online and always get the surgeon to explain which brand he is planning to implant and why.  I complained about the halo effect after my first macular hole and cataract surgery and the surgeon decided to use a different brand in the second eye which produced a lesser halo effect.  The halo effect was quite noticeable in my case because I had cataract surgery prematurely due to the fact that the gas injected into the eye during macular hole surgery invariably accelerates cataract formation. Therefore many surgeons will suggest cataract surgery at the same time, rather than have the patient come back for it within two years.    

Visit Immigration after you have got the new passport for replacement visa. If your current visa is no longer legible, provide details of it with date and flight number of your last entry to the Kingdom.

23 hours ago, samran said:

In my experience they generally just don’t care. The only people who do care are the airlines who need to know you have a visa, or the right to enter the destination. You don’t make it as far as immigration unless the airline give you a boarding pass.

 

We regularly go through as a family and as such can’t use the gates given the kids are too young. The whole ‘where is your visa’ question has never been asked. 

Fortunately it has not happened to me but I heard from several duals including luk krung, Thais naturalised as aliens and aliens naturalised as Thais in the past that they were asked for their "other pp" when they presented to an IO with a boarding pass to a country that requires visas. A Thai naturalised as an alien presented a US passport and got scolded being told "you know you are not supposed to have another nationality".  To which he said, "No, I didn't know that," and was allowed through without further issue. A naturalised Thai said it happened to him several times and the IO was rather surly but didn't make any comment.  Some luk krung have received the same surly treatment as the naturalised Thai. All these cases happened some time ago before the e-gates were installed. Hopefully there has been a change of policy since then, now they know that thousands of duals are passing through the e-gates without them being able to waste their time and everyone else's by scrutinising Thai passports for a visa to the destination country which is the job of the airlines anyway.

Mrs Arkady came up against a thoroughly unpleasant female IO on her way to London when the e-gates were not working yet again. The IO spent a long time looking for her 10 year UK visa which she was too stupid to understand, so needed it explained to her.  However, it seemed like the IO was more intent on insulting Mrs A by insinuating that she was not really travelling with her husband but was going to work illegally as a hooker or some such, no doubt out of jealously that she had no chance to travel to Europe herself. Meanwhile, I was being stamped through visaless by a smiling male IO in another queue without any questions.  On another occasion I encountered a female IO who was profusely apologetic that I had had to wait 30 minutes in a huge queue due to the non-functional gates (apparently it is considered perfectly OK for foreigners to wait in huge queues) and didn't look for visas.  Non of this will prevent me from getting butterflies whenever I have to go through a manual counter, filled with paranoid thoughts about the declaration.    

On 8/7/2018 at 2:40 AM, Maestro said:

 

The likelihood of your getting fined for overstay depends largely on your answers to the following two questions:

1. Were you, as your above post suggests, born outside Thailand?
2. When flying to Australia in a few months, do you intend to present your Australian or your Thai passport to the Thai immigration official for the Thai departure stamp?

Question to @ubonjoe and iothers: can a passenger with a Thai passport use the electronic immigration gate also on departure, not only on arrival?

Definitely the e-gates are the way to go but passports presented there should be subjected to the same computerised check that the IO subjects them to.  If the system makes a match with a foreign passport overstay, it will throw up a red flag and not let the passenger through, obliging him to go to a manned counter. 

Just arrive early and go through the e-gates.  I would guess the chance that nothing will happen is at least 50% but have B20k and a copy of the Constitution in your pocket in case it's not your lucky day.  If they want to fine you, ask for the supervisor and tell them very politely and calmly that, in your opinion, this would be inconsistent with the Constitution.  If they insist, ask to take details of their names and ranks because you feel a fine would infringe your constitutional rights as a Thai citizen and on principle you would look like to pursue the issue in the Administrative Court.  Most officials are terrified of getting bogged down in cases in the Administrative Courts because it is very slow and burdensome for them and decisions sometimes go against them.  A good example was two naturalised Thais whose citizenship was revoked by order of the Interior Minister after they were involved in some type of gambling business.  The case took 16 years to pass through all levels of the Admin Courts and finally the Supreme Administrative Court found that the minister was wrong to revoke their citizenship, ordering the Interior Ministry to restore it. If they believe you are not bluffing about the Admin Court, they are quite likely to back down immediately, rather than having a case hanging over them for years, which they would in all likelihood lose, since the must know the legal grounds to fining a Thai for overstaying are somewhat flimsy to say the least but just think it is something they can get away with and serves people right for trying to mess up their system with two passports.

1 hour ago, GabbaGabbaHey said:

I have a question regarding the case that after you got Thai ID and passport, the automatic gate is not available or not working and you're on your way by direct flight to your Western country of origin, obviously with no visa in the Thai passport. What is the way to answer Thai custom officers questions that, I guess, will be about how come you have no visa, you must have dual nationality, show me your other passport (what nobody wants to be doing, from what I understand) and so forth... Can someone who has real experience of this situation remind me what happens or how to handle it?

I have twice come across the situation that the e-gates were not working and another more serious problem that the scanner which seems to be very old, poor quality technology will not recognise my prints half the time, although my iPhone 5 never failed to recognise them.  I have been sent to the manual queue several times with a sinking feeling, depending on where I was going or returning from.  The manual IOs never seem to care much when you are returning.  The risk is on the way out but they either didn't look or didn't care when it happened to me.  I think you are best to say that it is in process but renunciation is quite difficult and takes a long time waiting for the minister's approval in your country, just like in Thailand.  People I know who have been challenged said the IO just wanted to know how you were going to get into the other country and forced them to show the other pp but didn't say anything more. Again there are many thousands of duals going through every day and most officials have no clue about the law, although some have been told that dual is wrong, which it is not in the case of most of them, who are look krung.  Of course, no one wants to be a test case.  But what do you do?  Always travel via HK, S'pore etc?

6 hours ago, onthemoon said:

That will be a problem, because 1.) my accounts already show the Thai ID number rather than the passport number, and 2.) the moment I use my foreign passport in Thailand, the Thai citizenship will be automatically revoked.

 

I earn my money in Thailand but need to remit small amounts (below US$ 10,000) regularly to overseas. If I cannot do that, it would be a show-stopper for me. 

My account was also switched to my ID number but it was the lady in charge of the forex desk at that branch that suggested that solution and she didn't care that I had to use my ID card to withdraw the funds from the account first.  I needed to send $30k overseas urgently to cover an unintended short position that could not be covered in time from my overseas account. I was quite reluctant to do it but it was the only viable solution at the time and it worked. Later something similar  occurred and I did the same thing at the same branch with the same employee.  As already mentioned the head of the forex section told me there are thousands of those forms sent to the BoT every day and they are all filed eventually in the circular filing basket without anyone looking at them.  If you remit USD 50k plus in either direction you have to submit an extra layer of documentation which is probably actually glanced at in the BoT.  However, the banks are quite happy to remit several hundred USD at a time, as long as these forms are completed and all boxes look as if they have been ticked. For things like remittance of principle and interest on foreign loans they have to accept English language loan docs and the bank staff usually can't be bothered to look at them at all, even for up to a million USD.

Bottom line is this is something to bear in mind if you have to remit funds urgently but I would not make a habit of it. There are ways to do it using your ID card, if it is a regular non-urgent thing. It is not the BoT's job to sniff out dual ditizens of which are now many thousands residing in Thailand, mainly look krung. It might only become an issue, if you became the subject of a money laundering investigation which is not going to happen if you remit small amounts.

11 hours ago, onthemoon said:

Another questions just came up: Right now, as an expat, I can transfer funds to my overseas accounts without problem as "salary repatriation". As a Thai citizen, there is no repatriation to any overseas country; will I still be able transfer funds to my overseas accounts?

BBL suggested the easiest way to remit overseas was to use a foreign passport for the Bank of Thailand documentation, as there is checking or follow up, if you remit modest amounts, due to the huge volume of routine fx transaction documents going to the central bank. In fact the whole system is redundant as there is no man power to do the work and very little point in doing it anyway.  It is a hang over from a former era with strict capital account controls that the BoT can't bring itself to let go of.  They had no problem using an ID card to withdraw the money from the account.  Either way I souldn't worry too much about transferring dosh overseas in future.

On 8/5/2018 at 11:49 AM, kirstymelb101 said:

Hmmm okay, I think you guys have gone off topic a little! As mentioned, the OP was in the same situation as me. That's why I'm curious as to what happened in his case? I'm guessing the 20k fine is unavoidable, the ban stamp in my Aus pp howeva I'm unsure of what will happen..... I haven't found any clear cases like mine other than the OP's... I'm  sure I won't get in any real trouble once they establish I'm a Thai. But this is Thailand, and in reality it all depends on the officer I deal with at the time ? ?

You will be fined the 20k, if they are able to match you to your entry on the Oz passport, but you won't be blacklisted or get into any other trouble.  However, it would not be worth trying re-enter on the Oz passport to test this, if you are caught. Their software is not perfect and they are not able to make the match in 100% of cases. It's worth arriving at the airport early, so you can argue the toss, if they want to fine you.  Ask to see the supervisor and show him or her the relevant clause in the constitution.  If you can't get them to back down by the time you need to go the gate, just smile politely, pay up, wai the officers and move on.

The police order was clearly intended for people who have renounced Thai nationality or are entitled to Thai nationality but don't have a Thai passport,  which could either be because they haven't organised one yet or have another nationality that strictly forbids dual nationality.  Due to the wording they have to include anyone who has a Thai parent and entered the Kingdom on a foreign passport, whether they have a Thai passport or not.

Immigration has adopted the practice of treating anyone who enters the Kingdom on a foreign passport as an alien, which is a not unreasonable point of view, particularly as they need to close out the loop on aliens' visas.  It is my opinion that any Thai who was charged an overstay fine could file a case in the Administrative Court and would might win.  On the other hand, the court might take the view that the person presented himself to Immigration as a foreigner and did not disclose that he was also a Thai citizen at the point of entry.  Therefore Immigration was in its rights to take the foreign passport at face value and treat the holder as a alien.  I would put my money on the overstayer winning but it is rather academic because no one would spend significant money on legal fees or spend a huge amount of time to try to get back only 20k.  The UK clearly allows Brits to enter on foreign passports, if they feel like it, and then will not take any action against them for overstaying when they know they are Brits.  But Thailand doesn't have any clear rules on dual citizenship or entering the country on a foreign passport.  So it is left to the interpretation of individual officials.

The bottom line is how long will you be prepared to spend arguing with an Immigration officer who insists on fining you 20k.  It would be worth asking to see the shift manager, of course, but would you be willing to miss your flight to keep on arguing, if they don't back down.  Ubon Joe has already given the best advice - hope to slip through the net but bring 20k in cash with you in case you are fined and can't persuade the supervisor that he has no constitutional right to fine you.  Alternatively with a little planning it is easy enough to either leave the country or extend the visa under the police order rule before it is expires and then return on your Thai passport.  I don't see any point in arguing over the fact that Immigration chooses to consider someone who enters on a foreign passport as a foreigner.  In most cases they are correct.

On 8/2/2018 at 3:41 PM, GabbaGabbaHey said:

You're right, March 27th was just the day the Interior Minister approved that batch so it seems it took two months for it to be published to RG.

I have seen time lags of up to 5 months between the date of the minister's signature on the announcement and its actual publication in the RG. Normally it seems to take 1-2 months.  Seems to be some sort of variable bureaucratic delay in the RG publication process for non-urgent announcements.  Article 44 announcements seem to take place at lightening speed. 

22 hours ago, THAIJAMES said:

Unfortunately as a PR holder with 2 more years to go, before I can apply for citizenship, the same thing will probably happen that happened after my PR application.... change of governments and 8 years of waiting until PR was approved.

Making someone wait 8 years for PR is an utter disgrace.  You must feel very frustrated waiting to apply for citizenship.  All I can say is that if Prayut gets his wish and returns as PM, he is sure to put up a fight to keep the Interior Ministry in a safe pair of hands and keep current policies going. Alternatively they might manage to delay elections even longer, which I personally wouldn't mind too much as I will be allowed to vote in 2020, not that I can see anyone worth voting for.

15 hours ago, qualtrough said:

It seems pretty universally recognized here that the current government has acted to speed up and improve the process, but does anyone know why? I can't think of any domestic pressure to do so. Is there some international influence, perhaps treaty obligations and that sort of thing? Theories?

Nothing to do with treaty obligations.  The only treaty that could possibly apply re citizenship is the Convention against Stateless to which Thailand is a signatory and flagrantly violates on a regular basis. There is little sign that this government cares any more about the hundreds of stateless minorities born on Thai soil than any of its predecessors, viz the revelations of the stateless cave boys and coach who are to all intents and purposes as Thai as the next man but denied the same rights and privileges as their neighbours for no good reasons and no benefit to the nation.

I think it was genuinely a part of their bad guys out, good guys in policy, since they have applied the same philosophy to PR applications, as well as had regular crack downs on overstayers, albeit focused on black ones, and started enforcing existing laws on overstays more seriously.  In addition I believe that Gen Anuphong was genuinely repulsed by the corruption, sloth and general condescending attitude he found at the Interior Ministry, some of it related to previous politico ministers but much of it to do with the institution itself.  He initiated an immediate reshuffle of top mandarins there and put his own people at the top. The military views the Interior Ministry as a key ministry from the point of view of national security and also that vetting people for PR and citizenship as a national security role.  So I believe that Anuphong saw these processes involving foreigners as just one of the many issues related to national security that previous governments had allowed to get mired in corruption and sloth, thus endangering the nation state.  Just my take but I believe the military mindset is something like this, even though corruption and sloth cannot be said to be totally absent from the military itself. After the 2006 coup something similar happened but on a more limited scale as the coup appointed government only stayed in power for a year and comprised many indolent retired bureaucrats rather than military men.  Even so, it should be noted that Gen Sarayud as prime minister chose to take the Interior portfolio himself and did, in fact, approve a significant number of backlogged citizenship applicants, although nothing much was done for PR applications, the process for which was totally disrupted by the Thaksin government and only just back to normal under the current government, meaning approvals within 12 months.      

1 hour ago, THAIJAMES said:

Have only the highest respect for Arkady.  I think he was only saying that in regards to citizenship issues, the current government has generally been more efficient and faster than previous governments.  Anybody that follows Thai citizenship issues would agree.

 

To infer that he would take political sides or that he sees issues in black and white disrespects the tremendous amount of help and insight that he has provided on this thread.

You are right.  I only point out political changes in so far as they affect the citizenship process.  The political shift following the 2014 coup is fact and is actually documented.  A notice was posted by the interior ministry a few months after the coup saying that citizenship had been approved for 365 people (all wives), many of whom, said the announcement, had been waiting as long as 7 years and the ministry wanted to give them certainty about their status and conclude the process for them.  The announcement published the names informally by after the minister had signed but they had not yet been gazetted (no need for royal approval or the oath for wives) with a warning that they should not pay money to anyone who claimed to be able to expedite the process (obviously knowing that many dishonest lawyers and brokers are tipped off by officials before the RG announcement and claim to their clients there is suddenly a chance to get the minister to sign a batch if they pay B200k, which they share with the corrupt official that tipped them off.  This was a quite extraordinary change in the process and clearly indicated that a new broom was in charge and that things were going to be faster and more transparent (good guys in bad guys out).  MoI staff confirmed at the time that the minister had ordered them to speed things up and try to adhere to a specific timeline, rather than just hiding behind the "minister's discretion" and blaming him, as in the past (often with some justification).   At the same time as approving the wives, the minister signed off on the backlog of male applicants but there was no announcement because they had to be forwarded to the Palace at that stage.  He signed off on a batch of applicants who had already received royal approval and made the oath but were in limbo in months because no one would sign for them to go into the RG during the political turmoil.  One of those was myself. 

I have not commented that coups are a good thing or given an overall view of the current government but it has certainly been good for citizenship (and PR) applications.  This can't go on for ever.  So hurry while stocks last! 

1 hour ago, Neeranam said:

Does anyone know if there is a MOI interview day every month, or every three months, and how many applicants are seen in one day.

I heard it was about 50, is this right?

 I was also told that there was a backlog of 300, so trying too estimate a time, as it's important for my career.

AFAIK they aim to hold them monthly but getting all 15 committee members from various departments (7 I think being from parts of the MoI), as prescribed in the Nationality Act is not feasible on a monthly basis.  I would guess they hold interviews 10 times in a good year and less in bad years.  Under the previous political governments they got rather slack at holding them and I think it drifted to around every other month but Gen Anuphong lit a fire under them and told them to set timelines which has speeded things up.   I am not sure how applicants they are including at present.  They tend to vary the format.  Some years ago they tried interviewing several applicants simultaneously at different tables but that presumably didn't work out.  At one point they decided to interview only in the mornings but I think they interviewing all day now.