delboy

Always the farang's fault by being too many in number, never immigration's fault.

A few ways to improve things:

Employ more immigration officers

Abolish the meaningless 90 day report

Introduce 3 and 5 year visa extensions

Can't see any of those being introduced, more likely the amount required in the bank increased to 1.5 Million baht with no grandfathering. Possibly, with Thai logic, if there are too many applicants, abolish long term visa extensions, and force everyone to leave the country after 30 days.

I made my first visit to the new office today, for a re-entry permit. I arrived at 2pm, handed my form and photocopies to the lady on the desk, and she told me I needed copies of all the used pages in my passport. No problem, I always take copies in case they are requested. I was given red ticket number 37. They were processing ticket 33. There were about 20-30 people waiting outside.

I talked to a couple of German tourists who were extending their tourist visas. They had been waiting since 11am. They were called inside, so I turned to another person in the queue to get any info I could. It seems he came with a friend at 7am to extend their visas for reason of retirement. He got a ticket and was told he would not be seen until late afternoon, but his friend was told all numbers had been given out for the day.

I was called inside at 2.20 and it took 5 minutes to stamp the permit into my passport.

Today at the Promenada office I asked an officer about the online queue system and he said it was "closed permanently". He said there were two reasons. Since the move to the new office they had no space for more than one officer to process applications, and they had no time to process the applicants with appointments and the applicants without appointments. They had also received complaints that people were unable to get an online reservation. If you are already booked, then you will be seen at the appointed time, but no new appointments will be accepted.

The officer spoke good English, as did his assistant, who agreed with him. So there doesn't seem to be any case for misunderstanding.

This seems like a big step backwards to me, as they still have the same number of applications to process.

One can only hope that it is being improved, maybe more slots per day, or more days in advance to book. The lack of posts on here seems to indicate that appointments already booked are still being honoured. There will certainly be a lot of slots available for a short time if it does come back.

I have a question. Using the sample electric bill that BJ brightened up..... the billed amount for electric used

is 1080.32 B... then there is 219.42 added before VAT is figured in.... what is the 219.42 for.... is this a fuel surcharge or something ?????

Thanks

The bill is calculated, and then the FT (fuel tarriff?) is added. Currently it is 0.4961 baht per unit.

However, your bill seems to be for 318 units which should produce a FT of 157.76 baht and a VAT of 86.67 to total 1324.75 (give or take a few satang), so I don't know what the 219.42 is.

My wife has a UK state pension. Originally it was paid into a SCB account, and she wanted to get it paid into an existing Bangkok Bank savings account. She simply wrote to the UK Pensions department stating her NI number and details of both accounts, and she received confirmation of the change within a month. No interruption of payments.

The Pub on Huay Kaew has been visited and told they are within 300 metres of a school, and possible the Maya is also in the same radius. I talked to a friend in management at Tesco and he says Tesco are seeking clarification, but at present they believe any place, including supermarkets, 7-11, etc will not be allowed to sell alcohol in the vicinity of a school. The Airport Plaza is bang opposite the Far Eastern University, so I suppose that will be included.

The last time I went for a 90 day report (a month ago, at the old office), the guy in front of me was asked for proof of residence. He was told that it is necessary for first time reporting at an office. His last report was at Jomtien where he has a condo and was living at the time. He also has a condo in Chiang Mai and was making his first report at Chiang Mai. He had a phone bill, an electricity bill, and an internet bill all in his name at his Chiang Mai address, but they were all refused. He was repeatedly asked for a lease agreement, and he repeatedly answered that he didn't have a lease, he was the owner.

A Thai lady explained in Thai, so there was no misunderstanding, and they even brought a higher-rank officer to explain that he needed to produce the lease agreement he didn't have. He offered to bring his condo ownership documents, but they wouldn't accept it.

By this time they had processed my 90 day report and I left.

Perhaps this explains why some people are being asked for proof of residence, and others are not.

I hope the security service has been told to expect some arrivals at 5am.

When I got married in Bangkok over 30 years ago to a Thai lady, I decided to register the marriage in the UK. Recently, when we both applied for our UK pensions, it was no hassle to send them copies of the UK registered certificates.

I had lots of speed problems on my 3BB 15Mb connection until I stopped the wireless connection and switched to a wired connection using an ethernet cable. Since then I've had no problems and no sign of throttlling.

I use Skype to landlines in the UK quite often, credit bought with Thai debit card. Quality is usually excellent, credit is valid for ever, as long as you make at least 1 call every 6 months. I was asked what number I wanted displayed when I created the account, but it only accepted a mobile number not my landline.

I "lost" my card some time ago at the Airport Plaza and had to pay a 100 baht fine, they gave me a receipt. When I got home I found the card and the next week when I went back to the Airport Plaza, they refunded the 100 baht when I produced the card and receipt.

One day last month they were giving out cards again at the Airport Plaza, first time for several years, but on subsequent visits no cards.

In the early 90's I had to get a new DL every year for 105 baht. Every year they asked me if I wanted a lifetime DL, every year I said yes, then, after a discussion they said I couldn't have one. In 1995 they asked again, and, to my surprise I was issued one for 1005 baht.

I was recently stopped in a routine check, and the officer seemed surprised at the lifetime DL, and they used their laptop to check if it was valid. It passed the check ok.

The first Thai ID card issued after your 60th birthday is valid for life.

I last went to see what the new offices would look like about a month ago. It seems to me that there are 3 adjoining units. The largest is probably the waiting area, which is about the size of the current waiting area, or slightly smaller. The middle unit is probably for the immigration officers, and the third unit may be for a photocopying room. Unless the services provided are split between the existing office and the new one, I can't see that the waiting area at the new location will be big enough, however that is only my opinion, we have to be be patient and see what transpires on the 20th.

My driving licence does show my passport number, but I've had 3 new passports since it was issued. When I got my first new passport I went to the office to inform them, but they said there was no need to tell them.

My wife asked the guy at the 90 Day desk today. Question was "When are you moving to the new office" answer was "We're not moving." She followed up by saying that she had heard that Immigration was moving to the Promenada Mall, still the same answer "We're not moving". I only heard what was said after we left the building, so I have no idea if he meant the 90 Day reporting is not moving, or if he meant Immigration is not moving, or if he didn't know anything, or if he's been told to say nothing.

He also asked my wife why I didn't do the 90 Day report online, my wife told him it doesn't work for everyone, he said he hadn't heard that, and the office was wondering why not many people were reporting online.

Either Immigration are not passing information to their staff, or he was just being cautious in what he said.

I was checking out the units at the Promenada that have been suggested here as the new location for Immigration. There are 2 or 3 empty units there. One of the units contains a long desk, as you can see from the photo, but the other units are completely empty. My wife asked the girl who was sweeping the terrace outside the units, and she was told that there had been no work done there for a few weeks.

I fail to see how this is going to be ready for next month, but who knows in Thailand.

The Promenada Mall opens at 10am, but the Immigration Office opens at 8.30 am, so how is that going to work? Also, unless Immigration employs more staff, the night security staff at the Mall are not going to be happy with visa extension applicants arriving at 5am.

I recently set up the Bangkok Bank feature that enables an SMS to be sent whenever there is an international transfer to my account. However, my UK state pension which is paid "directly" into my account does not trigger the SMS. The answer was that the pension is not transferred directly into my account, it is transferred into another account in Thailand, and from there into my account. So when I receive the money it is classed as a domestic transfer.

I further investigated the charges imposed by Bangkok Bank on the crediting of the pension. They produced the transfer documents which showed that their charges are 100 baht fee, plus 0.1% of the amount.

My pension arrives every 4 weeks and the exchange rate favourably compares to the TT rate at the time.

I bought a TrueMove SIM card last year. As I was not certain it was registered, I called at the True shop recently to check . The lady took my passport and checked on her computer. She told me that it had been registered, but my passport number did not agree with the database. Not surprising as I got a new passport since buying the SIM card. She said it was a requirement to re-register when the number of the ID changed.

I re-registered using my Thai driving licence as that does not need to be renewed.

I'm not sure about the need to re-register, but it does seem logical, once your ID changes, the old one is useless.

My friend recently visited Thailand from Cyprus. As his passport was valid for 5 months, he checked online about passport validity, and also went to the Thai Consulate in Nicosia who kindly gave him a letter to show at the airport, confirming that he only needed a passport that was valid for his length of stay in Thailand. He boarded the plane at Larnaka airport, but was then told to leave the plane before take-off. The airline refused to take him because he needed 6 months validity on his passport. They read, and ignored his letter.

He contacted the British Embassy from the airport, and they sent a representative to the airport to extend the validity of his passport by 12 months. He had to re-book the flight for the following day.

So, the airline have the last say in the matter, it's their rules that count.

Perhaps if he had applied for a visa in Cyprus, rather than relying on a VOA at Bangkok airport, the airline might have allowed him to fly.

There used to be one in the car park at Makro on the super highway. I took the pick-up through there a few times.

I sent the forms for my wife and I, by normal Thai Post on 12th December.

I phoned today to check if they had been received. They have a special Life Certificate section (you press "1").

The guy was most helpful. He confirmed that they had received them, and after asking us a couple of security questions he said he had inspected the forms and they had been accepted.

I used Skype, very good sound quality, 12 minutes call cost 21p or 10 baht.

One less thing to worry about, until the next time.

Send an email to the British embassy at [email protected]

In the email, request a Transfer Authorisation Letter, and state why it's needed. State which type of visa you have, and when it expires, together with the date you last entered Thailand, and where it was.

Attach a copy of the ID pages from the old and new passport.

They should send the letter by EMS within a few days, but maybe longer at this time of year.

It's free.