lalchand

The online queuing system is for many people a significant improvement over what existed before, but it seems to be totally inadequate to service everyone who needs to extend a retirement visa, never mind other time-consuming services requiring appointments. Only six slots per day are offered, which means less than 1560 slots per year if holidays are subtracted. I'm sure Chiang Mai has far more retirees than that. However, I was told by a fellow farang that he thought three appointments are scheduled for each time slot. Does anyone know whether that's the case? While the appointment system is an improvement for those able to get appointments, those who can't must start queuing very early in the morning in hopes of being seen between the scheduled appointments. I'm not sure the new system represents an improvement for them.

Since my wife and I have now received our 1 year visa extensions I just wanted to post a follow up to my original post to let everyone know what happened at immigration. Instead of getting a new marriage affidavit, I used the original from 2008 which had been returned to me. The authorities accepted this without question. However, this time they took the *original* marriage and income affidavits for their files and returned the copies to me. In 2008 they took the copies and returned the originals!? When we renew in 2010 I'll have to decide whether to attempt to get the 2008 marriage affidavit copy accepted or get a new one at the consulate. Would be nice to have clearer guidance from immigration as to exactly what is required in this situation.

Thanks for your replies. Just to clarify, I tried to use an official, certified copy of our marriage certificate from the U.S. when we applied for our first extension last year, but immigration wouldn't accept it. They will only accept an affidavit from the U.S. consulate in which you swear you're married. Just as the consulate doesn't attempt to verify the truthfulness of the income statement they notarize for you, neither do they try to verify you're actually married. They didn't even ask for the certificate.

My wife and I are both American citizens over 50 years old who have been living in Chiang Mai for the last year on our initial "retirement" visa extension. When we received our initial extension I documented our marital status using a marriage affidavit obtained at the U.S. consulate so we would both qualify under a single 800,000 baht yearly income. Soon we will need to apply for our first one year renewal, but before doing so I need to find out whether a new marriage affidavit will be required or whether the original one will be acceptable to the immigration authorities. I would very much appreciate a response from anyone who can answer my question.