Current Non-Imm-O (marriage) Extension Of Stay requirements in CM

[XGM]

Soon it's time for the extension again. It's going to be the first time we do it in CM (previous extensions were done in BKK). I wonder about a few points:

 

1. Can I apply as early as 45 day before the expiration of my current extension or is it 30 days? I understand it's different at different provinces.

2. 400,000 baht in the bank - should the money be there for 2 or 3 months before the application? I read conflicting reports.

3. My account was opened in Bangkok. Will banks here have a problem to issue a letter regarding the account (Nangsue Lablong)?

4. What time does the Siam Commercial Bank in Promenada open? I recall immigration require the last line in the bank book be from the day we apply. At least that's what they wanted in Bangkok. We normally just deposit say a 100 baht to have a line from that day.

5. In Bangkok we normally arrived around 9am and always managed to finish before 2pm, sometimes even before their 12:00 lunch break if we were lucky. Is this a realistic timeline for Promenada? Kids are still in school and we have to drop them at 8:00 and pick them up before 3:30pm. 

[Thailsacien]

Hi XGM,

 

I'm not sure that all my answers are correct, they only reflect my own experience of getting a Non-O extension based on marriage in CM, after coming from Bangkok 7 years ago.

1) 45 days seems to be long. I usually do it 3 weeks before expiration

2) I've always managed to have 400 000 THB 3 months before (better to long that not enough).

3) You should ask the local branch of your bank if they are willing to issue a bank statement. Maybe just go there before going to immigration and ask, so you can also know their opening time.

4) In CM, the statement dated the day before is OK (has always been OK for me).

5) Best to go there at 6:00, or even before. On that particular day, I leave home very early and my wife take our girls to school by taxi and then met me at Promenada around 8:00. Lst year, they started to give the queue-Nr at 8:30.

 

Good luck 

[XGM]

1 hour ago, Thailsacien said:

Best to go there at 6:00, or even before. On that particular day, I leave home very early and my wife take our girls to school by taxi and then met me at Promenada around 8:00. Lst year, they started to give the queue-Nr at 8:30.

Thanks. What time did you finish?

[CMBob]

1. In Chiangmai, you can apply for your annual extension up to 45 days prior to expiration.

2. For the first time, 2 months is the minimum.  For all subsequent extensions, it's 3 months.

3. Not sure.  I actually have to go back to my original SCB bank on Chang Klang to get the bank letter (other branches won't issue it).  You obviously need to ask to make sure on this.  Typically the bank letter is good for 1 week only (it doesn't need to be the day you apply for the extension).   Get it the day before.

4.  You don't actually need your bank book to have an entry the day of (or day before) the extension date; however, you need to have your bank book state the same balance as the bank's letter (i.e., if you're going to withdraw some money, do it right before they issue the bank letter so your bank book and the bank's letter match).

5.  Totally unknown.  On some days, you will not get a queue number for that day if you show up at 9AM (or even 7AM or 8AM).  Depends on how busy they are that day.  If you get there by 7AM and get in line, you'll likely get a queue number on that day....although it might be for the afternoon.

[XGM]

Thanks.

 

1 hour ago, CMBob said:

Not sure.  I actually have to go back to my original SCB bank on Chang Klang to get the bank letter (other branches won't issue it).  You obviously need to ask to make sure on this.  Typically the bank letter is good for 1 week only (it doesn't need to be the day you apply for the extension).   Get it the day before.

Flying to Bangkok for that will really be a pain  

[Thailsacien]

5 hours ago, XGM said:

Thanks. What time did you finish?

Usually before noon.

[XGM]

Update: I went to Central Festival's SCB branch, got the letter in about 10 minutes, which was even a better service than what I got in my BKK branch last year (there, they initially wanted me to come back at the next day, it took a lot persistence and explanations to get them to actually issue it at the same day).

 

We will try the naive (/sane?) approach first and get to immigration tomorrow between 08:00 - 08:30am. I guess I have to see the horror in my own eyes to believe it.

[XGM]

Ok, to close this post:

 

We arrived at 8am. The Marriage visa line was pretty short, the other lines were really long and I can easily understand the complaints in various threads about that.

A few minutes later numbers were given, we got #409. The guy told us we should better come back at 2pm. We decided to wait and see how things go. Well, slow start, the first couple (#401) just got in at 9:20.

#404 got in at around 10:50.

Luckily for us, #405 - #408 didn't bother to show up (perhaps decided to come back at 13:00). So we got in at 11:30 and managed to get the stamp before their lunch break.

I wanted to do get a re-entry permit too, so we waited until 13:00. I didn't have passport copies for this though so I had to queue twice to get the number. Still, the whole thing didn't take long and we left at 13:40.

[XGM]

Exactly one year later (coincidentally)... are there any changes between Promenada and the Airport location, in terms of queues or other policies?

[eyecatcher]

21 hours ago, XGM said:

Exactly one year later (coincidentally)... are there any changes between Promenada and the Airport location, in terms of queues or other policies?

Yes!

The staff have got their act together now.

No need to arrive before the sun rises, 9am is fine and you will be away before 11

 

[XGM]

Thanks. We arrived at 8:20 and finished around 13:30.

One noticeable thing was no lunch breaks anymore between 12:00 and 13:00. One officer went away while the other continued accepting people, then the other went.