Retirement extension in Jomtien

[Guderian]

I’ve been staying here for over a decade on annual retirement extensions and the renewal has generally been stress-free and no problem at all. I needed another extension this week but something has changed, and not for the better either.

In the past I’ve just ambled into Immigration in the mid-afternoon, say around 2:00, after visiting the bank for the letter. Got a number, waited for 10 or 25 minutes before being processed, which took no more than 5 minutes. Usually in and out within 30 minutes or so, come back the next day to pick it up after 2:00.

So Wednesday PM I went to Immigration after visiting the bank. The look of disbelief I got off the girl on the reception desk told me something was wrong, as in how dare you have the cheek to turn up here in the middle of the afternoon and expect to get a ticket? Come back in the morning at 8:30, she snapped at me, no more tickets! My goodness, Thailand evidently has a severe ticket shortage, things are worse than I thought.

The next morning I was there bright and early, by my standards anyway, around 9:15. The guy on the reception desk gave me a ticket, #874, and told me to come back after 1:00 PM, the morning show is sold out. What? Well I wasn't given much choice, so off home I toddled, pottered around, then went back just before 1:00.

There’s a sign up now that I don’t remember seeing before saying that between 1:00 and 4:00 they process numbers 861 to 899. Well something’s obviously changed as the retirement extension desk was always number 6, though it’s still in the same place. That must mean in the morning they do numbers 801 to 860. So arriving at 9:15 they’d already handed out 75% of that day’s allocation of slots, if you want a number you’d better not arrive after 10:00 I’d guess. No wonder she looked at me like I was mad, arriving close on 3:00 PM.

Nothing has changed with the processing, they average around one person every three minutes between the two guys doing the work, so once you’ve got a ticket it’s pretty much business as usual. I was out within 35 minutes of arriving. But why has it suddenly become so difficult to get a number, and when did this allocation of just 100 slots a day start? I think I read they have the same system in Chiang Mai, but there’s a heck of a lot more expats living in Pattaya than there are in Chiang Mai. Is the reason you now have to get there almost at the crack of dawn to be granted entry due to this rationing of slots, or has a plague of expats all wanting retirement extension in mid-December suddenly descended on the city?

I went back this afternoon to get the passport and all was in order, but again there was a huge queue of around 30 people waiting to get their passports back. That’s never happened tome before in more than ten years of going through this process. Oh, and I noticed that this afternoon around 2:30 they were only up to #876, so running a full hour slower than they were the day before.

Has anybody else had a similar experience recently, and does anybody know why things have changed for the worse?

[KittenKong]

^^^ I wonder if this is a high-season thing?

[luckyluke]

Maybe Americans, Australians, British who have to do their extension in January, are doing it now, thinking things may be different next year, better be save than sorry.

 

 

[madmen]

I had long wait there last week for a 90 day report and was packed out

[Guderian]

9 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

^^^ I wonder if this is a high-season thing?

The retirement extension desk is still dedicated to that purpose, so it should only affect people living here long-term. Tourists and high season may make the building busier, but they shouldn't make any difference to how busy the retirement extension desk is.

[Guderian]

10 minutes ago, luckyluke said:

Maybe Americans, Australians, British who have to do their extension in January, are doing it now, thinking things may be different next year, better be save than sorry.

 

 

Care to elaborate, what might change to affect them in the New Year?

 

 

[luckyluke]

According to some here T.I. may not accept L.o.I. anymore next year, despite the embassies say so.

 

Negative speculation, but one can read hunderds of speculation here.

[KittenKong]

33 minutes ago, Guderian said:

The retirement extension desk is still dedicated to that purpose, so it should only affect people living here long-term. Tourists and high season may make the building busier, but they shouldn't make any difference to how busy the retirement extension desk is.

I see your point, but I think that many more people renew their retirement extensions in high season simply because they are more likely to be here then, and they are more likely to have done their original extension at that time.

I know many people on retirement extension who are not here at all between April and October.

[champers]

Was the office closed on Monday (Constitution Day?). If so, 5 days worth of clients squeezed into 4.

[Guderian]

1 hour ago, KittenKong said:

I see your point, but I think that many more people renew their retirement extensions in high season simply because they are more likely to be here then, and they are more likely to have done their original extension at that time.

I know many people on retirement extension who are not here at all between April and October.

I know what you mean, but why would it appear to be ten times busier this December than it was last year? Expats are a pretty stable bunch all in all, usually doing the same thing from one year to the next.

[Guderian]

1 hour ago, champers said:

Was the office closed on Monday (Constitution Day?). If so, 5 days worth of clients squeezed into 4.

Yes, that's why I didn't go on Tuesday. The 10th is a holiday every year or there's a substitution day, so there's nothing different there.

[david555]

20 minutes ago, Guderian said:

Yes, that's why I didn't go on Tuesday. The 10th is a holiday every year or there's a substitution day, so there's nothing different there.

So you knew that Monday was closed , and you are surprised it was packed the next day…....

I always go in morning when bank opens , and then straight to immigration …., I call this the only day in the year I have to go working ..., the 90 day I do at 3.30 afternoon never have to wait long 

[KittenKong]

1 hour ago, Guderian said:

I know what you mean, but why would it appear to be ten times busier this December than it was last year? Expats are a pretty stable bunch all in all, usually doing the same thing from one year to the next.

True.

 

[Guderian]

3 hours ago, david555 said:

So you knew that Monday was closed , and you are surprised it was packed the next day…....

I always go in morning when bank opens , and then straight to immigration …., I call this the only day in the year I have to go working ..., the 90 day I do at 3.30 afternoon never have to wait long 

Put your specs on, I said I didn't go on Tuesday, the day after Constitution Day.

[Spidey]

I did my 90 day report and retirement extension the previous week. Slightly busier than usual but otherwise no problems. Can only assume that the Op's problem was down to the short week this week.

[Guderian]

14 hours ago, Spidey said:

I did my 90 day report and retirement extension the previous week. Slightly busier than usual but otherwise no problems. Can only assume that the Op's problem was down to the short week this week.

Definitely not. For ten years I've been doing the renewal during the week with the Constitution Day holiday and I've never had a problem before. When you did the renewal last week were the retirement ticket numbers starting with 8 or 6? And did they have the sign up about limiting the daily total to just 100 tickets? 

[Spidey]

7 minutes ago, Guderian said:

Definitely not. For ten years I've been doing the renewal during the week with the Constitution Day holiday and I've never had a problem before. When you did the renewal last week were the retirement ticket numbers starting with 8 or 6? And did they have the sign up about limiting the daily total to just 100 tickets? 

8. No sign about limiting the daily total. If my memory serves me correctly, I got my ticket at around 11am and there were 9 tickets in front of mine. I was out of there and sitting eating lunch in the Surf Shack by 12.

[Guderian]

2 hours ago, Spidey said:

8. No sign about limiting the daily total. If my memory serves me correctly, I got my ticket at around 11am and there were 9 tickets in front of mine. I was out of there and sitting eating lunch in the Surf Shack by 12.

Sounds like it's something that's just happened then. Maybe they haven't figured out how to manage the changes yet and that's causing the delays? Or maybe they're just limiting the numbers in the peak of the high season to try and reduce overcrowding. I wish they'd warn us about these things on their website.

[KittenKong]

17 minutes ago, Guderian said:

Or maybe they're just limiting the numbers in the peak of the high season to try and reduce overcrowding.

That is my guess. There would be no point at all for such a system in summer as there simply isnt a big queue.

[Spidey]

4 minutes ago, Guderian said:

Sounds like it's something that's just happened then. Maybe they haven't figured out how to manage the changes yet and that's causing the delays? Or maybe they're just limiting the numbers in the peak of the high season to try and reduce overcrowding. I wish they'd warn us about these things on their website.

What changes? I wasn't aware that any changes have come into force yet. My application was managed exactly the same way as it was last year and by the same person, young gay guy in a fetching pink shirt, not an IO. Only problem was that I used my yellow house book as proof of residence and didn't realise that I needed to photocopy it. Didn't interface with an IO atany time. Used my embassy letter as proof of income.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

?

[Guderian]

23 hours ago, Spidey said:

What changes? I wasn't aware that any changes have come into force yet. My application was managed exactly the same way as it was last year and by the same person, young gay guy in a fetching pink shirt, not an IO. Only problem was that I used my yellow house book as proof of residence and didn't realise that I needed to photocopy it. Didn't interface with an IO atany time. Used my embassy letter as proof of income.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

?

I mean the changes to the system they're using now to get a ticket. I agree that after you get through the door the application is the same as it has been for around five years. I hope other BM's renewing the extensions will let us know if they have the same problems getting a ticket as I did, compared with previous years. The obvious advice is to turn up early, around 8:00 to 8:30 if you want to be processed in the morning, but I'd guess no later than 10:00 if you're happy to go back in the PM.

[Banana7]

Last year, I had the same problem. I came in about 2pm, same as the year before and the lady at the front desk said come back tomorrow morning, no more numbers for retirement. I and another guy appealed to the guy with 3 pips on his shoulder and he said comeback tomorrow, too many applicants today.

[jacko45k]

Yeah, it was busy last week too, a lot of people getting their extensions , trying to beat the unknown I guess. I arrived at 10, and was told come back in the afternoon. Back in the Q at 12.30 and when I got to the particularly slow girl on the right (wrong damned q again), she told me come back tomorrow! I wasn't having none of that and got a ticket with 70 ahead of me! I had to sit around over 2 hours but they were working hard getting through them.

Being told to go home is a callous and ignorant way for these reception girls to treat people, I drive 45 minutes plus to get there.

Edited December 17, 2018 by jacko45k

[bkk6060]

9:15 is early for you?

Plan better and go earlier next time...

Edited December 18, 2018 by bkk6060

[Guderian]

On 12/16/2018 at 5:19 PM, Banana7 said:

Last year, I had the same problem. I came in about 2pm, same as the year before and the lady at the front desk said come back tomorrow morning, no more numbers for retirement. I and another guy appealed to the guy with 3 pips on his shoulder and he said comeback tomorrow, too many applicants today.

I did it around the same time last year and had no problem at the usual 2:00 PM, but from what you say at least it's not something new this year.

[Guderian]

On 12/17/2018 at 3:19 PM, jacko45k said:

 

Being told to go home is a callous and ignorant way for these reception girls to treat people, I drive 45 minutes plus to get there.

Yes, that's what I was thinking. I live around 1800 m away so it's not a big deal for me to drive back home, just a bit annoying. If you live out by Mabprachan, or up in Naklua or Banglamung, then it's going to be a real pain. I had to make four trips over three days, and that was tedious enough folk living way out will not be amused.