Retirement extension at Chaengwattana

[Thingamabob]

Not at all clear what was going on here. Anyway, as many of us keep on repeating, just go the 800k route. Much simpler for all concerned. You would still need to get your paperwork in order though.

[marcusarelus]

7 hours ago, Puchaiyank said:

The angst and patience involved in this necessary exercise really turns me off and diminishes the Thai experience.

 

Having to think about, prepare, and participate in the immigration inane process is most unbearable for many expats...????

Never been in the Army I take it.  It prepared me for inefficiency and useless paperwork unimaginable by the average Thai bureaucrat.  At Immigration they never assigned all the Farang in the room with advanced degrees to clean the toilets. 

Edited May 9, 2019 by marcusarelus

[AAArdvark]

8 hours ago, 5633572526 said:

told to draw a map to my condo for the Thai police.

I see this map thing pop up from time to time.  Is your condo in a secluded area that the police could not find you with the name of the condo and its address?  I had always assumed that the map stuff was for stand alone houses in rural areas.

Edited May 9, 2019 by AAArdvark

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

5 minutes ago, AAArdvark said:

I see this map thing pop up from time to time.  Is your condo in a secluded area that the police could not find you with the name of the condo and its address?  I had always assumed that the map stuff was for stand alone houses in rural areas.

 

Nope, it's been a regular part of the retirement extension process at BKK CW for the past year or two....  Never was before, but is now... And my home is right in downtown BKK with a clear address, not out in the rural sticks somewhere.

 

Another "rule" they just suddenly started enforcing at some point, no prior warning, no announcement, no explanation, just a change in the process... as they are prone to do from time to time...

 

Edited May 9, 2019 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[smo]

My where-do-you-live map consists of a big T (the main road and my soi) with an X (my condo) at one corner. Back to the main picture:

 

The talad nad on CW ground floor (including an open-air massage "salon"), plus Japanese bidet-style toilet seats (in "selected" bathrooms) ease the hardship somewhat...For more comfortable seating one can always rely on one of the numerous cafes on the B-floor, now if they could broadcast live the queue number from the L-counter that would be "heaven!" My biggest challenge has always been not get stuck in peak hours traffic either way in or way out; and last but not least, always avoid Mondays and Fridays and any week that has a holiday stuck to it (retirement does has its "privileges.")

[AAArdvark]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Nope, it's been a regular part of the retirement extension process at BKK CW for the past year or two....  Never was before, but is now... And my home is right in downtown BKK with a clear address, not out in the rural sticks somewhere.

 

Another "rule" they just suddenly started enforcing at some point, no prior warning, no announcement, no explanation, just a change in the process... as they are prone to do from time to time...

 

OK, just send them a link to the Grab app.  I sure Grab can find you.????

[expat_4_life]

5 hours ago, ColeBOzbourne said:

I just applied for a new USA passport and expect to receive it in two weeks. Another two weeks after that my retirement visa expires on June 3rd and I will apply for another year. I know I need to have my visa 'transferred' over to my new passport using the letter they give me. Can I do it all in one trip to immigration? Get the visa transferred over and renew my retirement visa in one trip? How will that work? Thanks. 

I just did stamp transfer and retirement extension in early March and had the same concerns.  I thought it would require two trips.

 

But in fact it does not.

 

I had all the paperwork together for my retirement extension and they simply transferred the

stamps and processed my extension all in one go at the retirement extension area counters.

 

[Searat7]

8 hours ago, morphy9999 said:

 

Just use the hotel as your address and you should then have no problems, no need to visit the TM30 desk as the hotel should have filed a TM30 for you. 

My friend did this which had the unintended effect of changing his address in the system and it took a special trip to CW to fix this.

Edited May 9, 2019 by Searat7
Spelling

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, AAArdvark said:

OK, just send them a link to the Grab app.  I sure Grab can find you.????

 

CW BKK Immigration usually seems to ask applicants to hand draw a map to their home... for some reason, why, I can't fathom... But last time, I brought with me a Google Maps printout with my home location suitably marked, and the surprised IO accepted that just fine.

 

Apparently Thai Immigration is about in the same place in terms of understanding online mapping technology as they are in implementing biometric facial scanning.... 

 

If it isn't Facebook or Instagram, they don't seem to know or understand it here.

 

 

[morphy9999]

29 minutes ago, Searat7 said:

My friend did this which had the unintended effect of changing his address in the system and it took a special trip to CW to fix this.

What was the problem?

 

If the hotel submits the TM30 and that address is used on the TM7 and TM8 forms needed for the extension (plus multiple reentry stamp) then why would a special trip to CW be needed for the purposes of this visa extension?

 

Was the special trip at a later date for some other purpose and after already successfully getting the extension?

[Wake Up]

Thank goodness for Ubonjoe. Otherwise this forum is for people who stress out easily and over state issues to create drama. Immigration retirement extensions at CW are easy and one day a year. 90 day reports take 5 minutes and 23 baht by mail and are a non issue. Some of you guys love misery and conspiracy  what the heck are you so worried about?  Waste of time. One day for an extension to stay in this country is not burdensome and 20 minutes total a year and 92 baht for four yearly 90 day reports is not excessive or discriminatory. Relax have a beer or Xanax and enjoy life. No one wants to kick you out if you have a minimum amount of money to support yourself and a little common sense. Quit complaining and posting misinformation  ????

Edited May 9, 2019 by Wake Up

[jesimps]

Ever noticed that as soon as someone from the rose-coloured specs brigade posts on here, everyone just despairs and the thread goes quiet? Ah well, that's another one on the ignore list.

[timendres]

I pay for an agent, simply because my extension is quite complicated as it is based on a work permit. That said, I arrive just before the door opens. I am the first person through the door. 15 minutes later, I am on my way home. It costs money, but if you have the money it is worth considering.

[luckyluke]

11 hours ago, nickmondo said:

lets all leave!

No, only the others. 

[LongTang]

9 hours ago, Searat7 said:

Just use the hotel as your address and you should then have no problems, no need to visit the TM30 desk as the hotel should have filed a TM30 for you.  

 

9 hours ago, Searat7 said:

My friend did this which had the unintended effect of changing his address in the system and it took a special trip to CW to fix this.

 

This just goes to reinforce our fear that if one decides to travel around the country and stay on his way in decent hotels(that will probably register your arrival with immigration), One will need to report back to CW within 24hrs on arriving back to your place.

Otherwise, you will put yourself at risk for getting fined and who knows what in the future..

[Searat7]

 
This just goes to reinforce our fear that if one decides to travel around the country and stay on his way in decent hotels(that will probably register your arrival with immigration), One will need to report back to CW within 24hrs on arriving back to your place.
Otherwise, you will put yourself at risk for getting fined and who knows what in the future..

Just to clarify my friend needed to make his 90 day report while in Pattaya and was told he needed a local address to do so (he is from Bangkok). He got some document from hotel which served its purpose but also changed his address in the system. There should be no problem with normal travel within Thailand.


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[cormanr7]

22 hours ago, 5633572526 said:

Long day at Chaengwattana May 8th 2019

I am not sure either what is going on here. As noted in my report on retirement extension (bank method) on May 3rd 2019, everything was completed in slightly over 2 h (08.45 front desk, 10.55 exit) with a L que number in the high forties (last year it also took ca. 2 h with a number in the low forties). I had tried to get the new desk staff at my apartment to do a TM.30 a few days before when I got back from a trip abroad but not sure whether it was actually done as they seemed totally clueless.

I got the impression that the IO used the form ('statement 3') where you swear you still live at .... as confirmation of the address. When it came to entering my address in the computer (even though it was the same as last year) she held up the back of the TM.7 and used that as a template.

 

[5633572526]

21 hours ago, Skallywag said:

If you were the 5th one there, why #74 and why did you have to wait until after lunch to be seem?

So 8 hours a year of our precious "retirement" time to get the one year extension. 

Quite acceptable in my book. 

My retirement extension took over 4 hours in 2018, but will plan on another 4 hours of book reading, people watching, coffee drinking, and "window shopping" at Chaengwattana this year. 

Similar activities I participate in several times a week anyway, so no real change other than the locale.

5th retirement extension at Chaengwattana 

[5633572526]

22 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

I am sure it is a TM30 form.

You do not need to list everybody staying at your residence. You would only be reporting yourself.

It is standard form and all the extra lines on page 2 are for when a hotel, guesthouse and etc report all of their guests.

As there are way more questions and comments about my experience at immigration which I am currently regretting sharing I will make 1 final comment. (Apologies Joe for choosing yours to respond to for this)

 I did not see any tm numbers on the additional forms I filled out.

 I had to fill out tm30 previously in Phuket as it is required to extend there and it did not look like the same form to me but it has been a few years so maybe. I had a copy of the tm30 receipt the owner of the condo I rent gave me so I don’t understand why they would have wanted another one. I also included copy of most recent 90 day report (less than 1 month prior) with my application so they had a recent confirmation that I was at the same address.

tm28 never done one so couldn’t tell you what it looks like. Desk “B” used to be a wall with window slots in it to pass paperwork back and forth but now opened up with additional officers and desks and obviously still a work in progress because despite having 5 officers in their on this day they still only had 2 que signs. Oh and my reference to “5th one here” refers to the number of retirement extensions I have done here. Ridiculous comments like this are why I won’t be commenting further.

 I shared my experience and an accurate time line for it. Yours may be different and every time I have renewed it has been different. Believe it or not “up to you” I hope your experience is better.

[JamesBlond]

15 hours ago, smo said:

My where-do-you-live map consists of a big T (the main road and my soi) with an X (my condo) at one corner. Back to the main picture:

 

The talad nad on CW ground floor (including an open-air massage "salon"), plus Japanese bidet-style toilet seats (in "selected" bathrooms) ease the hardship somewhat...For more comfortable seating one can always rely on one of the numerous cafes on the B-floor, now if they could broadcast live the queue number from the L-counter that would be "heaven!" My biggest challenge has always been not get stuck in peak hours traffic either way in or way out; and last but not least, always avoid Mondays and Fridays and any week that has a holiday stuck to it (retirement does has its "privileges.")

What they really need is an app showing the current number ticker live. Very simple to implement.

In any case, they definitely need more seats in the L section, or a bigger L section.

 

Can't imagine "counter number FIFTEEN!" being blasted out throughout the whole arena every few seconds.

[AAArdvark]

1 hour ago, JamesBlond said:

What they really need is an app showing the current number ticker live. Very simple to implement.

In any case, they definitely need more seats in the L section, or a bigger L section.

 

Can't imagine "counter number FIFTEEN!" being blasted out throughout the whole arena every few seconds.

I just wonder if there is a giant storage building somewhere, perhaps in Bangkok, where all these maps are stored.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rabas]

20 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Nope, it's been a regular part of the retirement extension process at BKK CW for the past year or two....  Never was before, but is now... And my home is right in downtown BKK with a clear address, not out in the rural sticks somewhere.

 

Another "rule" they just suddenly started enforcing at some point, no prior warning, no announcement, no explanation, just a change in the process... as they are prone to do from time to time...

 

I think they are testing to see if you know where you live, looking for fraud.

 

Last year, for the first time, they gave me paper and said 'draw a map'.  I've been going  to CW since it was built, I live next door. So I drew Immigration, a soi, and an X. I said "we're neighbours, but I was here first", with a smile of course.  She laughed so I think it's a test. She already had the written address.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, rabas said:

I think they are testing to see if you know where you live, looking for fraud.

 

Last year, for the first time, they gave me paper and said 'draw a map'.  I've been going  to CW since it was built, I live next door. So I drew Immigration, a soi, and an X. I said "we're neighbours, but I was here first", with a smile of course.  She laughed so I think it's a test. She already had the written address.

 

They said similar to me last year for my retirement extension application. But when I pulled out a Google Maps printout showing my home and its placement on the map, they were fine with that too...  So self drawing apparently isn't absolutely necessary.

 

[Bournville]

Long day at Chaengwattana May 8th 2019
arrived 8:30am got que #74 to apply for my annual retirement extension (5th one here). Looked to me like about the normal crowd for a Wednesday. My number was not called until 1:30 pm L counter. 1st officer checked my paperwork and issued me 3 new documents to fill out and told me not to fill them out until I was with the next officer, she then issued me a que  for a different counter L39. About 30 minutes later I was called to this counter. Filled out the 3 new documents in front of this officer as she looked through my application, they were a notice of penalties for overstay, a notice of visa limitations and a notice of penalties for violations of visa.
Was then given a 4th document to sign with the new extension rules on it.
everything now good was told to go to the que counter and get a que number for counter b and given another document (2pages) to fill out and told to draw a map to my condo for the Thai police. The new 2 page document is a notification of your address to the Thai police and provide a list of all people living at your address with their passport numbers on page 2 of the document. Luckily I live alone because there is no way I would have passport numbers of anyone living with me along with me if there were any. My que number for “B” was 294 with 151 people in front of me at 2:30 in the afternoon. 2 and 1/2 hours later my number was called oh and by the way you will need an additional copy of your passport picture page for this even though the screen they were using for this new function has the photo page of your passport clearly displayed during your interaction with “B”. After finishing here I was told to return to “L” with the stamped receipt for this new address document and give the receipt to the officer at L39. The officer at L39 made a copy of the receipt and had me sign that again. She went through all my paperwork including the many new pages (oh by the way I was using the income letter from the USA embassy and no other proof of income) and then told me to sit in the waiting area.
Another 30 minutes go by and I am finally given my passport with my extension.
It is now 5:pm 8 and 1/2 hours at Chaengwattana.

Way over the top stupid requirements. Really ridiculous.

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