Just to sate my curiosity really, but I wonder if there is a marked difference in attitudes towards expats at the different locations. Are Immigration offices up country or in the sticks more lenient, friendly, approachable than their counterparts in touristy areas? I am particularly interested to hear from those with experience of both types of location, staying in Thailand long-term.

A qualified "yes".

My experience:

   Bangkok 15 yrs.

   Chonburi (Jomtien) 3 yrs.

   Amnat Charoen  3 yrs.

   Surin  3 yrs.

 

Bangkok once summoned me to their office by telephone. I thought I was in some sort of serious trouble.  It was a 4 hour round-trip.  All they wanted was one additional copy of my passport. Couldn't they have photocopied the one they had ?

I once walked into the Amnat Charoen office, only to be told that their computers were "down".  When I told them I had travelled 2 hours from my home in Roi-et, they got on the phone to either Khon Kaen or Bangkok, I don't know which. Everything was done over the phone, and I left with whatever stamp I had come for. Both Amnat Charoen and Surin have done free photocopying for me if I had omitted something.

In 24 years, I have had only one nasty incident, and that was in Surin.

They are human beings. If someone had a fight with his wife that morning, or just found out that he was conned by someone a day or two ago, you might be on the receiving end of his anger.

 

It also depends a lot on the individual IO who you are dealing with. Until last year in Udon Thani everybody was friendly and helpul. Then at some point there was a change in staff and the attitude of the new people was not so friendly anymore.

After about 22 years of dealing with Phuket Immigration (in town and in Patong) I moved to Isan and got to go with the Immigration in Korat. Let's see it like this: in the first about 8 years Phuket was fine, quick and efficient. After they got their new building things went down. I still remember the time during construction in the old building on the other side of the road it was even almost perfect. (It reminded me of Duesseldorf Airport after fire. Never has it been as quick as in the time of the temporary solution.) The last years in Phuket have not been as pleasant, especially doing the 90-days.

 

Now in Korat the good old times are back. In the meantime I did about 3 90-days-reports, one TM30, and one retirement extension. Compared to Phuket the waiting time is down to a few minutes, the longest queue I had was about 8 people in front of me for the extension. I got my passport in about 15 minutes, not on the next day like in Phuket. Even though the office is now a 90 km ride from where I live, visits to the Immigration Office don't take much more time than in Phuket. So, after all I'd say: yes, up country is easier than in the "touristy areas".

Phetchabun is generally friendly and approachable but not necessarily more lenient. They do change their own rules occasionally so what the procedure was one year was not the next. With the new rules on money seasoning they give a detailed sheet in English of what is required. They give it in Thai as well for your wife to understand too.

They have had a young Australian girl there to help with English speakers but was not there the last time I went. The others have limited English but probably understandable as farangs are a very low percentage of their customers, mostly Asian.

Some good responses above. I get jealous when I read on TV posts about relaxed easy extensions in the sticks. I have only lived in bkk but that trip and day at CW is not good. Its not the imm officers fault more the amount of people there. I call it CW ZOO.

 

My experience with Jomtien vs up-country for a marriage extension both involve the IOs looking for ways to avoid processing a legit extension.  In Jomtien, our impression (Thai wife and I) were that they actively hate "cheap" in-person applicants (vs agent-applicants) and despise Thais who marry foreigners, generally.  In Issan, there was no animosity - they just wanted to avoid doing the work, and my verifiable income not being a "state pension" was the excuse used to avoid doing their job.

I have had experience with Chiang Mai and now Buri Ram.

Chiang Mai was a nightmare, mainly because of numbers of people being seen, you could not build a repour with a IO as they were rushed and just did the job and moved on and wouldn't remember you as they saw so many, I must admit I used an agent there in the end as I didn't want to get up at 4 am to queue, so the agent was great for getting around that but nothing illegal took place other than queue jumping.  

Buri Ram is a pleasure, have had no trouble getting anything done and in a timely manner from residence certificates to extensions to 90 days, there aren't as many customers and they aren't pushed, can have a joke and pass on information easily, I will only be doing extensions and multi re entrys there for a bit as I sit out my 2 years in Oz for being a naughty boy and retiring a few years early because I didn't piss all my money away and have to do 2 years doing stuff all here.

Sakon Nakhon OK if you are oiling the wheels, if you are not, be prepared to sit there all day whilst they go for lunch or just sit and pretend they are too busy to deal with you or send you away after finding a fault with your documents. That's OK unless you live a couple of three hours away.

 

Anyway, the next renewal will be in Kalasin. Let's see how that one goes.

Udon Thani 2+ years very friendly/helpful staff. 90 day report less than 10 minutes. Extension last time I think 30 minutes usually no more than one hour. Once on a rainy day their was me and another guy. 

 

First NO in BKK was a bit of a drive from city center. A lot of waiting at different stations. 

 

 

3 hours ago, Billy Bloggs said:

I have had experience with Chiang Mai and now Buri Ram.

Chiang Mai was a nightmare, mainly because of numbers of people being seen, you could not build a repour with a IO as they were rushed and just did the job and moved on and wouldn't remember you as they saw so many, I must admit I used an agent there in the end as I didn't want to get up at 4 am to queue, so the agent was great for getting around that but nothing illegal took place other than queue jumping.  

Buri Ram is a pleasure, have had no trouble getting anything done and in a timely manner from residence certificates to extensions to 90 days, there aren't as many customers and they aren't pushed, can have a joke and pass on information easily, I will only be doing extensions and multi re entrys there for a bit as I sit out my 2 years in Oz for being a naughty boy and retiring a few years early because I didn't piss all my money away and have to do 2 years doing stuff all here.

"but nothing illegal took place". What illegality would you expect to take place? Or are you only saying that because you used an agent?

Can you name, or have you even heard of any agent that has been charged with any illegality?

13 hours ago, jackdd said:

It also depends a lot on the individual IO who you are dealing with. Until last year in Udon Thani everybody was friendly and helpul. Then at some point there was a change in staff and the attitude of the new people was not so friendly anymore.

Same as Trat i new them for 10 yrs then new staff now treated with visits to the house and extra copies of this and that we should get points for how long we have been here LEGALLY !