Savannakhet Making The Rules Up As They Go

[Jeffrey346]

I arrived at the Thai Consulate today at 0730 and was the 6th in line. By the time they opened at 0900 there was about 100 in line.

I was there for an O single entry Visa based on marriage and had all the required paperwork ready.

 

Required Paperwork.

Valid Passport

Visa Application + two Photos

Copy of Marriage Certificate signed by me and my wife

Kor Ror  Just in case

Copy of my wife's ID Card and House Book Signed

 

Last year I presented the above paper work and was in and out in 10 minutes.

Today I knew there will be issues when I noticed that the guy checking the paperwork was scrutinizing every page of

those inline in fornt of me.

 

The young girl in front of me was asked for her bank statement. An older gentleman wad told his wife's signatures were copies

and not acceptable. He told them it's black ink and his wife is not with him. He was rejected.

 

It was now my turn. The officer looked at each page 3 times and asked for my original marriage

certificate.

I stated that the rules only asked for a copy signed by me and my wife but I do have an original Kor Ror.

He said he does not know what a Kor Ror is and read it line by line at least 6 times.

He then said that my wife's signatures on her ID and house book didn't match and pushed all my papers

back to me.

My wife resigned them and handed them back to him.

 

He now said I can not have a single entry as my current Visa  will not expire for 3 weeks and it is a Multi entry Visa

that can not be changed.

My wife told him in Thai, I no longer wish to leave the Kingdom every 90 days and want to report to Immigration instead.

He said I am an Immigration Officer and say you need to come back when my Visa expires in 3 weeks.

My wife said she is a Government Officer and a lawyer for 25 years and showed him her Government ID.

At that point he rechecked my papers 3 additional times looking for another reason to reject my application, and

finally accepted it and asked for B2000.

 

 

Lastly, our Lao drive told us that Immigration has been giving many people a hard time for the last 10 days or so.

 

My advise, have all your original paperwork with you 

 

 

 

 

[ezzra]

The whole country is making up the rules as they go.. so why not Savannakhet? this visa system have become a farce by now so much so no one sure what is up and what is down...

[Bruntoid]

I give everything to an agent, he takes it to the office, I wait in a hotel (laid on entertainment), next day he brings back all the paperwork and another 12 month visa. (Can extend it to 16 months)
 

Fee 7,500 (plus the 5,000 visa fee obviously) 

 

Bargain

[ubonjoe]

12 minutes ago, Jeffrey346 said:

He now said I can not have a single entry as my current Visa  will not expire for 3 weeks and it is a Multi entry Visa

that can not be changed.

A wasted trip to the consulate it seems. You could of just done a border run before your visa expired and got another 90 day entry or applied for a 60 day day extension to visit your wife to get more time to apply for the one year extension.

They have been wanting to see the original marriage certificate for years now. Many reports about that.

 

[dafniusDuckus]

21 minutes ago, Jeffrey346 said:

My wife said she is a Government Officer and a lawyer for 25 years and showed him her Government ID.

nice one José

Edited October 21, 2019 by dafniusDuckus

[scubascuba3]

I give everything to an agent, he takes it to the office, I wait in a hotel (laid on entertainment), next day he brings back all the paperwork and another 12 month visa. (Can extend it to 16 months)
 
Fee 7,500 (plus the 5,000 visa fee obviously) 
 
Bargain

What visa is that?

[Genericnic]

"My wife said she is a Government Officer and a lawyer for 25 years and showed him her Government ID."

 

Can I borrow your wife for my next application? ????

 

David

[Khon Kaen Jeff]

2 things...

 

As Joe says why not just do a border run and get another 90 days if you still have 3 weeks left?

 

2) They have always asked for original cert, so not making it up as you state..

[JeffersLos]

It doesn't sound like he was making up the rules at all.

 

You wanted to get a visa based on marriage, and couldn't present a marriage certificate??? ????

 

And complain about not being given one?

 

 

You already have a visa that allows you to enter the country for another 3 weeks, and will get 90 days POTS when arriving!!

 

*shakes head*

[jackdd]

4 minutes ago, Khon Kaen Jeff said:

2 things...

 

As Joe says why not just do a border run and get another 90 days if you still have 3 weeks left?

 

2) They have always asked for original cert, so not making it up as you state..

He could have had a non-OA retirement visa and wants to change to a non-o based on marriage due to the health insurance requirement

[macgver]

If I am your position, I will not use her Government ID to get your Non-O (Spouse) Visa done and it is against the code of ethnic of a civil servant. Then trouble will come in her position. If you love Thailand, respect the law and just follow the order. 

 

My wife always remind me that don't use her civil servant position to get things done. 

[Khon Kaen Jeff]

5 minutes ago, jackdd said:

He could have had a non-OA retirement visa and wants to change to a non-o based on marriage due to the health insurance requirement

Think you need to read it properly

[Khon Kaen Jeff]

4 minutes ago, macgver said:

If I am your position, I will not use her Government ID to get your Non-O (Spouse) Visa done and it is against the code of ethnic of a civil servant. Then trouble will come in her position. If you love Thailand, respect the law and just follow the order. 

 

My wife always remind me that don't use her civil servant position to get things done. 

Agreed. The old look at me my wife is a lawyer routine..

[jackdd]

2 minutes ago, Khon Kaen Jeff said:

Think you need to read it properly

I see, i missed the "leve every 90 days" part.

Then it's a good question why he wanted a new visa.

[Moonlover]

47 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

Fee 7,500 (plus the 5,000 visa fee obviously) 
 
Bargain

7,500 Baht. A bargain? For doing what you can easily do yourself for free.

 

Not my idea of a bargain.

[SteveK]

So it's at the embassies, the airports and the border crossings. There MUST be something coming down from the top about keeping people out. As this guy buckled under the pressure from the wife, it's clear he was just chancing it and probably was fuming that he had to accept your paperwork. 99% of the time his charade would have worked.

Edited October 21, 2019 by SteveK

[Pib]

Quote

They have been wanting to see the original marriage certificate for years now. Many reports about that.

 

And a problem that can occur in requiring the "original" marriage certificate (Kor Ror 3) is if that original goes Missing In Action because it was lost, damaged, stolen, the dog ate it, etc., a person can "not" get a replacement....it's a one time issue thing.   

 

This was confirmed by three district offices the wife and I dealt with last week in getting a correction made to our marriage record from many years ago.   One office was the Rayong down close to Pattaya and two khet offices here in Bangkok. 

 

But what you can get from any local district office is a Kor Ror 2 which comes from the national database and basically validates/confirms you are still married as of date of that Kor Ror 2.   Like where many immigration offices want to see the Kor Ror 3 and also a fresh Kor Ror 2 when applying for a marriage extension of stay.

 

Just presenting a Kor Ror 3 (original) does not mean a person is still married.   

 

[GeorgeCross]

1 minute ago, SteveK said:

So it's at the embassies, the airports and the border crossings. There MUST be something coming down from the top about keeping people out. As this guy buckled under the pressure from the wife, it's clear he was just chancing it and probably was fuming that he had to accept your paperwork. 99% of the time his charade would have worked.

 

if this is true then why bother with things like the forthcoming OSS app?

 

surely if "they" want to make our lives more difficult and keep us out then they wouldn't bother trying to make our lives easier in other ways?

 

or is this just some 4D chess grand master move i am missing??

 

 

[jackdd]

35 minutes ago, macgver said:

If I am your position, I will not use her Government ID to get your Non-O (Spouse) Visa done and it is against the code of ethnic of a civil servant. Then trouble will come in her position. If you love Thailand, respect the law and just follow the order. 

 

My wife always remind me that don't use her civil servant position to get things done. 

I think you have a misunderstanding of how Thailand works. The point of working in the government is to take advantage of all these perks.

When my GF was still in the army and we had any interaction with another civil servant, we either came prepared with her in uniform, or at least showed the army ID card and asked for whatever benefit was possible. Makes it easier ????

Edited October 21, 2019 by jackdd

[SteveK]

1 minute ago, GeorgeCross said:

then they wouldn't bother trying to make our lives easier in other ways?

Now I'm the one missing something!

[GeorgeCross]

Just now, SteveK said:

Now I'm the one missing something!

 

OSS app for 90 day reports and TM28/30s

 

fill in some data and a selfie instead of going to an IO office apparently (source thaiger)

 

 

[Tayaout]

5 minutes ago, GeorgeCross said:

 

OSS app for 90 day reports and TM28/30s

 

fill in some data and a selfie instead of going to an IO office apparently (source thaiger)

 

 

Link? 

 

Edit: found this nothing new (still in construction) it seems:

 

Edited October 21, 2019 by Tayaout

[Pib]

Jeffrey346,

  Is the requirement the wife "must" be with the applicant? 

 

  Or the applicant just needs to ensure (hope) he got all the necessary docs signed properly by the wife who stayed behind in Thailand?

 

   Pending your answer I'm going to assume the wife is not required and would only be needed to resolve/re-sign something that gets challenged by the consulate.

 

Quote

 

The young girl in front of me was asked for her bank statement. An older gentleman wad told his wife's signatures were copies and not acceptable. He told them it's black ink and his wife is not with him. He was rejected.

 

It was now my turn. The officer looked at each page 3 times and asked for my original marriage

certificate.

I stated that the rules only asked for a copy signed by me and my wife but I do have an original Kor Ror.

He said he does not know what a Kor Ror is and read it line by line at least 6 times.

He then said that my wife's signatures on her ID and house book didn't match and pushed all my papers

back to me.

My wife resigned them and handed them back to him.

 

 

[scubascuba3]

7,500 Baht. A bargain? For doing what you can easily do yourself for free.
 
Not my idea of a bargain.

Learn how to quote, you've quoted the wrong person

[GeorgeCross]

3 minutes ago, Tayaout said:

Link? 

https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/expats/thai-app-will-ease-expat-immigration-woes-and-make-90-day-reporting-simple

 

"Dr Kobsak Pootrakool says the planned app can be used for all immigration reporting, including 90 day reports, adding that typing in the required data and uploading a selfie will accomplish the same result as filling out paperwork at the local immigration office but without having to make the trip there."

 

thats going to make my life much easier - one visit per year only, no more 90 day or TM visits, i'll get travelling around thailand again if it works!

 

 

Edited October 21, 2019 by GeorgeCross

[SteveK]

7 minutes ago, GeorgeCross said:

https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/expats/thai-app-will-ease-expat-immigration-woes-and-make-90-day-reporting-simple

 

"Dr Kobsak Pootrakool says the planned app can be used for all immigration reporting, including 90 day reports, adding that typing in the required data and uploading a selfie will accomplish the same result as filling out paperwork at the local immigration office but without having to make the trip there."

 

thats going to make my life much easier - one visit per year only, no more 90 day or TM visits, i'll get travelling around thailand again if it works!

 

 

Should only take them 5 years to get it working.

[GeorgeCross]

i'm not surprised non-o multi applications are getting a closer look at savanakhet its being used by a lot of people to skirt around getting a marriage extension due to not requiring financials. 

 

only a matter of time before the hammer catches up to this nail i think if the current trend continues

[worgeordie]

3 minutes ago, SteveK said:

Should only take them 5 years to get it working.

That quick......won't be holding my breath ????

regards Worgeordie

[SteveK]

11 minutes ago, GeorgeCross said:

i'm not surprised non-o multi applications are getting a closer look at savanakhet its being used by a lot of people to skirt around getting a marriage extension due to not requiring financials. 

 

only a matter of time before the hammer catches up to this nail i think if the current trend continues

Well, what's going to happen is that Savannakhet will start to ask for the 400k in a Thai bank account, and not a joint account. Combine that with the fact that the banks are becoming more and reluctant to open an account for a foreigner without a work permit, then many people will be up sh*t creek even if they do have the finance required. Hopefully if they do want to see 400k/$13k or whatever it is, then they will accept foreign bank statements, but knowing Thailand, they will not accept them unless they are printed on original Egyptian papyrus and have been countersigned and verified by Mahatma Gandhi and witnessed by two people. I.e. not possible.

 

Next time I am in Bangkok I am going to Kasikorn to try and open an account - tempted to put my phone on record in my pocket. Is that legal?

Edited October 21, 2019 by SteveK

[Khon Kaen Jeff]

4 minutes ago, GeorgeCross said:

i'm not surprised non-o multi applications are getting a closer look at savanakhet its being used by a lot of people to skirt around getting a marriage extension due to not requiring financials. 

 

only a matter of time before the hammer catches up to this nail i think if the current trend continues

I think you may well be onto something. These visa's have always been a bit of a grey area and strictly speaking they are designed for people that spend quite a lot of time here but come and go, like O/S workers for example.. they are not really meant for people who stay here the whole year and just do a quick run every 90 days..