Chiang Mai Immigration Q & A - Info and reports. (2020)

[JimmyJ]

3 minutes ago, Bill97 said:

Next day after you went to immigration as described or next day after waiting 8 days for cor?

Good question.

Poorly written PS I realize.

 

I went back 8 days later, received the CoR, went to the bank the next day.

[bloody tiger]

Does anyone know if CM Imm still opening for business at around 6:30AM (was this time last year) or has it reverted back to the 8AM start?

[EricTh]

Did anyone successfully extend their visa via the combo method recently?

 

I wonder how it works considering the complexity of the 5+7 months method...

[EricTh]

Today I went to Chiang Mai immigration to do my reentry permit.

 

What I found was the situation was quite chaotic compared to last time I went there in November where it was a breeze. The differences are

 

There was a long queue just to get to the front information counter and it snaked from outside the building. The entrance was essentially almost blocked and it was difficult for anyone just to get in and out the building. It took me around 20 mins just to reach the counter.

 

When I reached the counter, I saw one Thai visa agent with over ten or more Chinese passports and she spoke Thai with the immig. officer.

 

I saw one Chinese?? guy who didn't wear any mask and coughed at me. Hopefully....

 

Outside the building, I saw a specialized area specifically for Chinese tourists. I counted around 50 or more people sitting outside going into another small building.

 

I think Chiang Mai immigration should seriously consider opening up another branch at Promenada. 

[deej]

27 minutes ago, EricTh said:

Today I went to Chiang Mai immigration to do my reentry permit.

 

What I found was the situation was quite chaotic compared to last time I went there in November where it was a breeze

 

 

One can have their Re-Entry Permit  done at the Airport within  minutes 

The desk is directly  to  your left  of the luggage clearance.  and before you pass Customs .

 

 

[CMBob]

9 hours ago, deej said:

One can have their Re-Entry Permit  done at the Airport within  minutes 

The desk is directly  to  your left  of the luggage clearance.  and before you pass Customs .

Never heard of that location.

To my knowledge, the only place one can get a re-entry permit at the CM airport (International side only) is just after the final security clearance on the 2nd floor but before you go through the exit Immigration booths.  It is on the left and clearly marked.  Only ticketed passengers checking in and departing from the International side can avail themselves of this service.

I don't believe they do photos there so you need to take one with you (as for paperwork, I'm not sure what they will provide as I always have the filled-out TM8 and required copies with me). As per the usual routine, you can get a single re-entry permit (1000 baht) or a multiple re-entry permit (3,800 baht).

[chingmai331]

If my one year non-o visa extension expires on 1 march, how many days prior to that date can i re-apply?

thnx, but plz no guesses or maybes.  

[CMBob]

26 minutes ago, chingmai331 said:

If my one year non-o visa extension expires on 1 march, how many days prior to that date can i re-apply?

thnx, but plz no guesses or maybes.  

Presuming you have a one-year extension, you can apply for your next annual extension in CM 45 days prior to your expiration date.  In your case, you could have applied as early as the 17th of last month.

[Bill97]

21 hours ago, deej said:

One can have their Re-Entry Permit  done at the Airport within  minutes 

The desk is directly  to  your left  of the luggage clearance.  and before you pass Customs .

 

 

Try again after researching the meaning of Customs.

[chingmai331]

Cheers, Bob.

[deej]

37 minutes ago, Bill97 said:

Try again after researching the meaning of Customs.

My post was only trying to give a heads up to members who are having problems with the slow service presently at Cmai Immgr Dept.

Very kindly CMBob gave a better account of my post to members who may take my heads up in the near future

Be so nice of you .not to be so sarcastic and post helpful information  instead of the above 

[chuang]

16 minutes ago, deej said:

My post was only trying to give a heads up to members who are having problems with the slow service presently at Cmai Immgr Dept.

Very kindly CMBob gave a better account of my post to members who may take my heads up in the near future

Be so nice of you .not to be so sarcastic and post helpful information  instead of the above 

Must be the Wuhan virus

[Thailand]

Went there yesterday to do TM30 for new tenants around 9am- in and out in 5 minutes.

 

On the other hand the queues at the main entrance were absolutely chaotic, queuing to get a ticket to get a ticket perhaps?

Looked very much like the bad old days.

[Gweiloman]

6 minutes ago, Thailand said:

Went there yesterday to do TM30 for new tenants around 9am- in and out in 5 minutes.

 

On the other hand the queues at the main entrance were absolutely chaotic, queuing to get a ticket to get a ticket perhaps?

Looked very much like the bad old days.

By any chance, are you able to make an educated guess on the nationalities?

[EricTh]

13 minutes ago, Thailand said:

Went there yesterday to do TM30 for new tenants around 9am- in and out in 5 minutes.

 

On the other hand the queues at the main entrance were absolutely chaotic, queuing to get a ticket to get a ticket perhaps?

Looked very much like the bad old days.

 

TM30 is on the third floor so that's another queue which is short.

 

It is the ground floor that is chaotic with long queue at the main entrance. Yes, queuing to make sure you have the right documents before you get your queue number.

 

In my opinion, documents should be done at the respective counters so that the main entrance queue can be short. At least people can sit waiting rather than stand waiting.

 

I was bumped many times by rude people going in and out of the main entrance.

[EricTh]

On 2/3/2020 at 12:51 PM, deej said:

One can have their Re-Entry Permit  done at the Airport within  minutes 

The desk is directly  to  your left  of the luggage clearance.  and before you pass Customs .

 

 

The problem with doing re-entry permit at the airport is that you might forget to bring certain documents or even forget to apply for one if you are late to the airport. 

 

It's too risky to invalidate our visa if we forget to apply and exit Thailand.

[Thailand]

1 hour ago, Gweiloman said:

By any chance, are you able to make an educated guess on the nationalities?

Based on the huge numbers probably covered every country on earth and beyond.

[briley]

1 hour ago, EricTh said:

The problem with doing re-entry permit at the airport is that you might forget to bring certain documents or even forget to apply for one if you are late to the airport. 

 

It's too risky to invalidate our visa if we forget to apply and exit Thailand.

And, of course, not everyone leaves via an airport.

 

[deej]

2 hours ago, EricTh said:

The problem with doing re-entry permit at the airport is that you might forget to bring certain documents or even forget to apply for one if you are late to the airport. 

 

It's too risky to invalidate our visa if we forget to apply and exit Thailand.

If that is your case.  with respect 

You are not up todate with a simple procedure (re-entry visa) very easily obtained at 

Cmai Airport as posted  on this thread by CmaiBob and myself

which will releive you of your severe nightmare experiences at Cmai Immgr Dept that you have posted on this thread.

Smell the coffee. nice aroma

[roo860]

Anyone recently done a 1yr extension based on 800,000bt deposit, do they now want 12 months of bank statements or will copies of pass book do? They still want the bank letter of course. 

[briley]

15 hours ago, roo860 said:

Anyone recently done a 1yr extension based on 800,000bt deposit, do they now want 12 months of bank statements or will copies of pass book do? They still want the bank letter of course. 

They want letter from the bank, copies of your bank book (and take original just in case) AND the last 6 months statement. Costs 100 Baht in Bangkok bank and obtained in as long as they take to print the letter.

 

This is as of 3 weeks ago.

 

[roo860]

39 minutes ago, briley said:

They want letter from the bank, copies of your bank book (and take original just in case) AND the last 6 months statement. Costs 100 Baht in Bangkok bank and obtained in as long as they take to print the letter.

 

This is as of 3 weeks ago.

 

Cheers 

[Bobluckynova]

I recently went to CM immigration to extend my retirement visa based on the 800k in the bank.  I was told by the first agent that I needed one year of statement from the bank.  I went to get it but BKK Bank said they only do six month statements but if I made a booking for it, in 3 to 5 working days I could get a one year statement.  I decided to try with only the six month of statements and a photocopy of the entire passbook going back one year.  That time, nothing further was said about needing a one year statement, so the six months with passbook copy etc was good enough.  It makes me wonder if it depends on luck of the draw with which officer one gets.  I went at 09:30 and the queue was huge, if I had gone at 11:00 I would have gotten in very quickly.

[roo860]

Went yday morning, arrived 6.30am, given ticket 37, (for checking docs). Docs checked at approx 9am, given ticket number 36 for 1yr extension desk. Was called about 11.30am to desk number 5, 2 female officers went through my 6 month bank statements very carefully. Also wanted my updated bank book, had copied all pages. 

Had to wait till 1pm to recieve passport (lunch break for staff). Needed re entry permit as well, left office at 1.15pm. 

During my time there it was chaos, mainly tourists wanting 1yr extensions, at one time it got very heated between them and immigration officers.

Afternoon now seems to be a good time to go, assuming they still have numbers to give out.

Ps,

Last year went at 7.45am, ticket number 5 given, was out by 9.15am with re entry permit as well.

[cnxgary]

I have recently received my Affidavit to Marry and today I used a Visa Agent to translate and remit to D.F.A for certification the cost B3000. During my time in the office I asked about doing my next 1 yr. extension. My visa is OA based on retirement and I have been doing extensions the last 10 yrs based on retirement. Knowing I must show insurance if I extend based on retirement the next time. I asked the agent this- Does a person need insurance when applying for a 1 yr. extension based on marriage from a original OA visa and she said Yes! Many posts on this forum have argued the exact opposite! Many posts about being successful changing to marriage. Who is correct?

[jeffandgop]

1 hour ago, cnxgary said:

I have recently received my Affidavit to Marry and today I used a Visa Agent to translate and remit to D.F.A for certification the cost B3000. During my time in the office I asked about doing my next 1 yr. extension. My visa is OA based on retirement and I have been doing extensions the last 10 yrs based on retirement. Knowing I must show insurance if I extend based on retirement the next time. I asked the agent this- Does a person need insurance when applying for a 1 yr. extension based on marriage from a original OA visa and she said Yes! Many posts on this forum have argued the exact opposite! Many posts about being successful changing to marriage. Who is correct?

Agent is WRONG. I went to IMM a month ago and went over with the officers what are the requirements to extend a permission to stay on the basis of marriage from an original O-A visa based on retirement. I posted on this topic the document IMM provided to me #11).  No insurance is required for extension of stay based on marriage for the O-A visa. 

[chingmai331]

Anyone getting hassled about providing a 'long term' housing lease by Immig?

I was told last year when applying for extension to O visa that lease was required, yet i do not find anyone on these pages needing to show a lease to IO.

 

The lease was, in a sense, bogus coz i could cancel the lease anytime without penalty. Immig continues to be a microcosm of Thailand: my desk, my rules!

 

[Timofe]

My “root” visa is O-A.  My initial one year extension of stay expires February 15th.  After consultation with an agent and payment of a 7900 fee, I applied for an extension of my stay based on marriage.  It is very clear there is no health insurance requirement in this context.  After I assembled all my documents, my agent vetted them and made an appointment at Chiangmai immigration.  The agent walked me (and my Thai wife) across the street for the appointment. It went very smoothly, took about half an hour.  They gave me 30 days while they are considering my application. The following week two agents came to visit us at our rented home. I am quite confident that when I keep my next appointment at immigration February 28th I will receive my one year extension. The agents who visited our home told me as much.  So, assuming you are legitimately married to a Thai, and living with him or her, you can get an extension of stay on a “root” O-A visa with no requirement for health insurance. 

[jimgilly]

So you basically paid an additional 6000 baht on top of the 1900 baht standard fee to do this visa when you could have easily done it yourself and people wonder why the farangs are getting taken advantage of in this country.  If this isn't a classic example I don't know what is. 

 

Keep paying exorbitant fees for something you don't need to and you will only make the matter worse for everyone else.  Wake up people and stop feeding into this BS.  The fee for the extension is only 1900 - any more and you're getting ripped off.

[chuang]

13 hours ago, jimgilly said:

So you basically paid an additional 6000 baht on top of the 1900 baht standard fee to do this visa when you could have easily done it yourself and people wonder why the farangs are getting taken advantage of in this country.  If this isn't a classic example I don't know what is. 

 

Keep paying exorbitant fees for something you don't need to and you will only make the matter worse for everyone else.  Wake up people and stop feeding into this BS.  The fee for the extension is only 1900 - any more and you're getting ripped off.

The farang is not taken advantage of...it;s a contractual agreement...to each his own...stop whining and fuming if people want to use an visa agent for one reason or other, so be it...grow up..