Don't know if anyone can help with info, but apparently part of the process of applying for extension based on marriage requires my wife and I to submit a copy of the route to our home from the immigration office in Korat, using Google Maps. Not completely sure if it HAS to be something using Google Maps, or whether a clear, hand-drawn and labelled map will do. If it DOES have to be a Google Maps thing, is it easy enough to do/print off? Anyone know? Appreciate any help.

(Plus anyone have any 'tips' for dealing with Korat Immigration office?)

If I wasn't so nervous about doing the whole process exactly how they want it, I might be tempted to. ????  However, I'm going to very deferentially jump through all their hoops just like they want me to, like a good boy!

Google maps is very easy to do and print out.  Hand drawn is normally what is asked at most locations (but have found they will accept Google.  You select origin and destination in maps and it provides route (you have choice of bus/car/walk).

Ahhh......ok, maybe they think a Google Maps job is easier and so they're actually trying to be helpful. I will try and print a route off as you suggest, if it's easy (even for a dumbass like me!).  Thanks for your help! 

That's hysterical!  They've been rejecting proper printed Google maps for years and insisting on largely inadequate hand drawn ones.  Who came to their senses?

WHY not try other mapping sites other than GOOGLE ??

4 minutes ago, tinca tinca said:

WHY not try other mapping sites other than GOOGLE ??

Why would you?  Google maps is free and very good.  And in this case seems to have been asked for.

Edited January 31, 20206 yr by lopburi3

Why dont they just Tag everyone? add it to their Bio metrics 

3 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

Why dont they just Tag everyone? add it to their Bio metrics 

Perhaps not required with phones reporting your every move.  Next step.

I printed off a larger scale google map and highlighted the route using a yellow marker pen.

I also attached a smaller scale map detailing my local village and where my house was.

They seemed very happy with that.

No point trying to be difficult with them. Just jump through the hoops and clap like a seal every time one of them tells you one of their cr@p jokes.

When the application is in they will come visit you and take pictures of you inside your house with your wife. An envelope may be required too.

Basically just go through the motions. Its a bit surreal but at the end of it you get what you need. 

32 minutes ago, Greenside said:

That's hysterical!  They've been rejecting proper printed Google maps for years and insisting on largely inadequate hand drawn ones.  Who came to their senses?

2 years ago, I prepared a Google map, with clear directions to our village. They wouldn't accept it, saying only hand drawn. I pleaded that I'm artistically useless (true) so they asked wifey to do one, which she did.

 

When they came to visit they got completely lost in the country lanes and and it took them an hour to find us. We're only 20 minutes from the office!

 

Last year I carefully prepared a hand drawn one for them, but was told 'home visit not necessary'.

 

Oh, wonderful Thailand!

7 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

2 years ago, I prepared a Google map, with clear directions to our village. They wouldn't accept it, saying only hand drawn. I pleaded that I'm artistically useless (true) so they asked wifey to do one, which she did.

 

When they came to visit they got completely lost in the country lanes and and it took them an hour to find us. We're only 20 minutes from the office!

 

Last year I carefully prepared a hand drawn one for them, but was told 'home visit not necessary'.

 

Oh, wonderful Thailand!

Testing our drawing skills and/or handwriting is preferred to having us rocking up with the full monty already prepared in our bags. My electronically prepared TM47's were rejected last year & I was given templates to complete by hand. Eyesight, bad handwriting and lack of space in the office (it was a rugby scrum!) meant it was easier to go home & come back later, & for the life of me I could see NO DIFFERENCE in their templates to the ones I had prepared earlier and used previously without any problems.

 

I concluded that it must be a 'power' thing.

 

Thanks to all who've replied so far. Appreciate it. Interesting that Greenside reckons Google maps are not desired anymore. Maybe I'll just do both, if it ain't too much trouble.

Rookiescot....get what you mean about the 'envelope', though I wasn't aware that they would be necessary! TIT, eh? 

1 minute ago, Toolong said:

Thanks to all who've replied so far. Appreciate it. Interesting that Greenside reckons Google maps are not desired anymore. Maybe I'll just do both, if it ain't too much trouble.

Rookiescot....get what you mean about the 'envelope', though I wasn't aware that they would be necessary! TIT, eh? 

They didnt ask for a lot. Enough for a descent dinner for the three of them.

I submitted a hand drawn map (copied from Google maps) and it was refused, roads had to be indicated with TWO lines, not one thick one, just writing 'Wat' was insufficient, I had to name the wat, etc.

I might add that I worked as a surveyor and road planner for a few years. I did what he wanted. 

I did manage the immortal line "What, what wat?" but it went over his head and hit the wall behind him.

1 hour ago, lopburi3 said:

it provides route (you have choice of bus/car/walk).

 

Choose "walk"... 

On the two occasions I’ve had to provide a map I’ve drawn a simple one from the nearest landmark ( Big C in this case ) kinda like you would do if you wanted something delivered from the big box stores . They seemed happy with that.

51 minutes ago, evadgib said:

I concluded that it must be a 'power' thing.

 

Did my extension a couple of weeks ago and came to the same conclusion. Four immigration officers ruffled through my papers at least two times each, and even though I actually saw the guy add the stamp to my passport, I was made to come back four hours later to pick it up. Previously I always had it handed back to me on the spot. My conclusion was that it was nothing more than intimidation -- a "We're in charge, and don't forget it!" thing. It's harder every year.

They want you with a blue pen to fill in their version of the TM7 and draw a map to show that it is actually you applying and you residing at the address given rather than a scam application where you may have used a fraudulent marriage address and application.

Sorry, are we expecting logic and/or consistancy now?  ????

8 hours ago, cornishcarlos said:

Do a neat hand drawn map... Make it the most convoluted route you can, including any natural obstacles like water crossings, if possible...

Make them work for their visiting bribe ????

But immigration have BMW 330I Smartcar with internet connection and I'm sure the car have a GPS...

8 hours ago, Toolong said:

Ahhh......ok, maybe they think a Google Maps job is easier and so they're actually trying to be helpful. I will try and print a route off as you suggest, if it's easy (even for a dumbass like me!).  Thanks for your help! 

Wrong, if they thought a Google Maps job was easier (which it is), they'd make you draw it by hand (which most do).

 

8 hours ago, Toolong said:

Thanks to all who've replied so far. Appreciate it. Interesting that Greenside reckons Google maps are not desired anymore. Maybe I'll just do both, if it ain't too much trouble.

Rookiescot....get what you mean about the 'envelope', though I wasn't aware that they would be necessary! TIT, eh? 

In my first Marriage extension in Chonburi Immigration at Jomtien two years ago  they refused a "Google maps" route . 

In my second application they accepted the same "Hand drawn" one I used in the first application 

Removed some off-topic posts and replies to them.

12 hours ago, lopburi3 said:

Google maps is very easy to do and print out.  Hand drawn is normally what is asked at most locations (but have found they will accept Google.  You select origin and destination in maps and it provides route (you have choice of bus/car/walk).

 A google map with a filled in route is not a proof of you knowing where you're staying. That's the whole idea with the handwritten map. Using a printed google map with the route from your home to the immigration office drawn with a marker by yourself is another thing. Then you know where you're staying and how to get to your Immigration office. 

36 minutes ago, Max69xl said:

That's the whole idea with the handwritten map.

The whole idea with the handwritten map is that most Thais don't know how to read a map and need some landmark orientations which Google might not point out to them.

I guess for most people here it would be no problem to look at Google maps and then draw a map by hand based on this, so this hardly shows that you know where you are living.

Edited January 31, 20206 yr by jackdd

13 hours ago, lopburi3 said:

Google maps is very easy to do and print out.  Hand drawn is normally what is asked at most locations (but have found they will accept Google.  You select origin and destination in maps and it provides route (you have choice of bus/car/walk).

Imm at Nonthaburi would not accept google map print out ,had to be hand drawn ,for me at least.

14 hours ago, Toolong said:

If it DOES have to be a Google Maps thing, is it easy enough to do/print off? Anyone know? Appreciate any help.

Does your local Korat immigration office have a list with requirements?

 

What is required varies quite a bit from province-to-province.

 

Where I stay a Google Map is for example mandatory for extension of stay based on marriage and retirement. The print shall be of Google Satelite map (screen dump) with the home clearly marked, and a white square box inserted with exact co-ordinates (in black text).

 

Quite easy to copy the screen, but you might need a kind of graphic editor (like PhotoShop) to insert box and text, before printing.

 

Furthermore we also need to supply a "hand drawn map", a simple drawing showing the road to the home; so two maps.

 

Probably, like where I stay, there will be a copy and print shop next to, or close to, the immigration office, which can do the Google-map print for you exactly as required by your local office...????

Seems like it would be simple to print out a Google map, then spend 2 minutes tracing the route on a piece of flimsy paper.

 

Everyone's happy and nobody has to strain their map drawing skills.

 

Edited January 31, 20206 yr by impulse

Udon Thani here

Google map printed out hardly looked at, placed in file.

 

On another note, first 90 report after getting my retirement visa.

Went to bank got a statement and updated bank book, to show proof of 800K baht. Girl at the desk shook her head and said not needed. Didn't even look at it, took it home and round filed it.

I was in and out for a 90 day report in under 2 minutes.

Udon is very user friendly

Edited February 1, 20206 yr by kwonitoy