Queuing Up at Chaeng Wattana for O-Visa Extension

[JuanCF]

Could any esteemed TV member please provide me their "step-by-step" personal experience , say in the last 6 months when you went to do your O-Visa extension? I'm going to do mine tomorrow:

1. What is the best time to arrive Chaeng Wattana to ensure the whole process can be completed by noon? Is that even possible?

2. At which floor must I queue up to:

a) apply to transfer visa stamp from old passport to new passport.

b) apply for Non-O Visa extension?

c) are these 2 applications in the same queue? If not, can my wife help to queue up in one of them?

 

I have already got all the paperwork collated and relevant ones copied (many thanks to Ubonjoe); the only item I need tomorrow will be the Bank Statement which I can get from my bank at Chaeng Wattana. Please do share any useful tips if you have.

 

Cheers.

[chris_samui]

 feel sorry for you, 

[DrJack54]

I wil chip in for some advice and others will relate their own.

I've done 7. I had always arrive early but not super early and every time left arvo. My most recent was last October. Best ever. Had all my docs ready and in order. Arrived 11am. Walked straight through forms area to queue area. Obtain my ticket. Then exit. Downstairs to banks. 

Obtain my letter. 

Lunch in food court. Back in for the interview after lunch break 1pm. Might add sat next to guy after lunch and he arrived very early ~7.00. He left with stamped pp about 5 mins before me.

[Nyezhov]

1. No

 

There is a fab fried chicken stand when they have the food market in the lobby. Muslim chick, right near the stairs. Aroi.

[asiaexpat]

1. Arrive by 7:30 to get pre-line ticket then when they open go directly to the ticket counters inside and get your new tickets. This early because you must first transfer stamps to new passport first and get new pictures before applying for extension.

Do not expect you will get finished with both by lunch time.

2. The second floor Immigration will do both stamp transfer and extension. Get a ticket for the transfer process first, they usually will only issue one ticket at a time but let your wife try (can't loose anything if she can not get it.) 

My last extension and re-entry permit application at CW in January took all day.

[CraigInBangkok]

The transfer and extension is the same queue..i dont see why you cant do both with one queue number....i did my transfer in november ... got there at 11 as richard barrow had said it takes 15 mins(maybe if you are on a non b) i did nt get out till nearly 6. I did my extension in january got there about 9 was out by 1.30...good luck in the awful L1 queue!

Edit...didnt bother with a re entry permit

[asiaexpat]

10 minutes ago, CraigInBangkok said:

The transfer and extension is the same queue..i dont see why you cant do both with one queue number....i did my transfer in november ... got there at 11 as richard barrow had said it takes 15 mins(maybe if you are on a non b) i did nt get out till nearly 6. I did my extension in january got there about 9 was out by 1.30...good luck in the awful L1 queue!

Edit...didnt bother with a re entry permit

All I can say based on my recent experience doing both CW IO will require the OP to transfer data to new passport and get new photo copies as well as a new queue ticket to do the extension. If the bank letter refers to a passport number it must also match the new passport number for the extension. I had to go to the bank and update my passport number and get a new letter before the IO would accept the letter during the extension process. 

[JuanCF]

Thank you all for your feedback. I just came back from Chaeng Wattana and here is my update (see photos too):

1. Arrived CW at 8:00am with wifey and there was already a few hundred people queuing up (like a long snake!). They ran out of the pre-line queue tickets; I reckon there were at least 300 people in the queue. It was just madness.

2. Surprisingly the snake queue moved pretty fast and by 9:15am we got our L1 Queue ticket (#40) with 28 applicants in front of us. Don't know what the bulk of the 300 applicants were getting what done, probably student visa, re-entry etc.

3. Waited for over 2 hours until 11:30am and we were interviewed.

4. The whole interview to process visa stamp transfer and visa extension plus payment and photo of wife and me, took just 20 minutes.

5. Then the IO told us to photostat my new passport with the transfer stamp and to bring her a copy.

6. We went downstairs to look for a photocopier but when we finally got back upstairs at 12:01pm, the Bureau was closed for lunch!

7. We had our lunch and went back up at 1:05pm to hand over the photocopy of passport to the IO. She told us to wait outside her cubicle and in less than 3 minutes an usher returned my passport with the "under consideration" stamp on it and told me to come back on 16 April, with an updated bank passbook and copy, to collect my approved visa extension stamp!

 

We then sauntered over to the ABCD Section to "transfer my re-entry permit" to my new passport, got a Queue ticket, with 76 other applicants in front of us. Dreading another long wait I decided to <deleted> it and come back another day for the re-entry transfer. So, we left at 1:30pm; a total of 5 1/2 hours including an hour for lunch.

 

Hope this episode will help others who plan to do their visa transfer at CW. Happy wait long time!

[DrJack54]

Thanks for report. 

BTW you don't need to transfer your reentry permit. 

[JuanCF]

1 hour ago, DrJack54 said:

Thanks for report. 

BTW you don't need to transfer your reentry permit. 

Yeah, that was what I thought too but the IO (who processed my visa extension) said I need to get a re-entry transfer. Can anyone else please reconfirm that a re-entry transfer is not required for my new passport which is now under consideration for a visa extension? 

PS: Don't think I'll be going overseas in the next 2 months due to the novel virus scare.

[DrJack54]

8 minutes ago, chuan said:

Yeah, that was what I thought too but the IO (who processed my visa extension) said I need to get a re-entry transfer. Can anyone else please reconfirm that a re-entry transfer is not required for my new passport which is now under consideration for a visa extension? 

PS: Don't think I'll be going overseas in the next 2 months due to the novel virus scare.

That's the point. You just obtained new extension so your current reentry only has month or so left. The io said transfer because it's more easy for passport control. That's fair enough. 

I flew out/in every few weeks for months using both passports. 

As for travel plans ...I agree. I'm going to Saigon this Friday. Not so concerned about covid 19 but being banged up in quarantine wouldn't be joy. 

 

 

[JuanCF]

DrJack54, noted with thanks. Have a great trip to HCM city this Friday.

[blackcab]

6 hours ago, chuan said:

...come back on 16 April

 

That's the first day back after Songkran. I would expect it to be busy.

[Mike Teavee]

5 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

As for travel plans ...I agree. I'm going to Saigon this Friday. Not so concerned about covid 19 but being banged up in quarantine wouldn't be joy.

Best get a Visa sorted if you’re from UK (or 1 of the other 7 European nations impacted) 
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-vietnam-visa/vietnam-suspends-visa-free-travel-for-8-european-countries-over-coronavirus-concerns-idUSKBN20W19X

 

[DrJack54]

10 minutes ago, Mike Teavee said:

Best get a Visa sorted if you’re from UK (or 1 of the other 7 European nations impacted) 
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-vietnam-visa/vietnam-suspends-visa-free-travel-for-8-european-countries-over-coronavirus-concerns-idUSKBN20W19X

 

Thanks Mike.

I have been trying to put out same info.

Read that this morning. I travel to Vietnam every 2 weeks so have their news on my cell. I'm OZ so need visa every 3 month, so did not change my plans.

Hope the citizens from countries your link are aware of very recent update.

I was also going to Japan March 18 and AirAsia have cancelled most of those flights. Clearly not going now. 

It's a lottery. I need 3 more flights. If ONE proves to have covid 19 case then quarantine. Check video UK couple now in Hanoi. Scary.