Samui immigration very busy

[GalaxyMan]

I needed to do my 90-day report today, so I went early, 8:30, when they supposedly open the doors. There must have been 100 people already in line waiting. No way. Went back home. Luckily, I live maybe 5 minutes away. Went back at 11:00 and the office was full with a line of at least 25 waiting to get a ticket to wait in line. No way. Went back home. I've never needed more than 10-15 minutes to do anything at immigration. I've never seen it busy like this before. I went back at 2:00 and it was the same story, but the line was even longer. I had no choice, as today is the day, so I got in line. After some 15 minutes, someone called out for anyone there for 90-day reporting. They created a special line just for that and jumped everyone needing to report to the front. Not bad. Another 10 minutes of waiting to hand them my passport. They weren't even interested in the letter from the bank and everyone seemed to be in a very even mood; no panic, no rushing, just steadily processing passports. 15-20 minutes later, I got my passport back with the new date.

 

I can't understand why it's so busy, first of all, and secondly, where all the people were coming from, as the roads are dead, the restaurants and bars are empty, and it's really nice and peaceful; except at immigration.

[Peterw42]

It could be all the tourists that arrived in January, now getting an extension on their 60 day tourist visa. Mid Jan is probably the height of arrivals for high season so many would have arrived then and extending now.

Does Samui usually require a bank letter for 90 day report ?

[GalaxyMan]

16 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

It could be all the tourists that arrived in January, now getting an extension on their 60 day tourist visa. Mid Jan is probably the height of arrivals for high season so many would have arrived then and extending now.

Does Samui usually require a bank letter for 90 day report ?

Up until today, they did. It was really busy! They might have just not bothered to expedite things.

[Tchooptip]

1 hour ago, GalaxyMan said:

Up until today, they did. It was really busy! They might have just not bothered to expedite things.

You mean a bank letter for the first 90 day I guess?

[khunPer]

1 hour ago, Peterw42 said:

Does Samui usually require a bank letter for 90 day report ?

They didn't from me – first 90-day report in a news 1-year extension was in mid January – i.e. retirement extension 800k baht deposit.

[lom]

2 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

Does Samui usually require a bank letter for 90 day report ?

Don't think they do.

I did the first 90-day report on my current 1-year retirement extension last week and wasn't asked for a bank letter or to show the bank book.

Queues were long last week also, I waited around an hour before I got the passport back.

[sencelebi]

17 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

It could be all the tourists that arrived in January, now getting an extension on their 60 day tourist visa. Mid Jan is probably the height of arrivals for high season so many would have arrived then and extending now.

Does Samui usually require a bank letter for 90 day report ?

They didn't asked bank letter on my previous 90 day reports, they do ask for it on yearly extension.

[ronaldo0]

My wife went to get my passport stamped for 90 day report and was there over 3 hrs !! ????

[at15]

all over the country its a mess now because there are so many lao/cambodian/burmese/philippine workers. Even these little offices in obscure provinces its multiple hours waiting. is it like this in samui or were the people westerners? 

Edited March 19, 2020 by at15

[zaZa9]

47 minutes ago, at15 said:

all over the country its a mess now because there are so many lao/cambodian/burmese/philippine workers. Even these little offices in obscure provinces its multiple hours waiting. is it like this in samui or were the people westerners? 

Often doesnt matter who is actually there.

Some  Thai lady dressed for business  can arrive with 40 passports and jump the queue and wai and  leave them on the desk...

[GalaxyMan]

6 minutes ago, zaZa9 said:

Often doesnt matter who is actually there.

Some  Thai lady dressed for business  can arrive with 40 passports and jump the queue and wai and  leave them on the desk...

I saw mostly Westerners and only one Thai man dropped about a dozen passports, but he waited in line like everybody else until his number was called. In spite of how busy it was, it was orderly.

[at15]

32 minutes ago, zaZa9 said:

Often doesnt matter who is actually there.

Some  Thai lady dressed for business  can arrive with 40 passports and jump the queue and wai and  leave them on the desk...

yes that has been my experience as well in the smaller locations, it depends who you are and you will be able to bypass the line. I have gone in and seen hoards of 3rd worlders waiting around and im the only white guy in there and they wave me to come sit down immediately. In and out 20 minutes when really i should have been there all day. I have also been sitting down mid transaction getting my extension and some long timer who is a good friend comes in and the immigration officer will stop serving me and ill have to wait until they finish the other person. As with most things in thailand there is stuff happening behind the scenes. we dont know the full story. There are a lot of dark things with sexual favors, money changing hands, corruption etc. 

Edited March 19, 2020 by at15

[The Theory]

20 hours ago, GalaxyMan said:

I've never seen it busy like this before.

Chaeg Wattna as well. I was there yesterday. 

[islandguy]

Was there yesterday as well, can confirm the all day long lines which only shortened the last part of the afternoon. Seemed like besides the usual moderate number of people doing annual extensions, 90 day reports (done in small batches out of the queue as described), and Thai guys with handfuls of workers’ passports that the huge numbers were mostly people getting extensions for shorter visas. Certainly a few facing air cancellations just as their permission to stay was up. Immigration didn’t have an answer for the last group yesterday. Most of the staff were working quite hard and getting a lot done all day.

[crazykopite]

I was there on the 9th March turned up at 12 which is normally lunch for the and there was a line of at least 60 after 20 minutes the girl shouted anyone with 90 day report front of the line there were about 5 of us who moved to the front it was absolute chaos can only think it’s due to the current situation with the virus

[crazykopite]

22 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

It could be all the tourists that arrived in January, now getting an extension on their 60 day tourist visa. Mid Jan is probably the height of arrivals for high season so many would have arrived then and extending now.

Does Samui usually require a bank letter for 90 day report ?

When I did my first 90 day after my extension the girl asked to see my bankbook which I had updated 2 days previous she glanced at it and handed it back to me I did not have a bank letter  

[ThaiWai]

Great here we go. Can a mod delete the fake news about Samui requiring a "bank letter" for a 90 day report in Samui?  Why do people post lies as facts?

[Mansell]

Here in Korat they have a dedicated office for 90 day reports. Went last month and the whole thing took a minute.....takes me a lot longer to drive there. Some offices have their act together and some are a nightmare.

[khunPer]

3 hours ago, GalaxyMan said:

I saw mostly Westerners and only one Thai man dropped about a dozen passports, but he waited in line like everybody else until his number was called. In spite of how busy it was, it was orderly.

I notice the same at Samui Immigration, all people politely wait in line, and most are tourists or expats...????

[GalaxyMan]

1 hour ago, ThaiWai said:

Great here we go. Can a mod delete the fake news about Samui requiring a "bank letter" for a 90 day report in Samui?  Why do people post lies as facts?

Nothing fake about it. I've had to have a bank letter every time up until this time. I assume that the crush of people just made it impractical and they blew it off to expedite things.

[Max69xl]

5 hours ago, The Theory said:

Chaeg Wattna as well. I was there yesterday. 

I think you mean Chaeng Watthana.

[leiftheswede]

Just came back from visiting Samui immigration.
It took me 2 and a half hour just to make the queue and finally 3.59 pm get to give my passport and one year visa extension to the immigration officer.
As always they found a reason to charge me a few hundred more then the regulated fee and i was informed that I could come and pick up my passport after 7 days.

They r not the most effektiv crowed up there 555  
By the way everybody entering the immigration need to have a mask - maybe a bit late to get that info when u arrive and do not have a mask.

Why not put up a stand outside and let somebody sell masks??

[The Theory]

1 hour ago, Max69xl said:

I think you mean Chaeng Watthana.

Whatever 

[Neilly]

2 hours ago, leiftheswede said:

By the way everybody entering the immigration need to have a mask - maybe a bit late to get that info when u arrive and do not have a mask.

That's new, I was there yesterday (along with quite a few others that have already posted on here by the look of things) and there was no requirement for a mask then (although I did have one myself...where's the 'smug' emoji when you need it?!?)

[evadgib]

3 hours ago, leiftheswede said:

Just came back from visiting Samui immigration.
It took me 2 and a half hour just to make the queue and finally 3.59 pm get to give my passport and one year visa extension to the immigration officer.
As always they found a reason to charge me a few hundred more then the regulated fee and i was informed that I could come and pick up my passport after 7 days.

They r not the most effektiv crowed up there 555  
By the way everybody entering the immigration need to have a mask - maybe a bit late to get that info when u arrive and do not have a mask.

Why not put up a stand outside and let somebody sell masks??

Is entry/service denied if you haven't got one? Somehow I doubt it (& what about the digital mugshot?).

Edited March 19, 2020 by evadgib

[pennine]

I agree fully with this. I went for 90 day about 2 weeks ago and the queue was about 40 people long - previously about 4 or 5 people. I don't know why the queue moved so slowly as it took me about one and a half hours to get to the desk and less than a minute to get my ticket number. It looked like some people were filling in forms at the ticket desk. Once I had my ticket, the 90 day was done in under 30 minutes.

There was no separate queue for 90 day reports.

[evadgib]

Punters requiring 90 day reports or annual extensions should bypass the masses by going straight to the appropriate desk.

 

Samui IO could make their own lives easier by having all Samui-specific templates available online instead of fobbing people off who have electronically completed the national versions at home only to be told they're not good enough & expecting them to complete their version by hand...in a rugby scrum!

[Huckenfell]

Unlike GALAXY MAN i have never had to produce a letter from my bank to do a 90 day report.

[Tropicalevo]

Anyone who was in Koh Samui immigration Office yesterday may want to consider monitoring their health for a couple of weeks. This from another thread re one confirmed covid-19 case on KPN.

'The (confirmed) one on Koh Phangan is a farang whose girlfriend, also a farang, went to Samui immigration yesterday, Friday. '

Edited March 21, 2020 by Tropicalevo

[No1Farang]

This is serious.  Samui immigration has got a lot to answer for. Herding many people into confined spaces to do sometimes non sensical reporting (90 days etc).  If Samui ever gets this contagion I bet it will start in that office in Maenam.

 

Back to the Koh Phangan girlfriend. It's not her fault but very importantly what times was she in that immigration office. Is there any way of finding out?  If we knew that it would put some peoples minds at rest and others might want to self quarantine.