Jomtien Immigration Today - Friday 12th June

[Pilotman]

Hope this is interesting info for someone.   Went to Jomtein Immigration today to get a Certificate of Residency.  Arrived at 0940.  Probably no more than 15 people waiting for service. Staff were extremely friendly and all seemed to be young ladies in blue T shirts (it being Friday, so blue).  Only one male officer that I could see, also in Blue T shirt. Lady at desk 9 was young, friendly and efficient, she even joked with me at one point about the advisability of renewing my motorcycle licence.  Paper work took a couple of minutes, then off for  a coffee.  Returned one hour later and collected my two C of Rs. All very painless.  Yet again, I find Jomtien to be friendly and accommodating.  Good for them and long may it continue. Now to tackle that mad house, the DLT, when it finally opens its doors to licence renewals.  I am expecting that to be a wholly different experience.     

[Peterhua]

You forgot to mention how much you paid for the friendly service? 

[Pilotman]

2 hours ago, Peterhua said:

You forgot to mention how much you paid for the friendly service? 

400 Baht for two certificates. 

[holy cow cm]

CM from before C19 took 3 weeks or so and 500 baht. Sounds like a nice easy time for you.

[david555]

38 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

400 Baht for two certificates. 

Doing the "legworks yourself this day's ,not using an agent anymore ..?????

[Pilotman]

1 minute ago, david555 said:

Doing the legworks yourself this day's ,not using an agent anymore ..?????

not for a simple task like a C of R.  

[david555]

1 minute ago, Pilotman said:

not for a simple task like a C of R.  

Ret.ext. Take even les time ….if doc. o.k.????

[Bangkok Basha]

14 hours ago, Pilotman said:

400 Baht for two certificates. 

May I ask what a "Certificate of Residence" is and what is its purpose or use? Thanks in advance. 

[Andrew Dwyer]

14 hours ago, holy cow cm said:

CM from before C19 took 3 weeks or so and 500 baht. Sounds like a nice easy time for you.

From Ayutthaya IO takes 5 minutes and zero baht for a CoR.

Beat that !, anyone ?

[OneeyedJohn]

U need a CofR for a DL.

[Pilotman]

30 minutes ago, Bangkok Basha said:

May I ask what a "Certificate of Residence" is and what is its purpose or use? Thanks in advance. 

A certificate from Immigration that details who you are and confirms where you live. It is needed for a Thai driving licence, buying a car or motorbike and opening a bank account (usually). Useful little document, that has a validity of one year.  

[andre47]

15 hours ago, Pilotman said:

400 Baht for two certificates. 

If you want to extend your driving licences you need only one certificate. You can copy it and sign the copy.

[Pilotman]

Just now, andre47 said:

If you want to extend your driving licences you need only one certificate. You can copy it and sign the copy.

yes true, but I always take the time, as I am there,  to get two, just in case I wish to use one for some other purpose, such as a change of car or bike, which may happen this year. 

[anfh]

27 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

A certificate from Immigration that details who you are and confirms where you live. It is needed for a Thai driving licence, buying a car or motorbike and opening a bank account (usually). Useful little document, that has a validity of one year.  

It does not last a year, it is only valid for three months max. 

[Pilotman]

3 minutes ago, anfh said:

It does not last a year, it is only valid for three months max. 

DLT website says one year, banks also accept one year.  Not sure where you get your 3 months from.

 

. https://www.dlt.go.th/en/renew-license/

[Kerryd]

21 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

A certificate from Immigration that details who you are and confirms where you live. It is needed for a Thai driving licence, buying a car or motorbike and opening a bank account (usually). Useful little document, that has a validity of one year.  

Doing a search on Google reveals previous TV threads where it seems the "Validity" date can be anywhere from 1 month up to the expiry date of your next Extension. Seems that different Immigration Offices, and different government departments (like DLT) also have their own policies about how old a Cert can be before it's invalid.

I was told previously that they were only valid for a month. I got one a few years ago to buy a scooter. Ended up being about 6 weeks before I finally got around to doing it and they wouldn't accept the Certificate at the dealer. (A Mityon dealer in Pattaya.)
Went back to Immigration (Jomtien), got a new Cert, back to the dealer and completed the deal.

But then, a couple years after that, I got a Cert (at Jomtien as per normal) to renew my driver's license in November. Had a mishap with the bike and ended up not going to the DLT (in Chachoengsao) until February.
They had no problem with the 4 month old Residency Certificate but I had to redo the medical cert. (Which meant going to a local clinic, getting my blood pressure taken while a girl copied everything from the old certificate to the new one and had the doc sign it. 5 minutes and 100 baht later I was heading back to the DLT.)

[Pilotman]

3 minutes ago, Kerryd said:

Doing a search on Google reveals previous TV threads where it seems the "Validity" date can be anywhere from 1 month up to the expiry date of your next Extension. Seems that different Immigration Offices, and different government departments (like DLT) also have their own policies about how old a Cert can be before it's invalid.

I was told previously that they were only valid for a month. I got one a few years ago to buy a scooter. Ended up being about 6 weeks before I finally got around to doing it and they wouldn't accept the Certificate at the dealer. (A Mityon dealer in Pattaya.)
Went back to Immigration (Jomtien), got a new Cert, back to the dealer and completed the deal.

But then, a couple years after that, I got a Cert (at Jomtien as per normal) to renew my driver's license in November. Had a mishap with the bike and ended up not going to the DLT (in Chachoengsao) until February.
They had no problem with the 4 month old Residency Certificate but I had to redo the medical cert. (Which meant going to a local clinic, getting my blood pressure taken while a girl copied everything from the old certificate to the new one and had the doc sign it. 5 minutes and 100 baht later I was heading back to the DLT.)

typical Thailand I would say. 

[ianezy0]

38 minutes ago, andre47 said:

If you want to extend your driving licences you need only one certificate. You can copy it and sign the copy.

Hi Andre, I went to DLT last year to take my practical motorbike test and to also change the address on my car licence.

I had a C of R but she had me go back to the IO for another original nal copy? She said cannot copy. It must depend on who you talk to??

[holy cow cm]

1 hour ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

From Ayutthaya IO takes 5 minutes and zero baht for a CoR.

Beat that !, anyone ?

CM is the worst. But I have a yellow book now so doesn't affect me anymore thank god.

[andre47]

9 minutes ago, ianezy0 said:

Hi Andre, I went to DLT last year to take my practical motorbike test and to also change the address on my car licence.

I had a C of R but she had me go back to the IO for another original nal copy? She said cannot copy. It must depend on who you talk to??

Always when I renew my car and motorbike license I use only one COR and one signed copy. Never had a problem...(in Pattaya)

[bodga]

1 hour ago, Pilotman said:

A certificate from Immigration that details who you are and confirms where you live. It is needed for a Thai driving licence, buying a car or motorbike and opening a bank account (usually). Useful little document, that has a validity of one year.  

Yellow  book  no good  now?

[Jaxxper]

I find Jomtien pretty laid back and helpful. Sometimes they ask for something that I hadn’t thought about, but generally no biggie.

Processing time for extensions of stay, exit/re entry permits and 90 day check ins are pretty quick these days.

Good to hear positive feedback.

[Pilotman]

Just now, bodga said:

Yellow  book  no good  now?

Interesting that you should bring that up.  There was a  chap ahead of me on desk 9 who was getting a Certificate of Residence using his Yellow Book, presumably as poof of address.  I couldn't hear what was being said, but he didn't seem to be getting anywhere.  I would've loved to know what the issue was.  Maybe he just needed a C of R to renew his yellow book?  No idea as I don't have one, so I don't know the process. 

[bkk6060]

Good report.

With as busy as they get and with some of the nonsense they deal with, definitely one of the better offices.

[Kerryd]

Still seems to be a fair few foreigners at Immigration everyday of the week. Surprising considering there are only supposed to be about "4,000" expats left in the area (according to a different thread started recently).

I did my Extension renewal a couple weeks ago and even though it was a Wednesday morning at the end of May, by the time they started letting people in the door there were probably 30 people (expats) waiting. 
Which was also surprising as I never usually see that many, that early, on a "mid week" day (which is when I usually go there because usually there aren't as many people). 

Methinks there are far more than "4,000" expats still in the area. They are probably dealing with at least 150 people a day at Jomtien. At that rate, they could have dealt with every single expat in the area in 27 days, though I can't imagine every "expat" in the area all going there at the same time of the year to do their annual Immigration business.

Add in the 2,600 supposed "tourists", who were supposedly staying at 160 hotels in the central part of Pattaya. (Remember the excuse they used for "Lock Down 2 - Containment of the Infected Tourists" ?) Add in those tourists anyways and Immigration would have dealt with every foreigner in the area at least once in 44 days.

Most of those "genuine" tourists wouldn't have any reason to go to Immigration anyways as their "tourist visas" were all extended ages ago. And the people I saw at Immigration were mostly there to do Extension renewals, 90 Day reports and Re-Entry permits it seems, with a couple others doing stuff at other desks.

When I went at the end of May, I was actually expecting it to be a bit of a ghost town, but even when I went back on the 2nd day in the afternoon, there were still probably 20(ish) people in there. Wasn't busy and no line ups but still a bit surprising to see so many there at that stage of the "lock down" when there haven't been any tourists arriving in the country for months and all the "genuine" tourists had their Visas extended well before then.

Kind of wish it would stay like this forever ! It seems that with the reduced workload, the (Jomtien) Immigration office is finally operating at a normal capacity, instead of being continuously being overloaded like they were before.

Things seem to be proceeding a lot smoother there right now (well, except maybe for people doing Marriage Extensions).

[topt]

3 minutes ago, Kerryd said:

nd even though it was a Wednesday morning at the end of May, by the time they started letting people in the door there were probably 30 people (expats) waiting. 

Don't know why people still go early in the morning and queue. I appreciate it may be cooler.

Was there last Tuesday around 11 and it was pretty empty.

 

[topt]

19 minutes ago, bodga said:

Yellow  book  no good  now?

Pattaya/Banglamung DLT were not accepting yellow book before and insisted on CoR. Not sure if that has changed.

[ianezy0]

36 minutes ago, andre47 said:

Always when I renew my car and motorbike license I use only one COR and one signed copy. Never had a problem...(in Pattaya)

She must have had an off day. Damn annoying though

[Kerryd]

6 minutes ago, topt said:

Don't know why people still go early in the morning and queue. I appreciate it may be cooler.

Was there last Tuesday around 11 and it was pretty empty.

 

Lol - by the time they opened the doors to let us in it wasn't very "cool" - even in the shade with the stand up fan they had blowing. (I'd actually been hoping that it would rain that day).

I generally like to do 2 things when it comes to Immigration (4 things actually). 1) Arrive early and 2) go in at least a couple days before the "expiry" date. That way if something changes or I've screwed something up I have time to take care of it that day or at least get it fixed before the "expiry" date.
I've been there (early) on days where the line-up has stretched out and down soi 5 and the inside was standing room only minutes after they opened the doors, and that was before they started limiting the number of people inside. I'd rather go early and avoid the lines if possible (and I'm usually up and about early every morning anyways so it's not a big deal).

May also have to do with my old army training where you always had to be (wherever) at least 5 minutes before the appointed time, which meant you had to be there at least 5 minutes before the "5 minutes" to make sure you weren't late for that, which meant you had to be there 5 minutes before the 5 minutes (etc, etc). Basically boiled down to having to be standing on parade the day before the parade, just to make sure you weren't late for it !

But as you say, often if you go in later (say after 10am or 2 pm) the place is usually pretty empty.

[Andrew Dwyer]

57 minutes ago, holy cow cm said:

CM is the worst. But I have a yellow book now so doesn't affect me anymore thank god.

I couldn’t get a yellow book from my Amphur ( long long story ) so, swings and roundabouts and all that...