Chiang Mai Immigration retirement renewal

[namatjira]

Today i visited Chiangmai Immigration to extend my retirement visa, what a dream of a visit, i arrived at 10.00 to find nobody queued up so had my paperwork checked and given a queue number immediately, had to wait about 45 minutes and i was out the door at 11.00.....a record for me, all staff were efficient and polite and were a credit for their proffesional behaviour, how things have changed over the years.........

Can not thank them enough, they are doing an incredible job, just wish some of the clients would show some respect and not appear in tshirts, sandals and cargo pants.

Surely its not that difficult, doubt they would visit immigration in their own countries looking like they were having a day at the beach...

Other than that complaint, and thats not at the staff, i commend the chiangmai immigration office for excellence in their duties...top marks

[Tracyb]

What visa is your extension of stay based on?  What documents were needed?

 

Happy to hear there is no longer a need to show up at 05:00 to queue, but I think that’s been the case for a while now.  
 

Thanks for the report!

[moe666]

What time you show up will eventually change when the country opens up. Enjoy the experience now because it will not last.

[thurien]

good for you in CM! Went to Khorat immi a few days ago for renewal 1yr; my mistake was to show up around 11h30 (had errands elsewhere). Prior to lunch time paper work checked already. Lunch 12-13. Hanging out after that until 15h30 ... Lots of mini buses full with Birma people. They have their own check-in but we share the same officials...

all officials helpful, cooperative

[cm17]

...had a similar experience in CMIO for a marriage extension two weeks before: arrived 1pm, hardly 20 people waiting there, n°2 in the queue, called less than 30mn later, staff quick and friendly (what a difference from the one hour stressfull interview with a surly female officer chasing down the slightest detail to send you back home and come back the next day, after having queued lenghthy hours since early morning alongside a bunch of angry farangs, retired, students, hippies, noisy Chinese, let alone Myanmar workers all mixed up, that we had to go through some years before!), 1900 baht, photo (unrecognizable!), under consideration(!!!) stamp, 90 days done, restaurant in front of a nice cold Leo at 2.30 pm...hats off! (thanks Big Joke?)...have a nice day... 

[jeffandgop]

On Thursday 18 Mar my wife & I went to CMI to apply for my annual extension of stay based on marriage.  My current EOS expires on 21 April.  This would be the second time for EOS based on marriage, after the previous 8 years obtaining my EOS based on retirement (we decided last year to use our 25+ years of marriage as being a less restrictive and onerous task).

 

We arrived at 1015, and I walked through the door to get in line to obtain a que number from the Information Desk.  No one outside the front door stopped me to pre-check my documents as was the case last year.

We received que number TF011, with que number TF006 being the current applicant in process.

At 1130, while applicant TF009 was being processed, que numbers TF010 and above were told to come back to be processed after 1300. So from 0830 to 1130, an average of only 3 Thai Family per hour were processed.

Returning at 1300, we were called to window 6 at 1340.  They would not accept my passport copies of 1 passport page per sheet, stating it had to be 2 passport pages per sheet, and orientated near the top of the sheet to leave room for my signature, and their stamp, so we had to go to the copy shop to redo the passport pages.

Corrected passport photocopies led to being called to sit for the “interview” with the IO, which was completed quickly and without any other issues. 

I paid the 1900B fee, my passport was dutifully stamped as “Under Consideration” until 21 May (30 days after my current EOS expires) and to return then to obtain my new extension of stay stamp (which shall be to 21 April 2022).

We finally were out the door at 1500- 4 ½ hours after our visit began.