Visa problems for foreigners applying in Penang at the moment

[george]

There is currently a crackdown, or at least a lot more checking, into visa applications coming through the Royal Thai Consulate in Penang. The consulate is a popular destination for foreigners in southern Thailand and usually receives hundreds of visits and applications each day in their newly refurnished consulate offices and residence of the Thai consul general.

 

The following applies to the Penang consulate and MAY not apply to other consulates or embassies outside of Thailand at this time.

 

There has been a large increase in activity at the Consulate, partly because of the Covid restrictions being removed in Thailand, expats returning for work and additional tourist and business activity.

 

Additional, the influx of Russian visitors into Thailand, in particular, is causing a spike in visa applications so that they, including many families, can extend their stays in Thailand.

 

The Penang Consulate is only accepting 50 visa applications per day with the queues building up from 7am in the morning, even through the applicants aren’t permitted to enter until after 10am. Those who aren’t accepted in the first 50 are then sent away to return, presumably tomorrow or the next day. Consul staff, at the pleading of some of the visa agents in Penang, have accepted a few additional applications. Today there were 120 people queuing to apply for a visa to return to Thailand.

 

With Russian arrivals peaking at the moment – the most numerous arrivals into Thailand each day – the situation for visa extensions – the Thai government is going to be caught between wanting to take them in as tourists (along with their tourism money) and having no way to legally extend their stay in Thailand beyond the current visa rules.

(Russian people can arrive for a 45 visa-exempt stay, extendable for another 30 days).

 

The cap on applications is applied locally and other Thai Consulate and Embassies around the region may apply limits on visa applications to cope with the sudden surge of applications.

 

Additionally, Consular staff are checking documentation much more thoroughly than in the past, including calling offices and staff mentioned in application documents and authenticating photos taken of offices and signboards (a frequent requirement for B Visas for example).

 

In the case of 60 day tourist visas, consular staff are currently requiring proof of paid accommodation for your entire trip AND a flight out of the country before the end of the 60 days.

The Consulate is also frequented by the large number of Thai citizens who live and work in Penang.

 

For Penang, at this time, Phuket Go would recommend using a visa agent to double check your documentation before applying for your visa. ALL applicants must now apply in person, even if you use the services of an agent to organise your travel, accommodation and check your documents.

 

All applicants must also wear a face mask at this time when visiting all Royal Thai consulates or embassies.

 

— Phuket-go.com 2022-12-13

 

[dj230]

yea the canadian embassies are pretty backed up as well, must be influx of travelers for the holidays

[DrJack54]

28 minutes ago, george said:

In the case of 60 day tourist visas, consular staff are currently requiring proof of paid accommodation for your entire trip AND a flight out of the country before the end of the 60 days.

Damn ridiculous imo.

 

Of course that can be all cancelled as soon as visa issued. 

[orchis]

"problems", "crackdown" or just "more checking"?

[BritTim]

5 hours ago, orchis said:

"problems", "crackdown" or just "more checking"?

I think this is "problems", as in it becoming increasingly difficult for snowbirds and other long stay tourists to use Thailand as a base.

[Lemsta69]

Good move by the consulate to keep the visa applicants in Georgetown. A nice little boost for the local economy, assuming of course that they actually have any money to spend ????

[Classic Ray]

About time they worked out how to accept visa applications by post (EMS).

 

They could have a document checking point like British Post Offices just to check that all necessary documents have been included and take fee, then they forward those documents by post. Any queries could be dealt with by phone (Immigration staff should all be competent in at least one foreign language) and then people only need attend to collect passport with visa.

 

The home shopping/delivery apps can all sort it out, why not the Government?

 

But I know Thais are obsessed with queueing and dealing face to face, customer service and convenience are at the end of the line.

[Tropicalevo]

15 hours ago, dj230 said:

yea the canadian embassies are pretty backed up as well, must be influx of travelers for the holidays

People are desperate to travel now that they can.

Lots of Canadians and Americans coming to Samui at the moment and with the $  exchange rate, Thailand seems cheap to them.

[Tropicalevo]

15 hours ago, george said:

In the case of 60 day tourist visas, consular staff are currently requiring proof of paid accommodation for your entire trip AND a flight out of the country before the end of the 60 days.

That does not work if you have property here in Thailand (and lots do).

[ThailandRyan]

59 minutes ago, Classic Ray said:

About time they worked out how to accept visa applications by post (EMS).

 

They could have a document checking point like British Post Offices just to check that all necessary documents have been included and take fee, then they forward those documents by post. Any queries could be dealt with by phone (Immigration staff should all be competent in at least one foreign language) and then people only need attend to collect passport with visa.

 

The home shopping/delivery apps can all sort it out, why not the Government?

 

But I know Thais are obsessed with queueing and dealing face to face, customer service and convenience are at the end of the line.

This is not in Thailand, or about Thai's queuing. A border bounce is basically what these folks are doing by going into Penang to get a new Visa to re-enter Thailand for long term stays.

[Lemsta69]

1 hour ago, Classic Ray said:

About time they worked out how to accept visa applications by post (EMS).

Why would they go to all that bother when there are agents in town that will do that for you? There's no reason for anyone to queue for hours in the hot sun unless they're flat broke or a bit loopy, in which case their visa applications should be automatically rejected ????

[recom273]

21 minutes ago, Lemsta69 said:

Why would they go to all that bother when there are agents in town that will do that for you? There's no reason for anyone to queue for hours in the hot sun unless they're flat broke or a bit loopy, in which case their visa applications should be automatically rejected ????

They say that you now need to apply in person. 
They have removed the services of places like banana, which did a pretty competent job at checking all the documents up until 9.00 pm at night, before they submitted them to the consulate and moved the log jam to outside the consulate at 7:00 am. 
 

The demand may have increased, but they still didn’t prepare a place to deal with the existing traffic - Its the same every time. They were processing way over 50 a day before Covid and the requirements shouldn’t have changed that much.

 

”How many applicants do we have per day Somchai?”

500, Sir

”OK, let’s give them 100 chairs and three windows that can process 100 applicants a day, that will be fine” 

 

[Lemsta69]

2 minutes ago, recom273 said:

They say that you now need to apply in person. 

Oops I missed that bit. Now that is really cruel, white skin doesn't like the sun, at least mine doesn't. I'd consider staying in Malaysia for 90 days just so I didn't have to queue up like that ????

[stratocaster]

Not mentioned on here but another site says that passports are returned after 2 days. Not next day as before.

The fact you have to apply in person is perhaps the reason the agents business died.

[GeorgeCross]

so many russians don't want to go home right now?

 

wow, who could have seen that coming..

 

 

[sandyf]

17 hours ago, george said:

All applicants must also wear a face mask at this time when visiting all Royal Thai consulates or embassies.

That will cut down expat visa runs from Thailand.

[alex8912]

Fifty a day is ridiculous and they know already 120 have shown up some mornings! If paperwork is in order a simple 60 day visa ( without proof of accommodation for ENTIRE stay ) should be easy to process and way more than 50 could easily be processed if Thailand wants to make more high season $$. If it takes one or two days ( later ) to get why can't 200 a day be done? This isn't rocket science. I bet there will be many more 30 day visas given out on line for Vietnam now. Of course Vietnam is promoting itself actually. 

[recom273]

2 hours ago, Lemsta69 said:

Oops I missed that bit. Now that is really cruel, white skin doesn't like the sun, at least mine doesn't. I'd consider staying in Malaysia for 90 days just so I didn't have to queue up like that ????

It’s just a horrid inhumane experience - I remember doing it In Vientiane, queuing by the side of the road in the mid-day heat nearly dying. As far as I remember, you had to queue to collect a number to retrieve your passport. 
 

It’s not like the technology isn’t in service, I just booked my driving test sight test, through an app on my phone which gives me a time to show up. There is no need to be standing on the street like cattle - some agencies like the land office and LTO really got their act together over Covid, seems like immigration in most parts and Thai consulates took the time to chill out with the lack of applicants. 

[PJ71]

13 hours ago, BritTim said:

I think this is "problems", as in it becoming increasingly difficult for snowbirds and other long stay tourists to use Thailand as a base.

Easier for snowbirds, they apply for visas from their 'home country'.

[hotchilli]

19 hours ago, george said:

The Penang Consulate is only accepting 50 visa applications per day with the queues building up from 7am in the morning, even through the applicants aren’t permitted to enter until after 10am. Those who aren’t accepted in the first 50 are then sent away to return, presumably tomorrow or the next day. Consul staff, at the pleading of some of the visa agents in Penang, have accepted a few additional applications. Today there were 120 people queuing to apply for a visa to return to Thailand

120 persons seeking visa applications only 50 per day being accepted into the offices.

Maybe they should look into this quickly, that's a lot of annoyed people who are going to be hanging around locally wondering what to do. 

[Caldera]

Their requirements are ridiculous. When will they finally raise the amount of money people have to show, but refrain from asking for proof of accommodation?

 

Many people like to be spontaneous, and proof of accommodation is worthless anyway, as all major OTAs allow free cancelations.

[BritScot]

7 hours ago, Lemsta69 said:

Why would they go to all that bother when there are agents in town that will do that for you? There's no reason for anyone to queue for hours in the hot sun unless they're flat broke or a bit loopy, in which case their visa applications should be automatically rejected ????

Because some agents just can't help being scammers. Some years ago on Kow Tow a visa agent decided it would be more convenient to have his own stamp made.... diving instructor going back to Holland on a holiday found out the hard way: thrown in prison and banned for 100 years. The visa guy never missed a beat sign and business as usual.....

[n00dle]

Quote

In the case of 60 day tourist visas, consular staff are currently requiring proof of paid accommodation for your entire trip AND a flight out of the country before the end of the 60 days.

For the life of me i cant understand why a country with a significant reliance on tourism would be throwing out arbitrary impediments to getting a visa. 

it is especially ridiculous in light of the current recession on the heels of the non-earning COVID shutdowns.  

[Lemsta69]

24 minutes ago, BritScot said:

Because some agents just can't help being scammers. Some years ago on Kow Tow a visa agent decided it would be more convenient to have his own stamp made.... diving instructor going back to Holland on a holiday found out the hard way: thrown in prison and banned for 100 years. The visa guy never missed a beat sign and business as usual.....

I don't know where Kow Tow is, China maybe, but I'm pretty sure it ain't anywhere near Pulau Pinang and therefore not relevant. Georgetown visa agents are fine to use.

[recom273]

1 hour ago, BritScot said:

Because some agents just can't help being scammers. Some years ago on Kow Tow a visa agent decided it would be more convenient to have his own stamp made.... diving instructor going back to Holland on a holiday found out the hard way: thrown in prison and banned for 100 years. The visa guy never missed a beat sign and business as usual.....

agents .. DIY rubber stamp .. ok .. good bar story. 

[BritScot]

1 minute ago, recom273 said:

agents .. DIY rubber stamp .. ok .. good bar story. 

Really! Not a bar story. Some people actually lived and worked in Thailand in those days early 2000's. I was a diving instructor and new nick name "Mini Me" a really nice guy and was there with the aftermath. Most of the dive masters and instructors from Kow Tow had to go to Bkk to get their passports replaced, as did I (was a great night out in Bkk). Yes when I arrived on the island there he was sitting in his shop with the sign outside as it always had been. I do not know what if anything happened to the rubber stamp guy!!! However quite possibly nothing (one of the founding families of Kow Tow, I think). 

[ThailandRyan]

19 minutes ago, BritScot said:

Really! Not a bar story. Some people actually lived and worked in Thailand in those days early 2000's. I was a diving instructor and new nick name "Mini Me" a really nice guy and was there with the aftermath. Most of the dive masters and instructors from Kow Tow had to go to Bkk to get their passports replaced, as did I (was a great night out in Bkk). Yes when I arrived on the island there he was sitting in his shop with the sign outside as it always had been. I do not know what if anything happened to the rubber stamp guy!!! However quite possibly nothing (one of the founding families of Kow Tow, I think). 

Kao Tao.......always an issue somewhere. Run by a mafia style family.

[n00dle]

2 hours ago, recom273 said:

agents .. DIY rubber stamp .. ok .. good bar story. 

nope. 

Although the stamps were real, or copies from the same manufacturer, they just weren't in the correct hands 

it was an entire ring. i knew about a dozen expats in bangkok that were caught out. 

 

It cost them money and some travel to fix,  but in the end it wasn't jail and a 100 year ban.

 

oh the drama.

[BritTim]

4 hours ago, Lemsta69 said:

I don't know where Kow Tow is, China maybe, but I'm pretty sure it ain't anywhere near Pulau Pinang and therefore not relevant. Georgetown visa agents are fine to use.

Pretty sure he meant Koh Tao (near Samui).

[BritTim]

11 hours ago, Lemsta69 said:

Oops I missed that bit. Now that is really cruel, white skin doesn't like the sun, at least mine doesn't. I'd consider staying in Malaysia for 90 days just so I didn't have to queue up like that ????

The obvious solution is to go to Vientiane, Ho Chi Minh City or Kuala Lumpur where they use an appointment system.