Just a little heads-up.

 

I did my annual retirement today at the Immigration office in Lamphun. My extension is based on money in the bank, so like in previous years I supplied:

• Copies of relevant pages in passport
• Bank letter confirming todays balance
• One year account statement
• Copies of account passbook documenting transactions and balance since last years extension

 

They also wanted copy of TM47 and TM30, which I didn't volunteer but had with me.

 

What was different to previous years, was that they wanted TWO original TM7 forms and TWO sets of all the supporting bank documents (one original and one copy), so i.e. they treated my application for a retirement extension like they normally do with an application for a marriage extension. There was no hint of this being a tactic to push me towards using an agent, the officer was friendly and helpful enough. They just seemed overly cautious about what documentation they needed.

 

As we all know, the reason for two sets of document for a marriage extension is that one set is sent off to the regional Immigration head office for approval (in this case Chiang Mai). I did get my extension on the spot today, so it obviously didn't have to be sent off to be approved in Chiang Mai, but I have a sneaky suspicion that maybe Chiang Mai Immigration are looking over the shoulder of the provincial Immigration offices under their command, and have demanded copies of all long term extensions. Perhaps as a consequence of the scandals earlier this year concerning Chinese nationals bribing their way to extensions they didn't qualify for.

 

I expect business to be back to normal by the time I have to do my next extension, but for now it might be a good idea if you prepare to be asked for dokumentation beyond what is normally asked for when doing your retirement extension.

 

   

The primary IO down there is a bureaucrat but a fair guy.  How long did it take you to get seen?  Many people?

8 hours ago, connda said:

The primary IO down there is a bureaucrat but a fair guy.  How long did it take you to get seen?  Many people?

 

Quite busy, probably because of Monday being a holiday. Eight to ten people ahead of me, but most came two or three together, so probably four "groups" to be served before me. Almost everyone seemed to be missing some kind of document, so it took about an hour of waiting before I was seen.

3 hours ago, Sophon said:

 

Quite busy, probably because of Monday being a holiday. Eight to ten people ahead of me, but most came two or three together, so probably four "groups" to be served before me. Almost everyone seemed to be missing some kind of document, so it took about an hour of waiting before I was seen.

Pretty much the same list is required here in Chiangmai (although never had to provide either a copy of the TM47 Receipt of Notification or a double set of any of the documents).  Somewhat wise to always avoid Mondays, Fridays, and any day either side of a holiday in any immigration office.

On the plus side, spending a couple of hours once a year to obtain an extension based on retirement is actually not much of a hassle.  It would be helpful and less stressful, though, for the immigration offices to simply post a list of exactly what documents they want for a given service (it's frustrating when a particular officer asks for something off the wall).

Yes - was at the Lamphun office a couple of months ago (August) and same same for me - IO required 2 sets of EVERYTHING, including written forms.  I presumed it was just a one-off thing, as the staff had changed since my last visit. Seems it's perhaps one of those "new requirements" that pop up all of a sudden without any apparent reason or warning - and will possibly disappear again just as quickly.  

 

I'd also booked an online appointment for 10am but the staff didn't seem to know what an "online appointment" was (or maybe didn't care). He just nodded me away to take a bog-standard queue number and I had to wait my turn, like everybody else.  No big deal, really, as there weren't that many people waiting.

 

Otherwise, everything went rather as expected (slowly!) and I was out of there again after around a couple of hours.