Update to my Rant earlier today

[orchidfan]

Earlier today I detailed our experience yesterday at P Thani IMM office trying ti do a Marriage extension for about the 15th time.

 

So, update: , late his afternoon (FRIDAY) we get ANOTHER can from PT IMM Office saying that they received the email and attached Docs regarding my wife's 25 year ago divorce to a Thai man ,

BUT now require the Ampur Document showing her change to  family name back from the recorded married name (to Thai man 25+years ago) ..

 

This has been recorded (Her revision back to her birth family name) in the form of her Thai Passport, Our Marriage certificate, her Thai ID card, Chanote title when the land was purchased on which our house of 16 years has stood, etc, etc......................no to forget the past 15 odd marriage extensions that have been successfully done at this same office !!!

 

How could we have got married and her, a new passport and Thai ID card for all these years without her divorce and change of family name having been recorded in Official documents ???

 

My wife again asked WHY is this now required after so many years of marriage and renewals?

Answer - "It's a new Law".....really ?? what Law?n

 

Perhaps @DrJack or others might like to comment?

 

Of course in this case she CAN'T find the requested piece of paper and so she will have o go to a local Ampur office (Monday??) and get a new printout to email to them.

 

What a total and unnecessary pain in the butt this all is!!

 

At 74 I don't need this crap, and no, I cannot change over to Retirement visa

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: the Head Lady IO, who we had gotten to know over the years, sadly died of cancer a year or so ago.

So a NEW Order takes over !!

[DrJack54]

1 hour ago, orchidfan said:

At 74 I don't need this crap, and no, I cannot change over to Retirement visa

You have had a bad time with extension based on marriage

 

At 74 I'm surprised you rule out extensions retirement using agent.

I'm bit behind you age wise however will certainly use agent in latter years.

Currently I'm using extensions based on retirement funds in bank method. 

Have you considered extensions done by yourself based on retirement using income method.

Don't understand you state cannot change to extension based on retirement.

That must be a financial constraint.

Use an agent. 

[DrJack54]

Negative post removed 

[Lite Beer]

1 hour ago, DrJack54 said:

 

Use an agent. 

Maybe he wants to do it the legal way.

[Moonlover]

15 hours ago, orchidfan said:

Earlier today I detailed our experience yesterday at P Thani IMM office trying ti do a Marriage extension for about the 15th time.

 

So, update: , late his afternoon (FRIDAY) we get ANOTHER can from PT IMM Office saying that they received the email and attached Docs regarding my wife's 25 year ago divorce to a Thai man ,

BUT now require the Ampur Document showing her change to  family name back from the recorded married name (to Thai man 25+years ago) ..

 

This has been recorded (Her revision back to her birth family name) in the form of her Thai Passport, Our Marriage certificate, her Thai ID card, Chanote title when the land was purchased on which our house of 16 years has stood, etc, etc......................no to forget the past 15 odd marriage extensions that have been successfully done at this same office !!!

 

How could we have got married and her, a new passport and Thai ID card for all these years without her divorce and change of family name having been recorded in Official documents ???

 

My wife again asked WHY is this now required after so many years of marriage and renewals?

Answer - "It's a new Law".....really ?? what Law?n

 

Perhaps @DrJack or others might like to comment?

 

Of course in this case she CAN'T find the requested piece of paper and so she will have o go to a local Ampur office (Monday??) and get a new printout to email to them.

 

What a total and unnecessary pain in the butt this all is!!

 

At 74 I don't need this crap, and no, I cannot change over to Retirement visa

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: the Head Lady IO, who we had gotten to know over the years, sadly died of cancer a year or so ago.

So a NEW Order takes over !!

My wife was asked to provide a copy of her divorce certificate in Aug last year, following 8 renewals of my extensions. She had kept it (fortunately) and I e-mailed a copy to the office the same day and that was the end of the matter.

 

I do know that she had her surname switched back to her family name prior to our marriage 10 years ago. Her lawyer/cousin assured her that it was necessary.

 

The matter was not mentioned again this year when I did my renewal.

 

[richard_smith237]

13 hours ago, Lite Beer said:

Maybe he wants to do it the legal way.

 

I don't think there is anything illegal about using an agent. 

They just cut the queueing and through relationships with the Immigration officers some of the unnecessary imaginary rules are not worried about. 

 

By that I mean...  its very often in Thai bureaucratic circles for officials to 'learn from their peers' this leads to both legacy and imaginary requirements' as info is passed on from colleague to colleague...    This is the primary reason why from region to region, amphur to amphur, office to office and even individual officer to officer the requirement appear so variable - everyone has their own interpretation of requirements or are following what they have been taught by a peer. 

Agents can circumnavigate this as they are known to know the requirements and can communicate this to the immigration officer (i.e. Document x is not required for this process, its only require for x processing etc).

 

I've never used an agent, but understand how they can be useful to some. Some might not a agree with the comment above, but I know senior immigration officers who misunderstand their own regulations.

[TaoNow]

@richard_smith

 

Lite Beer was referring to the type of agent who arranges a retirement extension for ex-pats who don't have the 800K baht in a Thai bank or want to avoid that requirement.

 

There is no ambiuity about this requirement, and every Immo office has to follow the terms of the extension -- unless they are bent, and accept a bribe from the agent to sign off on the extension, despite lack of proof of financials.

[orchidfan]

I appreciate the various comments...thanks.

 

Yes, I suppose I could change over to a Retirement Visa and extensions using an agent....but, to begin with I don't know any!

And yes DrJack54, there are financial constraints for the other alternatives.

 

It is the only time that i/we have been messed around like this, but at the end of the day,it is just an annoying (and unnecessary ) inconvenience this time.

 

Perhaps they ARE trying to get more people to take the Retirement / Agent route as the Marriage route yields them nothing, except the receipteds 1900 baht.

 

At least they dropped the stupid home visit this year....although I still had to include the hand drawn map of how to find our house (same photocopied map every year).

[DrJack54]

20 minutes ago, orchidfan said:

And yes DrJack54, there are financial constraints for the other alternatives.

Even using "income method" 

That requirement is 12 monthly transfers of min 65k

[G_Money]

39 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

Even using "income method" 

That requirement is 12 monthly transfers of min 65k

Actually 15 months now.  As of last month I was required to provide 15 months.  No problem in my case.

 

Whether or not this new requirement is necessary at all Immigration offices is unclear.

 

Jomtien requested it this year.

[DrJack54]

28 minutes ago, G_Money said:

Actually 15 months now.  As of last month I was required to provide 15 months.  No problem in my case.

No idea why that would be required however I tend to ignore Jomitien requirements. 

[MangoKorat]

On 12/14/2024 at 4:52 AM, richard_smith237 said:

I don't think there is anything illegal about using an agent. 

Surely there is if the agent 'provides' the money in the bank?

 

You are supposed to have the money in the bank and an agent arranging that when you don't in fact actually have it must be fraudulent. If the proverbial ever hit the fan, I think you would have a hard time proving you weren't complicit in that fraud.

 

For the Thai's involved, the punishment would probably be, in the case of Immigration Officers, being moved to a different office.  The agent might get a little jail time but could probably 'find' a way out of that.  For the applicant, deportation and a ban must be a significant risk.

 

I know many do it but I've got far to much tied up in Thailand to risk being deported.