Hello together,

I had my marriage extension appointment at Chaeng Watthana last Thursday (I booked online, not the regular walk-in queue) and got sent away with a list of fixes. I'm curious if this matches, what others are seeing lately or if I just got unlucky with the team.

(I'm not a newbie, married almost 10 years now)

The officer didn't like that the copy of the owner's house title deed (chanote) attached to my rental agreement was missing the back side and was a pretty bad quality copy (one year before it wasn't a problem). Then the team lead joined in and said my rental agreement (that would have run out end of July) isn't good enough either, because apparently it needs at least 6 months left on it. Some back and forth later, they gave me until July 9 to come back with everything fixed.

Questions for anyone who's been through this recently:

- Are officers generally getting stricter than a few years ago, or does it just depend on who you get?

- Do you hand over the house title deed (chanote) copy upfront, or only when they specifically ask for it? Maybe that was my mistake?

- Has your rental agreement plus attachments had to be perfect? Or was I just unlucky?

- Anyone dealt with a landlord who won't hand over their house title deed (chanote)/ID/Tabian Baan copies? Does that basically mean you're forced to find a different place if your landlord isn't cooperative?

- Has anyone else hit this "lease needs 6+ months remaining" thing? Is that a Chaeng Watthana thing, a team-lead thing, or something more general now?

- Anyone notice a difference between the online booking system team and the regular walk-in queue? My gut feeling is the online team was stricter.

- If you've had to renew a lease mid-extension-process did you just sign a fresh contract that replaces the old one (with a note saying so), or did you bring both the old and new contract to immigration? Trying to figure out which is better from their point of view.

- Is it just better to use an agent at this point? Any recommendations of good agents?

I would appreciate any stories or tips, as I'm trying to sort this out.

Thank you

The OP in this thread posts very clear list of required docs.

26 minutes ago, frimu said:

Are officers generally getting stricter than a few years ago, or does it just depend on who you get?

Don't see that based on reports.

There are few extra forms to fill in.

Not difficult.

As for appointment vs walk in.

Appointment just saves lot of time. Does not mean more scrutiny.

An agent won't do a lot for you re marriage extension. Just hand holding exercise.

On the question of whether officers are stricter on those with appointments, it is purely anecdotal and may be just a coincidence but I came away from my extension appointment in January feeling like I had been put through the wringer. I had to prove my 800,000 baht came from overseas and they didn't like the fact I was using ongoing monthly rental agreements rather than a 12 month lease. From memory it was desk L1 and the IO was a "big lady".

I made a post about my day out at CW immigration:

https://aseannow.com/topic/1385638-my-retirement-extension-12-month-lease-and-800000-from-abroad/

25 minutes ago, LungLing said:

On the question of whether officers are stricter on those with appointments, it is purely anecdotal and may be just a coincidence but I came away from my extension appointment in January feeling like I had been put through the wringer. I had to prove my 800,000 baht came from overseas and they didn't like the fact I was using ongoing monthly rental agreements rather than a 12 month lease. From memory it was desk L1 and the IO was a "big lady".

I made a post about my day out at CW immigration:

https://aseannow.com/topic/1385638-my-retirement-extension-12-month-lease-and-800000-from-abroad/

Thank you. This was helpful.
It seems, the thing with the lease validity is the newest thing to keep in mind. I have no idea, how I always got the extensions without never looking at that in the last nine years. :-)

And you also had an appointment and the staff there was not so nice. Maybe a walk in appointment, waiting two to six hours for the "magic 5 to 10 minutes" is the way we must endure...

2 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

Don't see that based on reports.

There are few extra forms to fill in.

Not difficult.

As for appointment vs walk in.

Appointment just saves lot of time. Does not mean more scrutiny.

An agent won't do a lot for you re marriage extension. Just hand holding exercise.

Thank you.

I filled out all forms correctly. That indeed is not the problem.
Regarding the agent a regular poster, whose alias I can't recall right now, said, it feels completely different.

I'm still interested in agent recommendations. I don't want to cheat. The money is on the bank account as required. I fulfil all other requirements as well.

I just start feeling like I a need a "cultural translator" to handle the Byzantine requests of Chaeng Watthana as I'm not good with it seemingly.

2 hours ago, LungLing said:

I had to prove my 800,000 baht came from overseas and they didn't like the fact I was using ongoing monthly rental agreements rather than a 12 month lease. From memory it was desk L1

I recall your thread.

Fact is L1 desk is document check desk.

Most likely you go to that desk with or without having made an appointment.

2 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

I recall your thread.

Fact is L1 desk is document check desk.

Most likely you go to that desk with or without having made an appointment.

You’re right Jack, Just checked my appointment and it says counter 30. I had an appointment and wait straight to that counter, not the document check desk.

5 minutes ago, LungLing said:

You’re right Jack, Just checked my appointment and it says counter 30. I had an appointment and wait straight to that counter, not the document check desk.

You had a bad experience.

However for vast majority the Doc check desk L1 is a good plan.

The docs are placed in correct order and checked. eg bank requirements.

Prior to attending extension desk.

It assists the io. At L31-34

From memory you had a bad break however that's not the norm.