Soi Suan Plu

[CWMcMurray]

I was as at immigration yesterday and I saw signs posted asking everyone to bear with them and that they are working on improving their services.

Anyone know what they have planned?

[lanny]

I was there a few days ago and did see some change. It still took me nearly 4 hours (including their lunch break) to get my visa stuff transfered from my old passport to the new one. Longer to make the transfer than it took to get the visa in the first place.

During my wait in Room 101 I noticed that all the immigration officers were sitting at new desks. Also, that the arrangement of the desk had changed. It looked like all the officers had been given computers, too. That didn't seem to speed things up, though, as they still had to go back and find the physical file.

[Bagwan]

For sure that the Pattaya office now has their act together. If the BKK office comes to that standard you'll have little to complain about.

[sniffdog]

I forgot to extend my visa .... was pleasantly surprised that I could pay the overstay at the same counter as applying for the extension.

[CWMcMurray]

For sure that the Pattaya office now has their act together. If the BKK office comes to that standard you'll have little to complain about.

What does the Pattaya office do different than the BKK office?

I spent the whole day waiting in line and watching the customs officers (I got bored watching the walls after the first hour), it is definately not an issue of them slacking off in anyway.

I didn't see any off them leaving their desks for more than a couple of minutes at a time. Even during lunch, when I left the office to get something to eat some of them were still helping applicants. When I got back 40 minutes later, they were all back at work. I left the office at 5:15pm and they were still working to help everyone that was still waiting.

To me it appeared as though they were overloaded, perphaps some redesign in the way the process works in order to make things more managable for the customs officers is needed.

I am guessing that there is a pretty good chance that someone in Thai immigration may monitor this site, if so I would genuinely like to here their opinions. We all may have to go to the office once a year to extend our visas but they work there everyday.