Lopburi Immigration Changing Name?.

[Nibor1945]

On my visit yesterday, the "Lopburi Immigration" sign had been removed from the building. On the stamp in my passport "Loburi Immigration" had been deleted and "Central Region Immigration Centre" inserted. The office is in the same building highlighted in my previous post but the office has moved to the Ground floor (On the right at the entrance). They were still installing telephones and computers during my visit.

The purpose of my visit was to get my extension of stay stamp transferred to my new passport (Successful) and to ask if I could get a 2 month extension to my 14th annual extension of my Non-Imm "O" visa (based on marriage to a Thai national). Up until now I have been able to get the visa based on my monthly income, however with the recent demise of the Pound Sterling my income has dipped just below the 40K per month requirement.

I had managed to gather 400K from amongst the family (It's not all one-way traffic) but lacked the "seasoning period"

required for the money to be in my bank account prior to extension application. I took all the paperwork required for the application as a precaution.

They granted me a 2 month extension and I must re-apply for the annual extension at that time. By then I will be within a month or two of getting my UK State Pension, so I will be able to include that in my monthly income and be (Hopefully) well above the 40K requirement . I shall take the necessary paperwork for either route.

The staff had mostly changed since my last visit and the atmosphere was a bit more serious than before, however they were impartial, efficient and very helpful within the prescribed regulations.

[Niranut]

Hmmm... I did my annual visa extension there in mid-March and still said Lopburi Immigration on everything. They have moved down to the first floor and the staff are all wearing their official uniforms now (they were in civilian clothes when I did a 90-day report in Jan). But everyone I saw was the same from January.

I wasn't impressed with the efficiency though, as there were 9 people in there, but only one person handling visas, one person handling 90-days and re-entrys, and no one else helping anyone. When I arrived, there was one person doing visa stuff, and my husband and I had to wait a few minutes for anyone to acknowledge we were in the room. They don't have any forms out, so you have to get someone to take time and get you any forms you may need to fill out. And the guy sitting right next to the closet with the forms will not do that for you...

In the end it took twice as long as usual do to the extension, and when I mentioned this the guy apologized saying he was still "new at this." While I appreciated the honesty, it would have been nice if the other 8 people in the room could tear themselves away from whatever pressing work they were staring at on their computers and direct people to where they should go or get them forms or whatever. Cause the guy working on the visas was doing all of that.

[phutoie2]

I am not sure what you mean by forms but I presume the likes of TM7, TM8,TM47 etc are what you are referring too.

Most seasoned ex-pats have these all filled in, along with photo's, maps,marriage certificates, bank letters & income statements before stepping foot into the Immigration office. Commentating on Thai inefficiency while not being prepared yourself is a bit rich.

The immigration forms can all be downloaded from Thai Visa or the Thai Immigration Bureau website.

Here

[Nibor1945]

I've rechecked my new passport and where Lopburi Immigration had been deleted and Central Region Immigration Center Inserted, referred the the origins of that extension in Bangkok. The combination of that deletion and the removal of the "Lopburi Immigration" sign led me to a false conclusion.

As to the staff, as you look down the office the officer front row left deals with ninety day reporting, Front row right is the visa Officer, He has to have a senior officer to counter-sign stamps in your passport and that one is usually sat at the back left of the office. So that's two officers involved with extentions etc. It looks like Niranut and I have a good day/Bad day scenario, Lopburi Immigration covers a huge area and in Saraburi for instance there is a very large immigrant labour force both legal and illegal involved in the mining industry. 6 officers get spread pretty thinly around an area that large.

However I don't wish to be partisan, nor am I blind to faults. If you hit the wrong spot or your face doesn't fit you will get the runaround all day long. So be prepared, be polite and be patient!

[Niranut]

Yes, Nibor1945, I am aware of the online availability of forms and am always personally prepared with all of the paperwork/forms/etc that I need whenever I go. I was referring to the couple of people that came while I was there and needed forms and each had the same problem getting what they needed (no one was paying attention to anyone coming in, except the poor guy doing the extensions, who was running around and getting forms and doing extensions). Extensions at Ayuttaya took 30-45 min. for me; took 1.5 hours in Lopburi. With the less centralised system, it was my understanding that the offices are now responsible for smaller numbers of people (i.e. the new Lopburi office is busy with the immigrant labor situation you mentioned, but it is still smaller than what the Ayuttaya office handled previously). But I may be wrong... For whatever reason, things did not seem to be as smooth. The visa officer (front row, right) was helping people with their visas, forms, and other questions when they came in. Then the senior officer (second row, right) was signing off on things and doing 90 days and re-entries. There was no one in the front row, left area. So perhaps that was the problem?

At any rate, that's what happened when I was there. Hoping mine was an unusual situation.