Chiang Mai Immigration Opening Hours?

[WhiteCadillac]

What are Chiang Mai Immigration opening hours?

Thousands of threads and sites but couldnt find this simple detail.

[WhiteCadillac]

Are these details from 2008 correct?

Chiang Mai Immigration opening hours

Office hours are 8:30am-4:30pm Monday to Friday

[Ta22]

try to go early if you can cos going at opening time only allow you to Join a Q

[gotlost]

Are these details from 2008 correct?

Chiang Mai Immigration opening hours

Office hours are 8:30am-4:30pm Monday to Friday

Answere to your question is yes. As said you need to be there by 7AM to stand in line to get a number to get a number.

[nikotin888]

opening hours are correct,but i recommend to go there late....last time for my visa extension,i couldnt go in the morning as i usual do,i went 3 oclock and been in and out in 25 minutes!

[CMX]

When I went ten days ago, they closed for lunch 12 - 1. 8:30 IS when they begin work, except for the fellow who advises on getting a number.

[WhiteCadillac]

Are these details from 2008 correct?

Chiang Mai Immigration opening hours

Office hours are 8:30am-4:30pm Monday to Friday

Answere to your question is yes. As said you need to be there by 7AM to stand in line to get a number to get a number.

Are you joking? Who would go there at 7 AM to get a number if it opens at 8:30 AM?

[mcgriffith]

Everyone in the Early Bird Club (you know who you are; you get up at oh-dark-thirty and jump out of bed, doing calisthenics ) figures they should get there early.

There is a line forming at 7 AM for these folks. At 8 AM, they pass out tickets I'm told to the people in line, before the doors open at 8:30 AM. This is to prevent old ladies and Burmese monks and small people being trampled in the rush to the sainted queue machine.

So yes, you are in a queue, for another queue.

Or, alternatively, you can do as others have posted (and I have done recently late September).

Get up at a reasonable hour, have a healthy breakfast, and motor down 9:30 or 10 AM or so. You'll be (hopefully) issued a ticket from the machine good for sometime in the afternoon (I got one at 10 AM good for 1:30 PM). But beware, at 11 or 12, you might be too late for a queue ticket that day

Leave, and come back at the appointed afternoon time.

No fuss, no muss, no trample.

Good Luck, and gee- isn't Chiang Mai becoming popular?

[vagabond48]

Everyone in the Early Bird Club (you know who you are; you get up at oh-dark-thirty and jump out of bed, doing calisthenics ) figures they should get there early.

There is a line forming at 7 AM for these folks. At 8 AM, they pass out tickets I'm told to the people in line, before the doors open at 8:30 AM. This is to prevent old ladies and Burmese monks and small people being trampled in the rush to the sainted queue machine.

So yes, you are in a queue, for another queue.

Or, alternatively, you can do as others have posted (and I have done recently late September).

Get up at a reasonable hour, have a healthy breakfast, and motor down 9:30 or 10 AM or so. You'll be (hopefully) issued a ticket from the machine good for sometime in the afternoon (I got one at 10 AM good for 1:30 PM). But beware, at 11 or 12, you might be too late for a queue ticket that day

Leave, and come back at the appointed afternoon time.

No fuss, no muss, no trample.

Good Luck, and gee- isn't Chiang Mai becoming popular?

I was confused by the above information. Aren't they still giving numbers only and you have to guess approximately when you need to arrive or are they now giving actual appointments?

Last year I went about this time in December to extend my visa and I came at 1PM and got my number, but yesterday, there were no more tickets. I just assumed it was busier because of the Friday holiday.

Edited December 14, 2010 by vagabond48

[mcgriffith]

When the person at the queue machine hands you your ticket (number 562, whatever) he will tell you in approximate terms when they will most likely be getting to your number.

This is after early morning, when if you are first or 3rd in line, it is obvious you will be seen shortly.

It is for later on, when they have already passed out dozens of tickets.

No, it is not an appointment.

vagabond, no doubt Imm is backed up because of the recent holiday.

However, as busy as they seem to be all the time now, 1 PM is way too late on any day to get a ticket for that day.

I tried to do that back in Sept., and was told all tickets had been given out for that day.

Early/mid-morning is best to score a ticket for later on that day.

[Dante99]

My experience over 20+ years is that every visit to immigration is different so take a good book and don't waste time trying to figure out what you will encounter. Even when they are open, staff is sometimes not available for what you want because they "have a meeting" or any of many of other reasons. Even when you think you have all the documents, all the documents the guy who went yesterday used or the guy just before you used, they may ask for something else. Even when you think you know how the Q system works, it may be very different. It is no different from anyplace else except that is a police office which here means they can do whatever they want to do whenever they choose to do it. I have always found it to be quite a pleasant place except for some of the customers who do not exhibit common courtesy or common sense.

[NancyL]

It depends upon what services you require. You can pretty much breeze in any time you want after 8:30 (except during lunch closing) and do your 90 day report in a few minutes. Letters of Residency take a bit longer, but you can come at any time they're open.

Visa extensions are a different matter. McGriffith is right -- there are two schools of thought on when to arrive. Hubby is up before dawn anyway, so I think he actually enjoys walking over to Immigration before sunrise (dodging the night's lingering ladyboys around Thapae Gate) and arriving at Immigration by 7 am, only to be trampled by the missionaries who arrive just before the doors open. Yes, he takes a good book. Me, I'm more civilized. I rise at my usual time, eat breakfast at home, take a songthaew to Immigration by 10 am, get a ticket for the afternoon and enjoy a few pleasant hours at Central Airport Plaza before returning in the afternoon for the estimated time of my meeting with the officials. I just need a magazine to pass the time, rather than a book.

[jonwilly]

I did my 90 day reporting this morning all paperwork complete.

I got there at 07.55 and took my place in the Queue outside on second step down from top.

About 08.05 movement started as the official issuing tickets started work.

By 08.25 I was sat down with my number.

Things moved quickly and I was out by 08.45.

There where folks who did not get a number and where 'Trying it on' with the counter staff.

One guy on some other business was trying to explain just what He wanted from them.

He was politely advised to leave the country and obtain a Visa from a Thai Embassy.

john

[vagabond48]

I eat during the week at the Veg Society of CM which is 10min by bicycle to Immig. I will go about 11:30AM tomorrow and see if I can get my ticket that "late". As I wrote, in the last 2 years, I have had little problem getting seen shortly after arriving. I hope the Q system isn't changed the relaxed trip of getting an extension into a planned extended outing.