Mobile Immigrations Service In Bangkok

[BangkokHank]

So, I just got to the bottom of this:

I just called the relevant department at Bumgrungrad. I was able to confirm that the Mobile Immigration Service will be at the hospital this Saturday, 16 July, from 9:00 until 12:00. I told the guy on the phone that I will be coming to do my 90-day reporting and I asked if there would be a charge for this. He told me the following (followed by a sheepish giggle - as if to suggest that he knew it was devious):

IF you contact the hospital's service desk first - they will fill out the form for you - and charge you 500 baht for the "service". However, if you go straight to the Mobile Immigration Service desk (and, presumably, have your own form - already filled out), then there is no charge. They simply don't like doing anything for farangs for free - especially when they can get 500 baht for doing nothing.

So, I have downloaded Form TM 47 off the internet. I will print it out and fill it out myself before setting foot in the hospital this Saturday. And I expect to be able to do this (useless - but that's another issue) reporting just a short walk from my home rather than having to traipse (that's the first time I've ever written that word!) all the way out to Chaeng Wattana - to do this useless (did I say that already?) exercise.

I'm not sure if the Mobile Immigration Service will have forms available for free, but I suspect not as that would reduce the chance of getting an easy 500 baht out of farangs who, as we all know, already have "money too much".

[jfchandler]

So with whom, and at what phone number, are folks supposed to check with to find out -- accurately -- if and when Immigration actually will be showing up at Bummers?

It seemed from earlier in the thread that the hospital staff didn't always know correctly when Immigration was coming, and neither did the Immigration Hotline, which gave out wrong advice....

BTW, this Saturday the 16th is one of the major Buddhist holidays... along with being the designated 3rd Saturday of the month...

I'll be interested to hear if Immigration does in fact show up that day.... Hope someone here who's planning to go does report back.

Edited July 13, 2011 by jfchandler

[BangkokHank]

Hope someone here who's planning to go does report back.

Well, I'm planning on going on Saturday morning - and I will be happy to report my results, although it would by then be just about too late for anybody to benefit from the information. I would be surprised if they didn't show up after telling me today that they would - but perhaps I'm just being naive.

I called the relevant department of the hospital directly rather than the Immigration Bureau. Still, if they don't show up due to the Buddhist holiday, then it's not a huge deal for me as I live nearby. But that won't solve the problem of my 90-day reporting, in which case I would have to go out to Chaeng Wattana anyway.

[Maestro]

...IF you contact the hospital's service desk first - they will fill out the form for you - and charge you 500 baht for the "service". However, if you go straight to the Mobile Immigration Service desk (and, presumably, have your own form - already filled out), then there is no charge. They simply don't like doing anything for farangs for free - especially when they can get 500 baht for doing nothing...

It will be free under those circumstances until they start charging for the sanitised air you breathe on their premises and the corridors you soil with your footwear I hope I'm not giving them ideas.

[Maestro]

This direct number for the Chaeng Watthana office should work: 0-2141-9889. If I were you I'd give them a call, seeing that this coming Saturday is part of a long, four-day weekend. But if the hospital is just around the corner from where you live and you can use the exercise there is no harm in going for a walk there without additional prior confirmation.

Looking forward to reading from you here on Saturday how it went.

[w11guy]

She told me I still have to pay 500bt when immigration are there on third Saturdays. Now the 16th is a budha holiday so will they still come? Bumrungrad said call before coming for confirmation. What do you reckon?

I phone immigration to ask if the mobile unit will be open on Saturday 16th July, given that it is a holiday. He told me to hang on and then came back and said that he had just checked the immigration website and it said it would be open on 16th. I pointed out again that it was a holiday period this weekend and he suggested I phone Bumrungrad Hospital and check with them instead. Great service. LOL.

[jfchandler]

I phone immigration to ask if the mobile unit will be open on Saturday 16th July, given that it is a holiday. He told me to hang on and then came back and said that he had just checked the immigration website and it said it would be open on 16th. I pointed out again that it was a holiday period this weekend and he suggested I phone Bumrungrad Hospital and check with them instead. Great service. LOL.

Great thing to need to ask Bummers what Immigration will be doing... You'd think Immigration would know what Immigration would be doing...

But that aside, I'm wondering where and what the Immigration guy on the phone looked at their web site. I've yet to hear that anyone here has actually found any mention of the mobile Immigration operations listed on Immigration's web site.

[Maestro]

...

But that aside, I'm wondering where and what the Immigration guy on the phone looked at their web site. I've yet to hear that anyone here has actually found any mention of the mobile Immigration operations listed on Immigration's web site.

You are right. Nothing at all on the two sites I searched for "mobile immigration":

www.google.com/search?q=%22mobile+immigration%22+site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.immigration.go.th%2F&hl=en&num=10&lr=&ft=i&cr=&safe=images&tbs=

www.google.com/search?q=%22mobile+immigration%22+site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fbangkok.immigration.go.th&hl=en&num=10&lr=&ft=i&cr=&safe=images&tbs=

[w11guy]

...

But that aside, I'm wondering where and what the Immigration guy on the phone looked at their web site. I've yet to hear that anyone here has actually found any mention of the mobile Immigration operations listed on Immigration's web site.

You are right. Nothing at all on the two sites I searched for "mobile immigration":

www.google.com/search?q=%22mobile+immigration%22+site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.immigration.go.th%2F&hl=en&num=10&lr=&ft=i&cr=&safe=images&tbs=

www.google.com/search?q=%22mobile+immigration%22+site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fbangkok.immigration.go.th&hl=en&num=10&lr=&ft=i&cr=&safe=images&tbs=

Maybe it's in Thai and is for the use of hotline staff. The people who answer the phone have no idea and just phone other people to ask. They probably don't know either.

Anyway, I'm going on Saturday. If they're not there then I will know not to go in future on a holiday weekend.

[jfchandler]

As others have said above...for whatever reason, Immigration appears to be doing a non-existent job of publicizing or sharing any information about this service to the broader farang community, who are their customers.

You'd hate to think they're simply setting it up to fail.... including by changing one of the original locations and the hours at some points.

[BangkokHank]

First report of the day:

I arrived at Bumrungrad at 9:30, a half an hour after the Immigration Officers were scheduled to arrive. I went up to the Business Center on the 10th Floor, where the big event is due to take place. I was greeted by a member of the Bumrungrad staff who deals with immigration matters. He asked me what I was there for and I told him that I had come to do my 90-day reporting. He then walked me over to another area, pointed, and said, "There is where the Immigration officers will be working. But they haven't arrived yet." When I asked him when they would be arriving, he said, "I think - uh - about ten o'clock" which, in Thailand means, "I have no idea - so get lost - unless you want to use the hospital's 500 baht service." He then told me, "You can go anywhere - and come back later."

So right now I am back at home, having returned to have my breakfast. I will go back to the hospital again at 10:30 - and I expect to be greeted with, "Oh, they came and left already because no one came to use their services. I guess nobody's interested in this nice, free service that we kindly provide for (stupid) farangs."

I would also like to point out that as I was arriving at the hospital, there were workmen putting up a sign in the hospital's driveway. The sign was COMPLETELY in Thai - even down to the telephone numbers. Thais only use their own numbers on signs when they don't want farangs to know what the numbers are, such as to display prices at places that practice dual pricing.

As soon as I finish eating my breakfast, I'll return to the hospital for a second go at this. I'll also bring my camera with me next time so I can take a picture of that sign that they put up. I'll then post it here and maybe someone among our members can translate it for us. (The only reason I knew that it had anything to do with Immigration was because there was a picture of an Immigration officer - with the Immigration Bureau seal - on the sign.)

My conclusion: Somebody ordered these people to provide a once a month free service, which they are technically more or less doing. But not wanting to cut into their very lucrative fee-generating version of the same service, they are not going out of their way to make it easy to find out about or convenient to use. Eventually, they will claim that nobody is interested in such a service - and they will discontinue it.

I should add that when I was there, there was actually one Thai Immigration Officer there. But she was sitting at the desk at which Bumrungrad processes things at 500 baht a pop. This officer was there to pick up a pile of about two dozen passports. Interesting how these people can manage to show up on time.

Stay tuned for my next report in about an hour or so.

[jfchandler]

Actually, I just got a phone call from a friend who says he just completed his 90 day reporting there at Bumrungrad this morning... He said he was in and out within about 5 minutes...and there were a couple of female immigration officers there....

He didn't say exactly what time he ha arrived there....

So what....how their operating hours at Bummers are 10 or so to noon only???

[sbk]

Why would you show up half an hour early and expect them to be there?

[jfchandler]

SBK, I believe Immigration was supposed to be at Bummers starting at 9 am...until noon... So the prior poster seemed to be saying he had arrived a half hour AFTER their scheduled start time...and no one was there when he arrived.

[BangkokHank]

SBK, I believe Immigration was supposed to be at Bummers starting at 9 am...until noon... So the prior poster seemed to be saying he had arrived a half hour AFTER their scheduled start time...and no one was there when he arrived.

Correct. And thanks for assuming that I am not so stupid as to arrive a half an hour before the scheduled time and then complain about them not being there.

[snarky66]

I went there today. In & out in 5 minutes. I didn't see another person waiting. The staff could not have been nicer.

If you mods care about this topic I suggest pinning it. Cuz this is a hard bugger to find.

If you add "Bamrungrad" to the title it will be easy to find.

[BangkokHank]

I arrived at Bumrungrad for the second time at 10:35. There were two desks being manned (or rather, "womanned") by Immigration officers, but the one who did the 90-day reporting processing was, believe it or not, out fetching food. She came back after about a half an hour - and proceeded to work on the case of an Arab family. I spent a total of just over an hour waiting for my 90-day processing, but I spent the time productively, giving an English lesson to the very nice Immigration lady who had nothing else to do - as there was only one other (farang) customer there during my visit, and he just sat waiting quietly behind me.

Conclusion: It IS possible to do one's 90-day reporting on the spot at Bumrungrad for free once a month. The main beneficiary of this convenience, however, seemed to be Bumrungrad itself, which simply walked over to the Immigration officers with its pile of passports for processing - for which it charges customers 500 baht a pop.

While I was there I had plenty of time to do some thinking, and here is what I concluded: They chose to go ahead with offering this service on a Saturday in the middle of a long holiday weekend PRECISELY because it was a holiday weekend and would result in the fewest possible number of farangs taking advantage of the service due to being away - as well as due to people not expecting the service to be offered on a holiday weekend. So it would appear that some thought DOES go into their actions. Just not in a way that would benefit us.

I also attach herewith a photo of the poster they put up in the driveway of the hospital just as I was arriving the first time at 9:30. If anyone can translate this, it might shed a little light on their thinking.

[BangkokHank]

Why would you show up half an hour early and expect them to be there?

Read the first line of my post again: "I arrived at Bumrungrad at 9:30, a half an hour after the Immigration Officers were scheduled to arrive."

Now read your post again.

Now apologize for your post.

[jfchandler]

To the extent I'm a betting man, I would have bet Immigration would have been complete no-shows at Bummers for this particular holiday weekend.

So I must admit I'm surprised, and somewhat pleased, to discover they were...well... kind-of shows... as in... showing up late and then out for a mid morning snack...

I just hope they're as flexible/forgiving the next time one of their customers is late with their 90 day report or misses an extension of stay deadline... Somehow, I think not...

[snarky66]

J Chandler. According to this thread a few calls were made to the IMM hotline to try & confirm there would be service today.

It is so massively better for me, rather than going to CW & being assigned a number that is 150 after the one being served that I wanted to risk it. You lose one full day out there for the harassment of the 90 day report.

I believe this massive holiday (4 days) in LoS means that the normal hours will resume at Bamrungrad next month. I would bet on it.

The ladies have plenty to do but they are out in plain sight. Not the chaotic bedlam of CW where they kick it into high gear at 4:30 so as to be able to leave on time.

[Xangsamhua]

I arrived at Bumrungrad for the second time at 10:35. There were two desks being manned (or rather, "womanned") by Immigration officers, but the one who did the 90-day reporting processing was, believe it or not, out fetching food. She came back after about a half an hour - and proceeded to work on the case of an Arab family. I spent a total of just over an hour waiting for my 90-day processing, but I spent the time productively, giving an English lesson to the very nice Immigration lady who had nothing else to do - as there was only one other (farang) customer there during my visit, and he just sat waiting quietly behind me.

Conclusion: It IS possible to do one's 90-day reporting on the spot at Bumrungrad for free once a month. The main beneficiary of this convenience, however, seemed to be Bumrungrad itself, which simply walked over to the Immigration officers with its pile of passports for processing - for which it charges customers 500 baht a pop.

While I was there I had plenty of time to do some thinking, and here is what I concluded: They chose to go ahead with offering this service on a Saturday in the middle of a long holiday weekend PRECISELY because it was a holiday weekend and would result in the fewest possible number of farangs taking advantage of the service due to being away - as well as due to people not expecting the service to be offered on a holiday weekend. So it would appear that some thought DOES go into their actions. Just not in a way that would benefit us.

I also attach herewith a photo of the poster they put up in the driveway of the hospital just as I was arriving the first time at 9:30. If anyone can translate this, it might shed a little light on their thinking.

I couldn't read/see all of it, but there's a line about the King's 84th birthday and that Immigration will be providing a mobile service here every third week during the notified hours (can't remember what they are). Nothing on it other than what has been said in the posts here, I think. It looks more like a promotional poster for Thai eyes to show how good Immigration are and what a sterling job they're doing in honour of His Majesty's seventh cycle. The Lt General commanding Immigration Police has his picture up there, so he's happy. Not meant to be an information notice for farangs. Perhaps for Thai carers, partners, etc of farang patients at the hospital.

[lopburi3]

Actually I do it every time at Chiang Watanna and has never taken more than 45 minutes. Perhaps I am lucky; but have not hit the lottery yet.

[jfchandler]

Is it just me...or somehow...is Immigration posting banners about Thailand's Immigration services (obviously for farangs) entirely in Thai language seems pretty dumb.... and perhaps reflective of their institutional mindset.

[sbk]

Why would you show up half an hour early and expect them to be there?

Read the first line of my post again: "I arrived at Bumrungrad at 9:30, a half an hour after the Immigration Officers were scheduled to arrive."

Now read your post again.

Now apologize for your post.

Wow, yes of course. But really, I misread it and thought they were supposed to be there at 10.

[BangkokHank]

Is it just me...or somehow...is Immigration posting banners about Thailand's Immigration services (obviously for farangs) entirely in Thai language seems pretty dumb.... and perhaps reflective of their institutional mindset.

As a previous poster mentioned, the reason for making a sign about immigration services in Thai is to show to their own people how considerate they are of the needs of foreign visitors. That they don't properly advertise these same services to the people for whom the services are intended shows where their true inclinations lie, namely, in not doing anything for foreigners for free when they can charge a ridiculous amount of money for the same service.

In fact, come to think of it, this whole practice of 90-day reporting is a total farce with no other intention other than to extract money from foreigners, both in the form of costs expended for fulfilling the requirement - as well as for the cost of fines for failing to comply with the requirement. I say this because first of all no proof of address is required, so basically one can report any address. And secondly, one could report an address one day and then move the next day without reporting the new address for 90 more days and still be in compliance with this ridiculous law.

A more rational rule would be to say: "Report your address one time - and if you move, report the new address again within, say, seven days. As long as we don't hear from you, we will assume that you are still at the last reported address." Which has been the case for me as I have lived in the same condo for the past 8 years, a fact about which I have to remind the Thai authorities every 90 days.

[w11guy]

I arrived at Bumrungrad for the second time at 10:35. There were two desks being manned (or rather, "womanned") by Immigration officers, but the one who did the 90-day reporting processing was, believe it or not, out fetching food. She came back after about a half an hour - and proceeded to work on the case of an Arab family. I spent a total of just over an hour waiting for my 90-day processing, but I spent the time productively, giving an English lesson to the very nice Immigration lady who had nothing else to do - as there was only one other (farang) customer there during my visit, and he just sat waiting quietly behind me.

LOL. That was me. I arrived at 11:15 and had to wait until 11:35 to get my 90-reporting sorted. I wondered why you were just chatting to the other woman and why she wasn't doing any work. The reason my wait was 20 mins is because the other immigration woman was sorting through a pile of passports. She could easily have done mine first, so as to save me waiting, but she continued with the others, even though no-one seemed to be waiting for them.

[w11guy]

J Chandler. According to this thread a few calls were made to the IMM hotline to try & confirm there would be service today.

It is so massively better for me, rather than going to CW & being assigned a number that is 150 after the one being served that I wanted to risk it. You lose one full day out there for the harassment of the 90 day report.

Do you know that you can report via post? From immigration website...

Notification by registered mail

1. Copy of all passport pages (up to the latest arrival stamp in the Kingdom or latest visa stamp)
2. Copy of arrival/departure card TM.6 (front and back)
3. Previous notifications of staying over 90 days (if any)
4. Completely filled in and signed notification form TM.47
5. Envelope with 5 Baht stamp affixed and return address of foreigner for the officer in charge to send back the lower part of form TM. 47 after having received the notification. This part must be kept for reference and for future notifications of staying over 90 days.
6. The above mentioned documents must be sent by registered mail and the receipt of the registration kept by the foreigner.
   Send the mail before the renewal date 7 days to90 DAYS REGISTRATION,
   IMMIGRATION DIVISION 1
   120 MOO 3, CHAENGWATTANA ROAD,SOI 7,
   LAKSI, BANGKOK. 10210

[lopburi3]

You can only report to the office that serves your area (if they will accept mail reports) - for Bangkok it is as posted above.

[w11guy]

I have put everything onto one page to save me time hunting for this info every time I need to do something that involves immigration. It may help people on here as well. Includes applying for Thai non-immigrant visa, retirement extension, 90-day reporting and re-entry permit.

Edited July 16, 2011 by lopburi3
Link to commercial web site removed

[BangkokHank]

LOL. That was me. I arrived at 11:15 and had to wait until 11:35 to get my 90-reporting sorted. I wondered why you were just chatting to the other woman and why she wasn't doing any work. The reason my wait was 20 mins is because the other immigration woman was sorting through a pile of passports. She could easily have done mine first, so as to save me waiting, but she continued with the others, even though no-one seemed to be waiting for them.

Yes, the lady I was talking to was not the one responsible for doing the 90-day reporting, so she was not able to process me. So I just chatted with her to pass the time. As you suggested, the other lady, who was responsible for the 90-day processing, clearly gave preference to the paying customers - even though they were not present. Like you, I had thought / hoped they would just give us "walk ins" (as they called us) a quick stamp and let us get on with our lives. Next time you and I should hang out together and moan about the service while passing the time until we get processed. Ha. In the end, it beat the heck out of going all the way out to Chaeng Wattana for this pointless exercise.