Mobile Immigrations Service In Bangkok

[jfchandler]

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

Yep.... though we might also assume that, by and large, the people showing up for Bummers mobile immigration services in the middle of Bangkok are likely eligible to do mail-in 90 day reports to Chaeng Wattana -- as opposed to either driving there or traveling to Bummers....

As much as I think the 90 day reports are a pretty meaningless bureaucratic activity, I love being able to complete the process from the comfort of my home and just drop the stamped envelope in the mail every couple of months.

Maybe someday Immigration will get around to making 90 day reports available via the Internet, as has been suggested at least 100,000 times here.

[w11guy]

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

Yep.... though we might also assume that, by and large, the people showing up for Bummers mobile immigration services in the middle of Bangkok are likely eligible to do mail-in 90 day reports to Chaeng Wattana -- as opposed to either driving there or traveling to Bummers....

As much as I think the 90 day reports are a pretty meaningless bureaucratic activity, I love being able to complete the process from the comfort of my home and just drop the stamped envelope in the mail every couple of months.

Maybe someday Immigration will get around to making 90 day reports available via the Internet, as has been suggested at least 100,000 times here.

I think I will try the 90-day reporting via post next time. Seems much simpler and save all the hassle of going in person. But as you say, it would be even better to get to do it via the internet.

[jfchandler]

I've done the mail-in approach to Chaeng Wattana the past 4 or 5 times in a row... and it's gone absolutely smoothly and without any issue each time...

Usually get the return receipt (which you use for your next filing) back in the mail from Immigration within one to two weeks after they've received my packet.

Each time I send in my packet via domestic EMS and be sure to keep the receipt and tracking number. And remember, there's no grace period for mailed-in reports... They have to received by Immigration on or before their actual due date.

If I've traveled outside of Thailand since my last 90 day report, and thus the date of my next report has changed from the original date, I use the ThaiVisa online visa calendar calculator to calculate when the new due date will be (90 days from the date of my latest international travel entry into Thailand).

You also need to remember to include a self-addressed stamped envelope with a 10 baht stamp so you can get the required receipt back from Immigration.

And you need to include in your packet copies of all the variously required document things that Immigration asks for...

One clarification: there are some mail-in checklists that make it sound like Immigration wants to see photocopies of EVERY travel stamps page in your passport. When I've done my mail-ins, each time, I've only included copies of the passport stamps for travel that I've done since my most recent extension of stay renewal and/or 90 day report... whichever has been the earlier of the two... And I've never had any blowback from Immigration about that.

[snarky66]

Well I really like the service at Bumrungrad & I will use it in future.

[jfchandler]

Well, I guess I did OK today, kind of like hitting an Immigration grand slam.

By that, I mean, I was able--in one single visit at the 3rd Saturday of the month mobile Immigration operation at Bumrungrad Hospital--to get all three big things for the year accomplished:

1. renewed my annual retirement extension as an American using the consulate income letter method. 1,900 baht.

2. got my accompanying single-entry re-entry permit to keep the extension alive should I need to travel outside Thailand. 1,000 baht. And

3. was able to submit my 90-day reporting form, even though I was about 3 weeks ahead of its due date... instead of within the official timeframe for anytime 15 days before... No charge.

That said, however, it was hardly a smooth or easy experience, as I'll explain now that I've gotten the essentials covered.

First off, both my wife and I had called ahead earlier this week both to Immigration and to Bumrungrad to confirm Immigration's schedule and plan to be there today (Saturday) and their hours, which were supposed to be 9 am to noon. So my wife and I arrived just a bit after 9 am, only to be told by hospital staff that the Immigration officers were going to be late and not arrive until 10 am.... OK... such is life and timeliness in Thailand.

So right about 10 am, three uniformed Immigration officers come strolling in and begin to set up their desks on the 10th floor of the new hospital building at Bumrungrad, the one with the Au Bon Pain shop on the ground floor. After a few minutes, a junior Immigration officer or aide comes over and in English, asks what we want to do, And I replied, retirement extension, re-entry permit and 90 day report. And then to my surprise and consternation, in English, she proceeds to tell me and my wife that they cannot do retirement extensions at Bumrungrad and that they'll only do re-entry permits and short-term things like for tourist visas and 90-day reports.

Then what ensues is about a 5 minute back-and-forth calm exchange where, politely, both my wife and I explain to her that we'd called ahead to both Chaeng Wattana and Bumrungrad, and already been told that they COULD do retirement extensions here at the mobile immigration operation at Bumrungrad, and its sister operation on the second Saturdays in the Khao San Road area. So we state our case, and then the officer continues to insist in English and in Thai that she cannot, and says they don't have the senior officer or supervisor there who needs to sign off on such extensions. So that continues back and forth for a bit, and then finally the junior officer says she can at least do the 90 day report for us, but that we'll need to go to Chaeng Wattana for the retirement extension and re-entry permit (because I'd need the re-entry permit to reflect to new date on my new retirement extension, which supposedly they weren't going to do today.)

So as we're waiting there while the other officers fiddle with my 90 day report paperwork, out of nowhere comes a fourth Immigration officer who hadn't arrived with the other group, a woman who apparently was, and we later learned in fact was, the supervisor of the unit. And she went and talked to her officers a bit, and then came back and talked to me a bit in English, and mostly to my wife in Thai. And we explained the problem, and what we had been told, and what the junior officer had said about not being able to do retirement extensions. And at that point, the supervisor asked me in English, Did I live nearby? and How had I learned about the Saturday operation at Bumrungrad? I answered, she went and talked with her staff again, and then shortly returned back to us to say that YES, they would do my retirement extension and re-entry permit today at the hospital... and save us a trip out to Chaeng Wattana during the coming week.

So I thanked the supervisor politely for that, and she had her staff get about their work on my documents. But now I was really confused... Was the supervisor just doing us a courtesy because perhaps we had been misinformed by others and to avoid us having made the trip for nothing? Or was her junior officer wrong and yes they really could normally do retirement extensions at Bumrungrad? Later on, I got a chance to speak with the supervisor again, and got her answers to that and a couple other things.

As it turns out, the junior officer was wrong, and the supervisor said yes they normally should be able to do retirement extensions there at the mobile immigration days. No explanation of why her junior officer had given us the opposite answer earlier. And I didn't want to push the issue.

I also asked about their seemingly flexible hours, and she said officially 9 am to 3 pm... But she said anyone with a retirement extension should come between 9 am and noon, because she said they need to manually call out to Chaeng Wattana to check their computer system there for that kind of application, and apparently the staff or system that allows them to do that doesn't work past noon on Saturdays.

Lastly, in a piece of not-so-good news, my wife picked up something from the junior officer in Thai about a reference to December, but wasn't quite clear about it... So when I got my chance, I asked the supervisor, and she answered that the mobile Immigration operations, as present, are only slated to continue through this December, and they don't have any plans at present to continue them beyond that. The explanation was these past months have been some kind of special thing to honor the king or wish for his health to improve...

So, in the end, we were able to accomplish everything we set out to do... But it's a bit disconcerting to know that we also were within a couple of minutes of walking out and having to waste another day traveling out to Chaeng Wattana, had the Immigration supervisor not come along and set things straight...

[Gaccha]

>>Bouncing topic to ensure more Thaivisa users' awareness.<<

Attended Mobile Immigration today at Khao San. No other customers.

They can do most things: e.g. extension for work permit/90 day notification/ retirement visa stuff etc.

The last date scheduled is mid-December at Bumrumgrad Hospital. It will only get extended if you start using it.

Chaeng Wattana: remote/expensive to get to/ difficult to get to

Mobile Unit (Bumrumgrad and Khao San): 11 minute walk

Ring 1111 Immigration 24-hr hotline for dates.

[w11guy]

Are there currently any mobile immigration offices in Bangkok that are near the skytrain?

[Mario2008]

I believe the mobile immirgaiton offices are no longer. They were to celebrate the King's birthday and after his birthday discontinued.

[Gaccha]

Correct.

As a point of interest:

I was accused of having a fake visa extension when I went for an extension at Chaeng Wattana, owing to the mobile units odd system. 5 staff were needed to work out why my visa looked odd....

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I had the same thing happen last fall when I went to CW for my retirement extension renewal, after having gotten my 2011 extension via the mobile service at Bumrungrad.

The supervisor at CW looked at the prior year's stamp, hemmed and hawed like something was amiss, and then finally told my Thai wife she didn't recognize the Immigration signature from the year before.

But the CW supervisor ended up approving my 2012 version without too much more grief, and without having to call others into the issue. Fortunately.

You'd think they would know/recognize their own processes and colleagues.