Immigration asked me for a bribe...

[Herbie]

I have applied for a yearly Buisness visa (non immigrant B-A)  at Phuket Imm-office, becuase I have a work permit in my company here.

I am now on my third monthly extension, and now it looks like that they want some money from me. My accountant, who handles the  visa paper work, say that I must pay 10,000 baht under table to get my yearly extension, otherwise I'll be rejected.

Is this too much, or is it the normal procedure?

[george]

It's very hard to advise. Could it be that your accountant are accounting for some extra pocket money in own pocket here?

Or maybe they share?

[Patong Bob]

This happened to me with an accountant in Phuket, checked with immigration - they didn't ask for the money they said......so I finished up getting the visa without the so-called bribe.

Another accountant wanted " bribes" for the taxation office people. I refused to pay and sacked him. Nothing happened to me.

Good luck/

[dr_Pat_Pong]

The ' beancounters ' are worse than the bureaucracy ' B E W A R E of 'em

[opalhort]

submit all your paperwork by yourself!

hire a person to help with the paperwork if needed and pay for this service only!

deal with the officers directly, have an interpreter on hand if needed.

Thai Imm officers (at least in BKK) do not ask for bribes and you better DON'T OFFER one - it may get you into a lot of trouble if you attempt to bribe an officer!!!

if your papers are OK and you qualify you won't have any problems.

opalhort

[Pink Mist]

beancounters become toecutters eventually, same genus as lawyers, subspecies.

[Indo-Siam]

I have in the past had to pay a Bangkok field inspector 1,500 baht just to get him to turn my file back in to the Immigration office, so that they could approve me.

But - this has not been the case over the past six months or so.

10,000 baht in Phuket sounds WAY out of line - and suggests that you should use another processing service.

It is normal for the process to take 10-12 weeks.

If you want to consider paying, make a counter-offer of 1,500 baht - and tell your account to get it at that rate (plus 1,000 for the accountant), or you'll find a new accountant.

My experience is that if you follow the advice above, and try to go to the Immigration office yourself, they will just tell you that they can do nothing because the field inspector who has your file has not yet returned it. If you go this route, and that's what they tell you, ask for the field inspector's handphone number, and have one of your own Thai staff/friends call him, sympathize with him about his unrealistically heavy workload, and ask if they can perhaps pay a 1,500 baht "expedite fee" to get your packet processed (and turned back in to Immigration) quicker.

Its up to you - but right now, I presume that you are having to pay 750 baht for a new work permit extension, every 30 days - and that gets old quickly.

Good Luck!

Indo-Siam

[Sunbelt Asia]

I agree with Steve, 10,000 is too high. We simply refuse to pay any bribes ourselves. Only once it even happen.

A client was told last week, a food license would take a month, If they wanted it that day, it would be 5,000 Baht.

First time any of our lawyers were asked for money. In BKK, its not common.

Customs...now that's a different animal!

www.sunbeltasia.com

[Gfunk]

Customs...now that's a different animal!

Could you elaborate a little on this, any good sroties to share??

[Sunbelt Asia]

Let's just say Customs is a Kingdom within a Kingdom. How bout being charged 1,500 Baht for Customs on brochures that cost 200 Baht.

I think what drives most people nuts is the different rate they are charged every time. No way to know what your landing costs will be beforehand. Just plan for the worse.

By the way, its not a bias against foreigners. The same situations happen to Thai College students even the Thai military when dealing with Customs.