Residency certificates for Renewal of license.

[PolPat]

I paid a visit to Kap Choeng immigration to get the proper documents for my car and cycle license. On arrival they advised me of a 1000 baht charge for the paper work. I paid the money and when the documents were completed I requested a receipt. The women told my girlfriend the do not give receipts. I told my girlfriend to tell them I need a receipt for my tax records. The women then sent me to speak to a uniformed immigration officer. He told me they don't give receipts and do I want the papers or not? I said I have paid for them, I just want a receipt for my records. He then snatched the documents and said , you want or don't want? I took them back and again stated I paid for these documents they are mine. I want a receipt. The uniform officer gave instruction to the female immigration employee and she returned my 1000 baht.

My girlfriend got angry at me after we left with the money. I was shocked they gave me the papers and the money. Was this wrong on my part? She said they will give me problems next time I need to go. I got my five year license now so I hope I will not need them soon. I get my Visas in the U.S. because I don't like the Thai bureaucracy.

[ubonjoe]

They cannot give you a receipt because it is not an official fee. Resident certificates are not the fee list.

One thousand is high. For most offices it is in the 200 to 500 baht range.

[MikeandDow]

you have a lot to learn,

[PolPat]

Really, so I should have Just paid the 1000 and not asked for the receipt? What have I got to learn? Smile and pay what ever extortion a Thai Official request to do his job?

[MikeandDow]

Really, so I should have Just paid the 1000 and not asked for the receipt? What have I got to learn? Smile and pay what ever extortion a Thai Official request to do his job?

free lesson. this was not extortion, recept could not be given see ubonjoe post, and by going on and on you are making thing worse by trying to get the office to lose face, and your girl friend is correct they will give you problems next time and rightly so, no way to conduct your self with thai officialdom, lot to learn.

[marcusd]

Really, so I should have Just paid the 1000 and not asked for the receipt? What have I got to learn? Smile and pay what ever extortion a Thai Official request to do his job?

no do not pay. Take their names and id numbers. Report them to the bangkk administration and your embassy.

Use another office next time.

I never pay bribes or paperwork fees

If we all make a stand instead of supporting this corruption, things over time will change.

A small stone thrown,in a pond can ripple a long way

Marcusd. Via tapatalk

[marcusd]

Really, so I should have Just paid the 1000 and not asked for the receipt? What have I got to learn? Smile and pay what ever extortion a Thai Official request to do his job?

free lesson. this was not extortion, recept could not be given see ubonjoe post, and by going on and on you are making thing worse by trying to get the office to lose face, and your girl friend is correct they will give you problems next time and rightly so, no way to conduct your self with thai officialdom, lot to learn.

I disagree. I make a polite stand and my Thai,partner supports me every time.

You are only making it harder for all us foreigners by condoning the corruption.

My police commanders friends state DO NOT PAY

Marcusd. Via tapatalk

[thepool]

"My girlfriend got angry at me after we left with the money."

"She said they will give me problems next time I need to go."

Seems like "wonderful" Support !

[khwaibah]

Kap Choeng immigration charges 500 baht per certificate as a lot of other imgration offices, so 1000 baht for 2 is normal. As for the op yes you are wrong.You caused you gf serious loss of face.

[PolPat]

The correct price for a certificate of residency is what I paid, zero baht. The reason it is not on the board is because it is a free service. The reason the immigration office process the "tea money" or bribe with a non uniformed person is to avoid in direct engagement of an illegal activity. The non uniformed person is a proxy. I would recommend that those who posted that suggest engaging in the illegal process of offering a bribe review the sites policy on condoning illegal activity.

[thepool]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

The correct price for a certificate of residency is what I paid zero Baht. The issuing of certificate of residents is a free service. Do you really think that the immigration official would have returned my money if they were correct in charging me 1000 baht? The cost of a service is not up to whomever is on duty at desk at the time, the price is not sometimes 200 baht and other times 500 baht. You can call the 1000 baht a tip or tea money, but it is extortion plain and simple and it is illegal under Thai law.

Of course what should have been done was to gently suggest, using the Thai language, that a very small mistake had somehow occurred.

[MikeandDow]

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The correct price for a certificate of residency is what I paid zero Baht. The issuing of certificate of residents is a free service. Do you really think that the immigration official would have returned my money if they were correct in charging me 1000 baht? The cost of a service is not up to whomever is on duty at desk at the time, the price is not sometimes 200 baht and other times 500 baht. You can call the 1000 baht a tip or tea money, but it is extortion plain and simple and it is illegal under Thai law.

Of course what should have been done was to gently suggest, using the Thai language, that a very small mistake had somehow occurred.

correct mate, as I said lot to learn.

[PolPat]

I really could care less about the loss of face for some criminal with a badge at some back water government office. As for my girlfriend she got over it real fast when I put the 1000 baht note in her handbag. If you caught a thief running out of your house with your television would you care about face?. In my culture if you let a bully extort you , you are called a punk, I think standing up for yourself as a man is held in high regard in any culture. If you want to bow down to a thug that is your choice, I was not raised that way.

[thepool]

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I really could care less about the loss of face for some criminal with a badge at some back water government office. As for my girlfriend she got over it real fast when I put the 1000 baht note in her handbag. If you caught a thief running out of your house with your television would you care about face?. In my culture if you let a bully extort you , you are called a punk, I think standing up for yourself as a man is held in high regard in any culture. If you want to bow down to a thug that is your choice, I was not raised that way.

Some could be accurately described as "blow im away" rednecks!

Those who pay the g/f a 1000 Bht to "get over" a loss of face !

Edited April 23, 2014 by thepool

[ferguston]

It's not even a certificate. It's a free letter to show your address in Thailand.

The immigration office in Pattaya try the same trick.

When I last went in to collect a residence letter my GF was with me and she politely refused to pay (in Thai). The officer still asked for 200 baht when she returned for the letter.

Don't pay. All TV members should refuse to pay. Why pay for a free service.

[larsjohnsson]

Really, so I should have Just paid the 1000 and not asked for the receipt? What have I got to learn? Smile and pay what ever extortion a Thai Official request to do his job?

Extortion ????

So what is the fee for those two certificates then? You don't know that. And it could be 500 each.

Edited April 23, 2014 by larsjohnsson

[larsjohnsson]

The correct price for a certificate of residency is what I paid zero Baht. The issuing of certificate of residents is a free service. Do you really think that the immigration official would have returned my money if they were correct in charging me 1000 baht? The cost of a service is not up to whomever is on duty at desk at the time, the price is not sometimes 200 baht and other times 500 baht. You can call the 1000 baht a tip or tea money, but it is extortion plain and simple and it is illegal under Thai law.

You change your story. In the first post you complain that you didn't got a receipe for your tax record. Then after a few posts and reading the other posts it about the money Edited April 23, 2014 by larsjohnsson

[aussiejon1604]

The correct price for a certificate of residency is what I paid zero Baht. The issuing of certificate of residents is a free service. Do you really think that the immigration official would have returned my money if they were correct in charging me 1000 baht? The cost of a service is not up to whomever is on duty at desk at the time, the price is not sometimes 200 baht and other times 500 baht. You can call the 1000 baht a tip or tea money, but it is extortion plain and simple and it is illegal under Thai law.

You change your story. In the first post you complain that you didn't got a receipe for your tax record. Then after a few posts and reading the other posts it about the money

I have paid 300 and 400 Baht for these certificates on several occasions and have accepted their cost as an administration fee. The OP in the top comment however has got a point. If there is a fee, how do you end up receiving the certificates without paying a cent for them? I would suggest that the officer has had his bluff called by returning the money and supplying the certificates. If other people on TVF, myself included, are prepared to pay for something that in this case has been proven to be obtainable free of charge, then in typical Thai fashion it's "Up to you". As for a Thai losing face, yes it is a cultural thing that they do take seriously but as farangs should we immediately become submissive and ultimately end up losing our own face so a Thai can walk away with stature? I'd interpret that scenario as you can treat a farang poorly with the expectation that as a Thai there will be no repercussions because farangs are more concerned with allowing a Thai to keep face over and above than there own.

Thailand has many ways to extract money from farangs. I might not call it extortion, but there is a definite opportunistic element in place here.

[PolPat]

I was not sure what the fee would be when I arrived. As one of the posters above stated the fee seemed high. I asked my girlfriend to ask for a receipt for my tax record, because, I knew that if the fee was correct they would have no problem giving me one. when they refused I suspect the usual fraud. I did not know the service was free until I reviewed previous posts on this website, after making my initial post. What strikes me as odd is the number of members on this website that seem to suffer from Stockholm Syndrome, arguing for a non existent fee and defending clearly criminal behavior on the part of a government official. Whatever, my motives are the fact that many of you seem to want to blame the victim is rather pathetic. I was simply attempting to obey the law of Thailand by having the correct drivers license.

[crazykopite]

No receipt is ever forthcoming from immigration no matter what , they were charging you big time a resident letter costs no more than 500 baht . You could always report the incident to the big boss in Bangkok, think from now you will always have difficulty when you take a visit to that office I upset an officer many years ago not intentionally I just didn't bring him a gift I sat and sat and sat watching people come and go they closed for lunch and told me to come back , back I went two hours later I got my passport returned,all I was doing was 90 day reporting a five minute process took 5 hours

[jacko45k]

I wondered why these residence letters seemed to be given undue efficiency last time I got one.

All done pretty quick and easy... although they forced 2 on me when 1 would have sufficed.

Waited ages for the extension of stay..........

[Keesters]

It's not even a certificate. It's a free letter to show your address in Thailand.

The immigration office in Pattaya try the same trick.

When I last went in to collect a residence letter my GF was with me and she politely refused to pay (in Thai). The officer still asked for 200 baht when she returned for the letter.

Don't pay. All TV members should refuse to pay. Why pay for a free service.

What you say is true about it officially being free. However refusing to pay can lead to problems like having to wait wait and wait and perhaps never get it. They know they can make things awkward for you if you don't pay. Not all of us are as lucky as you having a girlfriend who would argue on our behalf.

I'm not saying people should or shouldn't pay. It's up to the individual. Until Thailand manages to stop (assuming they want to) the billions being ripped of by their politicians this kind of small tea money will probably never stop. But IMO they would fair better if corruption was limited to only among the Thai people. They should leave us farangs out of it. We're generally not accustomed to it and having it applied to us just causes bad publicity and loss-of-face for Thailand as with this thread.

[Minnehaha]

I never heard of a residency certificate and am confused about this post. Surely this certificate is not about permanent residency, as then you would get the book.

I got a Thai drivers license before and did not need this document. Now I use my tambien baan (yellow) to show I live here.

Edited -

Duh. I just googled it and now I understand.

brain fart.

Edited April 24, 2014 by Minnehaha

[dotpoom]

"My girlfriend got angry at me after we left with the money."

"She said they will give me problems next time I need to go."

Seems like "wonderful" Support !

In this instance I wouldn't call the GFs attitude "lack of support" (although it is quite common not get support from the better half when one stands up for oneself against authority). ...I think she was simply looking after your interests and concerned that they may remember you if there was a next time.

[Jip99]

T.I.T.

Here is a splinter-ar5ed response:-

Once again in Thailand everyone is not wrong.

No - of course the OP or anyone else should not pay. Why? - because there is no official price/tariff for this and the tea fund benefits.

However,........... (and there has to be an however in Thailand).... it is common practice and is usually 'only' 500 Baht. A lot less than your own embassy would charge for anything similar.

Just because it is accepted practice does not make it right. However.... principles are one of the things that you have to be prepared to compromise in Thailand if want an easier life. It is up to you to make the choice.

By standing your ground, you are not wrong - but you may need to use an alternative immigration office in future. You could REALLY stand by your principles and next time at immigration get a (new) GF to video proceedings. They are, after all, greedy bully boys who should be put in their place. Will all Farangs stand up for this principle - no, most will prefer the easier life approach.

The main lesson you have learned is not to reply on your GF and where there are 2 (or more) Thais involved many GFs will appear to 'side' with the Thais. I have personal experience of this and it is disconcerting at first - next time don't take her if she does not add value to the experience.

Welcome to Thai corruption culture.

Edited April 24, 2014 by Jip99

[advancebooking]

Op this has so much to learn. He thinks he is in the States. Leave Thailand... you dont understand how things work here

[CNXTim]

Here's at tip Marcus, develop a sense of humour, learn the 'rules' and obey them and stop embarrassing your GF in front of Thai people.

I'll check back to see if your'e still posting from the LoS in 6 months, my bet?

You will be long gone.

[Carl64]

Good on ya OP. Make a stand, corruption is cancer. It eats the foundations of civilisation .

[Travel Dude]

"My girlfriend got angry at me after we left with the money."

"She said they will give me problems next time I need to go."

Seems like "wonderful" Support !

In this instance I wouldn't call the GFs attitude "lack of support" (although it is quite common not get support from the better half when one stands up for oneself against authority). ...I think she was simply looking after your interests and concerned that they may remember you if there was a next time.

I think your girlfriend "getting angry" on you in front of the officers was a smart move. It gave some face back to the officers who are not used to be challenged.

By this action she demonstrated she "would handle" you, paving the way for the officers to let go.

Smart girlfriend.

[NanLaew]

If the OP was really serious about stamping out corruption, he would not have lied to the Immigration staff about the receipt being needed for 'tax purposes'. He would have stated they are extortionists and forsaken his paperwork AND the cash, demanded their ID's, gotten out his cellphone and called their boss. The OP needs to bone up on martyrdom 101.

In reality, the Kap Choeng staff have handled enough opinionated and sanctimonious farangs in their time, replete with their long-haired translators, that they probably had the OP tagged when he came through the door; hence the up-front 1000 baht price tag.

In the end, he got his paperwork for free but had to pay off his girlfriend thus posts here seeking the validation that he desperately needs (but she hasn't given him freely).