New Retirement Visa Extension

[maderaroja]

I have just completed the process and received my new one-year visa extension. The process is akin to a “Chinese fire drill.”

The ordeal took 7 hours, but there were few reasons to be upset. Most of that time was waiting.

The same officer interviewed me as had interviewed me last year. This seemed to fortify her decision to renew the visa extension.

There was one new procedure over those of the last year. They had a ladyboy taking additional computer photos of the applicants and creating a computer file.

The most disturbing aspect of the day was you all. You seem to think that there is a parking place waiting for you regardless of the time of day that you arrive. I will tell you in advance, there are none after about 05.30am. You all kept driving through the parking area and disrupting the queues of people waiting on line in the parking area.

You all can park at the airport and walk the two blocks to the Immigration office. Everyone already knows how much money that you have and that you can afford a ฿30 parking fee.

[KittenKong]

"The same officer interviewed me as had interviewed me last year."

I've never been interviewed for my extension. And when I did it recently it took about 15 minutes (10 minutes the first day and 5 the second).

[PoorSucker]

Think the OP lives in Chiang Mai.

[KittenKong]

Think the OP lives in Chiang Mai.

That would explain it. Immigration there does seem to be very difficult when compared with Jomtien.

[maderaroja]

Yes, thank you for pointing out that I am in Chiang Mai.

[NancyL]

Yes, I wish they'd just cordon off the parking lot at Immigration after 5:30 am and direct everyone down to the airport for parking.

There definitely is an "interview" for a retirement visa in Chiang Mai. It occurs while the I/O is looking over your application. I start out speaking in Thai and the I/O will continue speaking in Thai, waiting for me to switch over to English. I never do -- I think it's like playing chicken, or drag racing on a public highway -- they're waiting for me to cave and start speaking English. Fortunately the questions are always very basic. How do I spend my time in Thailand? How do I support myself since I never take money from my 800,000 baht savings account. I didn't leave Thailand last year, don't I miss my children? How did I like the trip to Laos? etc, etc. (Meanwhile, I fight the urge to tell him/her to stop pawing thru my passport to see where I've traveled and asking me about my personal life)

They don't do interviews elsewhere in Thailand? I wonder if they stopped the interviews would they be able to process more applications? Hmm.....

[maderaroja]

Yes, I wish they'd just cordon off the parking lot at Immigration after 5:30 am and direct everyone down to the airport for parking.

There definitely is an "interview" for a retirement visa in Chiang Mai. It occurs while the I/O is looking over your application. I start out speaking in Thai and the I/O will continue speaking in Thai, waiting for me to switch over to English. I never do -- I think it's like playing chicken, or drag racing on a public highway -- they're waiting for me to cave and start speaking English. Fortunately the questions are always very basic. How do I spend my time in Thailand? How do I support myself since I never take money from my 800,000 baht savings account. I didn't leave Thailand last year, don't I miss my children? How did I like the trip to Laos? etc, etc. (Meanwhile, I fight the urge to tell him/her to stop pawing thru my passport to see where I've traveled and asking me about my personal life)

They don't do interviews elsewhere in Thailand? I wonder if they stopped the interviews would they be able to process more applications? Hmm.....

You are fortunate to be able to speak Thai. I speak only English and Spanish. They don't seem to be able to understand the Spanish, though.

I, too, wish that they would close the parking lot at 05.30am. It is so easy to use the airport parking.

[Gweiloman]

I just did mine this week in Jomtien and there was no interview. It was quite an ordeal though, as it took 2 days.

First, I went in on Tuesday morning, got my queue number and waited for about an hour. My original stamp was in my old passport which I did not transfer over to my new passport (I had a new passport as my old one had run out of pages). I never had a problem flying in / out of Suvarnabhumi as I just show them both passports.

The lady at immigration said I had to transfer my old stamp (which has 6 days left on it) over to my new passport. Also, they would not process the extension at the same time. So, had to do the transfer and went back the next day to collect it. Photocopies once again (of the same pages) and submitted for extension. Told to come back in the afternoon. Went back in the afternoon to collect the passport and photocopies once again for multiple reentry.

So basically, photocopied three pages of my passport three times when logically speaking, once should have been enough.

Doing my resident's permit in Hkg is a dream compared to Thailand.

[CMMCB]

No problem doing a retirement extension of stay in Chiangmai today. Arrived around the time of my online-booked appointment, early afternoon, and was ushered in to be interviewed within a couple of minutes. Interview was very friendly and efficient and took less than 30 mins and then I waited about a further 30 mins before getting the passport back. Out again in under an hour and a 5-minute walk back to the car parked at airport plaza. Painless. Oh yes, there was the extra photograph stage too, that I hadn't heard of before.

Not meaning to gloat. Just telling it like it was. Friend arrived at CM Immigration at 03.45 (am) recently to feel sure could get in that day's queue and received no.5!

[maderaroja]

No problem doing a retirement extension of stay in Chiangmai today. Arrived around the time of my online-booked appointment, early afternoon, and was ushered in to be interviewed within a couple of minutes. Interview was very friendly and efficient and took less than 30 mins and then I waited about a further 30 mins before getting the passport back. Out again in under an hour and a 5-minute walk back to the car parked at airport plaza. Painless. Oh yes, there was the extra photograph stage too, that I hadn't heard of before.

Not meaning to gloat. Just telling it like it was. Friend arrived at CM Immigration at 03.45 (am) recently to feel sure could get in that day's queue and received no.5!

Perhaps, you would be kind enough to teach us all how to use the reservation system. Whenever I look at the website, all the times are RESERVED into the distant future and I cannot seem to find a date or time that will allow me to participate.

[attrayant]

Fortunately the questions are always very basic. How do I spend my time in Thailand? How do I support myself since I never take money from my 800,000 baht savings account.

How much of a fishing expedition is this? If you answer simply (and vaguely) that you have other revenue streams, do they pursue the issue and demand to know what they are? If they see deposits into your account, do they ask where you're getting the money from?

[Mario2008]

it is not uncommen that they ask to see a bank book or recent ATM slips, showing you have money to spent besides the 800,000 in the bank.

[Sophon]

No problem doing a retirement extension of stay in Chiangmai today. Arrived around the time of my online-booked appointment, early afternoon, and was ushered in to be interviewed within a couple of minutes. Interview was very friendly and efficient and took less than 30 mins and then I waited about a further 30 mins before getting the passport back. Out again in under an hour and a 5-minute walk back to the car parked at airport plaza. Painless. Oh yes, there was the extra photograph stage too, that I hadn't heard of before.

Not meaning to gloat. Just telling it like it was. Friend arrived at CM Immigration at 03.45 (am) recently to feel sure could get in that day's queue and received no.5!

Perhaps, you would be kind enough to teach us all how to use the reservation system. Whenever I look at the website, all the times are RESERVED into the distant future and I cannot seem to find a date or time that will allow me to participate.

The appointments open up 100 days in advance, and are normally fully booked within a day or two. So in order to get a slot, you will have to be organised and book 99-100 days in advance of the date you want to go. If not, you will be too late.

As I write this, there are four time slots available on January 19th.

Sophon

[Gweiloman]

No problem doing a retirement extension of stay in Chiangmai today. Arrived around the time of my online-booked appointment, early afternoon, and was ushered in to be interviewed within a couple of minutes. Interview was very friendly and efficient and took less than 30 mins and then I waited about a further 30 mins before getting the passport back. Out again in under an hour and a 5-minute walk back to the car parked at airport plaza. Painless. Oh yes, there was the extra photograph stage too, that I hadn't heard of before.

Not meaning to gloat. Just telling it like it was. Friend arrived at CM Immigration at 03.45 (am) recently to feel sure could get in that day's queue and received no.5!

Perhaps, you would be kind enough to teach us all how to use the reservation system. Whenever I look at the website, all the times are RESERVED into the distant future and I cannot seem to find a date or time that will allow me to participate.

The appointments open up 100 days in advance, and are normally fully booked within a day or two. So in order to get a slot, you will have to be organised and book 99-100 days in advance of the date you want to go. If not, you will be too late.

As I write this, there are four time slots available on January 19th.

Sophon

I would not be surprised if the quota for online appointments is only 4 a day. I cannot imagine that there are so many hundreds of foreigners needing to go to CM immigration on a daily basis for their extension of stay renewal.

I recently did my WP renewal in Hong Kong. There is an open slot every half hour (and the process in fact only takes about 10 mins). So it's never an issue getting an appointment time to ensure that you will be attended to. Of course, you can always turn up in person as well but you take the chance of the immigration office running out of quotas for the day if you arrive too late in the morning. Bear in mind that in Hkg, you are competing for time and space with mainland Chinese, Filipino domestic helpers plus lots of other expats.

Then again, we should not be too surprised. We are living in Thailand after all.