Visa agent

[very old man]

NKM perhaps i over reacted sorry for the attack for your first retirement visa it is 60 days if my memory is correct after that 90.

you can also use income statements i have done it both ways.

my main concern is the house document . I rent a house and the owner dose not live in phuket.

It makes sense that if you have the 800,000 that the agent would charge less.

there are sure to be people that abuse the system but I'm not one of them.

I am the only person that has posted they i paid 30,000 to a agent. You MAY understand why i took the comment personally .

and yes the 800,000 was in my account . at the time i believed 30,000. bht was a fair price for the service i received.

[NamKangMan]

NKM perhaps i over reacted sorry for the attack for your first retirement visa it is 60 days if my memory is correct after that 90.

you can also use income statements i have done it both ways.

my main concern is the house document . I rent a house and the owner dose not live in phuket.

It makes sense that if you have the 800,000 that the agent would charge less.

there are sure to be people that abuse the system but I'm not one of them.

I am the only person that has posted they i paid 30,000 to a agent. You MAY understand why i took the comment personally .

and yes the 800,000 was in my account . at the time i believed 30,000. bht was a fair price for the service i received.

No problem VOM. It's all a bit of friendly internet banter.

"my main concern is the house document . I rent a house and the owner dose not live in phuket." - the agents can get around the 800,000 baht requirement.

Can they get around not having the "house document?"

[KarenBravo]

@VOM

So, they charged you 30,000 Bt just to take your paperwork to immigration? You didn't use their money?

If this is the price they quote, I'll be going to immigration myself, but, I have heard it only costs 8,000 to 10,000 Bt.

Guess I'll find out when I get home and start contacting these agents.

[very old man]

I don't know in the past I just showed them my thai drivers license or may have geven t them copys of my lease papers.

I understand now they want much more house book owners id . my friend that took 5 days his wife owns the house but the house book was somewhere else then his bank money was in a time account that had rolled over from one bank book to another. he did say that some people seemed to be getting faster service buy putting a gratuity in their passport something he is fundamentally opposed to.

by the way I'm thinking of changing my forum name to very grumpy old man

Edited November 7, 2014 by very old man

[very old man]

There was a little more to it than that, i was in Thailand on a 30 day tourist visa that had been extended at that time as i remember you had to apply for a retirement visa from your home country or outside of Thailand.

it was a involved process i was issued a non o and went on a visa run then when i returned the passport was sent to bkk where a upper level official converted it to a retirement visa. bear in mind i had no experience with thai immigration at that time , have been here ever since this was almost 10 years ago.

[KarenBravo]

OK, understood.

My situation is a lot simpler and should only take one visit to complete.

[beechbum]

If you use an agent you'l never win the lottery, your sala will more than likely burn down on the 27/12/2014 and you may well be solely responsible for the end of the world....

[ALFREDO]

If you use an agent you'l never win the lottery, your sala will more than likely burn down on the 27/12/2014 and you may well be solely responsible for the end of the world....

You have to be a Thai, believing in Pii or Pee = ghosts, to say, write and believe that.

[nocklaus]

Hallo...? You can get it anywhere for 15 000 B. I have been around asking today.

But I think it's too expensive, so I guess I'll have to go and stand in line and do it myself. Done it before. Nothing to it.

[merijn]

Have to admit KB, although I, like most others I guess, am slightly in the dark over the 'new' routines, essentially they don't seem to have changed other than the potential of home verification proof (landlord/owner ID card copy, house (blue book etc) copy), and the need to get there extra early to beat the '30 heads and you're out scenario'. I know you own your home, so the house document thing is a no brainer.

I would struggle with paying an agent 28,000 baht more than what it would cost me to do it myself. That's a lot of very, very good lunches........

I believe the 30,000 baht cost is for the dodgy people who do not have 800,000 baht in the bank for 3 months.

I gather a slice of that 30,000 baht goes to Immigration Officers to circumvent this requirement for the applicant.

If the Phuket Town Immigration Office is a bad as what we are hearing, I can only see it getting worse, as a big backlog is created.

I get the impression that many posters believe if they have all the correct paperwork, they will be fine. The visa will be issued on the first visit.

What we are hearing is that people are being turned away for the most most trivial reasons, and I would not be surprised that if someone did present with the correct paperwork, they would be turned away as well, just because the Immigration officer can. It could be something like, "I need see original of this." Or, "I need photocopy of this." He could come up with any reason, and there is nothing you can do but go away and come back again. There have been accounts of multiple visits before the visa was issued.

I understand KB's reasoning for going through and agent, but as mentioned earlier, I hope he, and many others, are not falling into a trap, one that will continue on into the future, for everyone.

My experience is (for what it is worth) that when you have the correct paperwork you will have no issue with the extension application.

I suspect that most people who have problems have in most cases themself to blame as they have not all required paperwork.

[NamKangMan]

Have to admit KB, although I, like most others I guess, am slightly in the dark over the 'new' routines, essentially they don't seem to have changed other than the potential of home verification proof (landlord/owner ID card copy, house (blue book etc) copy), and the need to get there extra early to beat the '30 heads and you're out scenario'. I know you own your home, so the house document thing is a no brainer.

I would struggle with paying an agent 28,000 baht more than what it would cost me to do it myself. That's a lot of very, very good lunches........

I believe the 30,000 baht cost is for the dodgy people who do not have 800,000 baht in the bank for 3 months.

I gather a slice of that 30,000 baht goes to Immigration Officers to circumvent this requirement for the applicant.

If the Phuket Town Immigration Office is a bad as what we are hearing, I can only see it getting worse, as a big backlog is created.

I get the impression that many posters believe if they have all the correct paperwork, they will be fine. The visa will be issued on the first visit.

What we are hearing is that people are being turned away for the most most trivial reasons, and I would not be surprised that if someone did present with the correct paperwork, they would be turned away as well, just because the Immigration officer can. It could be something like, "I need see original of this." Or, "I need photocopy of this." He could come up with any reason, and there is nothing you can do but go away and come back again. There have been accounts of multiple visits before the visa was issued.

I understand KB's reasoning for going through and agent, but as mentioned earlier, I hope he, and many others, are not falling into a trap, one that will continue on into the future, for everyone.

My experience is (for what it is worth) that when you have the correct paperwork you will have no issue with the extension application.

I suspect that most people who have problems have in most cases themself to blame as they have not all required paperwork.

This thread was started some months ago. It was started when there were reports of Immigration Officers at the Phuket Town Office turning away a lot of people, for very mnor issues, thus causing very long queues, with many people told to come back another day.

Some suggested it was in retribution for complaints made to the local media about illegal "fees" being collected by the Officers. Eg. Certificate of Residence "costing" 500 baht when it should be for free.

Of course, all wrong doing was denied, but the Officers were probably not too happy they were under notice.

[tif]

Hallo...? You can get it anywhere for 15 000 B. I have been around asking today.

But I think it's too expensive, so I guess I'll have to go and stand in line and do it myself. Done it before. Nothing to it.

Take a camp bed and a primus with you.

[LivinginKata]

Hallo...? You can get it anywhere for 15 000 B. I have been around asking today.

But I think it's too expensive, so I guess I'll have to go and stand in line and do it myself. Done it before. Nothing to it.

Take a camp bed and a primus with you.

Are you talking about Phuket Town Immigration ? Idea of a camp bed is ridiculous. In December 2014 I arrived about 08.30 upstairs ( year extension) - queue number 11 (if I remember correctly). All finished by approx 10.20. A big improvement from the previous year application.

[Badrabbit]

Never ever had a problem at Immigration, why do so many people have problems?