Immigration Udon - big changes?!

[SoFarAndNear]

Hello,

I currently have a Non O 90 days visa. Today I went to Immigration to get a 60 days extension to . I have son and I am his legal with father (with court order).

I rode a lot in this forum and I expected if I bring my Son, birth cert (with my name as father), court order, tabien baan from child I will easy get a 60 days extension for 1900THB.

The officer (t was a lady by the way) told me that I can only get 30 days extension. Udon Thani Immigration changed the rules but if I pay 3000 THB she could give me 60 days. Is this real or did she just tricked out 1100 for herself extra instead of the usual 1900THB?! I was quite confused but my son was crying and I just wanted to get out as quickly as possible. She then told me that next time I should apply for a 1 year extension because soon they will not give 60 days extension anymore if you have too many 60 days extensions in your past. Actually this was the first time I ever did this. I entered Thailand the first time end of 2013 with a 1 year ED Visa. Then I changed to Non-O 3 months ago...

Of course I was happy to get 60 days but I also cannot forget that I paid 1100 THB extra for something I should get for 1900THB and got the bad notice that it will be more difficult in the future if they won't allow 60 days extensions to stay with my child....

Edited January 13, 2015 by SoFarAndNear

[BuckBee]

Junta doing good job on curbing the corruption :-S

Implication of rules for anything in this country is subject to scams & general lack of professionalism.

[ubonjoe]

It is just Udon. No official rule or fee change.

[SoFarAndNear]

What I can do as foreigner who absolutly depends on these immigration officers? I was absoutly not in the mood for any discussion. As I said 2 years old son was with me and we waited already nearly two hours in the queue.

Should I say "NO" I pay 1900THB and you will give me my 60 days. Probably she would give me only 30 days then I always read here in the forum about "ask for a supervisor". But the Supervisor was directly behind her, he was absolutly aware what was going on. How can you do something against someone who has so much power over your life in the country you choosed to life in.

[monkey dog]

. How can you do something against someone who has so much power over your life in the country you choosed to life in.

make sure you are in a ready position to take your second third or fourth option.

[mngmn]

What I can do as foreigner who absolutly depends on these immigration officers? I was absoutly not in the mood for any discussion. As I said 2 years old son was with me and we waited already nearly two hours in the queue.

Should I say "NO" I pay 1900THB and you will give me my 60 days. Probably she would give me only 30 days then I always read here in the forum about "ask for a supervisor". But the Supervisor was directly behind her, he was absolutly aware what was going on. How can you do something against someone who has so much power over your life in the country you choosed to life in.

Welcome to Thailand. Thais put up with this all the time.

[Nuddy]

Its a sickness I think and they cannot help themselves.

These officers get bolder all the time.

It must make them feel proud each day to go home to their wife and children and be able to brag about how much dosh they stole that day.

[Paul888]

What I can do as foreigner who absolutly depends on these immigration officers? I was absoutly not in the mood for any discussion. As I said 2 years old son was with me and we waited already nearly two hours in the queue.

Should I say "NO" I pay 1900THB and you will give me my 60 days. Probably she would give me only 30 days then I always read here in the forum about "ask for a supervisor". But the Supervisor was directly behind her, he was absolutly aware what was going on. How can you do something against someone who has so much power over your life in the country you choosed to life in.

It is a bit like a game of poker. Your son needing to get out of there quickly made you an easy target, but you have to at least look as though you are prepared to stay in the game a little longer and see how serious they are about cheating you. Make them work a little.

My philosophy when I am asked for a fee bigger than I am expecting is that I say "Really? When did that increase? I checked the Immigration.go.th website this morning and I am sure it said 1900 baht. Did I read the wrong section? Can you show me the section I should be reading so that I know for next time."

Act surprised rather than angry then it is not seen as a direct challenge to them, but it does present them with a dilemma and from my experience you have a chance that they will take the easier option.

If they don't and their face hardens, just hand over the money because you won't win this hand.

Then it is up to you whether you follow it up afterwards. This things should be reported or they will never stop but I understand why people don't. There is enough headache living in a foreign country without creating more for yourself.

Edited January 14, 2015 by Paul888

[KED]

It is a difficult position - but information is your friend - I agree with Paul888 - try to act surprised and confused that they are charging you more than you expected - don't just give in to their demands (maybe leave the kid with the Mom or have the Mom come with you as well). Of course, you don't want to be denied - so you cannot force the issue too much - but do ask for receipts for all you have paid and also report the inconsistancies. Amazing Thailand.

[sanuk711]

Amphure & Immigration offices, They really do make life changing decisions, & it would seem sometimes just because they feel they can.

.

With Udon Immigration, since the new head took over, its fast becoming the most corrupt the most challenging one to renew ones Visa at, if it is at all possible to avoid it. Then do.

Edited January 14, 2015 by sanuk711

[Shaunduhpostman]

Immigration seems to be a particularly bad bunch. In 15 years in Thailand, in my experience, hitting a snag trying to renew a visa is the rule rather than the exception. My employer for years here, a major Thai government sponsored organization, invariably, would have to negotiate for hours with this person and that person at immigration. My guy, who was employed to deal with them, would bring a 15 inch pile of documents, would be on the phone off and on during the proceedings. Get back to discussing with the official, no go, back on the phone. Show them some documents, official has to call someone else to come and have a look, on and on. An hour and a half process every year. And at the end of it they are none too pleased. My out fit had to send another person to watch the guy charged with taking care of my visa re-newal to make sure he didn't just give up with a mai dai. Just flabberghasting. Now that I am on a Non-O marriage, I just do 90 day entry stamp border runs and get a new visa every year, more time consuming probably but no anxiety and humiliation to go through and you don't perpetuate the corruption by paying them off to get out of their traps.

[recom273]

At another I was told I was only allowed one extension - which is not the rule, they just interpreted the rules in a way they thought fit.

They then started telling me I don't have enough money to show for a year visa, made the missus look like crap, threw my passport and copied over the place, I would have gladly paid the extra 1100b as I had to wait another 40 days for a new passport to arrive but that option wasn't offered.

Get a multi-entry from savannakhet then avoid the place forever.

[bdenner]

It appears the Udon Thani Immigration are trying to catch out a pretty well known local providing dodgy extensions at a price (a well known practice through out Thailand now). He/She is obtaining them from an Immigration Office out of our province. Over the last few days a representative of this business has been waiting, away from the Imm. Office, intercepting customers going in to do 90 day reports, they are being told to go to the dodgy office and get it sorted there.

Quite a bit more information is surfacing since I started this thread.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/787170-retirement-extn-under-consideration-new-hoops/

[tancred]

There are no big changes,always the same ,they make their own rules you pay or delay "up to you",it's a way of life.

[Tomtomtom69]

It appears the Udon Thani Immigration are trying to catch out a pretty well known local providing dodgy extensions at a price (a well known practice through out Thailand now). He/She is obtaining them from an Immigration Office out of our province. Over the last few days a representative of this business has been waiting, away from the Imm. Office, intercepting customers going in to do 90 day reports, they are being told to go to the dodgy office and get it sorted there.

Quite a bit more information is surfacing since I started this thread.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/787170-retirement-extn-under-consideration-new-hoops/

Strange all of this. Not that I've ever used Udon Thani immigration for anything (besides, whenever I go to Udon I'm passing through en-route to either Nong Khai or Laos and I rarely ever spend longer there than the time it takes me to eat a meal there), but when I cancelled my extension of stay for work in Bangkok after my job ended about 11 months ago, I jokingly tried to offer an officer a bit of money to process the cancellation quicker because I thought I'd have to leave that day and I was in a bit of a rush to get to the Cambodian border. Little did I know that the cancellation is only effective by the end of the day that the letter from your company states, not the day you come in to get the cancellation (unless it happens to be on that last day). I was grilled and told not to attempt that again (not that it was a good idea for me to offer it in the first place but OK that's the past now) and yet in Udon Thani, corruption appears to be widespread and expected.

What's going on in Thailand? One immigration office claims to be "clean" and discourages corruption, another expects it?

Weird.

[Tomtomtom69]

There are no big changes,always the same ,they make their own rules you pay or delay "up to you",it's a way of life.

And yet at One Stop in Bangkok they try to create this "clean" image by not accepting any money to facilitate things. Or maybe it depends on the officer and is only acceptable if the officer asks you for a bribe?

Either way I find it absurd that one office preaches ethics, while another in another part of the country is so corrupt.

[KhunBENQ]

More and more threads about strange "new prices".

Strange outcome of the anti corruption campaign of the new regime

Whats the address of the anonymous whistleblower mailbox?

[tancred]

Many ordinary Thai people very honest especially in the countryside and villages,returning lost goods,etc,

[theoldgit]

@SoFarAndNear - As a matter of interest, were you given an official receipt for the full amount that you paid?

[SoFarAndNear]

@SoFarAndNear - As a matter of interest, were you given an official receipt for the full amount that you paid?

No bill and I was not in the mood to ask for that. As I said already , I was there with my two year old child and just 1 counter was open and waited nearly 2 hours for our queue number I was happt to finaly go out. And also no photo has been taken of me. That was also new to me because a photo has been taken of me everytime before.

Edited January 14, 2015 by SoFarAndNear

[Bigfarang1948]

What I can do as foreigner who absolutly depends on these immigration officers? I was absoutly not in the mood for any discussion. As I said 2 years old son was with me and we waited already nearly two hours in the queue.

Should I say "NO" I pay 1900THB and you will give me my 60 days. Probably she would give me only 30 days then I always read here in the forum about "ask for a supervisor". But the Supervisor was directly behind her, he was absolutly aware what was going on. How can you do something against someone who has so much power over your life in the country you choosed to life in.

Corruption is a way of life here and immigrations is making a killing on Farangs. They might as well be god when it comes to making up their own set of rules for visas. I had only one overstay during my time in Udon and I was prepared to pay the fine but then the officer said he would not charge me the overstay if I put more money into the Lipton tea carton on his desk.I showed him a 500 baht note and he nodded and stamped my passport. Everyone is used to paying the 100 baht fee, I assume, when they check in, and I saw a log, for one day, which showed more than 200 people had checked in. That is about 18,000 TB. I wonder how that money is divvied up among the officers? I got so fed up with getting taken advantage of, I left Thailand, and I will now have a commuting marriage when I can save enough money for a round trip ticket. Corruption has gotten even worse, especially in the small village my wife lives in, since the coup last year. Shakedowns, payoffs, trumped up drug charges and monkey house time have made the villagers afraid of even having their normal daily card games.

[wowfactor10]

Did you ask for a receipt then ? do you know her name ?

[Colabamumbai]

What I can do as foreigner who absolutly depends on these immigration officers? I was absoutly not in the mood for any discussion. As I said 2 years old son was with me and we waited already nearly two hours in the queue.

Should I say "NO" I pay 1900THB and you will give me my 60 days. Probably she would give me only 30 days then I always read here in the forum about "ask for a supervisor". But the Supervisor was directly behind her, he was absolutly aware what was going on. How can you do something against someone who has so much power over your life in the country you choosed to life in.

Corruption is a way of life here and immigrations is making a killing on Farangs. They might as well be god when it comes to making up their own set of rules for visas. I had only one overstay during my time in Udon and I was prepared to pay the fine but then the officer said he would not charge me the overstay if I put more money into the Lipton tea carton on his desk.I showed him a 500 baht note and he nodded and stamped my passport. Everyone is used to paying the 100 baht fee, I assume, when they check in, and I saw a log, for one day, which showed more than 200 people had checked in. That is about 18,000 TB. I wonder how that money is divvied up among the officers? I got so fed up with getting taken advantage of, I left Thailand, and I will now have a commuting marriage when I can save enough money for a round trip ticket. Corruption has gotten even worse, especially in the small village my wife lives in, since the coup last year. Shakedowns, payoffs, trumped up drug charges and monkey house time have made the villagers afraid of even having their normal daily card games.

The takings are divided up at the end of the day between those working the day. Like tips in a restaurant.

[Nuddy]

The corruption starts at the top

If you worry about who gets what look to the boss cockey hiding in the back behind the glass panels