Immigration office

[harryfrompattaya]

What time does the line start forming in Chiang Mai Need appointment for 1 year Visa next week

[LivinLOS]

Pre dawn..

Doors open at 8 if your a good shover..

[ramrod711]

A friend went at 2:00 am, apparently there are chairs round the back. He told me that you get a chair, put it in front of the door with your papers on it. If there are already chairs in line your chair won't be lonely.

[uptheos]

A friend went at 2:00 am, apparently there are chairs round the back. He told me that you get a chair, put it in front of the door with your papers on it. If there are already chairs in line your chair won't be lonely.

If you're German you can put a towel on instead.

Horrific stories of people camping out from 2am onward!

[chingmai331]

I've seen photos and videos of mobs, queued up round the block, in sleeping bags on the sidewalk, waiting, hoping and praying that the box office will have a ticket for them to see some teen heart throb or desperate to buy an 'iphone'.

Arriving at 4 am, not too bad, if same day service for year long, stay in LOS stamp.

[worgeordie]

A friend went at 2:00 am, apparently there are chairs round the back. He told me that you get a chair, put it in front of the door with your papers on it. If there are already chairs in line your chair won't be lonely.

That must be the German chairs

regards Worgeordie

[NancyL]

4 am is a good time to come. Even 5 am. As mentioned, there are chairs around back. By 5 am the queues will have started to form.

You'll see little tiny signs on the side of the building explaining which queue you should join.

You may want to go out in advance during daylight hours and look at the signs to see which queue you should join. Or just play it safe and join the longest queue -- that's the first one they start to process and if you're in the wrong line they'll tell you where to go.

The Immigration officers start to pass out the big laminated pre-queue numbers as soon as there is enough light to see. It was around 6:45 am last week. When they hand out the pre-queue numbers, you'll briefly tell them why you're there.

Then you go into the waiting room, take a seat and they start to call the pre-queue numbers. Then they go thru your paperwork more carefully and determine exactly why you are there and give you your real paper queue slip.

For some tasks, like doing 90 day reports, you don't get a plastic pre-queue number -- they hand out the real paper queue numbers in the predawn light on the steps outside the waiting room (and probably shake their heads about why anyone would get in line at 5 am to do a 90 day report when they can report by mail)

[Beetlejuice]

4 am is a good time to come. Even 5 am. As mentioned, there are chairs around back. By 5 am the queues will have started to form.

You'll see little tiny signs on the side of the building explaining which queue you should join.

You may want to go out in advance during daylight hours and look at the signs to see which queue you should join. Or just play it safe and join the longest queue -- that's the first one they start to process and if you're in the wrong line they'll tell you where to go.

The Immigration officers start to pass out the big laminated pre-queue numbers as soon as there is enough light to see. It was around 6:45 am last week. When they hand out the pre-queue numbers, you'll briefly tell them why you're there.

Then you go into the waiting room, take a seat and they start to call the pre-queue numbers. Then they go thru your paperwork more carefully and determine exactly why you are there and give you your real paper queue slip.

For some tasks, like doing 90 day reports, you don't get a plastic pre-queue number -- they hand out the real paper queue numbers in the predawn light on the steps outside the waiting room (and probably shake their heads about why anyone would get in line at 5 am to do a 90 day report when they can report by mail)

What I have been told is that the officers do not hand out pre-queue tickets until the doors open about 8.00am. But I guess the so-called system can change on a day to day basis? It`s the luck of the draw.

For example, if arriving there at 4.00am or 5.00am; how is it possible to stop morons jumping the queues? Arriving there at such extreme early times means having to be on constant alert, visually and mentally noting everyone that walks in counting their place in the queues. That must be intensely stressful, could not afford to relax even for a moment. Does anyone issue pre pre queue tickets? Otherwise this option is just not viable.

[NancyL]

Beetlejuice, you really should come and check it out for yourself rather than simply speculating and listening to people who haven't been thru the process recently. Yes, Immigration is constantly working to improve this early morning process. Every time I go there it's different, which is why you need to seek advice from someone who has gone in the past month or even more recently.

There are four pre-queue lines, designated by small signs describing the service desired by the people in that queue. People obtain plastic chairs from behind the building and form a queue with the chairs, either sitting in the chairs or, in some cases, putting a personal item like a sweater in the chair and returning to their vehicle for a nap. They don't seem to fall victim to queue jumpers, perhaps because enough people remain in the chair to stop someone from taking over a chair that isn't theirs.

At first light, around 6:45 am the morning I was there, the Immigration officials came out to hand out the plastic pre-queue numbers. At that point, everyone arose from their chairs, picked them up and started to walk forward to create a more compact (but still straight)line. This caught some people by surprise and there were momentary gaps in the queue. A few people who had just arrived rushed in, only to be told to get in the back by those already in the queue.

Overall it's a much more orderly process than it used to be. There are still problems. The signs explaining the four queues need to be larger, lighted and make more sense. More light-weight plastic chairs are needed. They need a guard to close off the parking lot once it's full, so that cars don't continue to enter and circle the lot fruitlessly. The coffee shop needs to open earlier so we can get caffeine.

CM Immigration is to be congratulated for really trying to make the process safer, better. For having employees come to work very early to distribute pre-queue numbers and patiently look over documents and answer questions in the early morning hours. For opening the doors of their waiting room an hour early. This current process is much less stressful than previous processes. I've actually enjoying talking with people sitting in the chairs around me in the parking lot the last few times I've done this. With everyone sitting still and not moving around, much of the stress of the previous waiting has been eliminated.

Edited February 19, 2015 by NancyL

[northernjohn]

It should be interesting when the Chiang Mai Expat club get's the video out from the talk Immigration gave at one of their meetings about 4 months ago.

[uptheos]

It should be interesting when the Chiang Mai Expat club get's the video out from the talk Immigration gave at one of their meetings about 4 months ago.

Must be an awful lot of editing being done.

[mesquite]

Beetlejuice, you really should come and check it out for yourself rather than simply speculating and listening to people who haven't been thru the process recently. Yes, Immigration is constantly working to improve this early morning process. Every time I go there it's different, which is why you need to seek advice from someone who has gone in the past month or even more recently.

There are four pre-queue lines, designated by small signs describing the service desired by the people in that queue. People obtain plastic chairs from behind the building and form a queue with the chairs, either sitting in the chairs or, in some cases, putting a personal item like a sweater in the chair and returning to their vehicle for a nap. They don't seem to fall victim to queue jumpers, perhaps because enough people remain in the chair to stop someone from taking over a chair that isn't theirs.

At first light, around 6:45 am the morning I was there, the Immigration officials came out to hand out the plastic pre-queue numbers. At that point, everyone arose from their chairs, picked them up and started to walk forward to create a more compact (but still straight)line. This caught some people by surprise and there were momentary gaps in the queue. A few people who had just arrived rushed in, only to be told to get in the back by those already in the queue.

Overall it's a much more orderly process than it used to be. There are still problems. The signs explaining the four queues need to be larger, lighted and make more sense. More light-weight plastic chairs are needed. They need a guard to close off the parking lot once it's full, so that cars don't continue to enter and circle the lot fruitlessly. The coffee shop needs to open earlier so we can get caffeine.

CM Immigration is to be congratulated for really trying to make the process safer, better. For having employees come to work very early to distribute pre-queue numbers and patiently look over documents and answer questions in the early morning hours. For opening the doors of their waiting room an hour early. This current process is much less stressful than previous processes. I've actually enjoying talking with people sitting in the chairs around me in the parking lot the last few times I've done this. With everyone sitting still and not moving around, much of the stress of the previous waiting has been eliminated.

Employees getting up early and putting out plastic chairs and handing out pre-queue numbers is an improvement, but a bigger improvement would be the management going down to Bangkok and schmoozing with the money/resource people there. That's what bureaucrats do. The situation as it stands is nothing less that absurd.

[Gonsalviz]

A 1 year visa for what country?

[Beetlejuice]

Beetlejuice, you really should come and check it out for yourself rather than simply speculating and listening to people who haven't been thru the process recently. Yes, Immigration is constantly working to improve this early morning process. Every time I go there it's different, which is why you need to seek advice from someone who has gone in the past month or even more recently.

There are four pre-queue lines, designated by small signs describing the service desired by the people in that queue. People obtain plastic chairs from behind the building and form a queue with the chairs, either sitting in the chairs or, in some cases, putting a personal item like a sweater in the chair and returning to their vehicle for a nap. They don't seem to fall victim to queue jumpers, perhaps because enough people remain in the chair to stop someone from taking over a chair that isn't theirs.

At first light, around 6:45 am the morning I was there, the Immigration officials came out to hand out the plastic pre-queue numbers. At that point, everyone arose from their chairs, picked them up and started to walk forward to create a more compact (but still straight)line. This caught some people by surprise and there were momentary gaps in the queue. A few people who had just arrived rushed in, only to be told to get in the back by those already in the queue.

Overall it's a much more orderly process than it used to be. There are still problems. The signs explaining the four queues need to be larger, lighted and make more sense. More light-weight plastic chairs are needed. They need a guard to close off the parking lot once it's full, so that cars don't continue to enter and circle the lot fruitlessly. The coffee shop needs to open earlier so we can get caffeine.

CM Immigration is to be congratulated for really trying to make the process safer, better. For having employees come to work very early to distribute pre-queue numbers and patiently look over documents and answer questions in the early morning hours. For opening the doors of their waiting room an hour early. This current process is much less stressful than previous processes. I've actually enjoying talking with people sitting in the chairs around me in the parking lot the last few times I've done this. With everyone sitting still and not moving around, much of the stress of the previous waiting has been eliminated.

Thank you for this very informative post. But are you not splitting hairs with me for the sake of, considering I have more or less said exactly the same as you have mentioned in your post?

I can only describe this so-called system as more like a child's game of musical chairs. Think you should at least agree with me on that one?

Edited February 19, 2015 by Beetlejuice

[onthedarkside]

A 1 year visa for what country?

We are discussing Thai Immigration so must be a Visa for Thailand. Although many folks call a one year visa when it's an extension on a previous visa.

[NancyL]

Beetlejuice, you really should come and check it out for yourself rather than simply speculating and listening to people who haven't been thru the process recently. Yes, Immigration is constantly working to improve this early morning process. Every time I go there it's different, which is why you need to seek advice from someone who has gone in the past month or even more recently.

There are four pre-queue lines, designated by small signs describing the service desired by the people in that queue. People obtain plastic chairs from behind the building and form a queue with the chairs, either sitting in the chairs or, in some cases, putting a personal item like a sweater in the chair and returning to their vehicle for a nap. They don't seem to fall victim to queue jumpers, perhaps because enough people remain in the chair to stop someone from taking over a chair that isn't theirs.

At first light, around 6:45 am the morning I was there, the Immigration officials came out to hand out the plastic pre-queue numbers. At that point, everyone arose from their chairs, picked them up and started to walk forward to create a more compact (but still straight)line. This caught some people by surprise and there were momentary gaps in the queue. A few people who had just arrived rushed in, only to be told to get in the back by those already in the queue.

Overall it's a much more orderly process than it used to be. There are still problems. The signs explaining the four queues need to be larger, lighted and make more sense. More light-weight plastic chairs are needed. They need a guard to close off the parking lot once it's full, so that cars don't continue to enter and circle the lot fruitlessly. The coffee shop needs to open earlier so we can get caffeine.

CM Immigration is to be congratulated for really trying to make the process safer, better. For having employees come to work very early to distribute pre-queue numbers and patiently look over documents and answer questions in the early morning hours. For opening the doors of their waiting room an hour early. This current process is much less stressful than previous processes. I've actually enjoying talking with people sitting in the chairs around me in the parking lot the last few times I've done this. With everyone sitting still and not moving around, much of the stress of the previous waiting has been eliminated.

Thank you for this very informative post. But are you not splitting hairs with me for the sake of, considering I have more or less said exactly the same as you have mentioned in your post?

I can only describe this so-called system as more like a child's game of musical chairs. Think you should at least agree with me on that one?

Thank you for your compliment about my informative post, but no Sir Beetlejuice, I wasn't splitting hairs and saying exactly what you said. You were speculating based on no real first-hand experience. I have been to CM Immigration in the wee hours recently and due to poor planning -- often.

I started to do a cut-and-paste on parts of your post and realized I'd probably get in trouble for doing it the way I did. Instead I refer people back to post #8

I'm sorry, butwhat you said was just pure ignorance! I saw limited evidence of morons or queue jumping. I wasn't on "constant alert" like it was the Hunger Games and there was no need for pre pre pre pre queue tickets.

And also in post no. 8 you claimed CM Immigration didn't show up until 8 am to start to hand out prequeue numbers. That is just a wrong, wrong, wrong. Or to use a more honest term -- a lie. Anyone who waits to come at 8 am to get a queue number for a retirement or marriage extension based on Beetlejuice's learned advice is going to be coming back the next day.

Edited February 19, 2015 by NancyL

[NancyL]

It should be interesting when the Chiang Mai Expat club get's the video out from the talk Immigration gave at one of their meetings about 4 months ago.

Here we have it, unveiled and premiered just for northernjohn:

It should be on the website of Chiang Mai Expats Club within a day or two very, very soon.

Edited February 19, 2015 by NancyL

[onthedarkside]

2 off topic posts have been removed.

[northernjohn]

It should be interesting when the Chiang Mai Expat club get's the video out from the talk Immigration gave at one of their meetings about 4 months ago.

Here we have it, unveiled and premiered just for northernjohn:

It should be on the website of Chiang Mai Expats Club within a day or two very, very soon.

Thanks for the post Nancy. Beginning to look like the end of the paper work 90 day. Do it on the internet.

Edited February 20, 2015 by northernjohn

[uptheos]

It should be interesting when the Chiang Mai Expat club get's the video out from the talk Immigration gave at one of their meetings about 4 months ago.

Here we have it, unveiled and premiered just for northernjohn:

It should be on the website of Chiang Mai Expats Club within a day or two very, very soon.

Thanks for the post Nancy. Beginning to look like the end of the paper work 90 day. Do it on the internet.

Yes, do it on the Internet one day, very much discussed on TVF lately

Nice glossy presentation, good camera work, clear audio, well done for arranging it and thanks to the immigration officers for their time.

Am I right in assuming it was meant to be just a basic presentation for people who know absolutely nothing about the various extension processes, the money involved for such, the need, cost and importance of a re-entry permit, fines for overstay and how to do 90 day reporting etc, etc?

I watched it all and didn't really hear anything in the presentation apart from the workload graphs towards the end, that people on this forum wouldn't have known about already and probably a bit more?

Of course having said that, I do appreciate there are lots of foreigners who don't ever come on to this forum, so I guess they would need the basics from 'the horses mouth' so to speak and I think they would have benefited most.

Edit: Much to their loss

Edited February 20, 2015 by uptheos

[northernjohn]

It should be interesting when the Chiang Mai Expat club get's the video out from the talk Immigration gave at one of their meetings about 4 months ago.

Here we have it, unveiled and premiered just for northernjohn:

It should be on the website of Chiang Mai Expats Club within a day or two very, very soon.

Thanks for the post Nancy. Beginning to look like the end of the paper work 90 day. Do it on the internet.

Yes, do it on the Internet one day, very much discussed on TVF lately

Nice glossy presentation, good camera work, clear audio, well done for arranging it and thanks to the immigration officers for their time.

Am I right in assuming it was meant to be just a basic presentation for people who know absolutely nothing about the various extension processes, the money involved for such, the need, cost and importance of a re-entry permit, fines for overstay and how to do 90 day reporting etc, etc?

I watched it all and didn't really hear anything in the presentation apart from the workload graphs towards the end, that people on this forum wouldn't have known about already and probably a bit more?

Of course having said that, I do appreciate there are lots of foreigners who don't ever come on to this forum, so I guess they would need the basics from 'the horses mouth' so to speak and I think they would have benefited most.

Yes not much new on there for most of us. How ever there were changers being made in some of the other visas. Nice to see that they talked about the on line registration and it is now coming to be. I can just imagine the scoffers if it had been presented when they had the meeting. Looks like it was August.

Left no doubt in any ones mind about doing charity work while on a retirement or one year extension. Definitely no no. If you are caught. I don't think they will be looking for it but one never knows even some enemies.

[uptheos]

Yes not much new on there for most of us. How ever there were changers being made in some of the other visas. Nice to see that they talked about the on line registration and it is now coming to be. I can just imagine the scoffers if it had been presented when they had the meeting. Looks like it was August.

Left no doubt in any ones mind about doing charity work while on a retirement or one year extension. Definitely no no. If you are caught. I don't think they will be looking for it but one never knows even some enemies.

Most things can be found out on TVF.

There are some mods and a few people who will have a near perfect answer to a sensible question within minutes.

I much prefer to hear the 'meat and potato's' of actually getting the renewal in CM, as in NancyL's often good description of what happens in practice during the early hours of the morning at immigration.

[augustwest]

I'm an American,made online que 100 days ago for 2pm. Arrived 1:30 finished 2:50. This was for 1 year retirement extension.

[uptheos]

I'm an American,made online que 100 days ago for 2pm. Arrived 1:30 finished 2:50. This was for 1 year retirement extension.

Yup, if you get a queue spot it's a piece of cake.

Not everyone is always lucky, regardless of their nationality.

[NancyL]

Here's the final page on the CEC website, with the entire video and the "chapters" to help with navigation.

I still need to figure out a "formal annoucement", etc. Yes, it's a meat & potatoes, Chiang Mai Visas 101 type of presentation. Some have commented they like the fact that it's in both Thai and English so their better half can help them figure out what needs to be done.

http://www.chiangmaiexpatsclub.com/immigration-2014/

Meanwhile, I guess as long as I continue to receive "fan mail " for my reports of early morning trips I'll find excuses to go out to Immigration at 4 am to see what they've done with the early morning process (I can no longer call it a "scrum") and report the nitty-gritty here.

Edited February 20, 2015 by NancyL

[NancyL]

Oh as for the comment that there was nothing said in the video that no one on the forum doesn't know already -- I beg to differ!

The video was developed after CEC pooled the 2500 people who receive the CEC e-newsletter -- asking them to submit their questions. It was an open-ended poll. We took the most popular questions and subjects and that's what Immigration used to develop the talk. Everything had to go to Bangkok for approval, thus the need for submission of questions in advance.

You wouldn't believe the very basic, basic questions that were submitted! From people who have lived here for years. It was really obvious they needed to start from ground zero. What was also obvious was that the interest of the CEC members revolved around retirement visas, 90 day reporting and why-the-heck we have to wait so long at the CM Immigration office. Very little about ED and marriage visas. Absolutely nothing about work visas. Given a 45 minutes time frame and the need to do the talk in two languages, the path forward was obvious.

[uptheos]

Oh as for the comment that there was nothing said in the video that no one on the forum doesn't know already -- I beg to differ!

The video was developed after CEC pooled the 2500 people who receive the CEC e-newsletter -- asking them to submit their questions. It was an open-ended poll. We took the most popular questions and subjects and that's what Immigration used to develop the talk. Everything had to go to Bangkok for approval, thus the need for submission of questions in advance.

You wouldn't believe the very basic, basic questions that were submitted! From people who have lived here for years. It was really obvious they needed to start from ground zero. What was also obvious was that the interest of the CEC members revolved around retirement visas, 90 day reporting and why-the-heck we have to wait so long at the CM Immigration office. Very little about ED and marriage visas. Absolutely nothing about work visas. Given a 45 minutes time frame and the need to do the talk in two languages, the path forward was obvious.

Seeing some of the questions asked on the forum, I certainly would!

[Mapguy]

I was there. I have not seen the video but from all I can gather it is well-done.

All in all, I think NancyL and others, including --- of course --- willing Immigration officers --- did an overall fine job. Take a bow!

One of my recollections from the meeting is told here. You can check me out with the video. I recall the senior sergeant major with some nine or ten years' experience in the office and more in the department telling an interesting tale. He is the one who, in my experience, has been a stalwart on retirement visas. Apparently, he slept in HIS car one night in the parking lot to see when people were beginning to line up in the morning and encountered someone showing up at 2AM !!!! Well, I recall that he said he was astonished and made certain that the early-arriving farang (maybe a last-possible-day kind of character?) was taken care of. The real point, of course, is what the sergeant major did. Critics of Chiang Mai Immigration, put that in your home country bureaucratic pipes and smoke it!

Otherwise, I agree with Uptheos that there are people who just don't do their homework --- and that doesn't mean futzing around with much unfortunately poorly-expressed bad advice on TV Chiang Mai.