An Immigration Surprise!

[sfokevin]

I'm sorry, but it's not just a matter of setting up a table for the Immigration people and getting a copier/scanner for those who neglect to do their copies in advance. It would involve a fair amount of publicity, education and planning to be sure that people understand the ground rules of using the service.

It would also require CEC volunteers to be trained in the use of tasers....

[FolkGuitar]

I am shamed, hari kari is possible, alternatively, a large Leo might suffice.

As long as we are being pedantically pedantic, the words we want here are hara kiri rather than harry karry LOL! Hari Kari goes well with Kama-kazi (which is really Kamee Kahzeh phonetically, of course.) We can blame the errors on John Wayne's war movies.

[Mapguy]

Japan has invested Billions of Dollars in Thailand, with further investments to follow, so it's hardly surprising that they get special treatment

One of the most ignorant comments I've read on ThaiVisa Chiang Mai in a long time.

What is so ignorant about that comment? Japan has been a massive investor in Thailand for decades. Is it not the biggest investor? Thais do rate rate some foreigners higher than others. Roughly Japanese will be respected people and at the top end. Cambodians and Burmese will be at the opposite end.

Say a Japanese person has some kind of accident or incident which involves the Police. The Police will give more respect to the Japanese person than a person from a country they don't rate as high. Things will be smother and easier to let slide. Japan does give lot of aid also in the region, funding airports, bridges and what have you. This does filter down to the Japanese being looked at favorably. Would the Nigerian community in Bangkok be able to get a Saturday morning immigration thing set up once a month? Probably not.

I was going through the Sadao or Padang Besar(long time ago but i think it was Padang Besar) land border into Malaysia. I was on a 3 day overstay and was ready to pay the 300 baht fine no worries. I wasn't allowed to pay the fine. They didn't want it. I had the money in my hand. The immigration guy only wanted to talk about "John"? I was confused, John who, what? It was John Major the then British PM . He had been through with his cavalcade, probably got out and shook a few hands. I turn up a few hours later and am let off my overstay fine, immigration officer was super friendly. Brits were looked upon favorably that day.

What is ignorant about the comment is what appears to be an abysmal barstool knowledge of history lacking any thoughtful assessment of Thailand's foreign relations over time, investment by several countries over time, and Thailand's role in the greater scheme of Asian affairs and Asian affairs generally today or over time. I do agree that Japanese foreign investment as well as investment from any foreign sources is very important here. <snip>

Edited July 8, 2015 by Jai Dee
Flame deleted

[Trujillo]

So how much does immigration want to set up a monthly Saturday offsite office?

[NancyL]

I pay Assist Thaivisa to do my yearly renewal and 90 day reporting every year and it only takes me 20-30 minutes a year to get it all done. I show up to immigration, walk in the back, say hello to the Assist Thaivisa staff and to the immigration officer, sign a couple of papers and go home. Later they drop off my passport. All very pleasant. For 90 days I drop everything at the office and they send it back later. Assist Thaivisa, the way to go.

Many people do this. Many people complained about visa agents not very long ago (some still complain).

Now a thread about a club/organization doing what visa agents do.

If you read the description about how the Japanese club is doing it, I suspect they have hired a visa agent to organize everything for them.

[hml367]

I did read the description... and no one is complaining about someone else doing the work for people as apparently is the case for the Japanese group.

In the past there were complaints on the forum about visa agents, and now people talking about having a group act as an agent for them, whether they are also using an agent company or not.

I am not complaining one way or the other, NancyL. I am just pointing out the different ways of looking at the same thing.

In the past, also, some people insinuated that doing it themselves somehow made them smarter and/or superior to those that have someone do it for them.

Sparkles mentioned in a post to "not go down the agent v self route again"... This thread was started about someone doing, or at least helping, with the paperwork, etc. In all the threads comparing agent to self it seems to me the people doing it themselves have made the most noise.

[Bill97]

How does one join the Japanese club? It must be possible since discrimination is illegal.

[elektrified]

-- If there are so many Japanese around, why is it I never see ANY in any of the 18 Japanese restaurants in Central Festival?

Because none of those 18 restaurants are really Japanese. They are Thai moo kata restaurants with a Japanese spin to them. My I don't think many Thais would like the food that is served in Japan. Almost every Thai I have ever met finds the notion of eating raw fish to be disgusting. My kid is dying to go to the one that has robots serving the food. It's not cheap and the food looks awful.

[Trujillo]

FYI -- Assist Thaivisa's "fee for the 1 year extension including gov fees and taxes is 7785."

That is, to my mind, wildly exhorbitant. That comes down to 5,885 baht to do nothing more than cut in the front of the line for you.

The restaurant line was mostly tongue in cheek.

Edited July 8, 2015 by Trujillo

[chiang mai]

And that to my mind is nowhere near my pain threshold and represents good value for money. The alternative, if I don't manage to get an online appointment, is waking up possible two or three consecutive mornings in a row to get down to queue at Immigration by 5 am, waiting around for many hours along with all the uncertainty and hassle that entails. No thanks you, at age 66 I deserve something better and and a hundred quid is small price to pay for that something.

[sappersrest]

FYI -- Assist Thaivisa's "fee for the 1 year extension including gov fees and taxes is 7785."

That is, to my mind, wildly exhorbitant. That comes down to 5,885 baht to do nothing more than cut in the front of the line for you.

The restaurant line was mostly tongue in cheek.

I visited them and they seem to offer a good service for the money.they fill in the forms do all the photocopies take photos and check every thing is in order, from what I gather they do not cut in the queue, I was told to come to their office on a day in Sept to have all the paperwork done, Then meet up at immigration at 3.30 the next day.

Looks ok to me will make a more detailed report when I have my visa extension and my multi re entry permit.

[FolkGuitar]

How does one join the Japanese club? It must be possible since discrimination is illegal.

If you are a fluent Japanese speaker, it 'may' be possible. But if you can't speak Japanese, don't even walk through the door. You will NOT be welcomed. Actually, even Japanese who aren't members are not allowed inside the club's office except to join. Actually, thinking about it, you will NOT be permitted to join, as members are required to staff the office (and you need to be fluent in Japanese to do this,) one day a month on a rotating basis. As you wouldn't be able to serve in this capacity, you would not be allowed to join.

I don't think you really want to join something in which you are not welcome, do you?

Edited July 8, 2015 by FolkGuitar

[elgordo38]

Given fundamental serious difficulties with language, the arrangements are quite sensible.

Almost all the Japanese would speak better English than Thais.

There are a few other non English speaking races here.

Many, many Japanese living here don't speak a word of English or a word of Thai.

My neighbor down the hall is Japanese and does not speak a word of English. We do a lot of pantomine smiling and bowing.

[elgordo38]

Not surprising.

There are 400,000+ Thais living in the US - according to the latest US Census voluntary report. They don't have to report every 90 days, pay 500 baht for proof of residency or spend the day at a US Immigration office and produce copies of their chest x-rays and photos of their kitchen sink.

If the US State Department wanted to make procedures easier for US citizens living in Thailand they could. Will they? Of course not... that would involve some work.

US citizens are not of any concern to the State Department, only special interests.ie, corporations, large investors, etc.

That's the difference with diplomatic entities such as Japan, Korea. They work for their citizens and then their corporate interests.

How many of you (except Nancy of course, and Nancy, in good fun) got invited to the 4th of July party at the US Consulate? Damn, I didn't make the invite list this year yet again!

Brits and Aussies... well, its all online representation for you guys in Chiang Mai.

Seems what they are doing for the Japanese is discrimination but then that does not exist here does it?. As I stated before if Thailand streamlined their immigration system it could be run out of a phone booth. I guess its just another make work program for Thais. Are there 6,000 Americans in Chiang Mai well if there is there should be some kind of special status set up as well. Maybe its an issue because of the slight cooling of relations between the two countries.