Experience Renewing 5 Year License from 1 Yr Temporary

[Qman]

Experience and process of renewing my 5 year car and motorbike licenses from the 1 year temporaries at Pattaya Transportation office.

Went to Jomtien Immigration to get Resident Letter. Started with people next to immigration who complete forms and make copies for you. They suggested two Resident Letters in case Land Transportation would not use a copy for one of them so had two sets of forms prepared. I brought letter from condo but lady suggested just using copy of temporary license for proof of address so I went along with that option and it was accepted and no issues. The copy people also made two sets of copies of passport, visa, arrival stamp, etc. so I would not have to do at the Land Transport offices. In and out of Immigration in about 20 minutes with two Resident Letters.

Next went to a clinic for medical certificates which took about 15 minutes. No real exam, just asked a couple of questions and filled out the necessary forms. Went to a few clinics before finding one open about 9:00am.

Arrived Land Transportation about 10:00, got foreigner number and waited to be called. Upstairs to have paperwork checked and received number for tests (color, stopping, depth perception) and waited a while for that. Tests went quickly and all in my group passed. Wait again for them to call you name and get back passport and approved paperwork. Get in line to pay fees (960 Baht for the two licenses) and receive number for picture. More waiting and then picture and two new 5 year licenses which expire on my birthday in 2021 so more like 5 years and 9 months. Out just before 12:00 so took about 2 hours.

A lot accomplished in one morning. If doing over would have done the medical certificate ahead of time as many clinics do not open early but most tend to be open late. This would have given me more time at Land Office and reduced risk of not getting all done before their lunch break. I was fortunate my paperwork was handled timely but some others were quite a bit behind me even though in the same testing group.

[mikebell]

Glad you had a good experience at Soi 5. I normally describe how good the service is but was disappointed yesterday. I went for Re-entry permit at 11.15 am with all necessary papers/copies. Received my ticket & noted that there were only 2 others in front of me. At counter 2 there were 7 people on duty. Eventually I was seen to by a cheery older lady who relieved me of 1000 baht and stamped my passport. It then went to a youth who was engrossed with his phone wearing headphones and armed with a stylus. He seemed to do nother for 15 minutes then had a spurt of energy and did three passports in two minutes and placed them on a lady's desk. They sat there whilst she had a walk round and chatted to some of the other helpers who all looked like they had not very much to do.

Eventually she went back and processed the pile which had grown by a further 5 as the youth had launched himself into a frenzy and processed 5 more passports in as many minutes.

I got my receipt/passport back after 40 minutes. Why is there a conveyor belt system? Why could not the first lady after stamping my pasport go on to do whatever the boy did then do my receipt and hand me back my passport. Watching my passport I reckon four people did a total of five minutes work on it yet it took 40 minutes. I am disappointed as Pattaya have made great strides in customer service and it's much better than watching the rude aggressive one browbeat frail pensioners when he deigned to get off his phone.