Friday 7th August 2015

First time at Kap Choeng immigration, I usually do 30 day extensions (to UK tourist visa or exemption) at Chonburi immigration where I'm in and out within an an hour with no fuss. Kap Choeng was very different.

Arrived 11am, picked up the TM7 form and checked to see if they had copying facilities, which they didn't, so went to the shop across the road who offers copying. Copied my passport, departure card and entry stamp like usual. Back to IO where I have to wait for the counter where the lady deals with date stamping the application and photocopies. There were just 2 people in front of me but I waited 40 minutes as both of them had problems with their paperwork.

When my turn came, she stamped my forms but then queried the address where I'm staying. I said it was a friends house, so then she said she'd needed to speak to my friend. After speaking with my friend, the lady said I also needed to copy her ID card and blue book, but they were about to close for lunch (12-1pm) so we had to come back later.

We returned just after 1pm with the extra copies but there was one person in front of me. It took 40 minutes to process that one person, although most of the time was spent just waiting for a supervisor.

During this time an IO came to speak with me, he said I shouldn't be applying for an extension, but should go to the border and re-enter. I showed him my passport was full and didn't have room for another Cambodian visa and Thai entry stamp. He checked my passport, saw I had only one page left and said he would let me have a 30 day extension.

Once my turn came, it took less than a minute to stamp the two extra copies and I was finally into the main processing area to get my application processed.

This took another 20 minutes but most of this seemed to be waiting for the computer, during which the IOs toyed with the customers, watched cooking programs on their TV and even sang a song to my girlfriend.

The take always were 1) Kap Choeng can't multi-task so the problems of people in front of you are your problems too, 2) they seem to be paying more attention to where you say you are staying and wanting evidence, and 3) they would rather you did additional border runs than extensions (but this may have been the IO looking for tea money).

Your experience is odd. I have only experienced great service at the Kap Choeng office. In fact, my last 90 day report took less than 5 minutes: grabbed a number, sat down, officer stated in English "90 day report", no one stood up, (there were about 5 or 6 people waiting) so I did, no number being called. Officer asked where do I stay, I replied, (all in Thai) he smiled, printed out a paper, stapled it in my passport and was gone. Perhaps the 500 THB donation for their free coffee provides them a bit of incentive; however, the donation is never asked for, nor implied. It is always given with respect with a 'jergon sam duen'.

What does "jergon sam duen" mean?

Your experience is odd. I have only experienced great service at the Kap Choeng office. In fact, my last 90 day report took less than 5 minutes: grabbed a number, sat down, officer stated in English "90 day report", no one stood up, (there were about 5 or 6 people waiting) so I did, no number being called. Officer asked where do I stay, I replied, (all in Thai) he smiled, printed out a paper, stapled it in my passport and was gone. Perhaps the 500 THB donation for their free coffee provides them a bit of incentive; however, the donation is never asked for, nor implied. It is always given with respect with a 'jergon sam duen'.

Doing 90 days report is very different than doing extension, you can do these by mail or Internet.

Also you're giving away money for no reason whatsoever. The fact that there is smiles all around and you believe to be speaking in Thai doesn't change that. Would you think of tipping GBP10 to a public servant in your country ?

The OP is right in saying the was unnecessarily ran around. A normal office process toursit extension in about 20 minutes.

Edited August 10, 201510 yr by paz