Non-O Extension for Marriage Update (Chaengwatana)

[timbothaivisa]

Just a quick post to share my experience from a couple of days back in Bangkok, including some anomalies which confused me as a first-time applicant. There are plenty of other threads with the full set of docs, but this is just an update on slight differences which I observed at Chaenwatana only - it may differ again elsewhere.

1. 'Proof of Income' letter from the British Embassy is presented as being for related to pensions, but it can be used for rental or other income as well
2. I forgot to add the 100b return fee to the postal order I mailed to them, but in practice it was quicker to go to the embassy in person to collect
3. My wife & I went to the amphur near Victory Monument to get her Khor Ror 2 as it was on the way. The staff there were skeptical that it would be accepted as they were not the amphur where we got married, and they could therefore not apply the red stamp. Regardless it cost 10b and was accepted
4. I almost didn't ask our landlord for a copy of his ID card to go with the rental agreement for the condo we live in. I have not seen this requirement stipulated in either the official immigration docs or the many guides here (probably most own their own homes), but it was required.
5. We got a friend of my wife to sign a statement on a copy of her ID card to attest that she knew us for X years, and that we lived together & were married. This was returned to us.
6. I followed advice given in another thread, to submit a re-entry permit at the same time. However, as this is my initial application, they refused to process it. I will see if this has changed when I go to collect the extension
7. I followed advice to submit copies of my bank book pages - this was also returned to me
8. I thought we could show UK visas in my wife's passport to add weight to the application - this was also returned to us
9. I printed off a screen of a forex website, showing the current exchange rate together with the annual average over the previous year. They were only interested in the current rate (which is better), and it was as well that I took the information as they would have pulled a number out of the air otherwise (50:1 vs 55:1)
10. I made the mistake of signing many of the copies at the top-left. This is where the staple goes at the end of the check-over, so we had to sign them all again at the bottom
11. One sticking point threatened due to my Non-O being a multiple entry. The official we met with tried to put me off getting the extension in favour of exhausting the 1 year visa. It took some persuasion to convince her that the extension was better for me and I could tell this made her suspicious. She advised that the extension would invalidate the rest of the visa (not sure about that?), and I had to explain again when she took us to the senior official to authorise the application.
12. Otherwise the officials at Chaengwatana are very pleasant and efficient, and responded well to my wife's charm, so make sure your wife doesn't get nervous and ask her to lay it on thick
13. The entire process took about 15 minutes, with a wait in the queue of about 30 mins. We arrived there about 1pm

Playing it forward and hope this helps someone down the road - cheers!