Interview about new Chiangmai Immigration office

[LivinLOS]

I'm afraid I gave up believing anything that comes from an Immigration spokesperson a long time ago.

Immigration offices are a gold mine for any ruling Government.CM is no exception.

It takes, on average, an officer 10-15 minutes to process a retirement extension.The online system had 10 slots for a whole day.

CM is Thailands second biggest city with a ratio of expats to Thais that would far exceed Bangkok.Go figure.

Just to clear up a popular fallacy - Chiang Mai is not Thailand's second largest city. It lies number 7 after Korat.

Bangkok 5,104,476 Samut Prakan 388,920 Mueang Nonthaburi 291,555 Udon Thani 247,231 Chon Buri 219,164 Nakhon Ratchasima 208,781 Chiang Mai 200,952

FYI, Largest cities in Thailand http://www.worldatlas.com/as/th/cities-in-thailand.html

And yet Samut Prakan, and Nonthanaburi are effectively parts of greater bangkok these days..

Subjectively Udon or Korat dont feel as big as Chiang Mai.. I am wondering if the population count of registered citizens under counts things like students resident, westerners resident etc..

Chon Buri only ever passed through..

[Frank James]

I want to thank the OP's who got these interviews and passed the information to us. Every once in a while some very valuable information appears on here, and this is one of those times. And what a great opportunity for people to complain anew!

[Frank James]

I'm afraid I gave up believing anything that comes from an Immigration spokesperson a long time ago.

Immigration offices are a gold mine for any ruling Government.CM is no exception.

It takes, on average, an officer 10-15 minutes to process a retirement extension.The online system had 10 slots for a whole day.

CM is Thailands second biggest city with a ratio of expats to Thais that would far exceed Bangkok.Go figure.

Just to clear up a popular fallacy - Chiang Mai is not Thailand's second largest city. It lies number 7 after Korat.

Bangkok 5,104,476 Samut Prakan 388,920 Mueang Nonthaburi 291,555 Udon Thani 247,231 Chon Buri 219,164 Nakhon Ratchasima 208,781 Chiang Mai 200,952

CM may not be Thailand's second largest city, but it IS Thailand's Second City. Those other towns are all right, but this is a World City.

[Sparkles]

I'm afraid I gave up believing anything that comes from an Immigration spokesperson a long time ago.

Immigration offices are a gold mine for any ruling Government.CM is no exception.

It takes, on average, an officer 10-15 minutes to process a retirement extension.The online system had 10 slots for a whole day.

CM is Thailands second biggest city with a ratio of expats to Thais that would far exceed Bangkok.Go figure.

Just to clear up a popular fallacy - Chiang Mai is not Thailand's second largest city. It lies number 7 after Korat.

Bangkok 5,104,476 Samut Prakan 388,920 Mueang Nonthaburi 291,555 Udon Thani 247,231 Chon Buri 219,164 Nakhon Ratchasima 208,781 Chiang Mai 200,952

FYI, Largest cities in Thailand http://www.worldatlas.com/as/th/cities-in-thailand.html

And yet Samut Prakan, and Nonthanaburi are effectively parts of greater bangkok these days..

Subjectively Udon or Korat dont feel as big as Chiang Mai.. I am wondering if the population count of registered citizens under counts things like students resident, westerners resident etc..

Chon Buri only ever passed through..

I would suggest that those figures are woefully out of date.No area has developed at the pace CM has in recent history.

[MaeJoMTB]

Are retirement extensions really seasonal?

Do they really think retired people only need extensions in high season?

BS or stupidity?

[elgordo38]

I'm afraid I gave up believing anything that comes from an Immigration spokesperson a long time ago.

Immigration offices are a gold mine for any ruling Government.CM is no exception.

It takes, on average, an officer 10-15 minutes to process a retirement extension.The online system had 10 slots for a whole day.

CM is Thailands second biggest city with a ratio of expats to Thais that would far exceed Bangkok.Go figure.

Our General/PM is doing a stalwart job within a limited time frame and with many more urgent problems.

Different interpretations and rumour about CNX IO is rampant on CMTVF ... give them a fair go. Crikey, let's applaud the changes so far ... even if execution and PR is lacking.

Did you just move here from North Korea? I am a fair person but apart from changes for the worst please enlighten me on the changes so far that I should applaud. If you can do that I will clap loudly. Are the following part of the "changes" you are referring to.

1. The loss of the online queue system perhaps permanently

2. The 90 reporting system that works for a few with an outdated IE system also with its tricky way of typing in the information requested.

3. The fact that just now the truth is coming out about the new location and the fact that it will be permanent was known for some time but is just being released now why to save face or to not give all the bad news at once?

4. Even if execution and PR is lacking. Yes that part you got right sadly lacking.

5. It speaks so poorly when workers must donate their time to make the move. With all the money sent to Bangkok they would not even pay for moving.

6. Yes Chiang Mai is an orphan in the overall picture of things.

7. Bangkok has 12% of the country's population but a majority of the budget is spent there and this was discussed somewhere on TV and if this continues I can foresee many problems in the future.

The only lifeline we have left is the 90 day reporting by mail and I hope and pray they do not find some way to ditch that as well. My fault might be that I look to much for sensibility in things and nothing that they do makes sense. As the rest of the world moves forward we here are in reverse. As I am guest here(here is your chance to throw brickbats) I would expect a certain amount of modern world(maybe a wrong choice of words) procedures in how I must report to the authorities not this hodge podge process in place now.

[chickenrunCM]

I'm afraid I gave up believing anything that comes from an Immigration spokesperson a long time ago.

Immigration offices are a gold mine for any ruling Government.CM is no exception.

It takes, on average, an officer 10-15 minutes to process a retirement extension.The online system had 10 slots for a whole day.

CM is Thailands second biggest city with a ratio of expats to Thais that would far exceed Bangkok.Go figure.

Just to clear up a popular fallacy - Chiang Mai is not Thailand's second largest city. It lies number 7 after Korat.

Bangkok 5,104,476 Samut Prakan 388,920 Mueang Nonthaburi 291,555 Udon Thani 247,231 Chon Buri 219,164 Nakhon Ratchasima 208,781 Chiang Mai 200,952

muang Chiang Mai has more than 1 Million people, it is for sure the second biggest city, also by universities and colleges

[Saan]

And yet Samut Prakan, and Nonthanaburi are effectively parts of greater bangkok these days..

Subjectively Udon or Korat dont feel as big as Chiang Mai.. I am wondering if the population count of registered citizens under counts things like students resident, westerners resident etc..

Chon Buri only ever passed through..I would suggest that those figures are woefully out of date.No area has developed at the pace CM has in recent history.

It is claimed they are for 2015. Chiang Mai also occupied 7th place in 2014 in figures supplied by another source.

[Tywais]

I'm afraid I gave up believing anything that comes from an Immigration spokesperson a long time ago.

Immigration offices are a gold mine for any ruling Government.CM is no exception.

It takes, on average, an officer 10-15 minutes to process a retirement extension.The online system had 10 slots for a whole day.

CM is Thailands second biggest city with a ratio of expats to Thais that would far exceed Bangkok.Go figure.

Just to clear up a popular fallacy - Chiang Mai is not Thailand's second largest city. It lies number 7 after Korat.

Bangkok 5,104,476 Samut Prakan 388,920 Mueang Nonthaburi 291,555 Udon Thani 247,231 Chon Buri 219,164 Nakhon Ratchasima 208,781 Chiang Mai 200,952

muang Chiang Mai has more than 1 Million people, it is for sure the second biggest city, also by universities and colleges

You are mixing up city population (muang) with provincial population. Provincial, 1.678 million as of 2014. City, around 200k.

But this is getting pretty far off topic now so back to the main subject.

[NancyL]

Just got an email from a friend at Prom. He arrived at 8:15 am to do a 90 day report, was at the end of the queue line. Got his queue ticket at 8:30 and they told him to return in 1 hour, so he went and had a nice breakfast at Rim Ping for under 100 baht. He returned at 9:30 am and they called his number within 2 minutes. He said everyone was nice and pleasant. He's going to stay and check out the mall.

Hardly rough treatment, is it? And sure beats the old location where he never could find a place to park or have a nice meal while waiting.

Well it sounds nice. But what if he dilly dallied around for three more minutes he would have lost his place in line.

Also I was wondering if the line for permission to stay is short because this was not a popular time of the year to

immigrate to Thailand. As you yourself have said 20 reports a day would not be enough to accommodate the over 5,000 they did last year. As mine is up in early October I know I have never had to be there before 7:30. Once in the last two years I got there at 9:00.

NorthernJohn, did you read the interview? "About getting another Imm. officer to process retirement extensions: Yes, there will be more than 20 people processed each day once more staff moves from the old location. It's low season now and there hasn't been a need for more than 20 retirement extensions per day. (I would agree, based on what I've seen during my recent observations of the morning queue card distribution.)"

[maderaroja]

Keep it in mind that all food orders will be charged a 10% service fee, which does not show on the menu. Remember to bring a full wallet.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

I'm afraid I gave up believing anything that comes from an Immigration spokesperson a long time ago.

Immigration offices are a gold mine for any ruling Government.CM is no exception.

It takes, on average, an officer 10-15 minutes to process a retirement extension.The online system had 10 slots for a whole day.

CM is Thailands second biggest city with a ratio of expats to Thais that would far exceed Bangkok.Go figure.

Just to clear up a popular fallacy - Chiang Mai is not Thailand's second largest city. It lies number 7 after Korat.

Bangkok 5,104,476 Samut Prakan 388,920 Mueang Nonthaburi 291,555 Udon Thani 247,231 Chon Buri 219,164 Nakhon Ratchasima 208,781 Chiang Mai 200,952

muang Chiang Mai has more than 1 Million people, it is for sure the second biggest city, also by universities and colleges

And by people. Immigration isn't the only department of Thailand that's somewhat dysfunctional, all the other ones are too, including the one that keeps track of population: they tend to only count people who are registered on house registration documents (Tabian Ban), which would mean land owners and their families.

But when someone moves over from Lamphun or Khorat or anywhere else and rents an apartment, this isn't registered anywhere. So these people go un-counted. As do foreigners, of course.

The likes of Central Group, CP/Tesco/7-Eleven, Makro, Big C, Home Pro et al aren't really that stupid to use government popualtion statistics; they do their own research which is why Chiang Mai has many more of any of those stores than the cities that keep coming up high in the government population figures (Khorat, Khon Kaen, etc.) Another good indicator is the number of flights arriving/departing, although part of that is also tourists of course.

Now IS Chiang Mai the second city even when you lump in Samut Prakan and Nonthaburi with Greater Bangkok...? I'm not sure because Chonburi-Pattaya might be bigger, but it's definitely up there, before all the other provincial capitals in the North East, South and Central regions.

Edited September 15, 2015 by WinnieTheKhwai

[sfokevin]

I do not understand why they didn't move the WHOLE immigration to the Promenade location where the Lao/Myanmar office is... I was just there to get my certificate of address and it is huge and mostly unused... great large seating area, lots of parking (if they paved it)...

[Sparkles]

And yet Samut Prakan, and Nonthanaburi are effectively parts of greater bangkok these days..

Subjectively Udon or Korat dont feel as big as Chiang Mai.. I am wondering if the population count of registered citizens under counts things like students resident, westerners resident etc..

Chon Buri only ever passed through..I would suggest that those figures are woefully out of date.No area has developed at the pace CM has in recent history.

It is claimed they are for 2015. Chiang Mai also occupied 7th place in 2014 in figures supplied by another source.

Well Wikipedia tells me the population of the CHIANG MAI METROPOLITAN AREA is approaching 1 million.It is important as it reflects on the inadequate service CM offers in many areas ,public transport being one and of course IMM.7 years ago you could walk into the old Imm office at any time and be out the door in 30 mins at most.

We are not talking about the old city we are talking about the sprawl of CM noted by new moobans ,apartments ,shop houses, shopping centres ,schools,universities etc.

Please dont tell me Udon is bigger

[northernjohn]

Just got an email from a friend at Prom. He arrived at 8:15 am to do a 90 day report, was at the end of the queue line. Got his queue ticket at 8:30 and they told him to return in 1 hour, so he went and had a nice breakfast at Rim Ping for under 100 baht. He returned at 9:30 am and they called his number within 2 minutes. He said everyone was nice and pleasant. He's going to stay and check out the mall.

Hardly rough treatment, is it? And sure beats the old location where he never could find a place to park or have a nice meal while waiting.

Well it sounds nice. But what if he dilly dallied around for three more minutes he would have lost his place in line.

Also I was wondering if the line for permission to stay is short because this was not a popular time of the year to

immigrate to Thailand. As you yourself have said 20 reports a day would not be enough to accommodate the over 5,000 they did last year. As mine is up in early October I know I have never had to be there before 7:30. Once in the last two years I got there at 9:00.

NorthernJohn, did you read the interview? "About getting another Imm. officer to process retirement extensions: Yes, there will be more than 20 people processed each day once more staff moves from the old location. It's low season now and there hasn't been a need for more than 20 retirement extensions per day. (I would agree, based on what I've seen during my recent observations of the morning queue card distribution.)"

Yes I read that. I was just wondering as I know from previous experience that they were at times doing over 50 a day and I personally had #61 and got in with one behind me.

Was asking you about the seasonable because you more than others seem to have your finger closer to reality.

[anon467848]

Keep it in mind that all food orders will be charged a 10% service fee, which does not show on the menu. Remember to bring a full wallet.

What place are you talking about?

[CMNightRider]

I attended the Chiang Mai Immigration presentation at the expat club. They all had an opportunity to speak. Without exception, immigration staff explained how immigration would improve once they relocated to Promenada. Once they made this historic move, the first thing I couldn't help notice was the online queue was shut down. Then of course the shortage of staff along with opening their own visa service next door to their office. Lets give this a little thought. They opened their own visa service right next door to their office.

Without the online queue which made it possible to show up at immigration with an actual appointment, expats now have to show up two to three hours before they open their office. The other choice is to use one of the many visa services or use their visa service. I don't know about you people but I don't see any incentive for immigration to use their online queue anymore or to improve their services.

CMNightRidger, maybe you should go back and listen to the entire Immigration presentation at CEC again (it's available on the CEC website), but there is no mention of a move to Promenada during that entire 45 minute presentation. At the time of that meeting (October 2014), Col. Rutjapong said he had submitted a request for a new building and, once approved we'd have a new building, with improved services within 2 years. That's near the beginning of the presentation and most people in the audience took it to mean we'd have a new building within two years. Nope -- listen closely.

Moving to Promenada was not the plan submitted to Bangkok. It was developed only after Bangkok turned down the request for a new building and he began to look for other options to relieve the problems at the location near the airport. Col. Rutjapong's frustration came thru in my discussion with him on Wednesday. Yes, he cares about his people, but he also cares about the quality of service they're providing to their customers. He has no budget use for the move and no support from Bangkok for programming, etc.

It's fortunate that Immigration has a very helpful "landlord" in Promenada. While some may dismiss amenities like working toilets, lights, and a nice assortment of shops that are open early, you've got to admit it's a big improvement over the old location. Since they've opened I would bet that anyone who was in the queue by 6:30 am was able to get a queue card for a retirement extension and during the last week I was there twice and they didn't give out all the queue cards for retirement extensions at opening, 8:30 am. The fact that there haven't been reports of any long queues or hissy fits this week tells me they're gradually working thru the opening pangs.

Yes, Immigration could have done a much better job with a little public relations (that would have cost them nothing) ahead of the move. Yes, there are definitely other improvements needed -- but I think the situation there at Promenada is such that there is more likelihood of those improvements happening than if they had stayed at the old location.

I certainly appreciate the invitation to "go back and listen to the entire immigration presentation at CEC again" but it would be right up there with water-boarding or some other form of torture. I have always said, you should be commended for the outstanding work you do to make Chiang Mai a better place to live. I cannot say the same for CM immigration. When these people discontinued the online queue for one year visas, and expect people to get up at zero dark thirty to spend the day with them for 15 minutes work, I felt as though I had just entered the twilight zone.

I am not aware of any other immigration office in Thailand, that is as inefficient as CM immigration. It is hard for me to believe it is the officials in Bangkok causing this problem.

The online queue was the best service they gave us, since it didn't require spending the day with these people. I can see now, that has gone the way of the buffalo because someone complained about it. Well, receiving a few complaints just means to add more queues per day so people didn't have to get up at 12:00 midnight in order to get an appointment. It shouldn't mean, well since you expats complained we will discontinue this service.

I would like to express my thanks to you for keeping us informed about CM immigration. I wish I could express my thanks to CM immigration but nothing comes to mind.

[masuk]

I'm afraid I gave up believing anything that comes from an Immigration spokesperson a long time ago.

Immigration offices are a gold mine for any ruling Government.CM is no exception.

It takes, on average, an officer 10-15 minutes to process a retirement extension.The online system had 10 slots for a whole day.

CM is Thailands second biggest city with a ratio of expats to Thais that would far exceed Bangkok.Go figure.

Just to clear up a popular fallacy - Chiang Mai is not Thailand's second largest city. It lies number 7 after Korat.

Bangkok 5,104,476 Samut Prakan 388,920 Mueang Nonthaburi 291,555 Udon Thani 247,231 Chon Buri 219,164 Nakhon Ratchasima 208,781 Chiang Mai 200,952

muang Chiang Mai has more than 1 Million people, it is for sure the second biggest city, also by universities and colleges

That sounds a lot more realistic than "200,000".

How often do they do a census here? Look at the student population, expat population for a start.

[maderaroja]

Keep it in mind that all food orders will be charged a 10% service fee, which does not show on the menu. Remember to bring a full wallet.

What place are you talking about?

All of the food serving establishments at Promenada will charge 10% service fee. This is above the prices shown in the menu. Even the ฿69 breakfast at Rimping will have a 10% service charge added to the bill. So, if you are eating at Duke's or the Wine Connection, you can expect to be hit with a large service charge in addition to the menu prices.

[CMNightRider]

Keep it in mind that all food orders will be charged a 10% service fee, which does not show on the menu. Remember to bring a full wallet.

What place are you talking about?

All of the food serving establishments at Promenada will charge 10% service fee. This is above the prices shown in the menu. Even the ฿69 breakfast at Rimping will have a 10% service charge added to the bill. So, if you are eating at Duke's or the Wine Connection, you can expect to be hit with a large service charge in addition to the menu prices.

Dukes charges for vat but doesn't have a service charge.

[sappersrest]

Went to enquire to day about visa services from gt4 for my visa extension .The were no signs indicating where the place was,(they had been taken down) .Though cheaper than other companies I was not very impressed by their lack of knowledge or service, all they could do was brag how easy it was to get que numbers.Overall score 2 out of 10.

Then went along to check up with my original choice that every thing would be ok to get our extension this week.not a problem and answered all my questions with ease, score 9 /10 will award them the extra point when I get the passport stamped in my grubby mit.

PS they are a forum sponsor.

[LivinLOS]

I do not understand why they didn't move the WHOLE immigration to the Promenade location where the Lao/Myanmar office is... I was just there to get my certificate of address and it is huge and mostly unused... great large seating area, lots of parking (if they paved it)...

Wheres the kickback / commission payment on that ??

[maderaroja]

Keep it in mind that all food orders will be charged a 10% service fee, which does not show on the menu. Remember to bring a full wallet.

What place are you talking about?

All of the food serving establishments at Promenada will charge 10% service fee. This is above the prices shown in the menu. Even the ฿69 breakfast at Rimping will have a 10% service charge added to the bill. So, if you are eating at Duke's or the Wine Connection, you can expect to be hit with a large service charge in addition to the menu prices.

Dukes charges for vat but doesn't have a service charge.

They always put it on my bill. That's why I don't eat at malls in Chiang Mai.

[habfan]

I attended the Chiang Mai Immigration presentation at the expat club. They all had an opportunity to speak. Without exception, immigration staff explained how immigration would improve once they relocated to Promenada. Once they made this historic move, the first thing I couldn't help notice was the online queue was shut down. Then of course the shortage of staff along with opening their own visa service next door to their office. Lets give this a little thought. They opened their own visa service right next door to their office.

Without the online queue which made it possible to show up at immigration with an actual appointment, expats now have to show up two to three hours before they open their office. The other choice is to use one of the many visa services or use their visa service. I don't know about you people but I don't see any incentive for immigration to use their online queue anymore or to improve their services.

CMNightRidger, maybe you should go back and listen to the entire Immigration presentation at CEC again (it's available on the CEC website), but there is no mention of a move to Promenada during that entire 45 minute presentation. At the time of that meeting (October 2014), Col. Rutjapong said he had submitted a request for a new building and, once approved we'd have a new building, with improved services within 2 years. That's near the beginning of the presentation and most people in the audience took it to mean we'd have a new building within two years. Nope -- listen closely.

Moving to Promenada was not the plan submitted to Bangkok. It was developed only after Bangkok turned down the request for a new building and he began to look for other options to relieve the problems at the location near the airport. Col. Rutjapong's frustration came thru in my discussion with him on Wednesday. Yes, he cares about his people, but he also cares about the quality of service they're providing to their customers. He has no budget use for the move and no support from Bangkok for programming, etc.

It's fortunate that Immigration has a very helpful "landlord" in Promenada. While some may dismiss amenities like working toilets, lights, and a nice assortment of shops that are open early, you've got to admit it's a big improvement over the old location. Since they've opened I would bet that anyone who was in the queue by 6:30 am was able to get a queue card for a retirement extension and during the last week I was there twice and they didn't give out all the queue cards for retirement extensions at opening, 8:30 am. The fact that there haven't been reports of any long queues or hissy fits this week tells me they're gradually working thru the opening pangs.

Yes, Immigration could have done a much better job with a little public relations (that would have cost them nothing) ahead of the move. Yes, there are definitely other improvements needed -- but I think the situation there at Promenada is such that there is more likelihood of those improvements happening than if they had stayed at the old location.

I certainly appreciate the invitation to "go back and listen to the entire immigration presentation at CEC again" but it would be right up there with water-boarding or some other form of torture. I have always said, you should be commended for the outstanding work you do to make Chiang Mai a better place to live. I cannot say the same for CM immigration. When these people discontinued the online queue for one year visas, and expect people to get up at zero dark thirty to spend the day with them for 15 minutes work, I felt as though I had just entered the twilight zone.

I am not aware of any other immigration office in Thailand, that is as inefficient as CM immigration. It is hard for me to believe it is the officials in Bangkok causing this problem.

The online queue was the best service they gave us, since it didn't require spending the day with these people. I can see now, that has gone the way of the buffalo because someone complained about it. Well, receiving a few complaints just means to add more queues per day so people didn't have to get up at 12:00 midnight in order to get an appointment. It shouldn't mean, well since you expats complained we will discontinue this service.

I would like to express my thanks to you for keeping us informed about CM immigration. I wish I could express my thanks to CM immigration but nothing comes to mind.

Do you think their reasoning behind discontinuing the online queue was… lets get rid of this it's upsetting too many farang or, if they're going to complain about this service we provided for them let's just cancel it… som num naa ?

[CMNightRider]

I attended the Chiang Mai Immigration presentation at the expat club. They all had an opportunity to speak. Without exception, immigration staff explained how immigration would improve once they relocated to Promenada. Once they made this historic move, the first thing I couldn't help notice was the online queue was shut down. Then of course the shortage of staff along with opening their own visa service next door to their office. Lets give this a little thought. They opened their own visa service right next door to their office.

Without the online queue which made it possible to show up at immigration with an actual appointment, expats now have to show up two to three hours before they open their office. The other choice is to use one of the many visa services or use their visa service. I don't know about you people but I don't see any incentive for immigration to use their online queue anymore or to improve their services.

CMNightRidger, maybe you should go back and listen to the entire Immigration presentation at CEC again (it's available on the CEC website), but there is no mention of a move to Promenada during that entire 45 minute presentation. At the time of that meeting (October 2014), Col. Rutjapong said he had submitted a request for a new building and, once approved we'd have a new building, with improved services within 2 years. That's near the beginning of the presentation and most people in the audience took it to mean we'd have a new building within two years. Nope -- listen closely.

Moving to Promenada was not the plan submitted to Bangkok. It was developed only after Bangkok turned down the request for a new building and he began to look for other options to relieve the problems at the location near the airport. Col. Rutjapong's frustration came thru in my discussion with him on Wednesday. Yes, he cares about his people, but he also cares about the quality of service they're providing to their customers. He has no budget use for the move and no support from Bangkok for programming, etc.

It's fortunate that Immigration has a very helpful "landlord" in Promenada. While some may dismiss amenities like working toilets, lights, and a nice assortment of shops that are open early, you've got to admit it's a big improvement over the old location. Since they've opened I would bet that anyone who was in the queue by 6:30 am was able to get a queue card for a retirement extension and during the last week I was there twice and they didn't give out all the queue cards for retirement extensions at opening, 8:30 am. The fact that there haven't been reports of any long queues or hissy fits this week tells me they're gradually working thru the opening pangs.

Yes, Immigration could have done a much better job with a little public relations (that would have cost them nothing) ahead of the move. Yes, there are definitely other improvements needed -- but I think the situation there at Promenada is such that there is more likelihood of those improvements happening than if they had stayed at the old location.

I certainly appreciate the invitation to "go back and listen to the entire immigration presentation at CEC again" but it would be right up there with water-boarding or some other form of torture. I have always said, you should be commended for the outstanding work you do to make Chiang Mai a better place to live. I cannot say the same for CM immigration. When these people discontinued the online queue for one year visas, and expect people to get up at zero dark thirty to spend the day with them for 15 minutes work, I felt as though I had just entered the twilight zone.

I am not aware of any other immigration office in Thailand, that is as inefficient as CM immigration. It is hard for me to believe it is the officials in Bangkok causing this problem.

The online queue was the best service they gave us, since it didn't require spending the day with these people. I can see now, that has gone the way of the buffalo because someone complained about it. Well, receiving a few complaints just means to add more queues per day so people didn't have to get up at 12:00 midnight in order to get an appointment. It shouldn't mean, well since you expats complained we will discontinue this service.

I would like to express my thanks to you for keeping us informed about CM immigration. I wish I could express my thanks to CM immigration but nothing comes to mind.

Do you think their reasoning behind discontinuing the online queue was… lets get rid of this it's upsetting too many farang or, if they're going to complain about this service we provided for them let's just cancel it… som num naa ?

Of course not. Ray Charles could see why this service was cancelled.

[chingmai331]

That population of CM is all those residing inside the moat. No wonder the figures look erroneous.

[northernjohn]

I'm afraid I gave up believing anything that comes from an Immigration spokesperson a long time ago.

Immigration offices are a gold mine for any ruling Government.CM is no exception.

It takes, on average, an officer 10-15 minutes to process a retirement extension.The online system had 10 slots for a whole day.

CM is Thailands second biggest city with a ratio of expats to Thais that would far exceed Bangkok.Go figure.

Just to clear up a popular fallacy - Chiang Mai is not Thailand's second largest city. It lies number 7 after Korat.

Bangkok 5,104,476 Samut Prakan 388,920 Mueang Nonthaburi 291,555 Udon Thani 247,231 Chon Buri 219,164 Nakhon Ratchasima 208,781 Chiang Mai 200,952

muang Chiang Mai has more than 1 Million people, it is for sure the second biggest city, also by universities and colleges

That sounds a lot more realistic than "200,000".

How often do they do a census here? Look at the student population, expat population for a start.

the last time I saw this subject was about 5 years ago and

I believe Chiang Mai was about number 7 on the list. Having lived in cities of a million I see nothing wrong with the 200,000 figure give or take on it. The province of Chiang Mai may have about a million. Can't comment on that as I have not seen it all.

[Tywais]

Another post making an unfounded accusation regarding immigration officials. I've warned about these speculative comments before and they are still on the edge of potential libel.

[Trujillo]

It's obvious you don't know a thing about computer systems. This is a centralized system designed and put in place in Bangkok. Of course, they're not going to give local offices the ability to make changes.

Ha! That's thinking inside the box. You must be with immigration

[Trujillo]

So....when my retirement extension comes up in January, I should be able to go when the office opens, get a number and having all my paperwork ready to go, be served a few hours later and out the door. Is this correct?

If immigration has in fact opened its own "agent service," doesn't that indicate that they are purposefully not aiming to serve expats and tourists as a matter of course? I mean if their operations are run smoothly and efficiently, there would be little or no need for any agents.

As for the comment about finding a student to stand in line for me, or get married and have the wife do it, well, that's only a topical solution -- we need to cure the patient.

By the way, two thoughts:

1. What is the need by government to have expats report every 90 days? Has this ever prevented a crime or solved one? Has it benefited either the foreigner or the government in any meaningful way?

2. Why do we have to submit copies of every Thai immigration-stamped page of our passports? What does immigration actually do with all that paper -- which they have had copies of since 2006 in my case? What could possibly be the point of having nine sets of copies of my passport?

Why, during these interviews with immigration, are these basic questions never brought up?