Huge queue at Pattaya Immigration this morning

[webfact]

Pattaya Immigration Queue

This morning huge queue...

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2017-04-07

 

 

 

[Encid]

Judging from the lengths of the shadows that photo must have been taken shortly after 8:00am.

Glad I'm not there.

The rush before Songkran and the power outage yesterday must have contributed to the queue.

Edited April 7, 2017 by Encid

[NormanW]

Truly depressing that!!!

[NanLaew]

It is ALWAYS like this the first week of April and immediately before Songkran. Bit of a bugger if ones 90-day report and/or extension renewal date falls in the first 2 weeks of April though.

[littlepe]

20 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

It is ALWAYS like this the first week of April and immediately before Songkran. Bit of a bugger if ones 90-day report and/or extension renewal date falls in the first 2 weeks of April though.

Not really if properly planned - both of these procedures can be done weeks before - like I did.

 

[alocacoc]

14 minutes ago, littlepe said:

Not really if properly planned - both of these procedures can be done weeks before - like I did.

 

But not visa extension. Maximum one week before. Not a smart rule imo.

[johng]

11 minutes ago, littlepe said:

both of these procedures can be done weeks before

Yes but what if you get to the office and there was a powercut  the next day was a bank holiday followed by the weekend

and then a long new years holiday  ?

 

Quote

HolidaysFor 2017

 

1January (Sunday)NewYear'sDay

2.January (Monday) Substitution forNewYears

3January (Tuesday0 SpecialHoliday

14.January (Saturday)NationalChildren'sDay

16January (Monday)Teacher'sDay

28January (Saturday) ChineseLunarNewYear

11February (Saturday)MakhaBuchaDay

13February (Monday) SubstitutionForMakhaBuchaDay

14February (Sunday)Valentine'sDay

6April(Thursday) ChakriDay

13April (Thursday) Songkran

14April (Friday) Songkran

15April (Saturday) Songkran

1May (Monday)LaborDay

5May (Friday) CoronationDay

10May (Wednesday)VisakhaBuchaDay

25May (Friday)RoyalPlowingCeremony

8July (Saturday)AsalhaBucha

9July (Sunday)WanKhaoPhansa(BeginningofBuddhistLent)

10July (Monday) SubstitutionForAsalhaBucha

11July (Tuesday) SubstitutionForWanKhaoPhansa

12August (Saturday)Mother'sDay

14August (Monday) SubstituteForMother'sDay

23October (Monday) ChulalongkornDay

3November (Friday)LoiKrathong

5December (Tuesday)Father'sDay

10December (Sunday) ConstitutionDay

11December (Monday) Constitution Day Substitution

25December (Monday) ChristmasDay

31December (Sunday)NewYear'sEve

1January (Monday)NewYear'sDay

 

 

[littlepe]

'Yes but what if you get to the office and there was a powercut  the next day was a bank holiday followed by the weekend

and then a long new years holiday  ?,'

 

As i said  - planning.   The holidays are well published.  90 day can be done 2 weeks prior - Retirement extension at least 1 month before.

[onemorechang]

Yes two days off ,  what do you all expect.

But just look at the 1000's of baht  lining  up to be handed over

Nice little earner Rodney  

 

 

[Andrew Dwyer]

Bet those follicly challenged guys are cursing !!
Will be some nice red domes later on [emoji51]

[saakura]

Maybe the Brexit retirees have already arrived!!

[Andrew Dwyer]

Maybe the Brexit retirees have already arrived!!

Or could be everyone doing their last 90 day before Thexit !

[Suradit69]

1 hour ago, alocacoc said:

But not visa extension. Maximum one week before. Not a smart rule imo.

Presumably you mean extension of stay. Visas are not extended.

For annual extensions of stay for retirement, etc, you can usually do it at Jomtien 30 to 45 days before expiration.

 

If you mean extensions of stay for tourist or visa exempt entries, yes, a week or so before but I can't see why allowing earlier application would be any "smarter." The same number of people will be pitching up at one time or another and clogging the works. Generally a good idea to go midweek and later in the day. 

 

 

[Basil B]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Pattaya Immigration Queue

This morning huge queue...

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2017-04-07

Must be all those Brits queuing for the £60K (2.5mil THB) 20 year retirement visas...  

Edited April 7, 2017 by Basil B

[Chip Allen]

I was there amidst all the madness to file my ninety day report. The only touch of levity was when a young lady from IO came out and escorted a man about my age who was using a three-pronged walking cane. As she passed those in line, she explained :"He old".  We all got a kick out of that. The Brit in front of me said "Hell, we're ALL old and we're gonna be a lot older by the time we make it inside."  This was the worst queue I have ever seen at Immigration  in Pattaya. Just glad it didn't start raining.

Edited April 7, 2017 by Chip Allen

[vogie]

Got there this afternoon at 1330hrs, queues to the road, totally organised chaos. It was raining very heavy too, I noticed whilst stood in an orderly manner some folk were just walking in without queueing. So my wife decided to leave the queue and go inside and have a look as to what was happening, 10 minutes later she had a ticket, we were out within the hour, but by this time there was about a foot of water to wade through.

[Oxx]

Huge queue? Obviously never seen the queues at Chaeng Wattana before opening in the morning, or immediately after the lunch break.

[balo]

No planning , use the brain and show up tomorrow instead.

[TerryLH]

Balo said:

"No planning , use the brain and show up tomorrow instead."

 

Excellent plan.  There shouldn't be many there on Saturday.

I think the 17th is also a holiday.  At least it is on my calendar.

[JSixpack]

As predicted in the Songkran FAQ. Great pic for next year's FAQ.

 

And get to the aiport earlier too, you refugees.

[Sydebolle]

The reason for closing on Wednesday was an unplanned black out (power cut).

Interesting enough was the announcement on A4-paper where it was printed in English that the power was off and hence Immigration closed. Question: did the printer run on solar energy for the print-out; the (laptop) computer might be battery driven but the printer .......... 

[RBOP]

Line-up nothing compared to Changwattana.

[Jeremy50]

5 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Bet those follicly challenged guys are cursing !!
Will be some nice red domes later on

Probably too macho to hold an umbrella.

[Andrew Dwyer]

Probably too macho to hold an umbrella.

Or found they had brought the Hello Kitty brollie !!

[KenKadz]

And still the Online 90 day Reporting is not working (what one year now?).

Welcome to Thailand we love you and we want you here!

[johng]

I went at about 3pm to do 90 day report there where 47 in front of me so I went and sat outside they got through the queue fast with 3 people processing 90 days but still took about 1 minute each so 40 minutes wait at least the rain had stopped and flood mostly subsidised.

[Rimmer]

Two off topic posts about Chiang Mai have been removed as this is the Pattaya Forum.

Please start your own topic in Chiang Mai. Thank you

[wanderluster]

yes was long que, got there 1pm and got out at 5:10 pm..   but still have to aplaud jomtien immigration, i left at 5:10 pm and still have to be 40-50 people in there.   they worked extra late to accomodate all the farong..    very good on you jomtien immigration..  still first class service.

[wakeupplease]

16 hours ago, saakura said:

Maybe the Brexit retirees have already arrived!!

Maybe trying to get refunds on visas then, you never know

[jacko45k]

I was met with that at about 09.30! Got a similar picture on my phone.

The bottle neck at the front desk forced the queue all the way out to the car-park entrance and people had to stand out in very strong sunshine on a humid day. I tried for 10 minutes and started to feel unwell and decided to leave.

I returned at 11am, the queue had gone, but I was told rather curtly by a farang at the desk, come back at 1pm.

Not very polite at all.

Then I went shopping and got trapped by heavy rain. Set off at 1.15 and got caught in a thunderstorm and was met with a very different picture of a foot of flood water, but the same traffic bedlam, in front of immigration. I got in with a ticket this time and it was really busy in there. Had 25 people in front of me and was waiting just about an hour.

 

Obviously it was the day after a National holiday, and I believe power cuts the day before that, also Songkran next week so many need to get things done prior to that long holiday.

 

The staff were working hard to process the crowds but the facilities  are beginning to look insufficient, particularly for those busy days. Customers being forced to queue out in the car park for that front desk bottle-neck also needs some review.

 

Thanks to the staff for working well to process such crowds though, I thought I wasn't going to get the job done!  Actually a job I should be able to do on-line... but can't. Come on guys, sort that out and ease the situation.

Edited April 7, 2017 by jacko45k