We went to Immigration at Kap Choeng, Surin, yesterday to process my extension of stay. It all went quite smoothly. We had to make the 200K drive (3 hours) because Korat Immigration does not yet process extensions of stay.
The stuff we had to submit was as follows:
Application form (TM7)
Passport
Departure card
Medical certificate
Proof of income
Tabien Baan
Ms. B's ID card
I was a little surprised by the last two. None of the official sources (Immigration web site, handout from Korat Immigration, telephone information from Kap Choeng Immigration) mentioned this. The first I heard of it being a requirement was in a post by RDN last week. Fortunately, Ms. B has a copy in her important documents folder so we were prepared.
I think her ID was required only because she served as translator for my "Interview". I applied for an extension based on retirement, not marriage.
The only real glitch for the day was that two copies of everything, including the application form and passport pages, was required. This necessitated a short (1K) trip to the photocopy shop where they charged only 50 satang per page. (When I was working my agency required me to charge a dollar a page for photocopies!) Oddly, before our visit no mention was made of the two-copy requirement.
I was also surprised at the little "Interview" that culminated the process. The Immigration Officer filled out a form based on answers to a few simple questions: my parents names, my age, my residence address, was I working, do I have a bank account, etc. She printed out the form, we signed it and that was it.
Incidentally, I told her that I do have a Thai bank account but don't much use it. She asked if I just use an ATM to withdraw funds from a US bank. I said "yes" and she seemed satisfied with that.
I have to add that I am very impressed with the way the office is managed; perhaps because I tried to run my own office the same way:
- Everyone who enters is immediately greeted, asked their business and told what to do first. This sure beats requiring customers to figure out what to do based on signs and posters on the wall.
- Customers are helped on an ad hoc basis rather than one-at-a-time and first-come-first-served. If one customer is busy filling out a form or looking for a document the officer just moves on to someone else who can be helped right away. This makes things go more quickly and eliminates idle time for the officer. This is efficient queue management.
- The office works as a team. The officers, including the big boss, work the front counter together, helping people simultaneously. This makes the customers feel good and enhances productivity and efficiency. (Don't you hate it when one person handles the front counter and everyone else sits around "doing paperwork"?)
I also liked the fact that the computer monitors are set into the desks so that the officers can maintain eye contact with the visitor.
Upon leaving we asked about a good place for lunch and were directed to a nearby dam where we had a nice, cool, breezy meal on the water.
Afterwards we took a few minutes to visit Prasat Ban Phluang which is a few kilometers north of the Kap Cheong Immigration office.
