Thread: Phuket immigration wankers

Originally Posted by Mr Earl

I went in tuesday to get my visa changed from tourist to non-imOA retirement visa.
I dutifully filled out the forms and all the copies all ready to present when the power went out. They informed everyone no more visa today. I didn't get time yesterday so I went this morning bright and early. I present my papers and passport and the motherfucker says no he cant do it because my 30 day tourist visa expires today. They made buy a stupid 7 day extension for 1900 baht and told me I have to leave the country, and then come back, WTF! I just looked this smirking motherfucker and said you must be making this up. The fuck just shook his head and grinned. I wanted to strangle someone. Fuck me this is first time I heard of this little detail.
Now I got an excuse to go to Penang and eat some.indian food.and drink some of that good beer down there, I reckon.
What a bunch of fucking chickenshit bullshit. Sometimes this country pisses me off to no end.. Wankers

Was the dude a thin guy with short hair and small glasses?

I never had any problems with phuket immigration, except for my first visa extension with this fucker.
I didn't know exactly where to wait, and one of the officer told me to sit in a corner. 10 minutes later, the same guy, still with a big smile on his face, invites me to sit in front of him. I show him all the necessary papers, he studies them cautiously for 2 minutes, and then tells me while laughing... "Sir, you need go back tomorrow, office close soon hahaha"
I look at the clock showing 3:15 pm, bewildered, and look at him again, he is still cracking up like he just told me the joke of the year.
I try a timid "Poodlen mai?"
"No no no, come back tomorrow sir" with a smile that made me want to punch him in the face.
Not knowing if he wanted to make a farang angry for fun or if he genuinely believed it was a really funny situation, I tried to give him my best fake smile and told him "mai pen rai krap, sawadee krap". What a fucking asshole.

^That was the wanker.

I have to report again on Phuket Immigration;
I've been back there three times now and the place has changed, surprisingly for the better.
Once for a 90 day report which took about 30 minutes, I arrived bright and early too.
Next was filing a retirement visa extension for an elderly friend, I arrived about 11am with all the paperwork all in order, walked right up to the guys receiving these, he looked it all over asked for 1900 baht and asked me to wait over yonder with a wave of his hand, I get on the phone will a pal and while chatting I see the guy waving the passport and nodding to me, I walk over thinking "oh shit, something is wrong!" He hand me the passport and I look at him inquiringly, he says "done"! I'm flabbergasted, all less than 15 minutes.
Yesterday I went in to renew my retirement visa, about 10:30 this time wait a minute or two and the receiving guy take the documents, looks them over, spends a lot of time looking over all my stamps old visa, photo copies a visa from tow years ago, then asks for 1900 baht and tells me to wait yonder. I take a seat and make a note of the time. In less than 10 minutes another guy is waving my passport and nodding to me, this time I'm not that surprised when he hand me my passport and says "done". I'm still kinda amazed.
I also got my multiple reentry stamp which required another series of photocopies and photo plus a whopping 3900 baht, and took about 15 minutes.
I was like a breath of fresh air to be free to come and go for another year in such short order.

I suppose they somehow realized giving people a hard time renewing their visa was dangerous as they might have pissed off the wrong farang and he'd come back and shoot the place up. Suppose it's all the Russian influence there that's shaping them up?

^ I think its your "Sunny Personality."

I know one of the guys who work the back desk socially and from what I have gleaned over the years everything depends on the head honcho of the office and his interpretation of the directives that come down from BKK.

The heads seem to get rotated out quite frequently and that leads to a lot of confusion and frustration when a detail that was OK six months ago is now different due to some memo getting issued.

The guy I know doesn't like pissing people off but he doesn't have the rank or authority to interpret the rules on his own so his hands are tied, it's a messy situation.

As an example, one year it was OK to submit a photocopy of my tax invoice and the Rev Dept receipt stapled to it, the next year they had to be separate. No rhyme or reason, just a new rule.

^The main thing is not to get upset. Stay cool, get the photo copies that never were called for before, do the deal and depart. Next time it'll be different and a different person so nothing is stable in their world either.
You need them. They don't need you individually. Lots more standing in line behind you. So best case scenario is stay cool and move along.

Typical Bureaucracy and bureaucratizes found world wide.

Originally Posted by taxexile

can only get a retirement extension if you already have a non-imm. visa.

it cant be done on a tourist visa. so you wouldnt have got one yesterday either.

you will need to get a non-imm. visa in penang.

enjoy penang, its a fine town.

Wrong. You can change a tourist visa to a Non-Imm O retirement. You might even be able to do it with the 30 day stamp.

^Sadly, the site has no English version....

used to have a english but seems its down,
http://www.phuketimmigration.go.th/main-en.php

I have been seeing the same faces for the past 15 ++ years behind the desks.
only thing that seems to change is the head honcho ( and with the change different regulations/enforcements)

^URL not found....not up either. No Problem. We're flexible, change is good they say.

^oh well it did work when I visited it a week ago. They probably are using a Thai web hosting.

Indeed you can get a non-imm o retirement from a 30 day entry, you just have to have at least 2 days remaining on the visa.

[/quote]

I think it is more like more than 15 days left on your Visa.
That why you can not do a border run 15 day & you can not change to Non-IMM O
As it's the same as Non-Imm B

This is PHUKET IMMIGRATION thread

Accomplished my 90 day today in under 10 minutes. Had to get photocopies of my first page and my trip ticket now 8 years old for submittal along with copy of form TM-47.

The boys now have I-pads to reference and enter your data. Bright red they are and all seem to be happy with the new additions. For a Monday, the place was virtually empty.

^^Bangkok Immigration and the rest of Thailand Immigration have the same rules, just not the same personalities.

I have done my share of ranting and raving about Phuket immigration.

Things have gotten way better the past couple years.

today I got my retirement extension so smoothly it might have been confused with a baby's butt.
30 minutes! and the chief assistant was one of the total wankers of the past!
fucking breath of fresh air it twas!

I simply have to go pick it up monday after 13:00 hours