A tale of 2 Retirement Visa extensions both done last week:
1/ Me.
Goes to a Pattaya branch of my Thai bank at around 10:00, gets bankbook updated and a letter from them for Immigration saying I've got 800k+ in the bank (that was not "seasoned" for the required amount of months it was suppose to be in a stupid oversight by myself, but it didn't matter anyway), out the door about 20 mins later, takes said letter + bank book + passport to the same agency I've used since forever, gets photo taken in their office by one of the office girls iPhone, hands over 10 large which is the only paperwork involved, out the door 5 minutes later, stops off for an early and leisurely lunch of Cajun food on the way home. Life is good, very fucking good in fact.
Text message arrives the following morning at 09:30 saying "Passport ready for pickup Sir". Job jobbed for the next 12 months, not counting 90 day reports which are a piece of piss done online that take 5 or 10 minutes minutes every 3 months, but my agency will do them for free should I suddenly become too lazy or retarded to navigate a simple online form.
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2/ A good friend of many years who thinks I'm completely insane for using an agency to do something that I could do myself and for about half the price, he lives in Bang Saray (30 mins drive South of Pattaya) and he's financially secure.
Drives into Pattaya in the early afternoon, gets letter and bankbook update from his bank, goes to Immigration armed with all the neccesary paperwork and copies he's spent fuck knows how long researching online and putting together, joins the post-Covid Christmas period afternoon queue that stretches all the way out to the Soi just to get into the building. Finally gets in and gets a service ticket some lengthy amount of time later but it becomes obvious he's not going to get served before before closing time so he goes home.
Goes back the next morning at 07:30 to be one of the first served when they open an hour later, this plan works and he's sitting in front of an Immigration officer by around 09:00 who tells him the bank letter is no good because it has to be issued the same day as the application. No amount of pleading helps, back to the bank he goes to get a new letter. Gets back to Immigration to find the queue goes all the way out to the Soi again, has no choice but to join it knowing it'll be hours till he gets served. At this point I'd be ready to rip some cvnts head off or paying any amount of money to make this problem go away, but he perseveres and actually gets served before they shut down for lunch which is a miracle in itself. His plan then was to meet me for lunch then go pick his passport up later in the afternoon, as he'd done in the past getting same-day service, but they told him to come back 3 working days later so that meant another trip in/out of Pattaya to join an Immigration queue. He's also got to go back after X amount of months (3 or 5?) to show his current bank balance, not sure of the details exactly as I wasn't listening to what he said as this requirement isn't needed using the agency route, well not with the agency I do at least, but he's got another trip to Pattaya and his bank and Immigration pencilled in.
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So there's 2 ways to do it..