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  1. #26
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    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.

    ‐‐----------------------------

    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.

    ----------------------

    So there's 2 ways to do it..

  2. #27
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    Welcome back and your post sums up how I feel about the whole process.

  3. #28
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    This is Jomtien Immigration Office for Chonburi Immigration?

    I only ask because for the past 8 years they have never offered a same day retirement extension service - on the day of a successful application you receive a numbered token and return the following day to collect the passport.

    A chum of mine did the deed through unorthodox channels paying a tidy sum and even he had to wait two days.

    Gilding the lily, eh Headfuck?

    Also, on picking it up you do not queue again, you simply walk in waving your token and present yourself at the appropriate desk and Bob’s your father’s brother.
    Last edited by Seekingasylum; 30-12-2022 at 01:27 PM.

  4. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by Seekingasylum View Post
    A chum of mine did the deed through unorthodox channels paying a tidy sum and even he had to wait two days.
    Obviously just another fucking retard, assuming we can get past the joke of you even claiming to have a chum, but everything in my post is totally factual. Admittedly I have no first-hand experience as I never go there but over the last few years during lockouts and Covid, the turnaround times would have been much faster at Jomtien Immigration I assume. When my friend says he expected same day service as he'd had before on what must be his 14th extension, I believe him. And the agency I use has never once not had my passport and extension ready the following day, sounds like your chum (cough) paid a tidy sum for slower service.

  5. #30
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    Well, no surprise there, Headfuck, talking out of your arse is your speciality.

    Jomtien have not offered a same day service in the past decade or so. Sure, Laksi did in Bkk but not Jomtien.

    Your friend is obviously either misremembering or entering dementia. Perhaps he simply forgot he is in Bang Saray.

    Just admit it, you have been caught out making shit up which of course is nothing new for you.

    The thing is, if you had gone down there and did it yourself, timing it right midweek, preferably after lunch, and everything in apple pie order, you can do the biz in an hour at a cost of 1,900 baht. And then you would have seen all the other grunters getting the same token and when you returned the next day you would have seen the twenty or so passports lined up in the clerk’s wee box waiting to be reunited with their holders on production of the same fucking token you produced.

    But then, I’m not the dumb fuck who paid 10,000 baht for something a fucking child of eleven could do.

    Oh, and I nearly forgot. Once you queue and get your ticket for your application they’ll see you that day. There’s no telling you to fuck off and queue up again the next day etc.

    Either you are jerking off or your mate is.
    Last edited by Seekingasylum; 30-12-2022 at 03:15 PM.

  6. #31
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    Thai immigration woes are a full chapter in my upcoming book .....

    LT, pay the money, use the service. Ask them what they need, get the paperwork and pay the money. Pick up your passport the next day and no fucking about. 8K is a bargain.

  7. #32
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    Look, if you are making a legitimate application and you are within the published rules then it is a straightforward process that will cost 1,900 baht and a few hours in preparation.

    Sure, if you do not qualify then get a local fixer to act for you and he will act as a go between in your bribery.

    Paying 8000-10,000 baht for a genuine application is quite simply fucking stupid.

    But what the heck, it is The Age of The Stupid.

  8. #33
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    Quote Originally Posted by Seekingasylum View Post
    The thing is, if you had gone down there and did it yourself....
    At this point, its game over. I've been around way too long and have more than enough money to not value my time and sanity more than spending it dealing with minimum wage, pissant, jobsworth, brain-dead, and feckless public fucking servants who are merely going though the motions they've been told to while waiting for their pension or death to kick in. Even replying to you here is giving that category of worthless Gov't plebs far too much of my time...

  9. #34
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    Quote Originally Posted by Seekingasylum View Post
    within the published rules
    That fooking gave me a laugh.....published rules???? I see you're very well acquainted with Thai immi.

  10. #35
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    Last I went for extension in Roiet, was a madhouse. 4 peeps in the place.
    Took damn near an hour to walk out with job done.
    One of the many perks of not living in a farang ghetto.
    Enjoy guys.

  11. #36
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    Quote Originally Posted by Topper View Post
    8K is a bargain.
    8K is a bargain. I pinged my friend who uses an agent and he spent 16k about 3 months ago. A few years back he did have an issue with an agent that he and a few others did. He ended up having to deal with another one but felt lucky he got his passport back.

    I do not know if I could trust an agent but many do and it works for them. For the one guy I know, he has to use an agent as he doesn't have the funds in the bank.

  12. #37
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    knobhead
    everything in my post is totally factual. Admittedly I have no first-hand experience

  13. #38
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    Topper, we aren’t all unfortunates who couldn’t read the fucking writing on the wall and had to quit for Flipperland.

    The rules are published and updated as and when they change but if you can’t read the government websites because you are a fucking semi- literate blue collar ditch digger then there are many helpful farang websites that spell out in fucking capital letters what it is that is required amd how you may qualify for a successful application.

    Cjrist, it ain’t fucking rocket science - 800,000 held in a bank account in your fucking name that will not fall below that sum for six months, three months before submitting the extension application OR evidence of an annual income equivalent to a minimum of 800k endorsed by your embassy official supported by documentary evidence of income source. The latter is perhaps preferable because it permits more freedom of use of one’s bank accounts and you don’t have to return three months later to the immigration office to show your bank balance is maintained at 800,000 since the application was made.

    Fuck, what is the problem? Filling in a form, supplying a photo, copying a few passport pages, produce a bank book, get a bank letter, pay an embassy for pension/income letter, get a letter from pension/ income provider and pay 1,900 baht.

  14. #39
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    Quote Originally Posted by Norton View Post
    Last I went for extension in Roiet, was a madhouse. 4 peeps in the place.
    Took damn near an hour to walk out with job done.
    One of the many perks of not living in a farang ghetto.
    Enjoy guys.
    During Covid my number flashed up on the screen before I had even sat down!

  15. #40
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    Quote Originally Posted by Stumpy View Post
    8K is a bargain. I pinged my friend who uses an agent and he spent 16k about 3 months ago. A few years back he did have an issue with an agent that he and a few others did. He ended up having to deal with another one but felt lucky he got his passport back.

    I do not know if I could trust an agent but many do and it works for them. For the one guy I know, he has to use an agent as he doesn't have the funds in the bank.
    You are talking about two different things.

    Bribing an official because you do not qualify will generally cost around 18000-20,000 baht.

    Paying someone 8000-10000 baht to submit a few papers in support of a genuine application by a retiree without any call on his time is perhaps profligate to many. For me, it’s just fucking stupid.

  16. #41
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    Quote Originally Posted by Seekingasylum View Post
    Topper, we aren’t all unfortunates who couldn’t read the fucking writing on the wall and had to quit for Flipperland.
    Who is "we" and who is unfortunate? I'm actually doing quite well, most especially in the visa department.

  17. #42
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    Quote Originally Posted by Seekingasylum View Post
    ...and pay 1,900 baht.
    Yeah but does that include the multi-entry stamp that those of us who will leave and return to Thailand during the 1 year validity need to have? I don't think so, that's more on top?

    Not that you need that stamp though, obviously.

  18. #43
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    Fuck, what is the problem? Filling in a form, supplying a photo, copying a few passport pages, produce a bank book, get a bank letter, pay an embassy for pension/income letter, get a letter from pension/ income provider and pay 1,900 baht.

    observing the state of the majority of characters lined up waiting to renew retirement visas, it soon becomes apparent why the terms and conditions stated above are well beyond the cognitive abilities of the average farang retiree in thailand.

    pot bellied, rheumy eyed, unshaven and slovenly they sit staring into space until their number is called when they are then taken by the hand and led over like a sheep to slaughter by their bored wives where they sit blinking stupidly in bovine ignorance as the lengthy pantomime of paper shuffling, rubberstamping, signing and clipping unfolds before them.

    its like feeding time in a dementia clinic and too much like hard work for many of these fools whose alcohol marinated brains shut down years ago, hence the reliance on "agents" or wives.

  19. #44
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    ^Yes this is another reason I use an agency, fuck lining up in some queue with the likes of the dross you mention (with your bestie Sausages in among them in his best cardigan and tie wearing socks and sandals ) when I can just drop the minimum amount of paperwork off and have it done for chump change. Hey are you the chum he mentions?

  20. #45
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    when I can just drop the minimum amount of paperwork off and have it done for chump change.
    your laziness is just facilitating bribery and corruption. half of the agents fee will go straight into the pocket of the immigration officers.
    nothing to be proud off.

  21. #46
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    Quote Originally Posted by taxexile View Post
    your laziness is just facilitating bribery and corruption. half of the agents fee will go straight into the pocket of the immigration officers.
    nothing to be proud off.
    It's not the immigration officers allowing this practice that allows for bribery and corruption? After all, they could just say no.

  22. #47
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    Quote Originally Posted by taxexile View Post
    half of the agents fee will go straight into the pocket of the immigration officers.
    Of course it will you dozy fucking newbie, do you think I don't know that? It's a tiered system and it's actually more than half but do you think Immigration bosses pay huge amounts of money to be promoted to positions like that for nothing? They don't even see it as corruption, they view it as profit sharing and if you think lining up in a queue to let some low level public servant eye you and your paperwork over is going to suddenly change Thailand from being a society and culture where literally everyone of any power wants their wheels greased, you're more clueless about how things work here than I thought.

  23. #48
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    Tax, those days are gone. The slack-jawed, tattooed, slapheaded blue collar munter no longer appears in any numbers. They cannot qualify and left years ago when the visa rules changed. The majority are EU and moneyed Russian retirees. The Brit Irish contingent are mostly intelligent, reasonably secure economically and seized of common sense. The Bogan OCkers are of course another category entirely.

  24. #49
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    lining up in a queue to let some low level public servant eye you and your paperwork over

    I use an agency
    so apart from paying 10 times as much, whats the difference between them you sweaty meathead.

  25. #50
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    Quote Originally Posted by taxexile View Post
    your laziness is just facilitating bribery and corruption. half of the agents fee will go straight into the pocket of the immigration officers.
    nothing to be proud off.
    I would say more than half. I am under no illusion where the majority of my agent's fee goes, but I didn't create the system. I just want to live with my family with as least hassle as possible.

    I meet all the criteria for a marriage extension and have done this renewal pantomime myself beforehand. Yet for someone on an overseas work rota with time restraints, facing completely inflexible rules, I had no choice other than to use an agent. Either that or lose work, or lose time and money running around to get new visas for re-entry after work trips.

    I have very little spare time and for me, using an agent is not only essential but financially favourable as well.

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