'Non O' 1 Year Marriage Extension...Chiang Mai.

[trainman34014]

Haven't seen a thread on this lately so thought i would report on my visit to immigration today.

First; the bad news.......Despite trying to get an online appointment since 96 days ahead i did not succeed so it was off to immigration today and arrival at 05.50.

Parking available in the Petrol Station almost opposite for 20 Baht....no problem.

Walked into the waiting area to sign in and found i was No 20 on the list. I enquired with the first 19..'OK; who was No 1 and what time did you get here? ' A small voice from the far end said..' 4am ' !

Doors opened at 0752 and why we have an arrival list i don't know as the guy who opened the door just started dishing out tickets at random and did not follow the list at all. Subsequently i ended up with No 25 and the guy i had been talking to since six, who signed in at 13, ended up with No 23. As we queued for further tickets at the counter for our specific requirements i received 405 (starts at 401) and my chatting partner received 215 (starts at 201), which i considered to be unfair as he had been there a lot longer than several who were issued lower numbers.

The good news.......No sign of any Burmese in the main building today and subsequently a heck of a lot more comfortable for space with 98% of people sitting down; and of course a whole lot cooler with fewer bodies around. Now i am not racist and don't care where people come from but i have felt for some time that with the amount of Burmese people's being processed at immigration they should surely have separate facilities to the rest of us Alien's. Seems someone has worked a mini miracle somewhere or either it was just an odd lucky day.

My number got called at 09.30 and the actual renewal process was a pleasure; same paperwork as last year with just some new pictures of us around our house, same immigration officer who actually remembered us and chatted away to the Mrs about her over active thyroid whilst she dealt with the paperwork which took 20 minutes including processing my 90 day report while she was at it. Waited to get Passport and receipt for 10 minutes, an improvement on last years 45 minute wait and we were off for a late breakfast.

All in all i think the service is getting better despite many peoples previous adverse remarks, but of course there is always room for improvement. Just cannot see any sense in having an early arrivals sign in list if it's not used for it's correct purpose. After all; if i was an ignorant git i could have turned up at 07.45. and pushed my way up front to get the first ticket handed out when the door opened. The guy only had to come out and say 'Come in according to your sign in numbers starting from No 1 please'. Even better they could number up a few chairs and he could let folks in by lowest numbers first.

Have to end by saying that all staff were generally curteous and helpful and the atmosphere around the place seemed a lot more cordial than on previous visits.