TB Immigration Information Letter No. 017/24: 3-in-1 at Immigration Office in Chiang Rai
Reporter: Rob
Another good experience at the Immigration Office in Chiang Rai. I went there again last Monday - like every year - for my extension period of stay on my non-immigration visa. I immediately applied for a “Multiple Re-Entry” and submitted a 90-day notification. Service was excellent as always and requests were handled well.
Multiple Re-Entry is still being issued (despite reading reports that this is no longer being done!). Maybe I only do 2 re-entries a year, but - although a multiple costs more money - it still saves a lot of time, because you don't have to go to the immigration office for every single re-entry (and saves pages in your passport).
I often read stories that the annual visit to the immigration office often causes problems, but my experience is that if you prepare everything well - and always remain very friendly - everything goes smoothly.
Reaction RonnyLatYa
Thank you for your submission. It's always nice to read that something goes well and indeed, as you already write, good preparation is actually the most special thing.
As for your annual renewal, readers are usually also interested in which documents you needed.
As for your 90 day notification, have you ever considered doing it online? Now you were there with that extension, but then you don't have to go to your immigration office for those other notifications during the year.
As for Multiple Re-entry, it is not Multiple Re-entry that you can no longer obtain. That still works. It is the Multiple entry that is apparently no longer awarded for Non-immigrant O Retired and Thai Marriage.
Let us reiterate the difference between an Entry and Re-entry. An Entry is part of a visa. With an Entry you obtain a new period of residence upon entry, which then depends on the visa you have.
A Re-entry is part of a residence period that has already been obtained. When leaving Thailand you will not lose the period of residence you have already obtained. When you re-enter, you will not receive a new period of residence due to Re-entry, but you will receive the end date of the period of residence previously obtained.
A Re-entry is usually used for a longer period of residence that one wants to maintain, such as Retired, Thai Marriage, etc... but you can apply for any previously obtained period of residence. No matter how long or how short it is.
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We have a similar experience at immigration Chiang Rai. What a difference from a year ago. To their surprise, we had our papers complete, always a whole stack. The Visa Support letter from Foreign Affairs worked wonders. However, the employee behind the desk had to write down my place of birth in Thai. That caused a lot of hilarity. Waddinxveen is apparently difficult to pronounce. At least, he made frantic efforts. Finally, after much laughter and practice, he managed to partially pronounce the name.
The visa support letter states your monthly income in euros. Tables were looked up to make the comparison with Baht. Then I added the calculator and asked what on earth I had done with this income. Ultimately it was processed after numerous stamps. My wife sitting at the counter next door had a similar experience. As a good Catholic she was given 3 first names. Oops, oops, the counter clerk, long name, long name. Ultimately, we were allowed to pick up our passports the next day because of the crowds.
When we came back the next day, immigration was completely empty. We opened the door and amid loud laughter we were greeted as Mister Waddinxveen and Mrs long name, long name, long name.
In any case, this will not cause us any stress the next time we have to go to immigration.
Annual extension.O done in sriracha all documents taken care of including the visa support letter from the embassy. It went pretty smoothly were early in the morning together with about 2 to 300 people from Burma but fortunately they had another counter.
My girlfriend was with me and the conversation was largely through her, and I still missed a document, namely the location of the house, the location on paper, I didn't have that, I was allowed to draw it on an A4 sheet, that was no problem. I was told that I could pick up my passport the next day and then do my Reentry. No sooner said than done. Everything was completed the next day and we traveled home by public transport.