W
Wombat
Guest
I did my annual extension yesterday and the day before, reason for this later.
First thing I noticed when I walked in was that staff have changed from the last time I was there about 6 months ago. There was only one IO that I recognised and the young lady as well, no work experience students either, there is also a sign on the wall saying 'No Tips".
Prior to arriving I called into Kasikorn at Robinson to get my bank letter. I withdrew 1000 baht from an ATM outside prior to walking into the branch (first mistake). The wife told the staff what we needed and the guy who did my last letter was still there and he proceeded to draw up my letter. I had asked him to update my balance in the book and photocopy the page as well. 15 minutes later I was called over to check the letter and sign a few things, my book balance showed a balance of 809,750 baht, the letter showed a balance of 810,750! "Hang on", I said, "the balances have to be the same", "no can do replied the bank, "the bank system only allows yesterday's balance to be viewed or processed for the letter". WTF! "No, no", I said, "they have to be the same". "Cannot" said the bank. I'm thinking, why did I listen to some idiot on some Forum say they always draw out some money on the day to show an updated amount for that day to immigration. I tell them to draw up another letter, I'll pay, they tell me it will be the same letter if they do another one. Not much I can do about it I realise, you can't win an argument with a Thai clerk, maybe immigration will let it slip through so off we go to KC. The one thing I do notice with my letter is, all it states is that the said amount is in my account on a certain date, it gives the account name and number but nothing about where the funds came from, how long they have been in the account etc. I am sure I have read that the purpose of the letter is to state the funds arrived from overseas. What's everyones' opinion on this?
Arrived about 1310 and the office was near empty, just some Cambodians in there. The IO I recognised from before, the one who sits in the far corner nearly in front of you as you walk in was the only IO in dress uniform, the other 3 IOs were in their civvy uniforms, he calls me over and I hand over my paperwork, he flicks through it then tells me he needs photocopies of every entry/exit I have done since I first used my Non O Visa, fortunately this only goes back 3 years and I had copied and included them before GL told me they were not needed, after GL's advice I removed them from my application but kept them so I was able to produce them. Now, I'm not too sure how far back they wanted me to go, I have a rather new passport that started the same time as I first used my Visa so I copied every page in my passport, not sure how many pages back they want you to go if you have an old passport, surely they don't want every page copied?
So now, the IO had everything he needed to process my application, he then handed me 2 forms that I had to fill out, both in Thai and English. One had a lot of lines to fill in and was all about having sufficient funds to survive, it asked how much per month you get and if it's from a Government pension. It did not cover my situation though as I have a private pension scheme and I opt to get my money annually so I just ticked the closest to the truth box and took an estimate of my monthly pension amount. The other form was acknowledging the overstay rules.
I sat at the back and while they were handing my paperwork around in walked another IO in the civvy uniform, he was a bit older and sat at a desk on my right at the back of the room, I glanced at the name plate on his desk and it started with Pol Gen, I quickly realised he was the big boss of SI. He seemed quite relaxed and joked a bit with staff.
Then came the time I had been waiting for, the stamp came out and down it went, the file and passport were passed around again, for double checking I imagine, it had got back to the uniformed IO who was about to hand it back to me catastrophe hit! Somehow, somebody had twigged about the letter not matching the balance in the bank book. The IO spoke to my wife in Thai, my wife spoke back, I could understand that they were talking about the numbers, the big boss got involved telling my wife something, my book was being passed back, my wife told me we have to get another bank letter, the big boss kept talking to my wife, so we left after thanking and sawadeeing everybody.
In the car my wife explained that the big boss was telling her that he did not care if I had multi millions in the bank, the paperwork has to be perfect or no visa extension. He told her that everything has to be done the right way from now on with no exceptions. I had a look at my passport in the car and my extension had been stamped and signed but, I gather, not finalised in the office.
The following day I went back to the bank, complained and got another letter, no charge this time, went back to SI, handed over the paperwork and left 15 minutes later with my extension granted.
Hope this helps but I guess some of you would say "I knew all that".
First thing I noticed when I walked in was that staff have changed from the last time I was there about 6 months ago. There was only one IO that I recognised and the young lady as well, no work experience students either, there is also a sign on the wall saying 'No Tips".
Prior to arriving I called into Kasikorn at Robinson to get my bank letter. I withdrew 1000 baht from an ATM outside prior to walking into the branch (first mistake). The wife told the staff what we needed and the guy who did my last letter was still there and he proceeded to draw up my letter. I had asked him to update my balance in the book and photocopy the page as well. 15 minutes later I was called over to check the letter and sign a few things, my book balance showed a balance of 809,750 baht, the letter showed a balance of 810,750! "Hang on", I said, "the balances have to be the same", "no can do replied the bank, "the bank system only allows yesterday's balance to be viewed or processed for the letter". WTF! "No, no", I said, "they have to be the same". "Cannot" said the bank. I'm thinking, why did I listen to some idiot on some Forum say they always draw out some money on the day to show an updated amount for that day to immigration. I tell them to draw up another letter, I'll pay, they tell me it will be the same letter if they do another one. Not much I can do about it I realise, you can't win an argument with a Thai clerk, maybe immigration will let it slip through so off we go to KC. The one thing I do notice with my letter is, all it states is that the said amount is in my account on a certain date, it gives the account name and number but nothing about where the funds came from, how long they have been in the account etc. I am sure I have read that the purpose of the letter is to state the funds arrived from overseas. What's everyones' opinion on this?
Arrived about 1310 and the office was near empty, just some Cambodians in there. The IO I recognised from before, the one who sits in the far corner nearly in front of you as you walk in was the only IO in dress uniform, the other 3 IOs were in their civvy uniforms, he calls me over and I hand over my paperwork, he flicks through it then tells me he needs photocopies of every entry/exit I have done since I first used my Non O Visa, fortunately this only goes back 3 years and I had copied and included them before GL told me they were not needed, after GL's advice I removed them from my application but kept them so I was able to produce them. Now, I'm not too sure how far back they wanted me to go, I have a rather new passport that started the same time as I first used my Visa so I copied every page in my passport, not sure how many pages back they want you to go if you have an old passport, surely they don't want every page copied?
So now, the IO had everything he needed to process my application, he then handed me 2 forms that I had to fill out, both in Thai and English. One had a lot of lines to fill in and was all about having sufficient funds to survive, it asked how much per month you get and if it's from a Government pension. It did not cover my situation though as I have a private pension scheme and I opt to get my money annually so I just ticked the closest to the truth box and took an estimate of my monthly pension amount. The other form was acknowledging the overstay rules.
I sat at the back and while they were handing my paperwork around in walked another IO in the civvy uniform, he was a bit older and sat at a desk on my right at the back of the room, I glanced at the name plate on his desk and it started with Pol Gen, I quickly realised he was the big boss of SI. He seemed quite relaxed and joked a bit with staff.
Then came the time I had been waiting for, the stamp came out and down it went, the file and passport were passed around again, for double checking I imagine, it had got back to the uniformed IO who was about to hand it back to me catastrophe hit! Somehow, somebody had twigged about the letter not matching the balance in the bank book. The IO spoke to my wife in Thai, my wife spoke back, I could understand that they were talking about the numbers, the big boss got involved telling my wife something, my book was being passed back, my wife told me we have to get another bank letter, the big boss kept talking to my wife, so we left after thanking and sawadeeing everybody.
In the car my wife explained that the big boss was telling her that he did not care if I had multi millions in the bank, the paperwork has to be perfect or no visa extension. He told her that everything has to be done the right way from now on with no exceptions. I had a look at my passport in the car and my extension had been stamped and signed but, I gather, not finalised in the office.
The following day I went back to the bank, complained and got another letter, no charge this time, went back to SI, handed over the paperwork and left 15 minutes later with my extension granted.
Hope this helps but I guess some of you would say "I knew all that".
