RAWBangkok

With the exception of my first couple of months in Bangkok, and one brief 2-week period last year when I had a minor hiccup, I have always had a non-immigrant B visa while living in Thailand.  Unlike many people who have to leave the country every 90 days, I have always been lucky enough to have a 12-month visa that can be renewed annually without the need to leave the country.

The only administrative requirement aside from the annual renewal of my visa and work permit is to report to immigration every 90 days to tell them I’m still in the country.  It is a simple administrative procedure that takes less than 15 minutes in and out of the front door.  I’ve taken care of it several times myself, but it is actually a function that can be taken care of by an agent without the need for me to go to immigration for the 90 report.

My work permit can also be renewed without the need for me to appear in person.

Like most long term residents I have an agent who takes care of all the paperwork related to my visa and work permit.  A year or so ago when I first started working with my current agent I wrote a couple of blogs questioning her competence.

I have to now say that the past 14 months or so have proved her abilities.  She is efficient, contacting me a week or two ahead of each time she needs my documentation.

One of the amazing things about amazing Thailand is that every time you go to the Immigration Department you have to give them multiple copies of all the paperwork you have given them countless times before.  They must have at least two dozen copies of my university degree by now.

And we’re not talking about scanned electronic copies.  Nope.  Good old fashioned paper copies.  Each time I go to immigration for my visa or the Labor Dept for a work permit there is a stack of paperework held together by a medium sized bulldog clip.  What they do with all the repeat copies of my paperwork is a mystery.  My personal file must take up a full file drawer by now… God knows where they put all this paper, or exactly why they need it, but in the universal dismissal we have all learned, “This is Thailand”.

It’s necessary for damn near every piece of paper we deliver to them to have my original signature on it, so each time we do anything more complicated than the 90 day report I find myself signing my name 130 times or so.  I have often had to purchase a new ballpoint pen midway through the process because the first one has run out of ink.

The immigration office is always crowded, in part because every transaction brings two people to the building… the foreigner in question, and his Thai agent.  I have seen a few forlorn people wandering around at times without an agent trying to make sense of the forms (writtne in Thai), the multiple counter areas, each with it’s own numbered queueing system, and the mystifying regulatory requirements that seem to vary with the hour of the day and the immigtation official handling the paperwork.

I can’t imagine how those foreigners manage to achieve anything at all. As a general thing, the Immigration officials don’t speak English beyond the bare basics… apparently no one ever thought it would be a useful skill in this environment.

In any event, I was there with my agent.  I signed my name 137 times, handed over my passport and sat down while she took care of business.

The initial part of taking care of business is fairly quick, taking only about ten minutes.  Once the paperwork is handed over the counter, the officer behind the counter gets a good look at the foreigner, comparing his passport photo to the real-life version to make sure that it really is him.

Once this visual sighting has been completed the foreigner can leave.  Taking care of business now mostly involves standing around waiting for the paperwork to be processed and the number to be called.

Agents obviously try to arrange their time so that they can process the paperwork for several clients on a single visit, so it’s not unusual for them to be at the department for several hours, waiting in a series of queues and processing several different passports.

On Friday my agent told me that I could go.  I held out my hand for my passport.

“Oh, no”, she said.  “I won’t get you passport back for another hour or so, and I will need it again next week when I renew your work permit.”

Well that wasn’t gonna work.  I had to go to the bank and pick up a replacement ATM card, and that wasn’t gonna happen without my passport.

So, I was in for an hour-long wait.  I settled in as comfortably as I could on a hard plastic seat.

But it turned out to be a worthwhile wait, because I learned something.

I mentioned above that I am required to report to immigration every 90 days, and that this can be handled by my agent without the need for me to show my face.

Each time you do your 90 day report, the Immigration Officer stamps a piece of paper with a date 90 days hence and staples it inside your passport with the date stamp showing prominently, but all the other infro (name, adress, etc) out of view .

You have to make your next report no later than the date stamped on that piece of paper.

If you fail to make a timely report then the department levies a fine that can be as much as 5,000 baht.   This is not for overstaying your visa… just for forgetting an administrative detail like saying that I haven’t left the country and nothing has changed since three months ago when I told you the same thing.

Well, it seems that the guy sitting on the hard plastic chair beside me was in a similar situation to me… one year visa with 90 day reporting.  The problem was that about 7 months ago he had missed his 90 day report.

Now, the answer to that seems simple to me… go report a couple days late.
But simple often doesn’t work in Thailand.  His agent had said that if he reported late he would have to pay the large fine.

Instead, his agent suggested that he simply wait until he left the country.  The agent told him that the border police aren’t particularly interested in checking 90 day reports… they have other responsibilities … and they were very unlikely to spot the late report or levy a fine.

Okay.

The problem was that this guy hadn’t left the country, and now it was time to renew his visa, and his 90 day report was about 7 months past due.

Problem.

But “This is Thailand”.

His agent came over and asked him for his passport, which the guy handed over.  The agent turned to the page with the 90 day report paper stapled in it and removed it.  He folded it neatly and put it in his briefcase.

He then extracted a fresh report paper with a recent stamp on it, which he stapled back in place.  He told the guy to hold onto the passport, and he’d be back soon.

The guy had been talking to me, so we were both interested in this curious procedure.  He looked at the 90 day report that had been stapled into his passport.  It was genuine, but it had someone else’s name on it.

The Immigration official doesn’t check the details to make sure they match… but simply looks for the date stamp to be sure it isn’t past due.  I was waiting long enough to see that the ruse worked.  The guy got his new visa without incident, and got his passport back with the incorrect paperwork still stapled in place.  Presumeably it will stay there until it is replaced by his ninety day report sometime in April, and then everything will be okay again.

A typical Thai practical solution to a sticky problem.

Where did the spare paper come from?  I don’t know.  My best guess is that another client of the agent left Thailand for the Christmas holidays shortly after making his 90 day report.  Knowing that he wouldn’t need it to exit and re-enter the country (an even that re-sets the 90 day counter) I imagine that the agent simply took it out of the passport without ever mentioning it to the guy it belonged to.

My own visa was processed about 15 minutes later, and I was able to go to the bank to replace my ATM card.

Welcome to Amazing Thailand!