Corruptions at Immigration? or What?

Post by **bumper** » April 28, 2015, 5:49 pm

papaguido wrote:
fdimike wrote:Hopefully most of that will all go away and the sooner the better. I've never paid anyone anything under the table to do anything for me and that includes immigration. There is no need to pay anyone "tea money", "under the table money" or any other illegal payment especially government workers. All you have to do is insist they do their job correctly. Whe it came time for my annual extension of stay and they told me to come back in 30 days I simply said ok and returned in 25 days to pick up my passport with all the proper stamps. I just don't find the rules here all that difficult to comply with legally.
Well stated =D>

If none of us pay they will double their workload every 30 days.

Like most things this will more then likely will just fade away

Post by **RLTrader** » April 28, 2015, 7:56 pm

fdimike wrote:Bandung
Not really inside the city but just north of the ring road in Nong Sam Rong.
I do not disagree with anything you're saying. However, my Thai American wife (also on a retiree visa) and I have always stood our ground with the IO people and have never paid anything under the table to them. When they insisted we needed a Certificate of Residence to obtain an International Driving Permit despite both of us having 5 year licenses and living in the same house for nearly 10 years and ALWAYS doing our 90 day report on time we said ok. When they demanded payment without a receipt we refused and demanded to speak with the supervisor who then admitted the money was to help buy the student volunteers lunch!! I almost fell off my chair laughing and refused to pay them anything. He then shifted tactics and said it would take a couple of days to visit us at our house. Our reply was ok that's just fine and we got up and left. 2 or 3 days later they arrived at our home to verify that we actually lived there offering lots of apologies for the inconvenience. I picked up the certificate the following day without any additional problems.

I still maintain it's not difficult to comply with their rules although it may be a little inconvenient at times. Then again I'm retired and have nothing but time on my hands other than when I'm cycling. Coming back to pick up the extension of stay is just not a big problem as far as I'm concerned.

Hmm, someday when your timing is off, Mike, you just might have to postpone a trip. Just saying. Already have said what I think in other links.

That Whole Office needs to be fired, if not put in jail!

Post by **fdimike** » April 28, 2015, 8:32 pm

RL

I don't disagree with anything you're saying. I don't think there's any reason to have to put up with corruption in any form. However, it's up to us to resist it at every step. Refuse to pay them money for a free service especially when no receipt is available. Tipping is for restaurant workers and other service type labor IMO, not government workers. Simple retorical question. Would anyone on this forum tip a government worker in your home country to issue you a driver's license? Then why do it here when you can get your driver's license or whatever in accordance with the law without paying someone money under the table?
I'm sure some will disagree and that's just fine especially if you like supporting these folks. I for one will not.

Post by **Barney** » April 28, 2015, 8:48 pm

Could it all be resolved if they just has a cashier cubicle where a receipt could be issued on exit?
Or am I being to simple?

Post by **RLTrader** » April 28, 2015, 8:55 pm

fdimike wrote:RL

I don't disagree with anything you're saying. I don't think there's any reason to have to put up with corruption in any form. However, it's up to us to resist it at every step. Refuse to pay them money for a free service especially when no receipt is available. Tipping is for restaurant workers and other service type labor IMO, not government workers. Simple retorical question. Would anyone on this forum tip a government worker in your home country to issue you a driver's license? Then why do it here when you can get your driver's license or whatever in accordance with the law without paying someone money under the table?
I'm sure some will disagree and that's just fine especially if you like supporting these folks. I for one will not.

Well when you put it that way, you know I have to agree. The way you put it in other post seemed a little weak.

Hope everyone saw the link for email to American embassy in other post and use it to make a comment. Should not matter where you are from. Just maybe they can get someone to look into Udon Immigration and get things corrected.

From the other link

This latest posting from me is about a scam on yearly renewal from this office. One posting above in addition to mine and 2 of my neighbors also scammed on this. The US Embassy would like to hear from all who have been taken by this office with details of the date and time and name of the individual or a description. acsbkk@state.gov

Post by **fdimike** » April 28, 2015, 9:07 pm

I hope those who have been victimized by this office will take the US Embassy up on their offer. I suspect you do not have to be American to participate.

Thanks RL for pointing this out.

Post by **Khun Paul** » April 28, 2015, 10:58 pm

I was 5 days before flying to the UK subject to the one month wait for a renewal of my retirement Visa as stopping work meant that the 'B' visa I was using ended the 31st of March so I had a predicament which unfortunately at that time only money could solve not wishing to cancel flights etc:-.
It was a situation I intend to address upon my return, as having paid to get to where I was going the fact that after 12 years the excuse to verify my letters and income and the fact the Inspector had to write a report on every applicant failed to convince me as to the justification of the extra demanded but I was in a catch 22, wait and lose flights etc and over 70 k, or pay a meagre amount and have my holiday. Had I NOT been going away I would have waited.

Post by **wazza** » April 29, 2015, 1:53 am

KP, report it on the links given in earlier posts...

Post by **Khun Paul** » April 29, 2015, 2:05 pm

Noted I am going with a fairly influential Thai friend as well shake them up a little.

Post by **Hoopoe** » April 29, 2015, 2:54 pm

fdimike wrote:I hope those who have been victimized by this office will take the US Embassy up on their offer. I suspect you do not have to be American to participate.

Thanks RL for pointing this out.

if the offer is true, we should find out soon enough ,(maybe ,maybe not ) ive just sent a message through with evidence of the corruption at udon ( complete evidence hmmm, not sure . dont have receipts , )pictures, photo copies,passport pages etc of the nonsense these people are putting us through ,also i'm tired of listening to people who say they have never had a problem with immigration , when i remind them ( this is a few people) of when they paid 20000bht, 10000bht ( no this is not mistyped) and the rest in the region of 1000=2000 bht ,to get their visa's sorted , come on guy's corruption is corruption you can not have it both ways, it's ok when suits but nonsense when it dose'nt!!!!

Post by **Hoopoe** » April 30, 2015, 6:07 pm

just had my American friend in ,he renewed his passport , went to Extortion office to get his marriage visa transfered into new passport, they transfered it ( with the free 500bht service charge )but they changed his expiry date on visa ,to the expiry date of his old passport, saying he would have to come 6 months early to renew his extension of stay(based on marriage Visa ) he questioned why he had payed full price for 12month visa and in effect only got 6 months ,
I saw a link similar to this but cant find it , i have also written to Bkk Immigration asking them to verify this ,as the web site i used only mentions lost or stolen replacement passports ,

Post by **merchant seaman** » April 30, 2015, 6:17 pm

How did he get a one year marriage visa on a passport that only had 6 months before expiring?

Post by **pal52** » April 30, 2015, 6:49 pm

merchant seaman wrote:How did he get a one year marriage visa on a passport that only had 6 months before expiring?

Read the post & think about it.

Post by **jackspratt** » April 30, 2015, 6:51 pm

merchant seaman wrote:How did he get a one year marriage visa on a passport that only had 6 months before expiring?

He didn't.

Post by **tamada** » April 30, 2015, 7:00 pm

All Immigration offices will grant a 1-year extension if the passport has greater than 1-year validity. If a passport has less than 12 months validity, the extension is dated to expire the same time as the passport. The price isn't prorated.

Post by **merchant seaman** » April 30, 2015, 7:02 pm

He renewed his passport which was due to expire but the marriage visa in his old passport could not be for longer then the passport was good for. The Visa would have to expire the same time as the passport or sooner. What am I missing here? If your passport is due to expire in less then 6 months they won't issue you a visa or even let you into the country with 30 days on arrival.

Post by **pal52** » April 30, 2015, 7:26 pm

Hoopoe wrote:just had my American friend in ,he renewed his passport , went to Extortion office to get his marriage visa transfered into new passport, they transfered it ( with the free 500bht service charge )but they changed his expiry date on visa ,to the expiry date of his old passport, saying he would have to come 6 months early to renew his extension of stay(based on marriage Visa ) he questioned why he had payed full price for 12month visa and in effect only got 6 months ,
I saw a link similar to this but cant find it , i have also written to Bkk Immigration asking them to verify this ,as the web site i used only mentions lost or stolen replacement passports ,

He applied for his visa extension 6 months before his passport expired.

Post by **RLTrader** » April 30, 2015, 7:33 pm

merchant seaman wrote:He renewed his passport which was due to expire but the marriage visa in his old passport could not be for longer then the passport was good for. The Visa would have to expire the same time as the passport or sooner. What am I missing here? If your passport is due to expire in less then 6 months they won't issue you a visa or even let you into the country with 30 days on arrival.

Just pure 'B U L L S H I T' merchant seaman! Next time you go just ask instead of posting something you know nothing about.

The problem is that they (Udon) will not tell you that when it expires and you have the new passport, you will need to re-apply for a new VISA.

In short if you don't have a year left on your passport, what is left is what you pay 1,900 baht for, and then start the year again. Mine now ends in January, which I kinda like, compared to September.

You are correct about the 'let you into the country' part but thats the airline Not letting you board and has nothing to do with Thai Immigration.

Post by **Jello** » April 30, 2015, 8:07 pm

RLTrader wrote: The problem is that they (Udon) will not tell you that when it expires and you have the new passport, you will need to re-apply for a new VISA.

In short if you don't have a year left on your passport, what is left is what you pay 1,900 baht for, and then start the year again. Mine now ends in January, which I kinda like, compared to September.

Well that's a good bit of info to know. What exactly do they put in your new passport when they transfer your visa extension? Just a new extension stamp?

I'll be running into the same problem as my passport will expire 6 months after my next visa extension.
I'm wondering, if I get a new passport early (on the same month that I apply for my visa extension) then I should be able to avoid the above problem and the transfer fee?

Post by **RLTrader** » April 30, 2015, 8:26 pm

Jello wrote:
RLTrader wrote: The problem is that they (Udon) will not tell you that when it expires and you have the new passport, you will need to re-apply for a new VISA.

In short if you don't have a year left on your passport, what is left is what you pay 1,900 baht for, and then start the year again. Mine now ends in January, which I kinda like, compared to September.
Well that's a good bit of info to know. What exactly do they put in your new passport when they transfer your visa extension? Just a new extension stamp?

I'll be running into the same problem as my passport will expire 6 months after my next visa extension.
I'm wondering, if I get a new passport early (on the same month that I apply for my visa extension) then I should be able to avoid the above problem and the transfer fee?

What they do is the normal transfer of info to the new passport, so no problem. You have no problem renewing as long as you want to pay for 6 months and THIS applies to UDON ONLY for they have their own little racket. If I knew what I know today, think I would have gotton a new passport in KK as US embassy said I should, but no I listened to UDON Immigration instead, who have said for a year there is "No Problem"!