| See Video of Immigration Office in Bangkok at bottom of this page.
Also read this update dd . Januari 2011
Immigration Offices in Bangkok have moved from Suan Phlu to the Northern part of the city.
The new offices now are located at :
Government Center Chaeng Wattana Building B, Nr. 120
Moo 3, ChaengWattana Road Soi 7,
Tung Song Hong Subdistrict
Laksi, Bangkok 10210
The new location is close to the old international airport Don Muang, off the major Chaengwattana Road. We reached it by taking a taxi from the Moo Chit skytrain station. From there is is somewhat more than 10 kilometers by the major Rangsit-Vibvavadi road. Everybody who has been a while in Bangkok will know that road as the one leading to the old airport. Government Center Building B is located amongst a spread out cluster of government buildings, about 1 kilometer from the main road. There is a shuttle bus that seems to drive to most buildings in the large compound and likely to Chaeng Wattana Road itself (we did not try it). All the buildings around seem to be brand new, though the development of this area has not widely been talked about in the Thai media.
Government Center Building B, at Chaeng Wattana Road Soi 7
Building B is really huge rectangular building (there is a building A close to the main Chaeng Wattana road of similar appearance and size). Once inside the building it is revealed that most of the wide space is occupied by an empty central atrium (all roofed), about the size of two soccer fields. All around are various government offices and related services 5-6 floors high. The building inside is rather functional and mostly undecorated. There is still the smell of recent construction, when we entered it first time at the end of November 2009. There are a lot of signs indicating where the immigration offices are located, so just walk and follow them.
The immigration offices themselves are more spacious than at the old location at Suan Phlu. There is an information desk at the entrance, where you are given the appropriate forms to fill out. A little bit further is the location where you can get your 'queue' number.
The building as well as the immigration offices are still a work in progress. During our first visit we just needed to do our '90-days reporting'. There were not yet queue numbers for this service, so we just simply had to wait a modestly long queue line. After delivering our passport and the filled forms, it took just 10 minutes for the process to be completed.
A walk around the immigration area showed that business is not conducted anymore now in a wide open space. Immigration officers are located in separate cubicles. We reckon that after a while, the service will be just a bit more hospitable and convenient than at the old location.
In the basement of the building there are a number of banks, convenience stores, a food court, and a shop where you can have your copies made and passport photos taken. As anybody knows, whatever work you do at home to prepare yourself, it will almost always be necessary to take yet another copy of some of your passport pages or other documents. Walking around at the building it is quite clear that not all offices are yet functional, there is a distinct discrepancy between the size of the building and the number of people walking around, or using the food stalls etc. Even getting there, it is obvious there is not yet a lot of car traffic in the whole government compound.
In conclusion, it is not very difficult to get to the new immigration offices, though it does take more time and money. The old offices at Suan Phlu were more convenient, but likely they had outgrown their purpose. Services itself at the new location will likely be better in the long run than at the old location.
Update after some more visits :
If you go for a visa or extension, you get a queue number that directs you to an individual cubicle and immigration officer. Having your business conducted in a separate cubicle is much more private than in the previous overcrowded rooms at Suan Phlu.
There is a lunch hour between 12:00 AM and 1:00 P.M. and a little observation showed that this is the case for all the cubicles we checked. So do not arrive around that time. The best time to come (as before) is in the later afternoon. The immigration officers have to finish their job before they can go home, so some of them will speed up procedures when the time of leaving is nearby.
One caveat : If you forget something at home, it will be hardly possible to go home and get it, and come back to immigration. The new immigration offices in the middle of nowhere do take some time to reach. Our advice is to come to immigration always one or two days prior to your deadline, just in case there is an unexpected problem that needs solving.
If you come by public transport, we noticed at least one minivan at Moo Chit BTS skytrain station going to the new immigration offices. Surely they just drop you off at the entrance of the road (soi 7, Chaeng Wattana Road). There are lots of minivans from Moo Chit to Paak Kret that pass along Chaeng Wattana road. Likely you can also use these minivans. In any case, expect some more local entrepreneurs to soon start some regular minivan services between the BTS station and the Immigration Offices (and back). It will be cheaper and somewhat safer, since taxi drivers have stretches of road where they can get up to speed, always a bad idea with a risk-taking driver.
Location of Government Center Building B
Note : The photo and map have been borrowed from the Immigration Bureau website.
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