The immigration offices are in a rather old building. What is very striking when entering the premises, is that there apparently are no security checks. One walks straight into the building which is invariable crowded with a few hundred foreign visitors.
In front of the entrance, there is a reception desk, where staff distributes the necessary forms to fill out, gives information, and
queue
numbers.
Left of the only entrance is the area where most short-term visas are dealt with. Tourist visas, extensions of tourist visas, exit-reentry visas, and 90-days reporting are handled here. It is a wide open area with seating for about 200 people, where the staff is located along three walls, a glass partition separating them from the crowd. In our experience waiting times here are usually less than 90 minutes. Sometimes (like when going for 90-days reporting) things are all done within a few minutes.
An larger area is right in front of the entrance. Here long-term visas seem to be handled. These include all kinds of non-immigrant visas : married couples, business visas, retirement visas etc.
Immigration staff is sitting behind desks in front of a waiting area, where about 200 people can be seated. There is no physical separation between the waiting area and the area where immigration staff is working.
Over the last few years, we noticed that waiting times before being serviced, have substantially increased. It seems that on average you will have to wait for about 3 hours. Especially married couples (farang with his Thai wife) take a lot of time. Apparently they need various photographs, maps where they live, and seem to undergo some questioning by immigration officials. Sometimes one application for a visa extension seems to take no less than 30 minutes.
Office hours are till 4.30 P.M. We noticed that after that time, things are speeding up a bit inside (when we were there last time, there were still about 30-40 people waiting their turn). If you can plan it, entering immigration just before closing time, may be the best strategy if you want to loose as little time as possible (and never come on a monday or after a public holiday).
Usually, once we submit our application, there are no significant problems. Of course, there is always some extra paper to copy, and last time we visited we needed to rush outside to take a new 'passport' picture. Female immigration officers are usually interacting with the visa applicants. In the old days, there were more male immigration officers handling this duty. Most of them were rather 'confrontational'. Females in our opinion are much better providing this service, and even when demanding, they do not get hormones and frustation raging.
Waiting around at immigration, we noticed that there are a number of Indian and African persons walking about the place, in between the desks, interacting with immigration officials, and rather behaving like they own the place. Most likely, they are intermediaries of some sort, who visit the immigration offices on a daily basis, and are quite familiar with the staff working there. Anyway, we find it rather awkward that such walking about unimpeded is allowed.
We personally feel there is a security issue at immigration. There are hundreds of foreign visitors, no security checks at the entrance, and people seem to walk freely all around the place.
In summary, when visiting immigration, be patient, get your papers in order, take a bottle of water with you, and maybe something to read while waiting.
Related : 90 days reporting when staying in Thailand with a long term visa | New Visa Rules | About Thai Visas
