Richsilver wrote:

I'm surprised nobody has talked about Pattaya here.....

From the Original Post...

TrongpaiExpat wrote:

...Many others from all over the world added to the mass of humanity all aimlessly waiting for their number to be called....

Well, that about sums up Pattaya for me!

When I got my retirement visa in 2004 the immigration officer at Suan Plu told me that when I renew it will have to be no less than 30 days before expiry date.
 I do that every year but does anybody know if this rule is still valid at Suan Plu at least ?

I checked in December, they said then no more than 3 weeks before expiry. I think it can vary according to each office.

I have a copy of the new Official 'Extension of Visa' 96 page handbook. I don't find a reference to how early you can show up to renew. Fatman says, 3 weeks and you were told 30 days. I do know that the information counter is good for giving out the wrong information and forms.

I guess if your one day late you lost the visa and have to start over. With the DL office it's just the opposite, you can't renew your DL until it has expired.

This handbook by the way just published is one of the most convoluted books I have ever read. Besides all the Thaienglish there's a table with three headers: Reason of Necessary, Criteria and List of Required Documents. See page 38 for Retirement.

I have been told by a number of reliable sources that you can renew three months before expiry (and still get a full year).  I did my last renewal in Pattaya more than two months early, but not quite three.

Richsilver wrote:

I have been told by a number of reliable sources that you can renew three months before expiry (and still get a full year).  I did my last renewal in Pattaya more than two months early, but not quite three.

Certainly Ihave known people renew several months in advance when they could show air tickets to show that they would be out of the country when the renewal was due.

OK, good, I am glad we cleared that up. You can report:

a)    30 days before expiry

b)     3 weeks before

c)     3 months before

d)      none of the above

TrongpaiExpat wrote:

OK, good, I am glad we cleared that up. You can report:

a)    30 days before expiry

b)     3 weeks before

c)     3 months before

d)      none of the above

Do we vote?

No doiubt another option will appear, as it seems to be up to the office you visit, and the officer you talk to.

There's no such thing as planning. When the time comes ...

As posted elsewhere I lost my passport on my last trip and had to get an emergency passport issued by the Irish consulate in BKK

My immigration card and stamps were lost along with the passport - so Ihad to take my Emergancy passport along with a letter from teh consulate to Immigration in Soi Suan Plu to get the passportreconciled...

On arrival at 2PM i was amazed at the amount of people in teh immigrationoffice and figured i'd be there for hours.

However when i got to my window (window 4 - lost passports) i was pleasantly surprised to find that there was only 1 person ahead of me (coincidentally Irish too!)
I was in and out in 20 minutes, to celebrate the quick exit we jumped in a taxi and went around the corner for a short visit to Babylon!

I'm surprised that nobody posted about how near the immigration office is to Babylon - surely thats a great place to kill time when waiting for them to call ur number!

There is another sauna even closer. But what happens when they call your number, do you run up the road clutching your towel?