Thailand making visa extensions MORE difficult during Covid-times

I have been a harsh critic of Thai Immigration for a long time: Anyone that reads my stuff knows this. The amount of red tape and rather insane amount of paperwork that is required is just absurd. I have seen this amount of paperwork that needs to be submitted increase over the 15 years that I lived there.

Seeing as how we have a bit of a problem with a tiny little virus that you might have seen in the news, one might think that they would perhaps make some sort of exception to the bureaucracy, even if just for a little while... that would make sense especially considering that it is a bad idea to have a ton of people crowded into any building right now but nooooo. Thai Immigration has created, once again, an absurd amount of paperwork and other hoops that an expat has to jump through in order to get a visa extension for the Kingdom.

source

Immigration announced on April 3rd that in order for people to extend their visas for up to 30 days, the applicant needs to provide an additional 9 documents and also one other thing that is particularly ridiculous.

A Thai Immigration staff member had this to say

“Indeed, we are requiring more documents than usual because there are those who want to exploit the opportunity. We are doing our best to provide the best service, but bearing in mind that national security is our utmost priority.”

The following items are required (in addition to the usual documents which were already extensive)

• certificate from their respective embassies
• a copy of a rental contract
• a document confirming their stay at the accommodation (whatever that means)
• a copy of the landlord’s ID card and house registration
• a map showing the location of their residence

I want you to understand how difficult these items can be to obtain, particularly if you are dealing with a situation where the landlord doesn't speak the same language as the tenant. They also do not want to provide these documents and many land owners don't actually live in the area that their properties are in, which makes the next requirement particularly egregious.

Let's forget the fact that "interrogation" is a terrible choice of word for this document but we'll leave lost in translation mistakes out of this. Here is one problem with item 10 that I have personal experience with.

I used to own 2 guesthouses in Thailand with a total of 20 rooms and a max capacity of around 50 people or so including the dorms which are almost certainly illegal now.

There would not be enough time in the day for me to accompany all of these people to Immigration and wait for HOURS with each person while they got called up for their interrogation. Also, when someone was renting my rooms I didn't have a "rental contract" with the guest, I had a receipt which almost certainly would not be accepted by the Immigration officer who I can guarantee you is looking for any reason to reject the application.

Also the fact that I owned the business that occupied the building but not the building itself introduces another problem - and the owner of my buildings was RARELY in the province at all because he worked and lived primarily in Bangkok.

My arrangement was not rare either: In most small business situations the owner of the building has absolutely nothing to do with what goes on inside of said building. Think of a larger hotel for example: Who owns that? If it was a chain like Holiday Inn the building isn't actually owned by any individual, it is owned by a corporation... who goes to Immigration for the meeting now? The CEO of the company? He / She doesn't own the building either. What do we do there?

The fact that Thai Immigration would introduce completely absurd regulations in a time of crisis sadly, doesn't surprise me at all. Their attachment to paperwork and a seeming love of making people jump through hoops and then bullying you when you don't do it exactly correctly is something that those of us that lived there just got accustomed to over the course of our lives there.

To put it in perspective: In Vietnam (where I live now,) Immigration has suspended all services and has assured everyone trapped or living in the country that there will be no penalties for overstaying their visas during this trying time. I understand that a country needs to control who goes in and out of it and they need to protect their sovereignty - but desperate times like these call for a certain amount of compassion and it doesn't appear as though Thai Immigration has any intention of doing that.

Most of the people that are stuck there desperately want to LEAVE but can't. I can't imagine that there are a great many people looking to take advantage of this virus to have a lucky extended visa and the people who would seek to undermine the "national security" that the Immigration official is so concerned about, wouldn't be worried about complying with visa regulations anyway.