It was necessary for me to visit the newly-opened Buriram Immigration Office today and I thought I would share my experience with our readers.
I renewed my retirement visa in Kap Cheung on July 21 so I knew that my 90 days would fall around October 2o. For no real reason, I decided to check the actual date today.
Imagine my horror when the date to check my address etc read October 02 !!! Five days late ! Panic !! When I regained control of my senses, I decided to check when 90 days from July 21 was.
It happened to be October 20 and I immediately realized that Immigration had made a mistake and put down 02 instead of 20.
Feeling relieved that my Brexit-ravaged bank account may not be going to be hit with an over-stay fine, my girlfriend, her small granddaughter and I set off to hopefully sort things out.
The office is on the third floor and it is a huge room with a few desks scattered around it. The two main officers were sat together towards the centre of the room.
There were about 5 “customers” with their spouses , two of whom were being politely dealt with.
A young lady was leaving the office and I explained my predicament . She immediately spoke to one of the officers and he came over to talk to me.
I showed him the 90 day slip from my passport and he agreed an error had been made and gave my passport to the officer in charge.
Without completely stopping what he was doing, he examined my passport ONCE, not the usual mandatory five or six times at Kap Cheung. Within 15 minutes, he called me over and I fully expected him to tell me to come back on the 20th.
Not a bit of it. He told me that this would count as my October 90 days and that I didn’t have to report back until January 4. This is what I had imagined in my own mind should happen but I was not expecting it.
Even my girlfriend remarked that it was not like Kap Cheung, so let’s hope it’s a sign of things to come.The whole atmosphere was very informal, as was the officers’ dress.
Just a note for those visiting the office with small children. As mentioned before, the office is huge and there is plenty of space for children to play. Something that is welcome when some processes can be quite lengthy, through nobody’s fault.