Extending my visa in Chiang Mai

Entering Thailand on a visa exemption is really convenient.

If you are lucky enough to be on this list it means that you don’t need to apply for a visa before travelling, you are simply stamped at immigration and allowed in for a set amount of time, 30 days if you enter through one of the approved airports or 15 days if you enter overland. Just check your passport to see what day you are required to exit the country and then enjoy your trip. Entering via Chiang Mai International Airport I had 30 days.

However, if you want to stay longer than that initial period then you will need to extend your visa and that means a trip to an immigration office.

I am currently in exactly that situation so this is my experience of obtaining that extension and the advice I can give as a result. All of this information applies the same if you have come in on a proper visa and want to extend it.

The immigration office in Chiang Mai dealing with extensions, 90 day reporting and retirement visas used to be near the airport but has been moved and is now at The Promenada Resort Mall, a shopping centre on the other side of the river from the Old Town. It’s easy enough to find on Google Maps and I imagine that any tuktuk driver would be able to find it but, me being me, I walked there. It’s a bit of a hike and involved crossing a railway line and a busy highway but a pleasant walk nonetheless.

I was only in need of a 5 day extension but ended up applying for 30 days. Unlike Laos you can’t pay for just the time you need so it was going to be 30 days or nothing. Having done a lot of reading online to sort out speculation from fact in regard to what to expect I was still unsure if I could actually get a 30 day extension, some sites had said that extending a visa exemption was only possible for 7 days. I can say with some certainty, and the stamp in my passport, that 30 days is indeed possible. But I’m getting ahead in my story.

I knew that the immigration office opened at 8.30 and that I would be better off getting there earlier rather than later. I arrived at 9.15 and there was already a large crowd. The office is easy to find when you get to the Promenada. It’s underneath the big red Tom N Toms coffee shop sign. Just look for all the foreigners lined up or standing around waiting.

The first thing you need to do is to get all your paperwork sorted out.

I had already gotten photocopies at my hotel reception desk. I had a copy of the photo page of my passport, another of the stamp immigration put into my passport when I arrived saying when I had to leave by and one of the departure card that immigration card stapled into my passport. I had also signed all three of these copies.

 

At this point you don’t go into the office itself. Set up outside is an information desk that has the form you need to fill in. In my case it was the “Extension of Temporary Stay in The Kingdom Application Form (TM. 7)”. The form is available to download if you want to complete it before you get there but it was easy to just walk up to the desk and grab the correct one. From there I just sat at one of the convenient little tables sprinkled around and started writing. The form is pretty simple and self-explanatory, just make sure that you have the full address of wherever you are staying and a Thai phone number. I put the number of my hotel.

Bring a pen. There are some but there are more people than pens.

The other thing I needed was a passport photo and here is where I made my first mistake. I had a standard size passport photo but you actually need a larger one. The requirement is for a photo that is 4cm by 6cm. Fortunately, right next to the immigration office was another office doing a brisk trade in photos and photocopies.

Joining one queue and you could have the appropriate copies of your passport made. Join the other queue and the woman would take your photo against a blue background and then print your photos. For 200 baht I got 6 photos so I now have 5 spare ones for the future.

I now had my completed immigration form, my 3 photocopies, my photo and 1900 baht, which is the fee. There were three queues and unfortunately I had to join the longest. There was a sign at the head of the queue saying that it was the one for visa extensions but was really easy to spot just by its length.

It was not a very fast moving line. 

Eventually I got to the head of the queue and it was my turn to hand all my paperwork to the young woman manning the desk. This was the same desk that I had grabbed the blank immigration form from and we were still outside the office itself. She did a quick check of the form and my copies. I had noticed a number of people ahead of me who hadn’t signed their photocopies or had not completed the form correctly. Each time she would have to explain and the person would stand there and make the appropriate additions or corrections. This was the main cause of the line being so slow so I can only urge you to double check everything is correct before you get to her. You have plenty of time in the queue so you don’t really have any excuses for not doing it.

The young woman clipped all my paperwork together and took my money. If you need change you won’t get it at this stage so be prepared to just hand it over.

The whole time I had been lining up there had been names being called out over a PA. Someone waiting around outside the office would go in and then emerge a short time later with their passport. Unfortunately for me, and an unknown number of people before me, I was told to come back at 2pm. It was now 11.00 and the office was due to shut for lunch so those of us who hadn’t made the cut-off would be processed in the afternoon.

That gave me 3 hours to kill in one of the less exciting shopping centres in Thailand.

There really isn’t much in the place outside of a number of coffee shops who were now doing good business. I have a feeling that 75% of the customers in the entire centre were waiting for their passports. Bring a book or something.

Time passed and I feel that I must have walked every inch of the Promenada Resort Mall. At 1.30, not wanting to miss my name if it got called, I went back to the immigration office and took a seat just outside. This gave me plenty of time to observe the procedure.

A name and nationality would be called and that person would go up to the prominent information counter inside the office. They would stand in the appropriate spot and have their photo taken, which is despite having handed one in with the application. They would then go back to wherever they were sitting. After about three people had had their photos taken there would be a wait and then those three would be called back to collect their passports.

Eventually my name was called and I went up for my photo shoot. I was told to take my glasses off and then told to look at the camera. Before I even had a chance to say that I couldn’t see the camera without my glasses I was thanked and sent back to my seat. Ten minutes later and my name was called again and I went back to collect my passport. Inside was a bright shiny stamp with my new “when I have to be out of the country” stamp, 30 days from the old date.

I went on a Monday and I can’t say if it was a good day or a bad day to go but there were a couple of hundred tourists wanting to extend their visas. I arrived there at 9.15 am and had my passport in my hand at almost exactly 3.00 pm. If you are planning on doing this yourself I would recommend allowing a full day, just in case. I can’t say what time people may have started lining up in the morning. You may strike a good day and be done in a much shorter time but if you are in a hurry then you may have a problem. And yelling at government officials is never going to help as the American guy who was told to come back the next day found out. 

 

 

Ultimately it is not a difficult process, just time consuming. Just keep these things in mind:

• Bring a pen and a book.
• Turn up early
• Get the correct form from the information desk outside.
• Take the time to fill in the form correctly with your full Thai address and phone number. Ask for the full 30 days regardless, the price is the same.
• Have the correct sized photo.
• Have a copy of the photo page of your passport, the visa stamp in your passport and your departure card. Sign each of those copies.
• Join the “visa extension” line outside the office and hand in your paperwork and 1900 baht.
• Wait for your name to be called to go into the office, first for a photo and then to collect your passport.

 

And that’s all there is to it. Good luck.