IMM-Q

[Gaybutton]

Chonburi Immigration launches queuing app

By Boonlua Chatree

June 29, 2018

The Chonburi Immigration Office has launched a new smartphone app to cut the time foreigners have to wait in line for service.

Superintendent Pol. Col. Srongprode Sirisuka unveiled the new software June 22. The “Chonburi Immigration on Mobile: Imm-Q” app became available on both the Apple AppStore and Google Play store June 25.

The app has one function: To assign an appointment time to obtain a visa extension or new visa. Once users install the app and register, they simply choose the type of visa/extension they want – Tourist, Education, Marriage, Parent or Retirement – and an appointment time is assigned to bring all completed documents and forms to the Jomtien Beach office.

Notably missing from the types of visas facilities by the app is any sort of business or investment visa.

Srongprode said that since the Jomtien office is busy 99 percent of the time, the app can greatly speed up waiting times for foreigners.

Applicants are strongly advised to start the process 15 days prior to a visa’s expiration. For more information, call 1178 or 038-110-636.

http://www.pattayamail.com/news/chonbur ... app-214032
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I tried it. 5 minutes later I uninstalled it. For me, it is essentially useless, although it does tell you the rules and document requirements for various visas, including the tourist visa and retirement visa. It also allows you to make an appointment to obtain various visas.

I have no use for it, but that doesn't necessarily mean you don't. You might want to install it and have a look. If the app is not useful to you, you can simply uninstall it.

I don't need an appointment. Most of the time when I'm there to renew my retirement visa, I'm either the only one there or maybe 1 or 2 people ahead of me - and it's only once a year.

I thought, since supposedly the purpose of this app is to be able to avoid long queues, it would give real time information about how crowded immigration is. The app does not do that.

I uninstalled it because there is nothing there that I need, nothing I don't already know, and the app requires access to just about everything on your telephone, including photos. Not that I expect anyone at immigration to be interested in looking a my photos, my phone list, or anything else on my phone, but I consider all that an unnecessary invasion of privacy.

[2lz2p]

Hmmm, the article I read last week said it was available only on an android phone - looks like they have an app for the iPhone if you can get it from the Apple store.

If you do your extension during busy season, it might be worth the effort.

I went in last Thursday at 8:24am and recieved queue number 801 (first in line) - they started processing at 8:33am and I was on my way out at 8:36am with a "pick up your passport tomorrow at 10am." There was one other person getting a retirement extension and he was being taken care of by the 2nd Immigration Officer (two IO at the desk with each doing the paperwork review). When I finished, no one new number was called and no one appeared to be waiting.

On Friday, I went to pick up my passport at 10:30am (you can pick up between 10 and 11am and again between 2 and 3pm per the sign at desk 8). Again, no one at the desk for either extension or picking up passport. Picking up the passport took all of a couple minutes - for lady to locate the passport and to take my picture.

A quick and painless process -- it has been just about as quick the past two years - one of those I was #6 in the queue when they started at 8:30am and I was finished a 8:35am (four of the folks ahead of me were sent for additional documents which moved things along quickly that morning).

[thewayhelooks]

I agree with the speedy times. 10 minutes for me last week. It takes longer, 30 mins this year, to get a multiple re-entry visa than the retirement visa. And a good 40 minutes to get my bank statement.

[fountainhall]

I wish they would introduce this at Chaengwattana in Bangkok. When I renewed in February the queues were far longer than I had noticed in previous years. By the time the doors opened there were more than 200 in the queue which snaked and double-backed around one of the long corridors. Not everyone was there for retirement visas but I guess at least one quarter were. Thankfully I use an agent who picks up a processing number for me much earlier than the 8:30 opening time so my appointment took place at a not unreasonable 8:50. But the multiple reentry visa then took almost three hours waiting time. It has never taken more than an hour before.

[Gaybutton]

When I renewed in February the queues were far longer than I had noticed in previous years.

They're not going to solve those problems with smartphone apps. They need to wake up and realize their facilities have drastically outgrown their capacity to handle h numbers.

What they need is new facilities, more facilities, much larger facilities, much more staff, and many more queues for these visas.

That's what they need. Of course the chances of any of it actually happening . . . three guesses.

Personally I would have no objection to them raising the fees to pay for those improvements - that is if the money actually goes to that rather than lining the pockets of some of these higher-ups who think nothing of embezzling.

[fountainhall]

There is so much paperwork involved in a retirement visa renewal, I'd have thought the first thing they should do is cut down on that. Anyone visiting Chaengwattana can see vast bundles of paper absolutely everywhere. What do they do with it all, I wonder? I can understand Immigration requiring a lot of detailed information on the first application and perhaps the first renewal. After that, though, surely they could cut the requirements down to more basic essentials which need not be completed if, say, address, passport and perhaps other details have not changed in the interim.

So far I have taken the Bt. 800,000 route. Why do I need a letter from my bank confirming the balance 48 hours earlier and the fact that the amount has been my account for at least the preceding 90 days AND presentation of my bank savings book updated on the day of application? The savings book alone tells them everything they need to know.

Just one overseas work study expert could surely show them how to computerise more, how to save vast reams of paper and simplify the entire process.

[Gaybutton]

So far I have taken the Bt. 800,000 route.

That is a lot of money to tie up. You live in Bangkok. Why not free up that money and just get a proof-of-income statement from your embassy? That seems much simpler to me, and with a proof-of-income statement you don't need a letter from the bank or an updated passbook. I don't mean to pry into your personal affairs, but I'm curious why you don't do it that way.

As for the IMM-Q app, I wonder why they made the appointment part applicable to only Pattaya immigration. It seems to me they could easily have made it work for all the immigration offices. Maybe that's coming in the near future or the other immigration offices will make their own apps.

I also agree with you about making things simpler for people who are obviously permanently retired in Thailand. I think it would make sense if, say, after 5 consecutive years of retirement visa renewals and no record of any police problems, they offer letting people pay for 5 or 10 years or pay for a permanent retirement visa without having to renew every year.

They have come up with programs like that, but you have to go through so much rigmarole and absurd requirements that it simply is not worth it, at least not worth it to me. I recall in order to be eligible for such a visa you have to have outpatient medical insurance and it has to be from a Thai insurance company. Who came up with that? What's wrong with outpatient insurance from an existing policy you already hold? And even if you get that visa, you still have to renew it every year at immigration. So, I fail to see what the advantage is supposed to be.

Also many of us have been saying for years that they could easily update their address reporting system so that having to go to immigration every 90 days becomes a thing of the past.

Oh well, at least if we're eligible we're allowed to live in Thailand at all.

[fountainhall]

That is a lot of money to tie up. You live in Bangkok. Why not free up that money and just get a proof-of-income statement from your embassy?

The problem for me is that the only cash I receive from the UK is the puny basic State pension. Apart from that all my funds are in Hong Kong and for various reasons I prefer to keep them there. Even if I show the UK Embassy here details of those savings, I doubt if it would be enough to persuade them to issue a letter. And although I am a Hong Kong permanent resident, I am not a citizen of China. So going to that Embassy does not work!