Immigration Hell

[Dodger]

......In the past renewing my one year visa was a breeze.

Rich, by chance did immigration request proof that your income had been taxed in your home country?

Just asking because of remarks made in the latest "Headlines news" posted today.

[richsilver]

If you look through some reviews on Google Maps, you will quickly discover many negative reviews. It does not appear that they censor them.

[Jun]

If you look through some reviews on Google Maps, you will quickly discover many negative reviews. It does not appear that they censor them.

Average review score for Jomtien Immigration = 2.7
Average review score for Blueport Hua Hin Immigration =4.2

As I expected. Having done the same 30 day extension at both, I can also say they are like night and day.
Hua Hin try to do a good job. Jomtien try to drive people to bribe paying agents.

Even the Google reviewers don't seem to have cottoned onto this as the reason for the poor performance. Although, I suppose the Google bot would filter out reviews that mention it.

[Gaybutton]

Even the Google reviewers don't seem to have cottoned onto this as the reason for the poor performance.

Neither do I - because I don't know if that is the reason. It is perhaps a valid guess, but that's what it is - a guess.

My own guess is the reason for poor performance is simply that the numbers of people going to Pattaya immigration has vastly outgrown the facility. Even with the new construction it is still overcrowded and nowhere near enough staff to accommodate all the people. Hiring more staff at the current facility isn't the answer because there's no place to put enough of them to make much of a difference.

It was fine when it first opened, but I can't imagine it was intentionally built too small figuring that eventually people would start using agents when possible rather than personally going. I think it is simply that they did not anticipate the numbers of people.

I believe what they need is to build a whole new facility and hire and train enough staff to efficiently accommodate the hordes of people who go to immigration. I believe sooner or later (I hope sooner) that's what they're going to do. I don't see how they can keep operating from the current facility for very much longer whether people use agents or not. The numbers of people going to immigration won't be getting smaller.

[Jun]

Neither do I - because I don't know if that is the reason. It is perhaps a valid guess, but that's what it is - a guess.

We don't know, but we can carefully examine the evidence to remove most of the doubt.

1 I know visa agent's can achieve things outside the scope of the rules. I once went into a couple of agencies in Pattaya when my 90 days were up to ask about the options. Some of the options were not legal.

2 The agent fees almost certainly include bribes. How else do they get a visa or extension that isn't legal ? In a country known for corruption. You tell me what the other explanations would be.

3 The moment immigration are taking bribes to issue approvals, the corrupt immigration offices have an incentive to drive even more customers to the agencies who pay the bribes.

Being a big fan of the recently deceased Charlie Munger, I'm always ready to look at how incentives shape behaviour.

“Never, ever, think about something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives.” — Charlie Munger

"Well, I think I’ve been in the top 5% of my age cohort all my life in understanding the power of incentives, and all my life I’ve underestimated it. And never a year passes but I get some surprise that pushes my limit a little farther." -Charlie Munger

If you're ruling out corruption, how else would you explain how Jomtien immigration are so backward and difficult compared with Hua Hin immigration ?

My own guess is the reason for poor performance is simply that the numbers of people going to Pattaya immigration has vastly outgrown the facility.

You're very trusting of these people.

I believe what they need is to build a whole new facility and hire and train enough staff to efficiently accommodate the hordes of people who go to immigration.

That's the exact opposite of that they should do.
My recommendation is that they shift all of the processes on line and fire 95% of the immigration staff.
Once it's on line, how can they collect the bribes ?
You have a standardised national process and therefore can't have Jomtien immigration deliberately making it more complicated than less corrupt offices.
They also can't add a box at the bottom of the website for "Click here to pay your bribe". That's far too obvious.

So fire the lot of them & automate their useless jobs.

[Gaybutton]

They can't add a box at the bottom of the website for "Click here to pay your bribe". That's far too obvious.

I'm not going to get into a continuing debate about bribes. I think you've already made your opinion quite clear and so have I.

But I am going to agree with you that most, if not all, of what currently necessitates physical visits to immigration can and should be available online, as is the 90-day address report.