Chapter 5 - Government offices


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The next morning I found myself sitting next to Miss Kob in a Tuk Tuk, one of those crackling motor-tricycles, going to the immigration office in soi Suan Plu. There we had to apply for my one year visa. The immigration office is a very scary place as it also houses the immigration detention center - a terrible and awesome place where all people who overstay their visa are put into detention. To get out of there once you are in is said to be even more complicated than to get a one year visa! So there we were, Miss Kob had a thick pile of papers with her, application forms, tax forms and tons of other forms. After waiting for hours one of the immigration officers gave us an audience. Miss Kob told me not to say anything but let her do all the talking - easy, as the officer did not speak any English. Miss Kob and the officer went on forever. It was clear to me that he wanted "tea money" and she (or better Victor) did not want to play this game. After about one hour the officer finally grabbed the stack of paper. But instead of reading it, he took a gimlet which he used to drill a hole into the upper left corner of the 5 cm thick stack, attached a red cardboard triangle to the corner and ran a pipe cleaner through the hole. Then he twisted the pipe cleaner to make sure the paper stuck together, and then with elegance, threw the stack over his shoulder onto a huge pile of application forms, all of which were marked with the red cardboard triangle. Then the officer took my passport and stamped the infamous "under consideration" words onto it. That meant we had to come back in one month and to go through the same procedure again.

Now Miss Kob and I had to pay the labour department a visit. Amazingly this one went through very smooth and I remember getting my work permit in July 1993, months before the immigration department made up their mind to give me a one year visa.

So what do all the foreigners who stay in Thailand forever do without having a job which would give them the chance for a long term visa? Easy, they leave the country every three months, usually to Malaysia or Cambodia. There, at the border they get a new Thai visa and come back. I have heard that meanwhile there are even organised visa renewal tours. You board a mini van, get driven across the border, get a new three months visa and come back, all in one day. Just remember one thing, never give your passport to a third person, it might get stolen, copied or whatever.

I got my correct one year visa after "only" three "one month consideration" runs, and of course it was actually valid only nine month.

The bureaucracy in Thailand is even worse than in Germany, and that is quite something! The Thais even take their bureaucracy abroad. Can you imagine that my wife has to actually fly to Thailand to get her ID-Card renewed? This can not be done in the Thai embassy in Berlin or the Consulate in Frankfurt. "Well" you might think, "then stick with the Passport". The good news is that the Passport can indeed be extended at the Embassy... the bad new is that you need a valid Thai ID-Card to do that - another vicious circle!


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