🥴🥴🥴 Update: just went to Udon immigration, I was like the first farang in the door today, applying (again) for 30 day COVID extension with a U.S. Embassy letter. This time they immediately accepted (the same man as last time, who immediately rejected them) my documents, e.g. the email version of the Embassy letter. They handed back my "hand drawn map", they didn't want it.
Note: there is a new chubby hiso lady there, who seems to be watching the office, I'm guessing sent by BKK. The grumpy gay dude who rejected my papers last time went straight over to her with my docs this time and she nodded or something, so she seems to be like QA or some sort of BKK comptroller.
Here's where things became nutty. I waited for around 45 minutes while I guess they worked through their queue of like only a few other people in front of me. Then one of the senior uniformed officers (only a few in Udon) called me up and for literally another hour or so, went through all my documents very very carefully and had me sign like 2 dozen times on things. In his defense, he was rather nice, and maybe was paranoid as fuck about BKK reviewing his work... but jeez, I have never taken more than 5 or 10 minutes in TOTAL at the Udon office over past years.
Anyway, every single person there, whether farang or Laos or otherwise ended up having a massive stack of documents in their file by the time they walked away today. It was insane, the most paperwork I've ever seen for Thai police/immigration.
Finally, the nice officer stamped something in my passport and mumbled something about September 29, and the gay dude came over and said "MONEY." I saw on the bill and remember from past times it was 1900 baht, but he took my 2000 baht and said "FINISHED, GO" and stole my change.
I stood up to leave, and looked at the stamp in my passport and it says "your application is under consideration, contact this office again on the 29th of September." I was like umm what, 2 hours later and 2000 baht and I don't have any stamp? I saw the Boss man standing outside the door and politely asked him what it meant, if I was going to be receiving an extension or not, and how many days... he opened the door again, and literally physically shoved me back inside the office and shouted "ASK THERE".
The gay dude seemed to realize, and seemed the hiso BKK lady was watching so he politely said "sir, what is your question?" and I asked him for clarity. He got upset and said "I DON"T KNOW, I MUST SEND TO MY BOSS".
So yeah idk, I've seen a lot of strange things before but this is by far the weirdest shit I've seen in such an office. When I walked back outside to leave the Boss man was huffing and puffing walking in circles like he was losing his marbles.
I'm guessing like others have surmised in this group, the COVID thing has brought together a bunch of drama at the same time, with BKK trying to crack down on fraud/etc and keeping their eye on remote Immigration offices more than ever, increased hostility to farangs across the board, cashflow drying up to remote offices and also to BKK, and just a weird mix of everything in between but yah... not a fun experience.
Anyway, I'm 2000 baht poorer today, and I got a maybe 3-day extension until 29 September, at which point they might tell me I've illegally overstayed and/or my application was rejected and to leave Thailand immediately, I have no idea.
/end
TLDR : Answer Summary
An expat in Udon Thani shares their recent experience applying for a 30-day COVID extension. Initially confronted with scrutiny and rejection, they returned with proper documentation, including an email from the U.S. Embassy. This time, the immigration officer accepted their documents after an extensive review, although they left with an "application under consideration" stamp and uncertainty about the final outcome. The process was described as unusually bureaucratic, involving a new supervisor from Bangkok and insufficient clarity about the extension timeline. Fellow commenters provided insights, noting that many expats with similar applications received the same 'under consideration' stamp, hinting at a more cautious and stringent approach at immigration offices, likely influenced by recent policies and pressure from Bangkok.
