The new Koh Phangan Immigration Office opened today!
But it seems, for limited services only:
- extensions of short-term visas incl. 60-day covid extensions, but apparently not for long-term visas incl. ED visas, Smart visas (I heard about both cases) and I guess not for Non-O, Non-OA and Business visas neither (no confirmation yet)
- 90-day address reporting, but a completed TM47 is required (available there), not just the passport like in Koh Samui
- notification of residence (I guess that's address changes, but not sure)
Also, they seem to enforce the "dress politely" rule a bit more than in Koh Samui Immigration, which basically means no tank tops (showing shoulders) and no shorts. I heard of one lady who was sent home to dress up, but I also saw others in tank tops and very short shorts there.
There is a photocopy service on-site, but no option to take passport photos. Different TM forms are freely available and can be taken from drawers.
There is a strange confusion that people who went there for 60-day covid extensions were apparently told that they would need to do 90-day address reportings as well (everyone knows that it doesn't make sense, no need to point it out any further), the first time in person with a TM47 form and from then on possible to do online. I guess it comes back to "things in Thailand don't need to make sense, every Immigration Office invents their own rules". 😆
All in all, good to have this office open now, but not that useful for everyone. I fear that I still need to do Koh Samui trips for my own Non-O retirement extensions in the future. Oh boy... ⛴️
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