🌍 Thailand Visa Journey Update: The Final Chapter Approaches 🌍
Not that anybody asked, but the visa process in Thailand is often known to be confusing, convoluted, and most important of all, discretionary. So, I thought I'd share my recent experience of visa cancellation, to record my journey and to shine a light to how it is like for a person who have to cancel their visa after leaving their job!
Do note that this is my anecdotal experience and may not apply to everyone, since the decision of the outcome is often left completely to individual government officials. I'm going to leave a few key points at the recap at the bottom of this article, too.
Continuing my saga from yesterday, where I found out that this time, with this officer, I need to bring them my original work permit and a copy of it. So I went back to HR, got my work permit, made a copy, and off to the Chaengwattana Government Complex! The office advised me to return these documents after my visit to immigration.
I arrived an hour earlier today in hopes to avoid the awkward 1 hour lunch break. However, luck was not on my side and Starting early at 10:30 AM, I was hopeful to avoid the lunchtime rush this time. However, to my horror, I found that there is a queue 5 times as long at the queue ticketing counter!
Despite the long queue, I finally heard my number being called before noon. The officer, the same from yesterday, seemed to recognize me. Handing over the letter, my passport, work permit, and their respective copies, I encountered no further queries. "Wait outside," she instructed, and I returned to the chairs area.
After a while, another officer emerged with a basket of passports, calling out names. Their local accent might not match your familiar pronunciation, so learning the local version of your name version can be essential!
Checking my passport's stamp, I confirmed the date was accurate. The journey's final update will arrive on August 16th when I'm set to fly out. Keep an eye out for a short post, and stay tuned for this visa chapter's conclusion.
Have you navigated a similar visa journey? Was your journey the same? Share your tips and insights below!
Visa Cancellation Journey: Important Key Points
1. Set a departure date: Confirm an intended departure date, it helps if you book a flight ticket out of the Kingdom first.
1. Initial Preparations: Get a visa cancellation letter from HR tailored to your departure date, bring your passport, work permit, and a copy or both documents with ALL the pages inside.
1. Taking an efficient Route: Take the BTS(sky train) to Wat Pra Si Mahathat station to avoid traffic and then a short taxi ride to "Chaengwatta Immigration". Telling the taxi driver "passport" on top of your destination and they usually understand where you need to go, even if they don't speak English.
1. Timely Arrival: Try to reach the immigration before 11 to avoid the awkward lunch break where you'll spend an extra hour there doing nothing. Go straight into the building, into the immigration department, past another information desk, and straight in to for a queue ticket to zone N2 after showing the official your visa cancellation letter. If you happen to run into lunch break, remember to hold onto to your queue ticket!
1. Initiating the Process: Presented the visa cancellation letter, all the document copies and the original, and wait for your name to be called. You don't even need to say a single word at this point.
1. Passport collection: An officer will call out your name in their local accent--learn to recognise your name when spoken by a non-native speaker! Collect BOTH passport and work permits and check if the stamped date for departure is indeed correct before you leave.
1. Share your experience: The more people sharing, the more light we can shine on this mysterious procedure that seems to differ so much from agent to agent!
