We have just returned from outside Thailand directly into Chiang Mai Airport. Just a note of info about our immigration experience. We were lucky to be at the front of the queue and only 4 back from the IM Officer. It was obvious that he was having a few issues with some ASEAN visitors. Two lots were sent away by a flick of the wrist emphasised by the Officer leaving the box to point to where the forms are. Now slightly flushed and flustered he called us forward with me handing my docs to him first with a simple greeting in Thai.
Standing back on the marks I could not see what he was doing but he stamped my passport, wrote something (date) and slammed the passport down at the exit of his cube. I picked it up and followed advise from this group, I stood there to check the date. He tried to shoo me away and took my wife’s passport to check. He stamped it and was giving it back to her but only then noticed the retirement visa in hers. He then set about changing the stamp to suit the correct date, took mine back to change too. He was most apologetic to us and I cracked a little joke in English that made him smile. All the time he was almost swearing about these ‘other nationalities’ not conforming to requirements. As he wrote the date in the passports he said them out aloud and checked with me before thanking us and wishing us a great time in Thailand. Then we noticed my wife’s TM6 was still on his desk! A quick staple and we were off to collect our luggage. Just think how many times this could have (did) go wrong for us. He was having a rough day and we have zero bad feelings towards this guy.
Now the good bit...took the passports, TM6s and the TM30 stub to CM Promenada and spent a whole 4 minutes getting it updated!
Glad to be back.
