This is what you need for documentation:

The full-service office (including Extend Marriage-Thai Spouse) is the Phuket Town Immigration Office, Room 103, enter from outside on the ground floor just past the drive-through window. There are fixed chairs outside for waiting and usually an immigration officer is stationed outside to check you have all the necessary paperwork.

The Patong Immigration Office is mostly for servicing short-term visitors (tourists) and while they do 90-day reports and certificates of residence, they do not do long-term extensions and in general they do not like to see holders of long-term extensions. I highly recommend the Phuket Town Immigration office, which in this case is the only one you can use. There is also a satellite office in Blue Tree for the north of the island but it is also only able to handle short-term visitors not someone looking for a long-term extension.

@Cameron *********

I think you'll find that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs isn't the most knowledgeable about immigration matters administered by the Royal Thai Police Immigration Bureau within Thailand. Also, that the Royal Thai Police Immigration Bureau isn't the most knowledgeable about visas that are offered for purchase by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs outside Thailand. If it's a visa matter outside of Thailand the MFA will have good information. If it's an immigration matter inside of Thailand the Immigration Bureau will have good information. For immigration matters specific to Phuket the Phuket Immigration Volunteers site will have very good information.

@Benedict *********

Exactly, the "danger" of being a close contact of a new arrival is tied directly to them being a new arrival and thereby subject to mandatory tests. A person who is not a new arrival is not subject to mandatory testing and therefore you are less likely to be identified as a close contact of someone testing positive, simply because they are less likely to be tested. You can only be a close contact of someone who is tested.

@Ellie ******

I think they may use Bangkok Bank's telegraphic transfer buying rate which as you say is not as favorable to the non-baht currency.

@Frédéric ****************

I believe he is correct about being able to use the current passport with a still valid Thai visa in the old passport. Not only can you come back into Thailand with a re-entry permit in your old passport that is the only way as they do not transfer re-entry permits from an old to a new passport.

You can. Passport validity of 6 months from the date of entry is recommended for Thailand. (If it were mandatory I think they would say that.)

After entering Thailand I would apply for a passport by mail via the US Embassy Bangkok. I just received my new US passport by mail this past week, about two weeks after I applied. All is done by mail. A very efficient process. You basically get expedited service in Thailand for free and you are not charged an execution fee (acceptance fee) of $35 as you would in the US. You do have to pay postage. About 40 baht for mailing your passport application to US Embassy Bangkok and 100 baht to receive the passport back using Thai Post EMS.

Just a recommendation: you might want to get your passport photo taken in the US. You can certainly have it done in Thailand but you need to make sure they do it in the proper format for a US passport and not the usual size for Thai immigration. They are not the same.

@Monti *******

Agree that from the standpoint of the customer this seems incredibly petty, but if you are an immigration officer you spend your workday looking to see if things are signed and the easiest way to do that is to look for the blue ink on a form printed in black ink.

Similar situation with passport copies. They want passport copies made in the portrait orientation so that they are readable in that orientation. What's the big deal? If it's not readable in one direction just rotate it 90 degrees and now it's readable. Again, easy enough for us to do because we only see our documentation, but if you spent your entire day at a desk looking at passport copies you would want them to be done in a way that makes it easier to do your job. Even something so simple as not having to rotate pages.

A lot of the seemingly petty requirements have a practical basis in making their jobs easier. And of course, we do it that way because they have something we want and we can't take our business elsewhere. ;-)

If they don't allow 45 days, then 30 days is usually the standard.