@Ally ***********

'They want the same documentation every year.. ' Why? I've been giving them copies of the same stuff for over 20 years at least 3 times a year. Immigration has cost Thailand a small forest? Have they never heard of Data bases? The answer is YES. I have seen all my entries on a senior officer's computer. If they used the data base it would cost jobs. I watch IOs, bored out of their skulls, playing on their phones, doing nothing to speed up the pointless process of their jobs.

Certain Immigration offices exist to draw income from Visa agencies. Thais are infamous for over-complicating everything so they can wield power over their clients.

If you're 82 on a slow wi-fi connection in Spain, it takes over an hour with many false starts on a tiny phone screen including my Thai phone number. Eventually I made one up so that's how useless & pointless the DTAC is. The DTAC is not sending tourists to Vietnam but they are discovering how easy everything is there. Whilst Thai tourism is languishing, Vietnam's is soaring. People will go back so Thailand loses out this time on the very lucrative ex-pat market. I am an ex-pat & have lived here fulltime for 20+ years. I have never used an agent & always get the Visa I apply for: Schengen/UK so I am familiar with Thai shortcomings. It is exactly the wrong time to introduce TDAC.

I am amazed you got it the same day. Pattaya always makes you come back the next day - it's to make more money on the carpark where the next day you pay another 40 baht & collect your extension in about four minutes.

I would have thought that with a multiple re-entry visa and the annual 'retirement' visa there would be no need for the unnecessary TDAC - the gift that keeps on giving to Vietnam's tourism figures.

At a time when Thailand's economy is going down the plughole, no one in Government has a brain. They should grab every foreigner with both hands to ensure they get his money. What do they do - they insert another obstacle - TDAC to dissuade them from coming here.

It usually takes me 2 minutes; I say the 2 magic words 'guerre Lao (it rhymes with where now and I am shown to the front of the shortest queue. It means 'old already.'

I will be home next weekend. Remind me and I'll search for it

@Steven *****

I'm on holiday so don't have access to my computer where I stored the reply. If I remember I will search it out for you- easy to remember your name.

There's an address you can write to about rude, inefficient staff. I used it as I was ignored for 30 minutes after making an appointment with the manager. I got an impeccable reply - they even wanted a description of the offending staff.