yes mate it just goes to show when you are trying to do things correctly as you do..their is always sombody wants to put another obstacle in your way in the name of officialdom...but as you said you have got other options and you have been here long enough to understand Thai way of thought
to be honest with you only go to Mae Sai every 90 days and do TM 30 when return even after living at same address for nearly 10 yrs and have been using same immigration office since it opened 4 yrs ago and they are pretty lenient as sometimes have not reported back till well after returning but nowadays i go the next day
Agreed like the OP doing savannakhet i do same so its good to hear if or not there has been any problems or changes which i have been doing last 5 years with same required documentation also its good to hear from guys who have recently done a succesful application to keep us updated....keep it up
my wife and family regulary come with me to Mae Sai and they first go to Immigration place in Mae Sai with there I c cards get a piece of paper and then go to border we do it all the time