there are three immigration sites in Chiang Mai. One at promenade mall which does pretty much everything, one at a set of offices about
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a mile from the airport. This is predominantly immigration police although you can do 90 day reports there (allegedly) and the airport which only issues re-entry permits.
3rd option for you would be my recommendation. Come in on a tourist visa, convert to the 90 day then get the one year. You can buy multiple reentry at that point in time. Gives you time to decide if this is for you and save $ for the Visas for all 3 of you.
we are currently on year 5 of the third type of Visa. No running back and forth out of the country. We are American and the process is fairly painless.
interesting. Last time I flew in I landed in Bangkok. I went to the immigration office there and got this WTF are talking about? go away response. Not that rude but they truly did not know what I was talking about. When the number 1 entry point of the country doesn't enforce it I wonder just how valid the "rule" is.
If you land in Chiang Mai you have 24 hours to report your arrival. As far as I know this is the only immigration office with this draconian requirement. I know it makes no sense, just another way to justify their ever increasing cohort of employees.