There was a packed PCEC audience on July 24 to hear and discuss a host of expat subjects. Duncan Foster, company director of MOT’S services on Soi Khaotalo, explained that foreigners attending the immigration bureau have to expect a lot of officer discretion these days. “The immigration bureau nationally issues broad instructions, but each local office uses its discretion about the precise paperwork required,” he pointed out.
Duncan, who has 36 years of experience in customer service in UK and Thailand, said it was important to recognize that local immigration offices were in some senses “franchises”, responsible to the government for fee collection and monitoring of foreign visitors. MOT’S has been in business since 2010 and offers a full range of visa services which, he said, are the cheapest and most hospitable in East Pattaya or Dark Side.
He also updated the meeting with changing regulations for Thai driving licences. When applying for or renewing a driving licence, applicants must now have a valid visa for at least 15 days beyond the appointment date. Duncan then warned about a common boiler-room scam on the internet which offered to provide driving licences without the applicant needing to appear in-person at the land transportation department.
The second speaker, Barry Kenyon, brought the meeting up to date with the latest immigration news about 60 days visa-exempt entries and the Destination Thailand Visa. He said they were proving controversial from a security viewpoint as prior-entry vetting had been largely abandoned, whilst expats wondered if their bureaucratic annual extensions of stay and expensive Elite visas were worth the money. “I doubt we have heard the last of updates to the new initiatives,” Barry said.
The audience asked both speakers a variety of questions on their subject matter. These covered the ins and outs of international driving licenses, door to door services for immigration customers, problems relating to the 90 days and TM30 address forms and the different responsibilities of the foreign affairs ministry and the immigration bureau.
