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Published: June 10th 2017
Geo: 12.6475, 101.636
I have been in Laem Mae Phim for over a month now, teaching preschool (they call it Kindergarten) at the Thailand English Academy, a lovely little international school located a block from the beautiful ocean beaches here. It is a stunning area in Thailand, but my story today is not with the school, but with my difficulties getting reasonable visa extensions. This is what my experience has been so far.
On February 16 I re-entered Thailand (from Cambodia, where I had been living and volunteering with AIDS orphans). I had tried to get a 60 day visa for Thailand in Phnom Penh, but, not realizing it takes four days to do that in Cambodia, and flying out the next day, I was told, by a Thai official, that I could simply get a 30 day visa at the Bangkok airport, and then get a 30 day extension after that. Easy.
Armed with this information, I arrived at the BKK airport, and, confronted with a split in the paths leading to VISAS or IMMIGRATION, I asked an official where I should go. She directed me to follow the crowd heading to IMMIGRATION, so I did. After waiting quite awhile in long lines, my passport was stamped until March 16, so I thought I had gotten my 30 day visa. I had followed officials' directions, my passport was stamped with the correct date, and I was gestured through to Customs. Everything went smoothly, so I thought.
On March 16, the day I needed to extend my visa, I went to the Immigration building in Rayong, prepared to pay 1900 baht (about $65) for a 30 day extension. What happened instead was that they told me I could only get a seven day extension, for the same price, 1900 baht, since I had not gotten a visa when I entered Thailand on February 16, that, see, I had used up my 30 days in Thailand and therefore had to leave the country on March 23! I tried to explain I had followed officials' directions at the airport in Bangkok, but no, they explained again, I had used up my 30 days in Thailand and I would have to leave the country in one week, or be fined 500 baht per day, about $17/day for each day I overstayed. I was so upset because I remembered very clearly what I had been told in both Phnom Penh and at the Bangkok airport, and because I had followed the officials' directions perfectly. My passport had been stamped with the correct date; I thought I had done everything correctly, and now I was being told that no, I had not. I tried to explain again that I had followed exactly what I had been told to do by Thai officials! No. I was only given seven days until I had to leave Thailand. Would I like to pay now?
What was I to do? I was teaching full-time at the Kindergarten, but of course no one can tell anyone at Immigration that, as people are not supposed to work without a work permit, even though every foreigner who teaches in Thailand does in their early months of employment. I worked myself into a tension headache, trying to figure out what to do next. The "solution" was to take March 23 off from school and do a visa run to Cambodia, for another 2000 baht (almost $70 this time); lots of people did this, and it would give another 15 day visa extension. Great. Originally I had wanted a 30 day extension; if I got 15 days that would take me to April 7, simply not enough time.
So yesterday I was supposed to be picked up at 7:30AM by a van that would take all of us passengers to Cambodia for a visa run. The van never showed up, but after 8:30AM a pleasant man appeared apologizing for the delay, and indicating that I should squeeze into a little car already filled with four fat Russian men. Did I have a choice? I was crammed into the back seat, where the two very overweight men took up most of the room; the one next to me overlapped me the whole way. At one point his bag was completely on my lap, at which point I pushed it back onto his. He seemed surprised that I did not want to hold his bag for the ride! This car was very uncomfortable, plus no one spoke the whole two plus hours it took until we arrived at the Cambodian border.
Finally released from the discomfort of that little car, it was a relief to get out and stretch our limbs. Parts of me had fallen asleep, being leaned on for over two hours by a very heavyset man, so it was a delight to be able to feel my own body parts again.
We were directed into one line for leaving Thailand; that went well. Then we followed our driver into a covered area where maybe a hundred people were awaiting at Arrivals getting their Cambodian visas. That took awhile, but went well too; my Cambodian visa (this time) was good until April 23. Oh, I wished my Thai visa would say the same date!
Next we were directed into another, longer line, the Arrivals line for Thailand. This line took the longest time; there were a couple overhead fans, but it was hot, and people already looked weary, even though it was still morning. I ended up getting the surliest looking man, who stamped my visa April 6, only a 14 day extension. What was this? I had hoped (one can always hope) for a 30 day extension, at least expected a 15 day extension, but got a 14 day extension. I had heard from many people that officials can do whatever they like in Thailand, and I guess I was either unlucky, or a victim of this jerk's bad mood, or that he simply did not like how I looked, or that I was American.
I showed our driver my visa's date, and told him I had wanted a 30 day extension like the others in our group. One of the Russians helpfully told me that perhaps I should change nationalities. The driver spoke with several people, and finally took me back to the surly immigration official, who told me it was Thai law! I knew this to be untrue, but thought it better not to say this to him. Then I told him he only stamped my visa for 14 days, not 15, and he said, "Where will you stay tonight? Today is day one!" Nothing was going to get through to this blockhead. And he had the power to stamp my visa for 14 days, or 15, or 30, or 7, or even 60 days if he chose. My thoughts towards this person were (and still are) not peaceful. But he wasn't done yet. "If my son goes to America he has to do what your laws say. So you do too in Thailand!" I looked at him, and, trying to keep from either saying something I thought might be regretted, or breaking down in tears, I said, "When your son comes to America, I hope he is treated better than I am being treated in Thailand." He gestured me to go away.
So I now have to leave the country again on April 6. My choices are to do another visa run to Cambodia, for yet another almost $70 (2000 baht), or to stay and pay the penalties, or try to find a flight home on April 6, ten days before my return flight to Montreal. I have been debating whether to renew my contract here with the school, but given all these problems with visas, and the unwillingness of the Thai people in general to ever take blame on themselves, as they would "lose face," and instead simply give wrong (though official) information, I think I am done with my Thailand experience. I love the children I teach, and I love the school and its proximity to the ocean, and I love swimming in the Gulf of Thailand every day, but I do not like official policies that change for each individual, and penalize some of us on an official's simple whim. And I am lonely on weekends. But that is another story.
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Russ Feldman
non-member comment
Hi Laura,What a miserable experience! It demonstrates once again that so much of the quality of life is due to our institutional structures and those aspects of culture that relate how we treat each other. Individuals vary enormously and c
limate and natural resources (relating both to beauty and to wealth) are of course important. Most of the pictures we take memorializing our travels usually focus on this. But it still comes down to how we're welcomed and how fairly we're treated.I hope the rest of your time contrasts favorable with these past few days.