Just grabbed this from the TV site:

Immigration police ordered to facilitate services

BANGKOK: -- Acting immigration police chief, Pol. Maj. Gen. Suwat Thamrongsrisakul, has ordered some 100 heads of immigration police checkpoints nationwide to speed up their works, especially on providing services to foreign tourists.

With an aim to restructure as well as changing the image of Immigration Police Bureau, Pol. Maj. Gen. Suwat who was recently appointed acting the agency chief yesterday told chiefs of immigration checkpoints that services must be carried out faster by eliminating unnecessary procedures, for example, extension of tourist visa.

He said students would be recruited to assist in service operations and to release vital information through a computerised system, which would benefit both Thais and foreigners. Outsiders will also be invited to scrutinize operations of immigration police with an objective to prevent corrupt practices within the agency.

The newly appointed immigration police commander denied that he was involved in the transfer of his predecessor Pol. Lt. Gen. Amarin Niemsakul.

--TNA 2005-07-17

The guys at Nong Khai are fine, it's when they send the documents off to Bangkok that takes ages.

agree, have dealt with nong khai presonel twice and i can 't find no fault, quite helpful. visa runs to laos and back are usually fast.

Glad to hear it

Only one guy in Nong Khai gets up my nose a bit the rest are excellent.

Only one guy in Nong Khai gets up my nose

When i was there,there was a lady who was not a particularly pleasant person to deal with.

Never had any problems with officials except speed. I thought dealing with the US gov. was sloooooooow. Thai officials go slow like its a requirement.

You know it's got to be an awful job dealing with irate farangs all day long.

Hi

I see that Vientienne has a Thai consulate, does anyone know if I can renew my Non Imm 'O' there? It runs out the end of Sept and I'd rather not go home for a new one.

And before anyone says get an extension, I tried that before and lost it because I forgot to tell them I was going out of the country, so now I don't bother with them.

If the office in Vientienne does this renewal, anyone have a whereabouts for them..

I had heard it was not a good idea for renewal. Why I can't remember. What I was planning was malaysia.

I heard the same but wanted to put it out on the forum for feedbask first.

I agree Malaysia seems a decent bet, better thas running all the way home for it.

Anyone else hear any bad reports about the Vienienne consulate?

There is much much more up to date information about this on WWW.Thaivisa.com

I was under the impression that to apply for a non-imm visa - this had to be done in your home country

Check out the site anyway - and try to ignore the back-stabbers, know-it-alls, and sarcasm which the site seems to thrive on.

I also believe that you can only renew your Non Imm O in your own country. I have had a few friends have to fly back to Australia to renew.

If you lived in Laos for 6 months and the thai embassy/consulate could check your details then I believe you have a chance for renewal.

John

yes, you can renew visa at any thai consulate, but what i heard, 2nd hand, is that vientiane, depending on who does you application sometimes give one yr visa, sometimes 90 day visa. apparently they don't all give the same service in the same office, or it depends how you ask. don't know personally, but 2 people told me the same. also have express service, before certain hr ready after 2 ish, something like that, but also that was inconsistant. but usaully means an overnight stay, and that's if received early in morning, pick up next day or 2 days later. again second hand, i mailed mine back to states, lol, yea i know, not permitted but got away with it twice. i saw the one immigration agent scratching his head one time but couldn't or didn't have the patience to figure it out, as people were waiting in line.

I hate to be picky - but as far as I am aware there isn't a one year visa!

You can have a single entry non immigrant visa valid for 90 days and then thats it finished, or you can have a multi-entry non-immigrant visa, again valid for 90 days upon which time you can leave the country and re-enter and you will receive a further 90 days. You can do this proceedure every 90 days until the visa validity expires (one year). If you are smart you will do the final re-entry just before the visa expires and then can strtch the one year validity to almost 15 months.

Either the single entry or multi entry non immigrant visa can be extended after a minimum stay here of 60 days at an immigration office in Thailand, provided you meet the criteria for the category you wish to claim and if successful in your application - the visa will receive an extension of up to one year.(But you must report to an immigration office every 90 days to verify your address)

In the first year this will begin from when you first entered Thailand, so will expire on the anniversary of your arrival in the kingdom. Second and subsequent applications will be valid for one year from the date of application.

A visa is obtained outside the country, and allows you to enter a country, and you will then be given a permit to stay stamp for a nominated number of days depending on the kind of visa held.
An extension is granted inside the country.

To the best of my knowlege (ha ha disclaimer LOL)

Paul