I wonder if anyone else has noticed that it now seems to take quite a bit longer to renew the annual Retirement visa. I was at Immigration at the Bangkok Chaeng Wattana office before it opened at 8:30 this morning. A Thai friend had bagged a place near the start of the queue and I got ticket No. 2. I always have all the paperwork signed and sealed in advance, and in the last few years that would have had me out of there in around an hour. Usually I have seen just two different officers for the visa. Today the papers were taken off to a third before being returned about 15 minutes later. My friend asked around and was told that security has been ramped up for all long stay visas - due to ISIS concerns perhaps? The reentry permit process then took two hours. The centre was certainly busy. But when you are second in line for processing, two and a half hours in total is way more than before.

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