Foreigners buried beneath bureaucracy
In my 30 years in Thailand, two government agencies that have both been in the news recently, for all the wrong reasons, have grown beyond all normal reason and created obstacles to what should be quite simple formalities.
The Immigration Department and Land Transport Department are fine examples of the desire to grow and complicate for no other reason than to provide power and wealth for those at the top.
Getting a long-term visa was never simple, but over the years the forms needed and the time for attendance have expanded out of all proportion. After 26 years of marriage and no illegal behaviour, I would hope that my presence in this country should have become something of a formality, but I can assure you it’s now worse than ever.
Likewise with buying a second-hand car and registering it in my own name. The situation in Chiang Mai has gotten so out of hand that people are actually buying and driving motorbikes still registered in the name of the previous owner, who probably left the country months ago.
Both of these departments now have reputations as being places to avoid at all costs, which is no doubt the whole reason for producing obstacles.
Foreigners, especially those with work that coincides with government working hours, now go to agencies and lawyers for the sole purpose of saving valuable time, for which they pay considerable sums. Money which is no doubt split between both parties now working on the “problem”, which should never exist in the first place.
Other, more modern countries quite simply manage both immigration and vehicle ownership by post or computer application, and their institutions hardly see an applicant in person. Thailand 4.0? Perish the thought.
Lungstib
Chiang Mai
