September 22, 2004 Bangkok, Thailand
Just to give you an idea about how ridiculously serious the waste-of-time that is proctoring is taken here, this is what just happened to me. A crisis came to a head involving that other great foundation of Thailand: bureaucracy.
I’m supposed to go to the Ministry of Labor tomorrow to get my work permit. In more reasonable times, the Work Permit Lady could just go and get this for you. But the current government’s policy is to make foreigners’ lives as difficult as possible, so now we have to do this in person.
I was supposed to do this tomorrow morning, but I am scheduled for an epic three hour proctoring session. I have to get it tomorrow, because next week I will have to send my passport out to get a Vietnam visa.
The Work Permit Lady called my boss and explained my situation, and that I would like to leave the proctoring one hour early. There are two other people, and minimal work, so in a normal country, where reason and logic apply, this would not be a problem. But, like most Thais in power, my boss likes to wield his authority, and refused.
So, I had to switch with somebody. The best I could do was get a two hour session, so we should get there just in time for lunch.
when i got my work permit it was a lot of sitting around and occationally having to sign something.
make sure you get your application in early for the vietnam visa- i received the following warning the other day about vietnam:
* * * * * *
Policy: As of 15Sep04 until 16Oct04 (both dates inclusive), all passport holders (except Vietnam nationals) are not allowed to enter Vietnam using Type "D" tourist visa for security reason since there's a ASEM conference being organized on 8/9Oct in Hanoi and several other conferences.
Type of Visa
There are few types of visa issued by Vietnam for foreigners
A : Officially invited by government
B : Business
C : Tourist but visa granted upon normal processing procedures
D : Tourist visa express issued by oversea embassy (the problem visa under this policy)
Type D visa is issued normally for late-minute request and is granted by overseas Vietnam embassy in various countries. These applications are NOT approved by Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vietnam but is granted based on guarantee of oversea Vietnam embassy. Therefore, for security reason, the Vietnam government decided not to allow local embassies to exercise flexibility but have to have all application going through Vietnam.
Supposedly, all Vietnam Embassies worldwide has long been informed about this policy and should not have issue Type D tourist visa locally to ppl traveling during 15Sep04 until 16Oct04. Due to miscommunication/misinterpretation, some overseas Vietnam embassies did issue type D tourist visa.
Posted by: jeremy on September 23, 2004 02:27 AMhmmm first comment gave me an error so will try again.
when i received my work permit i spent the good part of a day sitting around and occationally signing pieces of paper when they were put in front of me. then for the first year or so the work permit would run out after every few months and had to be renewed multiple times- now it's steady and i haven't had to worry about it for quite a while.
have fun!
one note on vietnam- make sure you get your visa application in early enough- there's some sort of regional conference going on next month so the embassy is not accepting 'express' visa applications until the conference is over.
Posted by: jeremy on September 23, 2004 02:35 AM