Present for the event were Region 8 Police Acting Commander Lt Gen Pongwut Pongsri as well as a host of consular representatives for Phuket, including British Honorary Consul for Phuket Martin Carpenter, Swiss Honorary Consul for Phuket Andrea Kotas Tammathin, Austrian Honorary Consul Wanida Hongyok, French Honorary Consul Claude De Crissey, Honorary Consul in Phuket for Brazil Jiratha Thavornvongwongse and Honorary Consul in Phuket for Luxembourg Claude Baltes.
Gen Surachate praised the innovation, with the new service the only Immigration Drive Thru in the country.
“The purpose is to reduce the number of people waiting to be served in the office by 30%,” he said. “About 300 to 700 people come to the Phuket Immigration office each day. This causes problems with the limited parking spaces.
“The Drive Thru service will reduce the length of time it takes us to serve this number of people. It has been designed as ‘one-stop service’, taking only two to three minutes to serve each person,” he added.
Col Kathathorn Kumthieng, Chief of Phuket Immigration Office explained that the services provided through the Drive Thru window are:
1. Picking up one-year permits-to-stay
2. 90-day reporting
3. Confirmation of registered address (if no changes, after returning from staying out of Phuket).
The move comes as the Phuket Immigration is getting a technical and aesthetic makeover, Col Kathathorn added.
“We has updated many workplace systems in the Phuket office, and expanded some service rooms and the toilet has been renovated.
“Plus, the whole office area is being cleaned up, with construction repairs and the building being repainted,” he said.