Living
October 26, 2026 · 6 min read · By Siam Keyholder Editorial
# Phuket Immigration Office Under Strain: What Foreign Residents Need to Know in 2026
If you live in Phuket on a visa that requires regular paperwork, the **Phuket immigration office** has become noticeably harder to deal with this month. The satellite branch inside Blue Tree Phuket closed indefinitely on Monday, October 19, 2026, and everything it used to handle — extension applications, 90-day address reports, re-entry permits, residence certificates — has been pushed into the already-busy main office in Phuket Town.
For foreigners who live on the island year-round, or who are weighing a long-term move here, this isn't just a minor inconvenience. It's a visible symptom of how thin immigration staffing has become relative to the sheer number of people the department now has to process every week, and it's worth understanding before you plan your next visa run.
Blue Tree Phuket, the entertainment and retail complex that hosted the satellite office, initially described the closure as temporary and linked it to renovation work on site. But The Thaiger reported that the real cause was a staffing shortfall inside Phuket Immigration itself: two officers retired and a third was reassigned into police training, leaving too few people to keep running a branch that, like the Patong office, had always operated with only two officers on duty.
Phuket Immigration Superintendent Pol Col Khemchat Wattananapakasem told The Phuket News that the department has roughly 60 personnel in total for the whole province — a figure he called insufficient for the current workload — and that he has formally asked immigration headquarters in Bangkok for 20 additional officers, saying the extra staff could be put to work immediately if approved. No date has been set for Blue Tree to reopen, and officers from both the Blue Tree and Patong satellite branches have been folded back into the main office rota in the meantime.
With Blue Tree closed, everyone who would once have used that branch now funnels through the main Phuket Town office instead. The Phuket News reported that visitor numbers at the counter handling residence certificates have roughly doubled since the closure, and the main office has also permanently scrapped its drive-through service after persistent complaints from nearby businesses about the traffic congestion it caused outside the building.
For expats who handle their own paperwork rather than using an agent, this points to the same practical advice immigration staff have been repeating for a while now: arrive early in the morning, bring complete documentation on the first attempt, and avoid leaving a 90-day report or an extension application until the final day of the window if at all possible, because queue times on any given morning are no longer predictable. Families juggling school runs or retirees with mobility concerns should budget for a half-day trip rather than a quick errand.
Part of why Phuket Immigration's workload has grown isn't purely local — it's national policy. On September 15, 2026, Thailand repealed the special 60-day visa exemption that had been in place since July 2024 for 93 countries and territories. TTG Asia reported that the replacement rule halves the standard visa-free stay to 30 days and narrows the list of eligible nationalities to 60 countries and territories, with the exemption now covering tourism only — short-term business and work visitors from those countries need to apply for a visa in advance instead.
That change means visitors now reach their visa-free limit roughly twice as fast as they did a year ago, so more of them are applying for extensions sooner than before — exactly the kind of foot traffic that is now funnelled entirely through the Phuket Town office rather than being spread across satellite branches. The timing of a nationwide tightening landing on top of a local staffing shortage is a large part of why queues have stretched out this autumn, and it's a pattern likely to repeat at other provincial immigration offices with similar staffing levels.
A few habits make a real difference right now. Go on a weekday morning rather than near a Friday, a public holiday, or the end of a 90-day cycle when everyone else is also due. Photocopy every document you might need — passport pages, TM30 proof of address, bank statements or income letters for extensions — before you arrive, since the office is busier and noticeably less forgiving of incomplete files than it was a year ago. If your schedule allows it, consider applying for an extension a week or two before it's strictly due rather than cutting it close.
For anyone weighing this as part of a bigger relocation or property decision — not just a single visa run — it helps to talk to people who deal with the practical side of living in Phuket every day. Siam Keyholder's team fields these kinds of questions regularly from buyers browsing our Phuket property listings, and you're welcome to get in touch if you'd like a realistic read on what day-to-day administration and paperwork actually look like here before you commit to a longer stay.
**Is the Blue Tree immigration branch in Phuket permanently closed?** No official closure date has been confirmed. Phuket Immigration has described the Blue Tree branch as closed "indefinitely" because of staff shortages rather than a policy decision, and it could reopen once more officers are assigned to the province.
**Where do I go now for a visa extension or 90-day report in Phuket?** All services that used to run through the Blue Tree branch — extension applications, 90-day reports, re-entry permits, and residence certificates — are currently handled only at the main Phuket Immigration office in Phuket Town.
**Did Thailand's visa-free stay change apply to everyone, or just some nationalities?** The new rule, effective September 15, 2026, cut the standard visa-free stay from 60 to 30 days and applies to nationals of 60 countries and territories, down from the 93 covered under the previous exemption; it also limits the exemption to tourism rather than short-term business or work.
