Anyone living in Thailand long term knows the rhythm. Once a year the extension of stay. Every ninety days the report that you are still here. And every time you leave the country, the question of the re-entry permit. In Bangkok most of this happens at Chaeng Watthana; in the provinces, at your local immigration office.

Nearly all the forms exist in English. The talking does not. Thai is what passes between the officers, across the counter, and over the loudspeaker when your number is finally called. What follows is not a language course. It is the set of words that will genuinely be said that morning.

One note on spelling before we start. Every Thai word below is followed by a transliteration in brackets. Thai is a tonal language and a transliteration carries none of the tone, so treat these as a way to recognise a word when you hear it rather than a recipe for saying it perfectly. Where you see "ah" read the vowel in "father", and where you see "aw" read the vowel in "law".

The office and getting through the door

ตรวจคนเข้าเมือง (truat kon kao muang): literally "inspection of people entering the country", meaning the immigration bureau. In practice you will almost always hear the short form instead.

ตม. (taw maw): that short form, said as two letter names. If someone tells you that you need to go "to Taw Maw", they mean immigration. The forms carry the same label: TM.7, TM.30, TM.47.

บัตรคิว (bat kew): the queue ticket. You take one at the entrance and nothing at all happens without it. At Chaeng Watthana, how early you pulled that ticket decides the shape of the rest of your day.

เคาน์เตอร์ (kao-tuh): the counter. Borrowed straight from English and easy to spot once you know to listen for it.

เจ้าหน้าที่ (jao naa tee): the official, of either gender. A polite, neutral word, and the right way to address the person on the other side of the glass when you do not know their name.

Your documents

หนังสือเดินทาง (nahng-suh dern-tahng): the passport. Literally "book of going", which is one of the nicer things the language does with compounds.

วีซ่า (wee-saa): the visa, borrowed directly.

ใบอนุญาตทำงาน (bai a-nu-yaht tam ngahn): the work permit. The word ใบ (bai) opens a great many document names and originally means "leaf" or "sheet".

สำเนา (sahm-now): the photocopy. Learn this one before anything else on the list. Thai offices want copies of almost everything, and consistently more of them than you thought to bring.

รับรองสำเนาถูกต้อง (rap rong sahm-now took-tong): "certified a true copy". You write this phrase, plus your signature, on every single photocopy you submit. Forget it and the whole stack comes back across the counter, by which point your queue number has expired.

ทะเบียนบ้าน (ta-bee-an bahn): the house registration book, Thailand's equivalent of a residence record. If you rent, you will usually need a copy from your landlord, often together with a copy of their ID card.

The procedures

ต่ออายุ (taw ah-yu): to extend, literally "to continue the age". ต่อวีซ่า (taw wee-saa) is the extension of stay itself, the appointment that comes round once a year.

รายงานตัว 90 วัน (rai ngahn tua gow sip wan): the 90-day report. Not an extension of anything, simply a confirmation that you are still in the country and still at the address on file. The form is TM.47.

ใบอนุญาตกลับเข้ามาในราชอาณาจักร (bai a-nu-yaht glap kao ma nai raht-cha-ah-nah-jak): the re-entry permit. A very long word for a very short transaction, and the single most important item here for anyone who travels. Without this document your permission to stay dies the moment you cross the border out. That includes a weekend in Vientiane.

ตราประทับ (traa pra-tap): the stamp. What ends up in your passport, and what the entire morning has been building towards.

วันหมดอายุ (wan mot ah-yu): the expiry date. It sits on the stamp, and it is the number you write down for yourself before you leave the building.

ค่าธรรมเนียม (kah tam-niam): the fee. Expected in cash, and expected in exact change.

The words you hopefully won't need

เอกสารไม่ครบ (ehk-ka-sahn mai krop): "the documents are not complete". The most common sentence of any bad morning.

อยู่เกินกำหนด (yoo gern gam-not): overstay, literally staying beyond the appointed point. Thailand counts it by the day and takes it seriously.

ค่าปรับ (kah prap): the fine.

กลับมาใหม่ (glap ma mai): "come back again". Said perfectly politely, and it means you are doing this morning a second time.

Why this beats a translation app

None of these terms appear in a Thai textbook. Textbooks open with greetings, numbers and ordering food, and that is the right way to open a textbook. But the moments when language in Thailand actually decides something look nothing like a restaurant, and the vocabulary for those moments is narrow, finite and endlessly repeated. You will meet the same forty words at every extension for as long as you live there.

A translation app does not solve this either, and not because the translations are wrong. It is that a counter moves at conversational speed. The sentence is said once, the officer has a room full of people behind you, and you cannot type in a word you did not hear clearly enough to spell. What works is recognition, already in place before you walk in.

That is precisely what Vokabulo is built for. You capture the words your own life puts in front of you and learn them in the context where you will meet them again. Thai taught straight from English, with over 100 languages available in every combination.

Get Vokabulo, start free.