I too have wanted to raise the level of consciousness about these offices. There are many in Thailand but their tagging is not uniform and that makes them difficult to find.
amenity=immigration_office might be a better choice IMO but either would help the current situation. As for the name tag, I think it best to defer to the standard OSM practice which is to provide the name in the local language and use the name:en tag for the translated variety. Here in Thailand there are many nationalities beside English speakers that make use of these offices, among them are large numbers of Burmese, Cambodians, Germans, and Japanese. Cheers, Dave On Thu, Sep 24, 2015 at 7:38 AM, johnw <jo...@mac.com> wrote: > I’ve been wanting to make a amenity=immigration because usually foreign > residents (and only foreign residents) go to such facilities - so local > mappers are usually unaware of their existence or importance. > > These are places where people apply for new visas, extensions to existing > visas, and change from one visa type to another. Usually regional ones > cover mostly visa extensions for residents, whereas a main office would > cover the gamut from people looking for asylum to people applying for new > visas to be come residents in some manner for work or marriage. > > Finding the regional offices in your host country can be very difficult if > there is a language barrier - sometimes they are in a giant government > complex, sometimes they are a standalone facility - but they should be very > clearly marked. My old office was hidden on the 3rd floor of a non-descript > building next to a clothing shop. Almost no signage helped you find it, > until you were in the lobby of the building. > > These facilities are *not* border control nor passport applications > offices - as they deal only with the foreign people living in their area. > They might be in the same complex, but often times they are not, and > warrant their own tag. > > https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=19/36.32304/139.00155 > > This the building I have to visit in Japan for my residence visa now. It > is a small building run by the Justice Ministry, as the program was > recently transferred from customs to Justice (AFAIK). > > They also have a small prisoner transfer center there, which gets a > rendered icon. This is the only office within 2 hours of travel - so many > thousands of foreigners have to come to this one office every year or so > from all over the region. > > As an aside, I think we should suggest the name=* field to be the defacto > “foreign" language for the country, which would be English for most of Asia > (they standardize on english as a common “foreign" language), which would > be very helpful for the foreigners having to visit there - as (in my case) > no Japanese citizen ever needs to visit nor care about the office (unless > married to a foreigner) - and the asian language scripts are often > unreadable to new foreign residents who are looking for the office to visit. > > The native language and others can of course be tagged as well, but I > think the facility should have it’s "foreign" language name rendered first > and foremost. > > Javbw > > > > On Sep 24, 2015, at 6:10 AM, Blake Girardot <bgirar...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hi all, > > I am looking through taginfo and the wiki, but I don't see a good clear > tag for immigrant/asylum/refugee "reception" centers. > > These are usually government type facilities that process immigrants and > refugees. > > Some are also holding facilities, and some are just government offices. > > They are separate and distinct from standard passport control or border > check points. > > Any suggestions? > > > _______________________________________________ > Tagging mailing list > Tagging@openstreetmap.org > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging > > > > _______________________________________________ > Tagging mailing list > Tagging@openstreetmap.org > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging > > -- Dave Swarthout Homer, Alaska Chiang Mai, Thailand Travel Blog at http://dswarthout.blogspot.com
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