cliveshep

I don't walk so well so SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) decided to drive. Happy Wife = Quiet life! I prefer it actually, easier on legs and hips, plus aircon all the way. Wife says there is parking underneath so all good. Now busy printing colour copies of every page in a extended passport - didn't need it in the end - plus trying to see if I need anything else apart from Thai Driving Licence scans for address proof. Cannot find a payment mandate form anywhere on line so assume VFS will sort that out. Everything on old computer so doing it now, new super-dooper computer coming tomorrow so dealing with this while I got one still more or less working.

Well, either my somewhat pointed letter about corporate responsibility worked or my earlier (three) complaints bore fruit or none of the above but this morning the web site worked, albeit slowly, and I was able to register and activate account and sign in and get my booking at preferred time and date. So come May I'm off to do penance in Bkk traffic jams, I'll be taking a tent and sleeping bag and loads of provisions for a 2 day stay plus oxygen for breathing clean air. Ok, just kidding - I hope - but anyone who has driven in Bkk traffic will understand the thinking. You lose the will to live waiting to move sometimes.

Sord for word that is the letter I got from them. I've written to them pointing out that

That's the one I used!

Cannot email them because the response is automated no reply, cannot phone them - no Thai number. My wife found a number - it was VFS-Global India. Anyone else getting stone-walled from making a booking or contacting them? I wanted to renew my passport and being a compliant idiot tried for 3 hours to follow the rules, both on my computer and my android smartphone and my wife's i-phone. Just cannot get past the initial filling-in of the form, no button to submit so no way to verify my email address. Tried with an alternative email - same same! Any ideas - is it because they are all at lunch, having a gang=bang, moving offices, too lazy or whatever. I am fast losing the will to live. Looks like we'll have to go in person later on and demand answers and help from an actual living being and not a useless ai assistant. Anyone got similar problems?

To the kind and helpful folk who are setting my paranoid mind at rest - thank you so much. FWIW as my UK- debit card expires in June my wife and I have decided to go for a renewal in May, in 3 weeks time, before the debit card expires. They won't post the new one here - it will go to my daughter but she won't be able to bring it until December and while I realise I only need the card number and the 3 digit number on the back going in May ties in with Google saying apply 9 months before expiry. Not wishing it on myself but 10 years from now I might well be long gone so going early and losing 9 months is no problem realistically. So we will run with the old passport and forget the new pics issue thanks to you guys!

Thanks Andrew.

Ok, What does the team think? Left - old pic, right current pic.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5ca3689540f0b625df8d8610/6.4824_HMPO_Overseas_Guidance_Booklet_Applying_outside_the_uk.pdf

My face has substantially aged in the last 10 years from age 69 to age 79 and my current photos have to be countersigned by a "professional person" to say' yup,l I know this person for over 2 years and this is a true likeness and this is my passport photo copy.'

Sorry, almost missed that. I'm in Khlong Sam Wa Tawan Ok, essentially in between Minburi and Rangsit on a gated village Kc Garden off Nimit Mai You wouldn't be a "professional person" perchance?

Ok, I have in the meantime solved the problem albeit in a somewhat long winded way. I send a printed copy of the form to my former friendly UK Accountant (I was a director in a small company before retiring) along with a photo and he will do the countersigning for me. Nominal cost only, he will then post the form to my daughter in the UK who will post it back to me signed for post. Then I can toddle off to VFS and give them the papers. Meanwhile been laboriously scanning all 47 pages of my passport, only used 19 of them but HMPO want colour copies of every blank page too. Crazy! They are more anal about paper than Thai Immigration! So hopefully problem has gone away. Thanks for your input.

Got my marriage visa extension this morning but not for a year but only until my passport expires in mid January. Didn't think about that but ok, makes sense. So read up on requirements for renewing a passport and found a major snag it seems. I have aged facially in the last 10 years, going from 69 to 79 and need new photos. Problem is the requirements for a photo are a professional person, may be retired, from UK,,Ireland, US, Commonwealth or EU - who has to fill in a form, supply a colour copy of their passport, and sign to say "yes, this is he" on the form and back of one photo. What has everyone else done to solve this as it must occur quite often? I do not know anyone here, the only foreigners I know, one is a retired carpenter, and one a German bus driver who has returned to Germany to carry on driving buses. I know professional Thais here but it seems they are not acceptable to HMPO. What can I do? Getting worried, I'll be 80 before the passport expires - no age to be kicked out and nowhere to go anyway. Anyone able to help here?

Sorry guys, not helpful. Surely amongst all the members on here there are some who dabble in stocks and shares?

Can I ask the questions here of buying shares - how to do, choosing those likely to rise in value - how to do, choosing a broker - how much does that cost, just how small an investment can be made. We live on my small UK pension and trust me - it is small but by really scrimping could save 5-10k baht a month assuming no catastrophes happening. My wife was doing that short selling thing as peeps assert they make thousands doing it. I think that is bull's testicles aka "cobblers" and she was practising in $10 investments plus reading loads of books. I confess I don't understand her assertion that if the graph goes down she wins - I think that is more cobblers actually but I was in Construction before and all this is foreign to me. Either way, she lost eventually both times she tried it even after winning a few times eventually the bank won - of course. Thing is if I understand it correctly you win or lose after a fixed time, in her case a ridiculous 1 minute. My thought from a place of ignorance is firstly she needs to choose shares to buy and also secondly be able to choose when to sell or hold on. If I understand this correctly one buys through a broker who charges a fee and calls the broker when desiring to sell. Is that broadly correct? So - how little can she invest etc and answers please to my original question. She is not strong and selling cakes in the market is hardly going to support her later, or indeed selling anything once I am gone and we have little to leave her apart from the house and she'll need to live in that. I'm 79 already.