cliveshep

I'm sure this topic has been covered elsewhere but I can't find it. After all the unnecessary drama caused by the clots at HMPO I'm finally approved for my 5th British passport renewal that should arrive sooner or later with VFS Global in Bangkok. The old passport expired next January 16th which is the date my Marriage extension runs out. Here is my probably-done-to-death-elsewhere question:- Do I turn up for my usual interview a few weeks before expiry of my 10th marriage extension as was my normal habit with the old maroon EU/British passport containing all the stamps and now my new virgin blue British Passport with no stamps whatsoever and let the I.O's in CW sort out the stamp transfer issue? Chuffed now - "we Brexiteers have waited years, changing red to blue without the tears", sorry about that, it's my age you know!

Take a look at yummy Melania's body language. She looks like she'd love to jump his bones right there and then. Pure lust and idol worship, Donnie must be fuming if he's smart enough to actually notice.

UPDATE - A really nice Yorkshire guy phoned me just now from HMPO in Hemel Hempstead, UK to ask about my passport application. According to him because I put Herts UK as place of birth that apparently differed from a previous application and all he wanted to ask was did I mind if he changed that to England? So I laughed and said of course not, Herts is in England anyway isn't it. He said he thought given my age and circumstances it was better to call me on a private phone than yet more emails and he would changed the place of birth to England and the passport would then be sent for printing and issuing and posting back. So we had a little chat about - the weather of course being English, and he asked me to confirm my Thai postcode - no problem - and date of birth. Told him we only came here because of Theresa May - he didn't seem to know about her so I had to explain why we got forced to leave the UK. All in all a really good phone call with a nice guy and bearing good news in the end. All I got to do now is wait for it to arrive in Bangkok, hopefully in a few days.

Thank you for your concern, as I said elsewhere my current passport doesn't expire until next January so there is no immediate urgency but googling before the advice was to apply 6 months before expiry in case of c**k-ups. Clearly good advice. Phoned them this morning - automated check line which said they are looking at the application. I confess the waiting is very stressful. I don't think the issue is one of identity and given the fact I have had 4 passports to date the only thing they queried was my address now we fled here to avoid my wife being deported under Theresa May's pogrom it is not as before - in the UK. I explained all that and even gave them the old UK address since when it has gone quiet.

Update - there is none. Over a week since they received the original birth certificate from DHL, not a peep from them. I'm going to call their phone line to check progress later today when they open. Looking back over the last 40 years and noting the milestones in my life when I did foreign travel this application is almost certainly for my 5th passport which makes HMPO's behaviour even more stupid and unnecessary. If only someone with a brain could see that.

Sorry no, born Christmas Day 1945, thanks for trying.

Just checked if I can get pre-adoption details and came up with the answer which is yes but as I was adopted at 6 months old (presumably the papers were submitted a whole lot earlier) the law says if the adoption was before 1976 which if course it was, before the details can be released I have to attend a counselling session in the UK which is mandatory. So I would need around £1000 air fares, pay for hotel accommodation and attend this counselling all to satisfy the little minds in HMPO that I am British and was born in xxx town or village if the gnomes insist on that detail. At that point it is official complaint time and probably have to go the ombudsman route if I am still alive. No way can I on a fixed tiny pension afford that, we struggle to survive now. Catch 22 - left or right I'm screwed over by mindless moron jobs-worths perhaps.

This is the next to last mail I got from them, the last one promises to return documents. Of concern is the insistence I prove what town or village I was born in. No problem, I'll track down the midwife via a seance. I hope and pray the original birth certificate that gives details of adopted parents suffices else I'll be in deep dodo. There is no way I can prove that almost 80 years later especially in the chaos so close to the end of the war. https://static-logos.notifications.service.gov.uk/bc9eb012-fd36-4bf0-a201-b915f203ddec-homeofficecrest.png HM Passport Office Dear CLIVE SHEPPARD, Application reference: 537 452 2543 We need you to send us more documents We cannot continue with your passport application because we need more documents. Send evidence that confirms your place of birth We need you to confirm your place of birth before we can continue and print your passport. Unfortunately we cannot accept Herts as your place of birth because it is a County name. We need to know the village, city, or town you were born, so we can add this to your new Passport. Not doing so when issuing your previous passports has been an oversight on our part, please accept our apologies for this. Send your birth certificate or adoption certificate. If your birth certificate does not show your place and country of birth or you do not have the original you can order an official copy at: https://www.gov.uk/order-copy-birth-death-marriage-certificate The formats we can accept We usually cannot accept photocopied documents unless we have told you we can for that type of document. Only send laminated documents if that is the only format the issuing authority provides for them. How to send us documents When you are sending us documents or letters, make sure you: we only want the items we have asked for use a strong envelope that is the right size for anything you need to send us check the weight and pay the correct postage – consider using a signed and tracked service send to this address – this includes the application reference so we can match anything you send us to your application HM Passport Office INT-DOCS 537 452 2543 Three Cherry Trees Lane Hemel Hempstead HP2 7HQ UK We will return any evidence you send us when we are finished with it.

Update - decided to bite the bullet as there is no way I can go back to the UK and if no passport Thailand will boot me out and I'll be effectively stateless forced to leave my home and wife. What a showa'o'<deleted>e our Government civil servants are? We are only here in the first place because Theresa May, wicked witch of Maidenhead while Home Secretary and refusing to endorse calls to leave the EU to cut immigration instead attacked foreign spouses and students instead. She raised financial thresholds way over twice the UK Standard Pension rate meaning those whose wives failed the Life in the UK test (designed for failure of course) would, unless their retired spouses could prove income over £18,650 , be deported irrespective of the family breakups this would cause. That figure I understand has now been increased dramatically. There has to be a special place in hell reserved for Theresa May and Priti Patel. So seeing this red light I sold everything and we fled here to stay together and 10 years later I do not miss the UK and it's over-reaching laws one bit. We have a nice home and apart from the minor inconvenience of annual extensions and 90 day reports life is good - until now! HMPO promised to return document with passport this morning so beloved wife has toddled off in the car with it and a letter in the packet to the nearest DHL Express some 10 miles away to get it expensively transported to HMPO in England. Letter tells them there is no documentation of what town I was born in, such details are sealed to protect the birth parent's anonymity so all the Birth Certificate does is prove I am British, adopted, and entitled to the last 3 passports and the new one applied for.

Well, following Googled advice although my passport does not expire until 16th January next year I decided to play it safe and apply now. At 79 I figure I can afford to loose a few months, So after initial hiccups with VFS caused by their web site being down and complaining I did get to make an appointment for 21st May once they settled in to their swanky new offices. I downloaded the form, filled it in, laboriously scanned and printed colour copies of every page of my extended passport (only used about 6 pages so won't do that again) and put together proof of residence and address - an AIS bill in my name with full address all in English and scans of my car and motorbike licences also giving the address in English. This will be my 4th renewal and HMPO have mailed the wrong email address needing more info, in spite of VFS Global emailing me from the address on the application form confirming sending the docs to the UK but the HMPO muppets were too careless. I only realised when they sent a text advising email sent but it never arrived. So I emailed the help line who came back quite quickly asking for various info like proof of address etc and sundry other info they already had. After the 1st 3 0r 4 replies to me it became clear they could not find the application based on what they said. However, each time they emailed me it was to ask a different question but the real killer came with their email no 7 where they basically refused to renew the passport unless I submitted documentary proof showing the town or village where I was born and proof I was British. Now I was adopted and apart from my parents telling me I was born in Herts there is nothing in writing. They have been dead for 40 years so I cannot ask them. HMPO apologised for waiting over 30 years (3 passports to date) to discover they didn't know the town or village I was born in but demanded documentary proof like original birth certificate. I have the one my parents were given after the adoption order in 1946 - but I have no Adoption Certificate nor am I likely to ever get one. The UK birth certificate notes I am an adopted child. Doesn't say where from of course and adoption details were mostly kept secret. So I am waiting HMPO email no 8 hopefully answering my query about if I send them this nearly 80 year old document, the original birth certificate, will they undertake to (a) not lose it and (b) send it back safely. Unspoken of course is how much more do they want to know that they've already been told This is totally farcical and with high blood pressure I don't need all this effing stress from morons. Who can I complain to as I feel a formal complaint is justified?

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!