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?

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.

So I did my usual and tried to book an appointment for my annual extension visa based on marriage to a Thai girl. To my surprise there were no slots available for the entire month to 16th March. Every one booked. The booking period is a month or 28 days or whatever, and the day I logged in was day one. That was a bit disconcerting but my beloved is one smart cookie - she told me to sit up late until after midnight when the month moves up one day which would be vacant as the availability would only be a minute or so old. So I did and sure enough the slot moved up one day a minute or so after midnight, and the last day had no bookings whatsoever and I was able to snag the time I wanted. So finally yesterday I was able to go in with my wife, we had to fill in 4 extra forms and sign them - no idea what they were for, my wife did the filling in of hers and mine, I just said "yes dear" and signed where she told me. The expiry date is 5th April but as that is a Saturday they instructed to go on the 8th April for the stamp, a Tuesday. Got so say Mondays are crazy traffic driving in, we don't live that far away but still took 2 hours almost. Appointment 11.00am, we were out by 12.00.

At 2000 baht a time does he think he has a bargain? I presume they do fine him as I've heard happens to others.?

I've been here for a number of years now, but up until last year was unaware of a system in place to book an appointment so for many years suffered the excruciatingly slow hang around and wait process. Last year we heard about the booking appointment process, what a difference that made. So now we are booking an appointment.

Oh do come on you guys - it was written in humour as far as complaining is concerned, I think I made the point fairly that it is much preferred to going to CM or wasting effort, petrol and postage money driving to post all the photocopies needed. And Dr Jack - if you read the advice given by the Immigration Bureau it is responsible for getting previous refusals necessitating travelling in to CM. The link was on another 90 day thread, already 74 pages long if I remember correctly. And you are correct, when I asked for advice on that thread what I got was also wrong or contradictory. It was the I.O who gave me the only correct advice not withstanding what CM have said in the on-line document they posted. When I pointed out their own publication said something totally different she got a bit shirty but she was right for all that.

CM Immigration's so-called 90-day is an incorrect scam if you apply online. You have a window of on-line application, which is BETWEEN 15 days BEFORE expiry TO 7 days BEFORE expiry - so only a 7 day window. Outside of that window and your on-line application will be rejected - ask me how I know this? So let's say you apply for the renewal 15 days before expiry, your receipt and acceptance when it comes back will be dated 90 days from the date of application, so now your so-called 90 days is reduced to 75 days as you have lost 15 days of your old report time span. It gets better................................. So the next time you need to apply, again it must be in that 7 day window so if you apply 15 days before expiry once again the clock resets from that application date. So your 90 days is now again reduced to 75 days. So you lose a minimum of 7 days each time. So really they ought to call it a 75 day report assuming you apply 15 days before expiry but might be an 82 day report dependant on which day of each applicable window you apply. So far they do not charge for this because if they did it would be fraudulent. Tricky lot aren't they? Still, it doesn't matter really as one way or another you need to keep re-applying and as it costs nothing it's mai pen rai - right? And on-line still beats postal or having to trek in to that awful place and spend a whole day just hanging about. Talking of which - my appointment for extension renewal is next Monday - doesn't the year go quickly!? Must go, got to prepare my decimated rainforest 25 or more pages of necessary documentation in duplicate as CM demand. Don't know why they want 2 sets of almost the same stuff they get every year especially as the toilets now got automatic bum-sprays installed. Hey ho! Life, as they say, is not a bowl of cherries.

I got the same question but clearly as it is now March and you still haven't got an answer they are all asleep or hibernating. I'm going to 'phone them on Monday and ask as official advice says only GBP £ sterling is acceptable but I don't have a UK card any more and they don't accept cash I could get from a Bureau de Change. Google says they do accept Thai bank cards but I think better to phone and ask!

Thanks for that. Just looked on Google and no cash accepted BUT, and here is the crazy bit, contrary to what it appears to mean on the UK help pages apparently VFS take the payment in the local currency in Bkk. I'll phone the buggers on Monday and ask. It is stupid all the contradictory information from these government websites. Naturally I have a Thai debit card so if google is right they'll accept that - or not! As sooner or later every British Expat is going to have to deal with this I'll post the answer. But as so many have already renewed there surely one of them can explain how they paid?

Later in September or October I'll be paying for a British passport renewal at VFS Global in Bangkok. I'll be doing it in person. Guidance says they only accept payment in pounds sterling. My UK ban k debit card expires in June, they'll send a new one to my UK address where my daughter lives. She won't be coming here until November to bring it with her. Certainly not going to send it by courier as it would get "lost" on the way. The UK bank gave me loads of heartache once before so I do not want to involve them. My question is as VFS Global want payment in pounds sterling can I for simplicity just go to a Bureau de Change, change baht to sterling and pay in cash?

Logically, giving money to your immediate family with no demands or requirements can be nothing but gifts. Doing so to complete strangers can only be a tax evasion scam. So I think your idea is a fallacy.