cliveshep

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!

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!