sjbrownderby

I live in a small village south of Korat, not far from Khonburi  and Soeng Sang. For three years we have had 3BB broadband and never had any major problems. In that time our speed has also been upgraded at no extra cost. I have no complaints at all.

11 hours ago, howard ashoul said:

You will arrive at the embassy late = you will get high number = you will be given passport back next day as one of the last persons. No time to catch 4pm.

The number has no bearing on collection. What does have a bearing is where you are placed in the queue before the gate opens for collection. The number only serves to help the staff at the consulate retrieve your passport quickly. You could have a high number and be first in the queue and you will be the first to get back your passport/visa.

 If you want to arrive early for collection there is no shade whilst you wait. I would suggest you take an umbrella or some other way of protecting yourself from the sun. An umbrella would be best because, of course, it may be raining. 

 Also you may wish to check Laos public holidays because the consulate may be closed even if there is no public holiday in Thailand. 

 It may be difficult to get back to Mukdahan by 4.00 pm particularly if you are going to rely on the bus service from the bridge. 

Around fifteen years ago I had to renew my still valid passport  in which I had used only a few pages. I had no problems because I had left the passport in the pocket of a pair of jeans which was found by the lady who did my laundry, after the jeans had been through a washing machine. I am not for one moment suggesting that you destroy your passport by this method. Just let it be a warning that accidents do happen.

5 hours ago, ba ba said:

what is this walk in have a look around and come back don't you have to get a visa from another country ,or is there some crossing that you don't have to ? any info would be helpfull

thanks

Yes, you have to get a visa which is issued at the border. The visa lasts for 30 days. This is the case for both Laos and Cambodia. 

1 minute ago, sanemax said:

Yes, we all know what it says and most of us know that you can actually travel on those PPs as the old one is not cancelled until the moment the corner is cut off

   Having traveled on a PP after applying for a new one, I know that it can be done

After the new passport is issued the old passport is no longer a valid travel document despite what you may have done in the past. Until you receive the new passport you will not know when it was issued. You seem to be confusing cancellation date and issue date and that is why the gov.uk website tells you that you can not use the old passport for travel, only for ID purposes. This applies moreso here in Thailand where it is required that you carry your passport at all times, although most people either do not or they carry a photocopy. 

2 minutes ago, sanemax said:

If you leave Thailand on a visa which is about to expire and you will not be coming back in on that visa and you are leaving on a old recently cancelled PP, you can make the transfer from one PP to the other at immigration at the border , on the way out , no need to go to an internal IO

I am speaking from experience which happened within the past two weeks......and there is actually a special form with a list of required documents (mostly photocopies) to complete before the transfer can be done.

10 hours ago, Mattd said:

Therefore it would be reasonable to assume that the original passport is still valid from the point of application to the point that the new passport is issued, of course the issue would be knowing the date of issue!

My application was submitted on April 3rd. Issue date on the new passport was April 7th. I was not aware of the issue date until I received the new passport on April 26th. According to HMPO the old passport becomes invalid as a legal travel document when the new one is issued, in  my case that was 4 days after application. 

 Just for your information IPS became HMPO when the government officially scrapped plans for a national ID card in the UK and lost it's status as an executive agency, becoming part of the Home Office.

19 hours ago, MiKT said:

sjbrownderby insists that Thai immigration now say that you have to have your visa transferred to your new passport before they will let you out, but this is clearly nonsensical as many people will arrive with two passports, the older one with a visa and they can't make everybody do that before they let them out, it would cause chaos at immigration with people missing flights; and anyway they don't issue visa's in Thailand, so I am sure that's bs.

There is a form for transfer of stamps from old to new passport and it has to be done at an immigration office and not at the border. You are getting a little confused, and not for the first time. Leaving is not the same as arriving and I am fully aware that someone may arrive with two passports if the newer passport was issued in another place. I am talking specifically about attempting to leave the country after you have received you new passport and when the visa and stamp with departure card are in the old passport. There has to be some kind of continuity, the old passport is cancelled when you receive the new one and you will also receive a letter form the British Embassy asking Thai Immigration to transfer the stamps to the new passport. You can not leave the country on a passport which to all intents and purposes is no longer valid because that is what you are asking to do.  I had to go through that on my way to Laos a few weeks ago and the transfer had to be completed before I could leave Thailand. I am not making it up so therefore it is not bs as you seem to think. 

21 hours ago, OJAS said:

So much for "security", then, I think, if new passports travel such a pretty way from the UK to Bangkok as a matter of course!

It is because that is the way that DHL ships stuff from the UK to Thailand. East Midlands Airport is the UK hub for DHL and Leipzig is the European hub. Most stuff going into EMA within the UK goes by road and I can tell you that it is a very secure facility.  

On 2017-5-13 at 2:34 PM, MiKT said:

For instance, somebody coming into Thailand with two passports (one with a valid Thai visa) will be let in and can go out again; after all thousands of tourists and business people arrive with two passports (the old one with a valid Thai visa) all the time. It does not only apply to UK passport holders.

Right but we were talking about passport applied for in Bangkok and picked up in Bangkok. I realise of course that a British passport holder may return to the UK to renew his/her passport. I was talking about the transfer of the stamp and departure card which were issued in the old passport, both of thise have to be transferred before you can use the new passport to cross the border out of Thailand......................and even though the old passport is no longer valid it is stamped to the effect that the stamp and departure card have been transferred to the new passport at which time you can then use the new passport to cross the border out of Thailand. 

On 2017-5-13 at 2:34 PM, MiKT said:

I may have hastily misread about renewing your UK passport from Thailand on-line before,

It was not that you misread about renewing a UK passport it was that you were completely wrong to the point of denying that UK passports now have to be applied for at the Trendy Office Building. Your assertion was that you had to apply on line and that anyone who said that you get a new UK passport in Bangkok was wrong..............................Turned out it was you who was wrong. 

 Now I am going to quote something to you from an email I received:

"Your current passport will be invalid on issue of your new UK passport. 
If you decide to travel against the advise of the GOV.UK website and experience problems, this is solely your decision"

This was extracted directly from an email received today from HMPO and makes it clear that when the new passport is issued then the current passport becomes invalid. As I said before you would not neccessarily know the date your new passport is issued but that date is marked clearly in the new passport and is not to be confused with the date on which you received your new passport. Did it ever occur to you why the gov.uk website tells you not to travel on a passport once you have applied for a new one? 

3 hours ago, MiKT said:

But HMG still state “Send your previous passport with the visa attached to it with your application. Your previous passport will be returned to you….You’ll be able to use the visa if you carry both passports”.

HMG is presumably 'Her Majesty's Government' which has no jurisdiction whatsoever over the whims and regulations governing immigration in Thailand. You can argue all you want at the border about what Her Majesty's Government says but when faced with 'real time on the ground' information from an immigration officer you have no choice but to comply. 

 You may be able to "to use the visa if you carry both passports” but if you have a multi-entry visa then this visa must be transferred to the new passport before you attempt to cross a border out of Thailand. You can not,  therefore, use two passports. Suddenly you have become an expert when not two months ago you were demonstrably incorrect in just about everything you claimed. 

6 hours ago, MiKT said:

Now all passports have to go via Trendy, so trackable mail (eg as used to send to HK) does not come into it any more, unless you are using a UK address, where your application can be dealt with and securely sent via the post office, but somebody needs to be in the UK to do that for you and then send it back here (presumably by trackable mail).

Trackable mail DOES come into it. Once again you are grossly misinformed. HMPO uses DHL to return your passport to the VFS office in Bangkok, and DHL inform you when your passport is in their trackable system. I received the first communication from DHL on April 9 after my April 3 submission of application. You can follow every stage of the delivery process through their website. Mine went from London, to East Midlands, to Leipzig, to Bangkok, to the local distribution centre, to delivery. The process from application to landing in Bangkok  took 9 days. It arrived in Bangkok on April 12 and for obvious reasons was not delivered to Trendy until April 18. Later on that day I received an email backed up with a phone call telling me that my passport was ready for collection. On receipt I found out that my passport had actually been issued on April 7. By any standards that is a very efficient process.

 You really need to stop spreading false information.

 And..............I have had no problems with immigration in the past so your assertion is incorrect. It may be that in the past you were able to present both passports at the border so they could see you had a valid visa. That is no longer the case. That is what I meant about rule changes. 

 The reason why they would not commit to an answer at the Trendy building is because they did not know. If you passport was still acceptable for travel after you applied for a new one then they would tell you so and the gov.uk website would also state that it was acceptable to use your old passport for cross-border travel. You seem to know better but ehn you knew better when you argued vehemently that you had to apply on line in order to get a new British passport. You also said that anyone who told you that you had to go to Bangkok to get a new passport was wrong. On those points you argued with several people, not just me. You can not put the genie back in the bottle so an apology did little to enhance your credibility. 

On 11/05/2017 at 4:06 AM, MiKT said:

Aha, Sherlock, the question is: "Is it legally wrong in Thailand to be using the old passport when you don't have the new one"?

....But we weren't talking about using your old passport in Thailand whilst waiting for the new one. We were talking about using the passport to go outside of Thailand i.e using it to enter another country and then to re-enter Thailand. With some visas a re-entry permit is required but if you had applied for a new passport you would not know when the new one was issued. It would not be enough to say that you were waiting for the new one if you got caught out, particularly if you had applied for the re-entry permit after the new passport had been issued. When you go to immigration to have the stamp, visa and departure card transferred all of the relevent dates would be plain to see in both passports. What you may have done in the past has no bearing on what is acceptable now because the rules have changed. 

1 hour ago, MiKT said:

You are not assimilating what this particular post has been about;

 

its about travelling in and out of Thailand (or any country) after you have applied for a new UK passport at Trendy (or equivalent in other countries) but before you have received your new one. Please read again.

You are a little confused. The post was originally about applying for a new British passport and the rules surrounding the submission of photographs..................that is until someone suggested (bogus information) that a trip to Bangkok was not neccessary as you could get a new British passport online. After that the post went a bit off track and someone suggested that despite advice to the contrary it was okay to travel across borders before you actually had you new passport in your possession. 

On 10/05/2017 at 5:08 AM, ubonjoe said:

Your is due 90 days from the date you entered the country including that day in the count.

Re-entry permit?  He did not say and nobody appears to have asked if he had or needed one. Surely that could put an entirely different slant on things. 

23 hours ago, MiKT said:

This is exactly why Trendy don't clip you old one until you get the new one; you can still legally use it "for identification purposes".

So why does the gov.uk website tell you that you should not use the old passport for travel purposes after you have applied for the new one? At some point the old passport is superceded by the new one and when you receive the new one you also receive a letter from the British Embassy asking Thai immigration to transfer your stamp to the new passport. This must be done at your earliest opportunity and when both passports are presented it is possible that if you used your old passport for cross border travel after the new one was issued you would at least give Thai immigration an excuse to delve further. The fact that there is no international database does not mean that the data can not be checked with a phone call or online communication. There must be a mechanism or protocol in place for such enquiries. It is not border immigration officers you need to worry about, it is those in the various immigration offices around the country, the same people that many on this website complain about when things go wrong. Why give them the opportunity to break your day?

3 hours ago, MiKT said:

Which means you could use your old passport until you actually pick up your new one, when they will clip the corner of the old one, thus invalidating it.

Okay but if you are in Thailand on a long term basis and travelled on a passport through a border after your new passport was issued then it does not take Sherlock Holmes to look at the dates in your old passport compared with the validity dates of your new passport because you have to present both to Thai immigration in order to get your stamp transferred. Even if there is no data base to actually check it you would have presented them with the perfect evidence to show them that you used your old passport after the new one was issued thus giving them a reason to dig further and find that you actually did something legally wrong. Is it really worth the hassle? 

On 04/05/2017 at 6:31 AM, sanemax said:

There was recent thread here on TV, where someone contacted the PP office in the UK and they stated that the old PP is only cancelled when the corner is cut off and its still valid for travel  whilst the new application is in process

You are actually talking about two different dates of significance here. The process to issue my new passport, which was applied for in Bangkok, took four days and I collected it 19 days after it was issued. The first date is fixed but the second is not. The application process ends when the new passport is issued and is not dependent on when you decide to pick it up. I did not know the validity date of the passport until I picked it up and I was very surprised to see it took only four days to process. This is why they tell you not to travel once you have applied. 

4 hours ago, pontious said:

Not correct - it has to be collected by a 'person'.

A person in possession of the old passport because it is invalidated by cutting off the corners. 

16 hours ago, Anon999 said:

The Visa company must be misreading the site.

I suspect the visa company got caught out not checking that photos conform (or not) to the standard required before submitting on behalf of clients and used this to say that the rules changed regarding photos in order to save face. He clearly stated to me that the reason was due to new biometric passport requirements. I did check this with the UK passport office and was told that what he said is just not true so it was not just a case of misreading the site. Bear in mind this is a person who does this for a living, who is supposedly a professional.........who regularly advertises the services of this company.

31 minutes ago, Geordie59 said:

As to the glasses issue - why not just take thew things off to avoid risking the photos being refused when they are processed in the UK? You will not get a refund and will have to start the process from scratch.

The point I was making was about trusting information from a visa company which is contrary to that shown on a UK government website (and then later confirmed by phone call) and then the visa company arguing that they are correct despite official information to the contrary. How is it possible to trust these companies? I have heard of some visa companies who charge more than 15000 THB for visas which would normally cost 2000THB..................would you trust them?

You will have to decide, depending on where you live, whether it is better for you to apply in person or have a visa company apply on your behalf bearing in mind the time and money involved in making two trips to Bangkok (one to submit the application and one to collect the passport). Visa companies charge around 5000 THB for passport services. 

 I recently renewed in person and I live in Nakhon Ratchasima province, my collection trip coincided with a planned few days in Kanchanaburi so it was not so bad but my application involved a twelve hour round trip with me driving.

1 minute ago, sanemax said:

  I wasnt illegal, the old PP is only cancelled when the corner is cut off , at Trendy , they ask your written permission whether they can cut the corner off the old one, when giving you the new one .

   Until that corner is cut off, it is still legal a travel document .

So why does Her Majesty's Passport Office tell you that: "You can’t travel with it after you’ve applied for a new one - but you will be able to keep your existing passport for ID purposes"  Either Her Majesty's Government website is correct or you are and I am talking in the legal sense here. You got away with it which does not make it legal and so therefore I reiterate that your experience should not be taken as advice to others unless you can prove that you are legally correct.

37 minutes ago, sanemax said:

Yes, the Visa inside the PP are still valid .

The PP is still valid as well, until the corner is cut off

I think I worded that badly. I should have asked if the multi-entry visa is still legally valid in the old passport for travel outside Thailand if a new passport has been issued.

The fact that you did use your passport for travel outside Thailand does not make it legal. Perhaps you were lucky but things can happen that could put your status in Thailand in jeopardy so therefore your experience should not be taken as advice to others that it is okay to do it.

9 minutes ago, sanemax said:

Cancellation of a UK PP happens when the corner is cut off , until then, it is still valid

Yes, but is the Thai visa and stamp still valid in the old passport after the new passport has been issued? Official advice given is not to use the passport for travel, only for ID purposes as officially you have to carry your passport with you all of the time here..