Jingthing

Maga is a cult. Maga people are thus cult members. That's a fact. Not name calling.

Stop lying.

No I don't. Except for globalization. That's a loaded word. I'm pro free trade. Americans don't want to be low wage garment workers.

Oh no! Pattaya's reputation as a family friendly world class resort is at risk!

Opposite is true.

What a load of dime store psychobabble garbage! Decent Americans want to preserve American democracy, oppose corruption, oppose autocracy, not have a God King as leader, and support democratic allies abroad as opposed to genocidal war criminal dictators like Putin.

Name calling is all you've got. Very low.

Trump is the most corrupt president in American history.

Yes more time to murder Ukrainian civilians, steal and brainwash Ukrainian children, rape, steal, and level Ukrainian cities. Lovely people these Zs.

Do your own research as the maga types love to say (but don't except to feed their conspiracy theories) and you will find there are much more objective sources of information.

These are good questions. I paid the 130 renewal with a US credit card. I don't know if a Thai credit card would work. I think it probably would (I don't have one here). I seriously doubt a Thai debit card would. A US paypal account? Maybe. I don't recall. There was no option given for Thai bank transfers or US ACH transfers when I paid. If you can't pay online, you cannot do an online application! You could do the application in person at the embassy and inquire about their payment options for that which I assume would be more flexible (like cash). As far as Thai Post, I had a problem paying. I was able to pay with my True Money account though. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to pay the 100 baht online. Online is the only option for that as well. Another option is to use an agent if your locality has an agent that helps with US passports. In those cases, you can pay the agent however, and they handle the other technicalities.

Yeah relying on "information" from Fox and direct white house sources is the US equivalent of a Russian relying on Kremlin propaganda and state tv. Not credible in the slightest.

To add there is also a SEASONAL factor in renewals, certainly domestically anyway. Reportedly for domestic renewals, if you apply during very slow travel months, it will generally be faster, and vice versa.

When was your renewal? I'm fairly OK with the DHL proof of receipt that they received it.

Is it really true though? I've never heard about much shorter than one month for in Thailand renewals. There is no way to pay for expedited service abroad as there is for US renewals. More likely if this is true, he had TRAVEL PLANS or a VISA EXPIRATION coming up shortly which is something they ask about on the application. In that case they would have the power to expedite but again you can't pay and order for faster service for abroad passports.

Using an agent is a different ball of wax. A person would have different issues using an agent. Such as about trust of the particular agent that they really know what they're doing. Clearly, the more granular concerns of doing a self directed application are something you hopefully avoid by paying an agent.

There is a detail that I'm still unclear about. I recall reading reports that the embassy does send an email at the time that they mail you your new passport package. Is that really true? Recent and within the last few years reports about that detail appreciated.

If you read the OP, it is clearly implied that the topic is about self directed applications. Not what happens if you an agent. I'm not at all against using agents for this. I looked into it decided against that and the reason was NOT the cost. I would strongly advise others to consider agents if their locality has them that do US passport renewals though. But this topic is not about that.

I'm not neutral but there is no logical reason for practical topics about vital services like passport renewals should be politicized. I bring up State Department staff cuts because they are a fact and as yet it is unknown if that will impact the timing and service about overseas passport renewals.

Let's try to keep this more neutral. Americans of all kinds rely on State Department services.

I'm freaked out about it too. I'm also concerned about an unknown X factor. Whether state department staff cuts will make this take longer or even cause complications. That's a reason I've been asking for VERY CURRENT timing reports. It seems clear that the 6 to 8 week stated estimates have in reality been (happily) closer to one month. HOWEVER, I don't think there have been many (or any) timing reports since the State Department staff cuts have occurred. Don't call me paranoid about this. We already know for a fact that staff cuts at Social Security has negatively impacted on wait times. The concern is well founded (unfortunately).

I'll ignore your joke, but what would be to point of emailing them unless they're contacted you with a problem OR the passport is very late, etc.? I'm assuming the passport tracking link would work for internationally obtained passports, correct? (Remove space) https: //passportstatus.state.gov

Thanks for the feedback. So at this point I think I will be able to track the Thai Post courier via information from the purchase. There is also a general passport tracking system to use. Remove space and copy to load link: https: //passportstatus.state.gov

I'm in the process now too. I got the tracking from DHL that I was delivered to the embassy. I'm assuming (hoping) that they have staff to look over the application at least superficially to detect any errors and if found that they would contact applicants early in the process. But I have no proof of that. Only reports by people who had that happen could say whether errors were detected early or late in the process. So best case, if package received, and no early contact, they have looked at it and found no errors. Years ago I did a renew at a Pattaya consular visit and there was a problem which I had time to fix right away and I think the officer did at least eyeball the entire application. So that's a hint that they would do the same thing when received by mail. (The problem was missing photocopy of current passport ID page.) Photos could possibly be a more subjective determination. Obviously they can easily measure the photo size and reject any obvious issues like if you're wearing a Bozo the clown costume. But the required specs for photos are very specific and I suppose it would be possible for an officer to miss something that might later be rejected by the state department.

No doubt this president.