parryhandy

2 hours ago, NanLaew said:

It is possible in Thailand.

 

Thai Immigration offices (Jomtien for one) will issue letters of residence to support foreign passport renewals. Normally printed in Thai, if you tell them that it is for foreign consular business, they will print it in English. There's been a few reports of Immigration offices accepting hotel receipts, short-term rental agreements and even hotel business cards to support the issuance of the above letter.

 

The vagaries of the Thai Immigration proof of residence process is much more precarious than the actual on-the-fly UK passport renewal. One just has to try a bit harder, do a bit of local Immigration office due diligence and not throw your hands up and say it's impossible too quickly.

yup thats the way ive done it before (residence letter) . but getting this proof of residence, getting to Bangkok to apply then waiting for your new passport to return is going to take at best 2 weeks probably longer.I had 90 days to get my passport but most people travelling will have 30 day stays and so it all depends when you renew/lose your passport. Lose it anywhere near your permission to stay date and you're screwed.

Obviously if just renewing you can plan ahead.

come to think of it without the passport there's no way I could have got the residence letter.

oh and what I should have said earlier is its technically impossible if the passport office strictly follow their proof of residence requirements.

yup technically renewing your passport whilst travelling is not possible because you don't have a  permanent address so there will be no proof you live there. How they are allowed to get away with this is disgusting IMO. Having a passport to travel is a legal requirement so being able to replace it without ridiculous expense ( travelling back to the UK )should also be legal requirement on the government side.

The only option is an emergency travel document https://www.gov.uk/emergency-travel-document to get you home.

Discussed at great length here 

On 3/18/2017 at 5:53 AM, ubonjoe said:

If asked for them they want hard copies of them to be attached to your application.

My bank book shows  FTT (foreign telex transfer) for my incoming transfers from outside the country.

i use transferwise to send money and these show up as local transfers because they are.

I'm renewing my daughters Uk passport tomorrow and as we have only been at our current address 3 months we have nothing apart from registered post envelopes (which i've had translated) that delivered my daughter and wife's Thai passports.There was no accompanying letter so I just hope that will do.I could have easily proved she lived where she doesn't live.

The rules are a joke because the UK have absolutely no jurisdictional ability to check anything you send them and if I were criminally minded (i'm not) I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem at all to fake something.

18 minutes ago, SaintLouisBlues said:

What exactly are you complaining about - that the UK government has outsourced certain offshore visa and passport activities? Or you don't think much of the service the outsourced entity offers? In some countries the national passport office has outsourced passport activities to their national post office. Outsourcing is a common activity by governments where repetitive clerical work that is little more than following a checklist can be done more cheaply - generally for a per item fee - by a contract agent than by a government employee.

 Please tell me why I cant apply by post myself ? what service ?

nothing more than following a checklist is indeed all they do and is a "service" I do not require especially when being forced to travel over 1000km.

This whole discussion is hilarious. Some people were born to be bent over and say thank you afterwards.

Mate comes round my house and says "whaddaya reckon to my paperwork for my passport application". Quickly glances at it and replies "yeah thats awright mate" Throws contents into courier envelope and sends to England. Job done. 

That scenario is exactly the equivalent of the job VFS has just done.

VFS may provide a service to a minority of people who cant follow simple instructions but in this case they are a forced middleman.

20 minutes ago, sanemax said:

 

    Paying for a service provided isnt "corruption" 

VFS provide an excellent service for a reasonable cost 

Maybe you just want everything for free 

I repeat what service ? there is no service they provide. If i were to stand in front of trendy towers and refuse to let you in unless you gave me 100 baht and some how managed to get that legalised in the uk  would you still thank me if I opened the door for you.

oh and since when is something that is mandated called a service ?

On 30/12/2016 at 1:47 PM, Doiger said:

Yes in a way your right, but the OP was asking about getting his new passport without having to go back to the U.K., if you go through  VFS ( trendy towers, Bangkok) then they let you know when your new passport has arrived and you need to pick it up in person, I have done it twice, once for my son and once for myself and it is a very good service, average time from applying to pick up seems to be about 15 days

its not a good service its no service. If i told you in order to renew your passport you needed to come round my house and hand everything over to me and ill post it for you to liverpool and then later when they sent it back i'd give you a ring and you can fetch it and charge you for this you'd think I was crazy. But because there is a fancy company name and an office building your ok with it ?

seeing as its law to have a passport to travel it should have been etched in stone into law years ago that the  uk government has a statutory obligation to provide a same day or near as damit passport service wherever there is a diplomatic presence and were there isn't  strongly advise against travel. 

The cantankerous old git mentioned earlier was right to be astounded at the ludicrous photocopy requirement but obviously no point moaning at VFS because they serve no purpose. Cheaper and easier to report your passport lost or stolen than photocopy every damn page.

On 29/12/2016 at 5:32 AM, Lite Beer said:

Previously you applied to Liverpool by post and got the passport returned to your home address.

Before that you applied to Hong Kong by post and got your passport returned to your home address.

Before that you applied to the Embassy in Bangkok and got your passport returned to your home address.

A lot easier than making two journeys to Bangkok.

its ok some people when told to jump can only respond "how high". VFS is just corruption western style. If you live in Somali you can do it by post but not Thailand  ?

44 minutes ago, edwinchester said:

Having done visa runs at both, Savannakhet just last Thursday, I'd pick Chong Chom any day. Crossing the bridge is a pain and Thai and Laos Immigration officers there seem to be vying with each other to be the slowest and surliest.

yup just done the Savannakhet run applying for a 1 year non o and not a smile to be had from any officials on the whole trip. So glad to be back.

50 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Did you go to this topic that a link to it is in the post before mine.

 

no I missed that thanks but my point still stands, there should be document requirements listed in the reports .

On 17/12/2016 at 6:59 AM, ubonjoe said:

No changes.

no changes to what ? would be nice if the required documents were posted on at least one of the recent experiences of getting a visa in the region reports.

I have absolutely no problem lying to a government that creates totally unnecessary procedures, cost and paperwork that they are unable to verify , basically they are lying to everyone first. There's no reason I shouldn't be able to include her passport in the application as she's Thai and doesn't need it for identification.Just checked in Somalia this would be no problem lol.

When I renewed my passport there were 3 errors on my address that I "verified" (it would never have got to me in the post) but I knew there's no way they could check the damn thing and seeing as I had to travel to Bangkok to pick it up it didn't matter anyway.

If my daughter had a Thai passport but I couldn't find it it,,,,, just saved myself 500 baht.

how will they know if she has a thai passport ?

I will be renewing my daughters British passport soon. Does anybody know if I can just include her expired British passport with the application as opposed to photocopying every page seeing as she is also Thai and doesn't need to retain her uk passport ?

Anybody know if the Laos Visa on arrival office will still be open on the Vientiane border during Songkran i.e the 15th.

wonder why no conversion fees are charged on the Uk side ? it says cash advance on the receipt.

Back in September I walked into the branch of Krung Thai bank where I have a savings account with a visa debit card and asked for 100000 baht from my Uk nationwide card to be put into my savings account.She took me to card reader machine where I had to enter my pin, and after that spat out a receipt, then credited my savings book.

I checked my Nationwide account online and the usual 2% fees were not charged and also the rate was the actual visa exchange rate with no skimming.So all in all no fees. Forgot all about it as was going on holiday soon after and then tried it at another Krung Thai branch that said they couldn't do it.

Anyway just done the same today (same branch) and it looks as if the same has happened again (all thats been debited is the exact amount according to the rate) but will know for sure tomorrow when my statement updates

Been using the ATMs for the last 4 months

So you all know SCB ,Bangkok Bank, have now stopped expats etc from using your visa debit card to withdraw monies from inside the bank they were not getting anything from this service this is the reason I would think all Thai banks will or have followed suit. They want you to use ATM so that they get there rip off fee of 180 baht I will in future be using a swift transfer once a month or maybe 2,3 months at a time the fee is 20£. This bubble of a kingdom is getting so greedy.

This method looks ok for large amounts (not tried it myself) http://www.bangkokbank.com/bangkokbank/personalbanking/dailybanking/transferingfunds/transferringintothailand/receivingfundsfromuk/Pages/ReceivingFundsfromUK.aspx

^ don't forget the fee from your Thai bank for accepting the money .

Does being signed up to the AIS e service (which would not accept my passport number so used my daughter's id No) count as registering ?

As it now stands every expat outside of Europe has a genuine case for needing 2 passports just in case.

A second passport would not be of any use, though, if the passport containing your latest entry stamp into LOS was the one that got lost or stolen. You would not be allowed to use your other passport to exit LOS in such circumstances.

so how do you exit Thailand if you lose your passport ? an emergency travel document wont have an entry stamp either so surely a lost/stolen form from the police/embassy saying please accept this passport in lieu of the previous passport will suffice ?

Read the thread at http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/742924-lost-uk-passport-but-i-have-2-for-work-purposes/, in particular ubonjoe's advice at post #3.

needs the guy to report back on the outcome

As it now stands every expat outside of Europe has a genuine case for needing 2 passports just in case.

A second passport would not be of any use, though, if the passport containing your latest entry stamp into LOS was the one that got lost or stolen. You would not be allowed to use your other passport to exit LOS in such circumstances.

so how do you exit Thailand if you lose your passport ? an emergency travel document wont have an entry stamp either so surely a lost/stolen form from the police/embassy saying please accept this passport in lieu of the previous passport will suffice ?

Did anyone see this?

Couldn't he have got an emergency passport and done a visa run with that?

Passport wrangle landed Lindley chef in packed Thai detention centre for three weeks

http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/passport-wrangle-landed-lindley-chef-7775738

It says in the article that this guy actually reported himself to immigration and asked for help so immigration being understanding has now gone out the window.

As I have stated before if you now need a replacement passport for whatever reason (loss, theft..) and you do not have at least 10 weeks left on your permission to stay(3/4 weeks for Trendy appointment + 6 weeks minimum for passport) you could easily end up like this guy UNLESS YOU FLY BACK TO THE UK on an emergency passport.

I have yet to hear a single report of somebody either

1. using an emergency travel document to do an in/out and get another 90 days (30 would likely be not enough )with a new visa

2. getting Thai immigration to extend their permission of stay without a physical passport being present.

It seems the ONLY option is to fly home ? can anybody tell me different ?

As it now stands every expat outside of Europe has a genuine case for needing 2 passports just in case.

I tried to leave on a . multi entry non o visa in old passport with new passport at Mukdahan and was sent to the immigration office about 1km from the border.They didnt open until 8.30.They would not do this at the border kiosks.

It is an extremely nice, helpful and well laid out immigration centre (free coffee!) .