OJAS

I had 2 separate accounts with separate Thai banks "relieved" by fraudsters several years ago, as a result of which I decided that I was not, in future, prepared to pay any bank here 200 or 250 THB each year for the "privilege" of having my ATM/debit card hacked.

Whenever I need extra cash, I just make an online transfer to my wife's account and send her down to an ATM to obtain this for me!

My understanding of Article 19 of the DTT is that it covers all public sector occupational pensions - e.g. Civil Service, local authority, NHS, police, military. The following link might also be worth a read:- https://www.gov.uk/tax-uk-income-live-abroad

You can check them out via this link:- https://www.rd.go.th/english/6045.html Also available via this UK government link:- https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/507424/uk-thailand-dtc180281_-_in_force.pdf

As I recall, the decision to transfer the responsibility for issuing new passports from the FCO (now FCDO) to the Home Office was taken at the behest of the Cabinet Office (who have overall responsibility for machinery of government issues) 10 years ago, principally on cost saving grounds. But the big mystery as far as I am concerned is why a transfer of intra-governmental responsibilities was felt to be necessary in order to achieve these cost savings. How come it was not considered possible for them to be achieved through leaving the passport-issuing responsibility in situ with the FCO/FCDO?

I suggest that you take a good read of the following link regarding your planned trip to France:- https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/le-ministere-et-son-reseau/actualites-du-ministere/informations-coronavirus-covid-19/demande-de-passe-sanitaire-en-cas-de-vaccination-a-l-etranger-procedure-pour-64244/ And a good read of this one regarding your eventual return trip to Thailand:- http://www.thaiembassy.fr/fr/voyagecovid/ It is possible to get them to display in English, thanks to Google Translate. But, if you've been a resident of France, you are pre

Your experience is IMHO a typical example of how the dreaded With-It Tower Passport Renewal Experience is, in practice, being operated purely for the convenience of VFS and their HMPO masters back in the UK, with zero regard to the convenience of those actually needing replacement passports - unless they live in 1 of the residential units in With-It Tower perhaps!

I strongly suspect that you found the Embassy rather more prepared to be helpful in the case of your passport predicament back in 2014 (which, of course, was around the same time as the dreaded With-It Tower Passport Renewal Experience was abruptly inflicted on us) than they would these days, based on my recent dealings with them as reported in my reply to @hotandstickyabove. IMHO your ire would be more appropriately directed towards Her Majesty's Government as a whole, whose collective aim has, since 2014, appeared to be to make life as difficult as is humanly possible for us expa

The Embassy are only prepared to get involved with an emergency passport where an imminent plan for a one-way trip back to the UK exists on the part of an applicant whose passport has been lost or stolen during their stay in Thailand. They are most certainly not prepared to issue emergency passports to those who are at risk of having their existing passports expire as a result of the VFS renewal service being arbitrarily suspended, as, for example, occurred last year when HMPO ordered the closure of their Bangkok and Chiang Mai offices for several weeks on spurious COVID-19 grounds. The only a

The final sentence of para 103 from this 2014 report caught my eye in particular:- The Government should offer expatriates ... the possibility of keeping their passport while waiting for a new one to be issued, by submitting a certified copy of the passport instead. Whilst we are required to submit colour copies of each page in our current passport, regardless of whether or not they contain visas or stamps, as part of the With-It Tower Passport Renewal Experience, these do not need to be certified. So presumably HMPO subsequently decided in their infinite wisdom not to