OJAS

Assuming that the office you'll be dealing with is Chaengwattana as stated in your OP, @TylerBKK's 4 March post in the following thread provides a comprehensive list of all relevant requirements in their case:

100% correct in the case of non-O visa conversions for retirement. For the benefit of the individual(s) who appear(s) to be suffering from a bout of confusion in reaction to your post, this is IMHO perfectly clear from the official guidance which has been issued by the Immigration Bureau: https://www.immigration.go.th/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/9.FOR-RETIREMENT-PURPOSES-50-YEARS-OLD-NON-O.pdf

Indeed, contrast the ease and grace with which our American cousins, for example, are faced with at passport renewal time, when compared to the cumbersome nonsense which HMPO have, in their infinite wisdom, inflicted on us Brits: https://th.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/passports/adult-passport-renew/

It should not be forgotten, though, that agents' fees (typically in the order of 5,000 THB) represent a significant additional cost in themselves - which is the point I was making.

Of particular interest to those of us renewing from Thailand is that the cost of a standard paper application when applying from overseas will increase to £112.50 for adults and £77.00 for children. Added to which are, of course, the costs of the 2 enforced route marches to VFS offices in Bangkok or Chiang Mai. Yet a standard online application when applying from overseas will only rise to £101.00 for adults and £65.50 for children! All the more totally inexcusable for those incompetent clowns in HMPO to steadfastly refuse to make this faciity available to those of us renewing from Thailand for some ridiculous reason or other. I think!!🤬 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/update-on-passport-application-fees

This appears to imply, however, that there may be other land immigration checkpoints in addition to these 8 at which the TM6 requirement will not be relaxed!

Don't know where you got that info from, but the version of the TM47 form currently downloadable from the Immigration Bureau website includes the following statement at the very end: (The fine of Overdue Notification is not exceeding 5,000 Baht) https://www.immigration.go.th/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/18.Form-TM-47.pdf

Surely no worse than the annual ritualistic 31 December / 1 January nonsense, though, from which there, sadly, appears to be no escape anywhere on this great planet of ours. Even if you try and avoid it by staying in as I always do these days, there's still no getting away from the pyromaniac lunatics who take great delight in terrorising their (and your) neighbourhoods by setting off volleys of loud fireworks just after midnight.😡

So he'll only be banned from entering Thailand again for 5 years. Had he been nabbed 15+ days later (allowing for the fact that 2024 is a leap year), he would have received a 10-year ban! https://www.tratimmigration.com/thailand-visa-overstay-regulations/

And not just Everton's record but also those of Nottingham Forest and Leicester City. As you say, contrast the zeal and glee with which the EPL are going after the small fry in the form of those 3 clubs with their foot-dragging in the case of the big fish like Manchester City and Chelsea. Might a steady supply of well-stuffed brown envelopes from certain quarters be influencing the EPL's priorities in this whole matter, I wonder??

I have come to the conclusion that the only surefire way of dealing with this totally unsatisfactory state of affairs in my case is through filing tax returns with HMRC. Even though I no longer, in theory, need to file tax returns following the sale of my UK property in late 2021, I have opted to continue doing so precisely because of the problematical issues referred to this thread. In completing a tax return I always instruct HMRC not to collect any tax due in respect of my State Pension through my tax code by checking the 2 appropriate boxes in the SA100 form. Instead I make direct on-account and balancing payments to them based on the actual State Pension payments total for the tax year in question as reported in that form.

Wonder whether @Nayet uses an agent for all his dealings with IMM? If he does, then it is surely still a good idea for him to provide said agent with printed proof of his current TM30 status, as recommended by @Caldera.

So much, then, for HMPO's apparent justification for the bureaucratic nonsense we Brits locally have been required to endure these past 10 years or so at passport renewal time (necessitating 2 physical trips an office building in Bangkok or Chiang Mai where VFS are currently hanging out in), on the grounds that we're supposed to have our passports on us at all times! 🤣

And long may that happy state of affairs remain as far as I am concerned. The Bangkok Bank mobile app always proved hit and miss in firing up on my smartphone and over time proved increasingly more miss than hit. So I then jacked it in disgust - and this thread exemplifies very well why I have no intention of returning to it any time soon. Long live internet banking, say I!

Likely no visa to revoke in this case, though, if this particular self-opiniated, egotistical, moronic Austrian was, unfortunately, admitted into Thailand on the basis of a 30-day visa exemption.

And a further key point which IMHO the OP needs to check is whether his home country has a diplomatic presence in Laos, in the form of an embassy or consulate. It it doesn't and consular-related issues arise in his case which need to be dealt with, he might find himself obliged to make physical trips to his home country's embassy in, guess where, Bangkok!

OP - this thread might also be of interest to your daughter:

Sounds to me like they probably mean a copy of her mother's blue Thor.Ror.14 Tabien Bahn - see link below for further info including an image of what one looks like. https://magnacarta.co.th/home/faq-section-2/house-registration-book/

- Special conditions: 1. Citizens of the People’s Republic of China who do not have a residence in Vietnam may be able to apply for a Tourist/ Transit visa once if they have round trip ticket to and from Thailand, evidence of accommodation in Thailand, and adequate finance.

According to their website, though, Hoh Chi Min City do have a special condition for PR China nationals "who do not have a residence in Vietnam" but "may be able to apply for a Tourist/ Transit visa once if they have round trip ticket to and from Thailand, evidence of accommodation in Thailand, and adequate finance." https://hochiminh.thaiembassy.org/en/publicservice/tourist-visa?page=5d80ab3315e39c2fe800a7a7&menu=5d80ab3315e39c2fe800a7a8 Maybe Savannakhet would be an alternative possibility if they couldn't meet Hoh Chi Min's requirements and it's single-entry - rather than multi-entry - tourist visas that they're after and they could meet their financial requirements? Don't know how easy the consulate is to get to from Chiang Mai, though. https://savannakhet.thaiembassy.org/th/publicservice/104412-tourist-visa?page=5d84a44c15e39c26b400453e&menu=5d84a44c15e39c26b400453f

Probably didn't bother with "little trivial things" like that. Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if the Embassy - and, hence, the British taxpayer - ended up stumping up the costs of an emergency travel document + air ticket + 20,000 THB max overstay fine in his case.

The fact that he skipped his trial at Chester Crown Court in December 1997 (as stated in the OP) would have automatically guaranteed his inclusion on any official watchlist, I would have thought. And when his name cropped up in the PNR data list* for the flight he took, this probably set alarm bells ringing at New Scotland Yard or wherever. * https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/passenger-name-record-data/passenger-name-record-data

Could you not get the originators of the letters in question to send them directly to your friend?

Richard Burrows, 80, was arrested on Thursday after flying back to the UK from Thailand, nearly three decades after a warrant was issued for his arrest. So it looks like we may well have the PNR data list for the flight in question to thank for this vile individual finally receiving his long-overdue comeuppance. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/passenger-name-record-data/passenger-name-record-data

If you've already got flights booked you might as well still go ahead with the trip IMHO and proceed in accordance with @richard_smith237's (1) to (3). How you go about applying for an emergency travel document, as per his (1), is set out in the following link: https://www.gov.uk/travel-urgently-from-abroad-without-uk-passport And, as a variation to his (3), you might instead wish to consider returning to Thailand with a 30-day visa exemption and then converting this into a 90-day non-O visa for retirement at your local immigration office, as set out in the following link: https://www.immigration.go.th/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/9.FOR-RETIREMENT-PURPOSES-50-YEARS-OLD-NON-O.pdf Just beware, though, that, if you are minded to go down this alternative route, you will probably, when checking in for your return flight at LHR or wherever, be required to show proof of a confirmed flight booking out of Thailand within the following 30 days before you are permitted to board this flight. A cheap throwaway ticket for the likes of an Air Asia flight to a destination in an adjoining country (e.g. Kuala Lumpur) should do the trick here.