OJAS

Looks like a case of mixed - and, hence, totally confusing - messaging on VFS's part, I strongly suspect. No mention (yet at any rate) of any imminent Bangkok destination change for enforced UK passport renewal route marches on the GOV.UK website: https://www.passport.service.gov.uk/overseas/information/thailand/renew/adult

How have you been making your unsuccessful attempts to contact DWP? Personally I have experienced success through using their online enquiry form to contact them on matters relating to the State Pension: https://secure.dwp.gov.uk/ipc/personal-details

In the case of those seeking annual extensions on the basis of monthly income transfers (at least 65k for retirement and 40k for marriage), where there exists a specific IMM requirement for the foreign origin of such transfers to be proved, the general advice on here has been for these transfers to end up in Bangkok Bank accounts because Bangkok Bank, alone among the Thai banking fraternity, use special descriptors for listing these transfers in passbooks (FTT, standing for Foreign Telegraphic Transfer) and statements (International Transfer). So, if the OP is using the monthly income method of proving finances for his annual extension applications, he should be aware that he might encounter some additional bureaucratic hassle which he would probably not have done had he opened an account with Bangkok Bank. But almost certainly not outright rejection, though.

It certainly feels like that sometimes (to me at any rate), I have to say! At the very least, we can, I think, be forgiven for believing that His Majesty's Government as a whole is consciously out to make the lives of us British expat retirees living in LOS just as difficult as they humanly can be - with the eager and willing assistance of its Thai counterpart, of course. Cumbersome bureaucracy which has been inflicted on us over the past 10 years in the areas of passport renewal and legalisation of UK documents is, I believe, testament to such an approach - along with the Embassy's decision to cease its income confirmation service some time ago. And specifically on the topic of frozen pensions,we are then expected to endure insult added to injury through: (1) having the bureaucratic nonsense known as the Life Certificate inflicted on us every couple of years or so in just about the most cumbersomely awkward manner which DWP have been capable of dreaming up; and (2) being taxed on our frozen State Pensions through our tax codes as if we were in receipt of triple-lock increases - in the hope that we don't notice, perhaps??

If you were to travel to Malaysia before your existing passport expired, it might be possible for you to renew it from there using HMPO's online facility - an option which is denied to those renewing from Thailand for some ridiculous reason. Follow the step-by-step guide at https://www.gov.uk/overseas-passports selecting Malaysia, rather than Thailand, as the country you live in. Then upon your return to Thailand with a new passport it might then, in theory, be possible for you to convert your 30-day visa-exempt entry into a fresh non-B visa at your local immigration office - provided, of course, that you can, in practice, provide the mountain of paperwork seemingly required: https://www.immigration.go.th/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/1.FOR-WORKING-IN-A-COMPANY-OR-LIMITED-PARTNERSHIP-NON-B.pdf

That might well be their policy until DWP's Sir Humphrey steps in.

Not sure whether that would put the OP's own Thai citizenship in jeopardy, though. But assuming that it didn't then both he and his wife would be able to poke the middle finger at both British and Thai immigration bureaucracy, of course. True Utopian paradise, I think! 😁

HMPO are even worse in that regard when we Brits need to renew our passports here. A 4-page paper application form has to be completed in our ultra-neatest handwriting. And woe betide us if we stray outside any of the microscopic character boxes! And woe betide us also if we have the audacity to use anything other than a BLACK pen in completing this form!! And then HMPO go and demonstrate their love of paper even further by insisting on paper copies of each and every page in our existing passports being provided, even blank pages! And these copies must be printed in colour, not black-and-white!! Just how pointlessly daft is that??

Short of raising a formal complaint with DWP about this "shining" example of blatantly brazenly bungling incompetence and ineptitude on their part in accordance with the procedure set out on the GOV.UK website*, I'm not sure what else can be done on this matter. * https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/about/complaints-procedure

As I recall the OP is one of those lucky so-and-so's who has actually succeeded in obtaining Thai citizenship - likely meaning that he has an extensive employment track record here in LOS and hence could be eligible for an occupational pension locally from which his wife may be able to benefit after he has popped his clogs.

@john smith I can also vouch for this service on the basis of personal experience of it in dealing with HMRC on issues relating to capital gains tax on the UK property I sold at the back end of 2021. Following is the link you'll need to click in order to set the ball rolling: https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/ask-hmrc/chat/self-assessment Jusy beware, though, that outside HMRC office hours you are unlikely to find yourself able to chat to anything (or anyone) other than a computer!

@john smith I agree with this suggestion. I have personally opted to continue filing tax returns even though my income sources these days are confined to my occupational and State Pensions following the sale of my UK property at the back end of 2021, precisely as a counter to the disgraceful manner in which DWP and HMRC are seeking to add insult to injury in our case by seeking to tax us on our perpetually frozen State Pensions through our tax codes as if we were in full receipt of triple-lock increases! My latest tax return took less than an hour to file online, which IMHO beats hands down hanging for at least this length of time (and unable to do anything other than twiddling your thumbs in the meantime) in an attempt to call HMRC. You will, however, need to open a Govt Gateway account in order to be able to file tax returns online.

Not to mention the considerable time wasted on your part until someone at the HMRC or DWP end can actually be bothered to pick up your call, during which time you are "serenaded" with irritating muzak interspersed with repetitive meaningless messages along the lines of "All our advisers are busy at the present time, but your call will be answered just as soon as it can be"! 😡

And, boy, his experience would be truly "real" were he to renew his passport here in Thailand, believe you me! Can vouch for this on the basis of my own encounter with the ghastly UK passport renewal procedures from Thailand at the back end of 2022!!

No such stamp is affixed to cancelled British passports. Instead cancellation is merely denoted by the top and bottom corners of the front cover being snipped off with a pair of scissors. Essential for @twozeds to ensure that this is done to his existing passport after renewal in the UK but before presentation with his new passport to IMM at BKK Arrivals upon his return.

@twozeds - plus the page containing your latest permission to stay stamp from your new one, of course (cannot now edit my previous posting).

Easier said than done in practice for us Brits, thanks to the cumbersomely bureaucratic passport renewal procedures which have been inflicted on us locally in their infinite wisdom by His Majesty's Passport Office (HMPO) back in the UK - and, which, as alluded to by the OP, require, among other things, a couple of physical trips to offices located in Bangkok or Chiang Mai (particularly awkward and time-consuming for those of us who don't live within a stone's throw of either of those cities), firstly, to submit paper applications in person and, secondly, several weeks later to collect our new passports once HMPO have seen fit to issue them. On the other hand, if the OP were to renew his passport while in the UK, he would be able to do so using HMPO's online facility - an option which is denied to those of us renewing from Thailand for some ridiculous reason!

Better to do this sooner rather than later IMHO. In addition to your old and new passports your local immigration office will probably require from you copies of (1) the photopages from both passports, and (2) the pages containing stamps/visas from your old one, together with the following form duly completed: https://www.immigration.go.th/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/22.Transfer-Stamp-to-New-Passport-Form.pdf

And also collaborates closely with His Majesty's Passport Office in making the passport renewal process for local British expats just as cumbersomely, bureaucratically and awkwardly difficult as is humanly possible. A "task" in which it excels itself supremely.

After your extension of stay application has been approved you are required to maintain a minimum 800k bank balance for a further 3 months. Thereafter you may let it dip to a minimum of 400k until 2 months before next year's extension of stay application is due, by which time it will need to have been upped to at least 800k again. @couchpotato - too much of a superhuman effort for you then, was it, to have taken a couple of minutes out of your extremely valuable time to provide this information? 🙄

In stark contrast to the VFS office handling UK passport renewals in a throwback to the 70's. Can't see all that many being prepared to suffer the rigours of the dreaded With-It Tower Passport Renewal Experience solely on those grounds - definitely not me at any rate!

This advice certainly doesn't match my experience of being able, in practice, to file a 90-day report online following each foreign trip (my office is Rayong). That said, your particular circumstances do appear to be rather exceptional, though.

In the meantime, lest we forget, we'll have the Chinese New Year nonsense to have to contend with over the next few days - which kicked off in my locality a few minutes ago (yes at 5:30 am!!) with lunatics letting off firecrackers. Didn't appreciate being aroused from my slumbers in this way.🤬

Unless these exceed 60,000 THB in a given tax year.

Unless @Happy happy is American, Australian or British, it might alternatively be possible for him to obtain an income confirmation statement from his home country embassy on a one-off basis for his next extension application.