OJAS

Or, more to the point, doesn't!

The British Embassy plays no part in the renewal of UK passports from Thailand these days, unfortunately. Instead we are required to deal (either in person or through an agent at an extra cost of 5,000 THB or thereabouts) with a local outfit called VFS acting on behalf of His Majesty's Passport Office back in the UK. This entails a couple of trips to one or other of their offices in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, firstly, for the submisison of paper applications, and, secondly, a few weeks later for the collection of replacement passports. No question of us Brits being permitted to avail ourselves of even snail mail "hi-tec" dating back to the mid-19th Century as part of this process, let alone the internet! The UK passport renewal process from Thailand is, not to put a too fine point on it, a complete and utter bureaucratic shambles, and certainly appears to stand in stark contrast to the relatively sleek efficiency and convenience of the Dutch process as you have described it. When renewing your passport in the UK, however, you ARE allowed to use the internet (and, indeed, this method is actively encouraged by His Majesty's Passport Office these days)! Go figure why that is the case in the UK but not here in Thailand!!

Unlikely that he'll be able to obtain a new passport in the UK before his current permission to stay expires since the UK closes down for a fortnight over the Christmas/New Year period. So he'd be wasting his time (and 1,000 THB) by obtaining a re-entry permit, I think. @azt219 - one thing that I would definitely recommend in your case, though, is that you pay extra for a jumbo-sized passport so as to reduce the risk of being caught out in future by filled-up passport pages in advance of its expiry date.

In these circumstances I wonder whether the most practicable course of action in the OP's case might be to return to Thailand on his new passport with a 30-day visa exemption and then apply for a 90-day non-imm visa conversion at his local immigration office under the appropriate heading in his case as set out in the following link: https://www.immigration.go.th/en/?page_id=2537 If he were minded to proceed on this basis, however, he should be aware that, in order to avoid potential challenges at LHR (or from whichever UK airport he will be flying) with boarding his return flight, he would be strongly advised to purchase a cheap throw-away ticket for a flight out of Thailand to a neighbouring country within the following 30 days beforehand. Air Asia flights in particular have previously been recommended on here for this purpose.

@Thomas72 - how you go about applying for a non-O visa for retirement within Thailand (at your local immigration office) is 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

Which I believe he can do by submitting a completed TM11 form: https://www.immigration.go.th/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/8.อุทธรณ์คำสั่งของพนักงานเจ้าหน้าที่ที่ให้เดินทางออกนอกราชอาณาจักร-ตม.11.pdf Definitely a form which he should sign IMHO!

On the contrary good news, I would have thought, if your immigration office, like mine (Rayong), now requires evidence of monthly transactions relating to your 800k account, be this through a 12-month statement or passbook entries. If only Krungsri were to start doing the same in the case of my dedicated 800k account, I would then be spared the chore of having to make token 10 THB transfers into it each month!

But shouldn't merely a colour copy of the existing passport photopage prove sufficient for this purpose? That presumably contains all the info HMPO need in order to cancel the passport electronically (and hence render it useless for subsequent foreign travel prior to its expiry date). Requiring colour copies of each and every other passport page as well does strike me as being OTT - as well as providing IMHO unnecessary fodder for the development of conspiracy theories, as this whole thread illustrates perfectly, I think!

The last 3 exercises were commissioned in August 2018, August 2020 and January 2023. Make of that what you can!

Which they might just about be able to achieve by 23:59:59 on 31 December 2100, I think!

And equally allow us to return witnessed certificates by email as my occupational pension provider does, for instance.

Except in one crucial regard as far as we are concerned: Thai nationals are not permitted to countersign UK passport applications even if they come under one of the recognised professions.

In any event, in order to seek refunds from HMRC so as to avoid double taxation it would appear that we would first have to complete a highly complex 13-page form including a residency certification which the RD would need to provide: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1119722/Double_Taxation_Treaty_Relief_Form_DT-Individual.pdf No doubt the RD would require us to obtain a certified Thai translation at our expense of the HMRC form before they were prepared to entertain any possibility of providing the necessary residency certification. Not to mention how long this would take in a particular case would be anyone's guess, given that the RD would likely be swamped with countless numbers of this form from Brtish expats! And, once the RD have finally done their thing, what's the betting that HMRC would then insist on a certified English translation of their certification, again at our expense? Let's keep our fingers firmly crossed that it really doesn't all come to this! Not to mention that if it were to, many expats would inevitably (as I see things) need to start filing tax returns with HMRC for the first time ever (as well as with the RD).

Is this the document you had in mind? https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5b05425fed915d1317445ed2/DT_Digest_April_2018.pdf If so, there appears to be nothing, unless I'm missing something, which contradicts what I've said (or, more importantly, what the DTA in my perception says) under either the Government pensions section on page 3 or the specific Thailand heading on page 34.

Article 19(2)(a) of the UK DTA actually states: "Any pension paid by the Contracting State or a political subdivision or a local authority thereof to any individual in respect of services of a governmental nature rendered to that State or subdivision or local authority thereof shall be taxable only in that State." This would therefore appear to mean that the Thai RD can go whistle for any tax on UK civil service pensions (except in the case of widow's pensions paid to Thai wives of deceased retired UK civil servants, as is made clear by 19(2)(b)).

I flew with them on a return trip from BKK to CDG (Paris) via CAN (Guangzhou) in 2013. Nothing outstandingly remarkable good or bad about them in my experience, the only slight negative I encountered being with a surly Chinese immigration officer I found myself having to deal with when transiting on the outward leg at CAN, who, for some mysterious reason, insisted on plonking some hexagonal red stamp in my passport. Did not encounter any Chinese immigration officers (surly or otherwise) on the return leg, though, thankfully. But, as @herfiehandbag seems to allude to, flying with them between Thailand and Europe definitely felt to me like going the pretty way, which is the main reason why I haven't used them again since.

I'd pay good money never to have to make 2 trips in person to a particular orifice in Bangkok ever again at renewal time for my British passport!

@bluemoon58 is 100% correct. Visas and extensions of stay are as different from each other as are apples from oranges.

OP - the following link provides info on how to go about applying for a non-O conversion for retirement at your local immigration office, if need be: https://www.immigration.go.th/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/9.FOR-RETIREMENT-PURPOSES-50-YEARS-OLD-NON-O.pdf

Actually a mix of the 2 IS possible under the "combo" method. That said, even this won't be available in the OP's case since, as @norbra has pointed out, he's a monthly transfer short as regards the 65k income method.

But there have been quite a few reports on here of retirees performing land border runs in order to cancel their original non-OA visas following the introduction of mandatory health insurance requirements for holders of such visas past and present.

Assuming that by "visa" you actually mean a non-immigrant annual extension of stay for retirement, marriage, etc, one possibility that you might wish to consider (if reasonably practicable in your case) would be to do a border run, exiting on your expiring Nationality #1 passport and re-entering visa-exempt for 30 days on your new Nationality #2 passport. Then apply for a 90-day non-O conversion with the Nationality #2 passport at your local immigration office as set out in the following link: https://www.immigration.go.th/en/?page_id=2537 Then within 30 days of the revised permission to stay granted under the non-O conversion process expiring, resume seeking annual extensions of stay, this time with your Nationality #2 passport.

But does your French pension provider specifically require life certificates to be witnessed by someone "of suitable social standing" as is the case for the British State Pension? Or are they more easy-going as to who can perform the witnessing function?

Agreed. In a race also involving a snail and a tortoise the Asean Now website would definitely cross the finishing line in last place at the moment!

https://www.rd.go.th/fileadmin/user_upload/AEC/AseanTax-Thailand.pdf