OJAS

In which case these dumba$$ foreign women also need to enhance their language skills, I think!

OP - the following link to the Royal Thai Embassy in Washington website sets out how you go about applying for a tourist visa from the States these days: https://washingtondc.thaiembassy.org/en/page/trsingle-entry

So presumably you live within a stone's throw of either of the VFS offices in Bangkok or Chiang Mai?

So did you likewise use this agent to make a couple of extremely time-consuming trips on your behalf to a dilapidated office building located somewhere or other in deepest, darkest Bangkok when you last had to renew your British passport? IMHO the use of agents should be confined to the truly difficult things in life, like negotiating the highly burdensome procedures relating to the renewal of your passport from Thailand if you're a Brit.

IMHO the use of agents should be restricted to the truly difficult things in life, like renewing your passport from Thailand if you're a Brit.

The reason it contains is that the report was premature. Easily deducible without the assistance of Sherlock Holmes, I think.

Here is one I received a few months ago: Your application for "STAYING LONGER THAN 90 DAYS" has been rejected. Latest visa extension was on 20 July 2023. Next 90 day notification will be on 17 Oct 2023.

Rest be assured that I'm working on this!😀

Who knows, by 2031 all you'll need to do is to download a passport app on to your smartphone! 😝

As far as UK passports are concerned, it is His Majesty's Passport Office back in the UK who are solely responsible for the bloody bureaucratic shambles we Brits are faced with at passport renewal time. VFS locally are merely acting as their agents.

So one shining example of totally pointless HMG bureaucracy came in extremely useful for another! 🤣

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"! 😡