OJAS

As is, of course, HMPO's similar insistence for passport photos in the case of us Brits!

Fine if you can find a professional photographer locally who is capable of taking mugshots complying with your home country's over-fussy requirements for passport photos. As already said, easier said than done in the case of us Brits!

Blue background seems be the standard norm for ID mugshots here in LOS. If the OP is a Brit, then heaven help him in coping with the whole load of fun and games which will probably await him in obtaining new paper mugshots in due course at passport renewal time! Not so easy to find a Thai professional photographer who is capable of taking mugshots against specific background hues of plain cream or light grey in my neck of the woods at least!!

More generally, though, I do consider it a mystery as to why VFS don't offer an optional mugshot-taking service as part of the renewal process. That could certainly mitigate some of the pain of the first compulsory trip at least to their office, I think. I can only surmise that they have been expressly forbidden by their HMPO masters from providing such a service on the grounds that nothing, absolutely nothing, must be allowed to get in the way of the possible development of a possible joint UK/Thai government strategy aimed at making our lives in LOS just as miserable and difficult as is humanly possible! Thankfully I was able to get mugshots for my last 2 passport renewals here in LOS during trips to the UK.

Well certainly none of the photo shops in my neck of the woods (Rayong province) which I've used over the years for Immigration mugshots appear to be the proud possessors of drapes coloured plain cream or light grey against which mugshots for new British passports can be taken. Presumably you fall over such drapes when entering photo shops in Isaan, but it's a bit much to expect me to make a trip there every 10 years specially for new passport mugshots, I think!

So where do you live? Maybe not a problem for those who live in major population centres like Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, etc, but certainly a significant one for those of us who live in the boonies! In particular, the acceptable background colour requirements differ in the case of digital and paper photos. In the case of digital photos, mug shots may be taken against "a plain light-coloured" background. Whereas in the case of paper photos, mug shots must only be taken against the correct shade of "a plain cream or light grey" background. https://www.gov.uk/photos-for-passports/photo-requirements It's getting paper photos taken against an acceptable background colour that's the major issue here in Thailand, since most professional photographers are only equipped to take mug shots against a turquoise or white background, which is the acceptable norm here for ID photos. Maybe some of them are capable of photoshopping the background colour so to make it appear to be in compliance with HMPO's over-fussy requirements, but that would, course, be in violation of HMPO's "no software altering" rule. And no doubt HMPO have their means for detecting whether or not this rule has been complied with.

This link is now saying that there is to be a 24-hour strike of postal workers between 12:30 on 16 Feb and 12:30 on 17 Feb!

What was the date of the covering DWP letter in your case, please, and is the deadline for the receipt of witnessed Life Certificates at the DWP end 16 weeks from this date (which I suspect will be common to all of us here in LOS who are about to be placed in the firing line)? Also worth noting that, in addition to the hit-and-miss postal service being experienced by some us locally here in LOS, there is considerable disruption at the UK end at the present time as a result of postal workers' strikes (which do, however, seem to be on hold at least for the time being pending the outcome of negotiations between Royal Mail and the CWU) and the Royal Mail cyber attack (which is continuing to have a negative impact on their international services). DWP really could not have picked a worse time to inflict this particular piece of bureaucratic nonsense on us, I think! https://www.royalmail.com/latest-news https://www.royalmail.com/international-incident-bulletin

21 February is the correct reporting date officially in your case. Unless you were issued with a notification slip specifically confirming a revised date of 28 March when you obtained your 1-year extension on 28 December (which strikes me as being highly unlikely to be the case from what you have - or, more to the point, not - said), 21 February is the reporting date you should be going by - all the more so if this is the due date which your current office has explicitly and categorically advised you of.

The fundamental passport renewal shambles which those of us living in LOS are required to endure has been around for much longer than Brexit - since 2014 in fact! https://www.gov.uk/government/news/changes-to-british-passport-services-in-thailand-2

Hmm, looks like 2 physical trips are also needed in your case - but to the Swedish Embassy instead of a rundown office block with an extremely silly name (assuming that Google has translated the following link from Swedish to English correctly): https://www.swedenabroad.se/sv/om-utlandet-för-svenska-medborgare/thailand/hjälp-till-svenskar-utomlands/pass-utomlands/förnyelse-av-pass-för-vuxna/ That said, there are also options of making these trips to consulates in Phuket, Pattaya, Chiang Mai or Hua Hin instead. Only a Chiang Mai alternative is available in the case of us Brits. Also, no wild goose chases needed of Thai professional photographers with usually a minimal grasp of the English language for mug shots complying with over-fussy requirements since all applicants are photographed on site at the time of application. But most significant, of course, is the claimed 2-4 weeks' wait for new passports. So, on balance, Swedish passport renewal procedures do, I will accept, appear to be an improvement over the nonsense which we Brits are required to endure. But I would hardly describe them as being hi-tech as you seem to imply! For that you can't, I think, beat the Irish: https://www.dfa.ie/irish-embassy/thailand/passports/how-to-apply-for-a-passport/

...in the exactly same way as our Irish cousins, for instance, can (and, indeed, have to!) do right now in the real world ???? https://www.dfa.ie/irish-embassy/thailand/passports/how-to-apply-for-a-passport/

Which it would appear you can: https://www.dfa.ie/media/missions/thailand/ourservices/Pension-Income-Letter-New.pdf

Are you planning to live on retirement in Thailand (only possible if you are at least 50 years old) or work here? The advice which can best be given to you on here is IMHO dependent on the answer to that particular question.

When the initial 40k/400k insurance requirement was introduced in October 2019, Pacific Cross did, as I recall, offer a couple of policies which were specifically tailored to this requirement. However their sales team actually encouraged me to opt for one of their mainstream policies instead, which was Immigration-compliant at a significantly lower premium cost (which could, furthermore, be reduced through deductibles which was not, however, possible in the case of the dedicated policies)!

You could probably do a 90-day report online or by snail mail on the basis of the old passport. If doing it in person, though, your immigration office would probably insist on doing the stamps transfer first.

Set out in following link: https://www.immigration.go.th/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/9.FOR-RETIREMENT-PURPOSES-50-YEARS-OLD-NON-O.pdf

Mind you, I do think that he has a point when it comes to the shambles of a passport renewal process which we Brits living in LOS are required to endure!

I suspect that we Brits living in LOS can but dream of the day when HMPO will permit us to renew our passports with similar ease and grace......

But at least they get their new passports mailed to them, so I understand. No need for second trips to rundown office blocks to collect them in person in their case! Also Thais have their mugshots taken as part of the renewal process. No need for them to spend ages beforehand trying to find a photographer who is capable of taking photos which comply strictly with over-fussy requirements. For us Brits here in LOS this can be easier said than done, particularly if we live in the boonies!

So which lucky citizen of which country are you?

So in your eyes it's only Thai Immigration we should be railing against as regards the amount of paperwork generated at extension of stay time, then, is it? Whereas we should, on the other hand in your eyes, be presumably skipping up and down our sois in a state of unbridled ecstasy, fulsomely singing the praises of HMPO to the very highest heavens as being the very best thing since sliced bread for the amount of paperwork generated at passport renewal time for us Brits here in LOS?

UK passports also have to be applied for in person in Thailand. This is because HMPO are clearly in considerable difficulty in grasping the "advanced" technologies involved in providing even a snail mail renewal system, let alone an online system, at least as far as Thailand is concerned, for some mysterious reason!

It's their HMPO masters against whom you should be railing in this particular instance IMHO. They are the ones who have inflicted the paper-guzzling With-It Tower Passport Renewal Experience on those of us living in Thailand (while encouraging the use of their online renewal service for expats living in practically every other country on this great planet of ours)! VFS are merely their vassals.

And on top of these increases are, of course. the non-optional extras imposed on most of us by the need to make 2 gruelling trips to a rundown office block with an extremely silly name in Bangkok!