OJAS

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!

Maybe it's because these guys have actually found an effective way of deadening the boom-boom racket emanating from those who have nothing better to do with their sad and pathetic existences than sadistically inflict their multi-megawatt sound systems turned up to full volume/bass on their neighbours??!!????

In the scenario to which you refer, you would need to submit a 90-day report 90 days after your return on 20th Feb - which, by my reckoning, is actually 20th May (20th Feb counts as Day 1 of the 90 as far as Immigration are concerned). So, if you were to exit the country every other month for work, you would never need to submit a 90-day report - or at least not until such time as you were to stay continuously in the country for 90 days.

Maybe you need a separate UK will to cover these, in addition to a Thai will as recommended by @DrJack54. If the will referred to in your OP embraces both Thailand and the UK, things could potentially get messy.

Makes me seriously wonder, though, whether the OP might be best off following in my footsteps by throwing in the towel on this whole charade - unless, of course, he needs a yellow book and pink card for the purposes of seeking permanent residency or Thai citizenship eventually.

I wouldn't have started this thread in the UK Home Country forum had I been talking about a part of the Thai government, would I?

I threw in the towel on any attempt to obtain a yellow book years ago when, after being given the dreaded "Bangkok Runaround" by my amphur (entailing a trip to the British Embassy to obtain some letter or other followed by a lot of faffing around at the MOFA while we endeavoured to provide them with a version of the certified translation of said letter which they were eventually prepared to endorse), I fell at the final fence when some eagle-eyed so-and-so back at the amphur spotted that the transliteration of my surname in the translated Embassy letter did not exactly match my wife's as stated in her ID card and blue book! But this is a decision which I have never come to regret ever since - even for my retirement extensions the increasingly dog-eared TM30 notification slip in my passport has done the trick thus far as regards proof of address! IMHO the yellow book and pink card are only of any intrinsic value to those seeking permanent residency or Thai citizenship, for which they are, I believe, prerequisites. That said, though, I might be tempted to have another crack at obtaining a yellow book and/or pink card if either were modified so as to be capable of including what I consider to be the most important piece of personal information in our case - namely the date when our current permission to stay in Thailand expires. But I'm not holding my breath for this to happen any time soon.

It's the "hanging on for ages" aspect that gets me more than the expense involved, I have to say!

So they require your latest extension of stay stamp which has been placed in your passport by a Thai immigration officer at a Thai immigration office to be translated into Thai. Absolutely speechless!!

The days of hanging on for ages at considerable expense while being "serenaded" with irritating muzak when calling HMRC may be behind us until early April at least?? https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64322140 If this trial is successful and adopted permanently, I hope that it also gets extended to other UK government organisations - in particular HMPO and DWP/IPC in our case.