OJAS

Equally amazing, I think, is the comparison between one part of the Home Office which allows VFS to operate a payment system in the case of UK visas, and another part which does not allow them to operate a payment system in the case of UK passports!

As stated by @Badrabbit definitely renew your passport in the UK rather than in Thailand if I were you. Although the Online Premium and 1-Week Fast Track services were suspended a while back, both now seem to be available again if these links are to be believed:- https://www.gov.uk/get-a-passport-urgently/online-premium-service https://www.gov.uk/get-a-passport-urgently/1-week-fast-track-service A particular point to bear in mind if renewing in the UK is that you will probably not then need to provide the Embassy's misleadingly-titled "visa transfer" letter when getting your local immigration office to transfer existing stamps from old to new passports. This is because the latest permission to stay stamp which is placed in your new passport by Immigration at BKK Arrivals upon your return to Thailand should provide your local office with the necessary assurance that the new passport is genuine and bona fide in lieu of an Embassy letter.

For your part I guess that the oft-quoted AseanNow mantra which goes "Let Google be your friend" has somehow managed to pass you by. On the contrary, when it comes to identifying potential border run service providers, you clearly seem to regard Google as your sworn enemy solely on the basis of a completely unsubstantiated belief regarding the currency of the information which its searches yield!

All I can say is that I have just conducted a Google search of my own based on "border runs from Pattaya Cambodia" in line with @visarunner's suggestion - and up popped loads of potential options! Some people on here really expect to be spoonfed to a ridiculous degree, don't they?

Given your reference to Sattahip this was presumably Jomtien?

How short is this window, please? A month, a fortnight, a week ............?

Anxiety, rather than boredom, would, I think, more appropriately sum up my feelings if I were in your shoes! But, assuming that a trip to Immigration on your part has now taken place, what was the verdict?

And her blue tabien bahn (housebook) if that is for the address where you will both be living.

Presumably the absence of any reference to the mandatory health insurance requirement means that your original non-immigrant visa was of the "O" variety?

Maybe, just maybe, HMPO will sit up and take notice if Virgin Money tell them that it's high time for the antediluvian risk-laden (for the applicant) With-It Tower Passport Renewal Experience to be replaced by procedures which are far more compatible with the relatively secure hi-tec world of the 3rd decade of the 21st Century (as already apply when renewing from the UK). But, there again, probably not, unfortunately, if they are entrenched, as they seem to be, in the view that we Brits living in LOS are all Luddites.

Annual CSP increases are implemented each April on the basis of the previous September's CPI rate (which is usually announced around mid-October).

Yep, the UK passport renewal procedures from Thailand are the ultimate in hi-tec!????

As suggested by ubonjoe, multi-entry non-O visas for marriage obtained from the Savannakhet Consulate requiring no proof of funds plus border runs every 90 days during the lifetime of each visa strike me as being the most practicable option in your pal's case, once, of course, he has married his girlfriend. An additional advantage is that he would also be spared any possibly confusing (for him) dealings with his local immigration office, including no need for 90-day reports, nor even for a TM30 form to be filed in his case.

For which you would, of course, require a work permit which could prove easier said than done to obtain.

Yes, back in 2015 you could only apply for a non-O conversion at CW regardless of where you lived in Thailand.

Think I can now answer my own question. Available times at Bangkok are 08:30 - 14:00 Mondays to Fridays. Same times at Chiang Mai, but only on Tuesdays & Thursdays. https://visa.vfsglobal.com/tha/en/gbr/hmpo

Between what times is it possible to book initial appointments at VFS Mondays-Fridays excluding public holidays, please? Could be useful for those living some distance from Bangkok to know in determining whether or not they also need to book overnight accommodation in that not-so-fair (IMHO) city. Maybe you could include this info in your closed/pinned thread.

Particularly at 90-day reporting time if he needs to do this in person for whatever reason!

According to the Bangladesh Bangkok Embassy website, all you need as a non-Thai national applying for a visa there is a "work pemit / stay permit in Thailand". https://bdembassybangkok.org/application-process-for-visa/ Don't you already have a Thai work permit? If for some reason you don't, then you do at least have a current permission to stay stamped in your passport, don't you? I would therefore strongly advise you to check with the Bangkok Embassy whether either of these (as appropriate) would do the trick in your case before sending your passport off on a magical mystery tour of Washington DC. While your company might well pay for the shipping, would they necessarily pay for the cost of a replacement passport in the event of your existing one going astray en route to or from - or while in - DC?

The following thread includes useful info provided by ubonjoe as to how you go about obtaining a non-O conversion at your local immigration office initially:-

Fingers firmly crossed for Phuketian retirees that the Police Order referred to by ubonjoe doesn't spark a change of heart from 1st October, though!

Bumping this thread because today (1 September) was the date from which the increased 100,000 USD health insurance requirement for retirees with original non-OA visas who hadn't yet ditched these for replacement non-O ones was supposed to apply according to perceived wisdom on here. Yet no Police Order has, to the best of my knowledge yet been issued to confirm this implementation date. Had one already been issued I am sure that it would have resulted in a multi-page thread on here by now. According to @JimGant in the following inappropriately-titled (IMHO) thread, it would appear that the implementation date has been put back to 1 October. But, once again, this is, of course, subject to a suitable Police Order being issued between now and then. https://aseannow.com/topic/1268670-mickey-mouse In the meantime annual retirement extensions for original non-OA visa holders are presumably still being issued on the basis of the 400,000/40,000 THB insurance requirement.

You may well have been exceedingly fortunate in never having encountered a queue of any shape, size or description anywhere or at any time at BKK Departures. Many others haven't, though.

Yeah bullet-proof simple provided there aren't humungous queues for check-in, security, the re-entry permit itself and immigration departures, of course.

The reason I was asking was that, although Rayong is my local immigration office, Chanthaburi is more or less the same distance from where I live in the opposite direction on Highway 3. Unfortunately, unlike you, I don't also have a place in Chanthaburi, so it looks like it might be touch and go as to whether I could obtain a re-entry permit there instead of at Rayong. Out of curiosity, in view of your recent positive experience at Chanthaburi might you now be seriously tempted to switch your "allegiance" for annual extensions and 90-day reports to there from Jomtien by filing a TM30 for your Chanthaburi place? That is definitely something which I would consider doing if I were in your shoes!