OJAS

Just be aware, though, that, even if your local immigration office were to permit a stamps transfer from passport A to passport B, HMPO, in their infinite "wisdom" will still require a sight of Passport B when you renew Passport A. Further info in the other ongoing thread on here about dual British passports.

To put it in a nutshell this is a graphic illustration of how Her Majesty's Passport Office in the UK have IMHO even surpassed the Thai Immigration Bureau in the complete mastery of the totally illogical by a country mile!

But I do think that it was slightly disingenuous of you to have only accentuated the pro's in your OP without even a passing mention of the con's. You may well be aware of all the requirements, but it would IMHO be foolish to assume that everyone reading your OP in isolation would similarly be aware - meaning that they could gain the misleading impression that obtaining this visa would be a walk in the park, as, indeed, I did before reading @GroveHillWanderer's reply.

And what I think is also to be appreciated about Thai passport renewals is that your mugshot is taken as part of the process. No need to worry about running the risk of obtaining mugshots which are a micro-millimetre out in prescribed photo and/or facial sizes and/or whose background colours are the wrong hue of plain cream or plain light-grey on the basis of HMPO's over-fussy requirements!

Suspect that the official HMPO line is that your current permission to stay stamp should satisfy the proof of residency requirement, but that it is VFS who are insisting that it should be a document containing your address. If so, then it seems to me a clear case of VFS staff following the example of their brethren in immigration offices in making up local rules purely for the sake of it!

Additional irritations:- (1) The requirement to provide some proof of residency in Thailand. What on earth business is this of HMPO's? (2) The requirement to provide copies of each and every page in your existing passport, even unused ones. What is HMPO's rationale for this colossal waste of paper? (3) The lack of any tracking facility for applications submitted from Thailand as referred to by @Satcommlee

Land entries into Thailand are, indeed, possible. Please refer to the thread which contained a comprehensive report of a recent visa run to Savannakhet as confirmation of this.

IMHO some on here are making mountains out of molehills on this point!

Equally true of Thailand as well, I think, even though a visa conferring a requirement for entry does not equal a permission to stay. If you renew a passport containing a visa which has not yet been fully used (in terms of its expiry date) to gain entries into the Kingdom, then you have to have both old and new passports on you when dealing with Immigration until it has been.

High time you removed those rose-tinted specs you've been wearing for the last 7+ years then, I think. An "overall easy and efficient passport renewal service", really? Who are you trying to kid?? Not many on here, I think!!!

You appear to be mixing up VFS's roles as regards the UK visa application process for Thai nationals and the dreaded With-It Tower Passport Renewal Experience in the case of us Brits! In the case of the former they refer visa applications to an office in New Delhi for approval. In the case of the latter they perform a few tasks which are nowadays deemed by HMPO to be far too difficult for passport applicants in Thailand to undertake themselves, like placing application docs into an envelope, sealing said envelope as necessary and then sending it on its merry way to an HMPO office in the UK by courier.

But, as pointed out in other threads, all subject to publication in the Royal Gazette.

Yep, all you need to know about the dreaded With-It Tower Passport Experience!

So by the same token do you also agree that it is a thoroughly bad idea to have your Thai bank in control of your "visa"/permission to stay? If not, why not?

Yesterday's debate in the House of Commons about this "august" body might be worth a listen (please note that it lasts an hour, though). Sounds like the whole UK passport renewal process is just as much of a bloody shambles back in the UK as it is here in Thailand at the present time! House_of_Commons_27-04-22_12-40-00.mp4