A warning about the UK Passport office in Bangkok

[OJAS]

1 minute ago, johng said:

 

Boris ? Part of the eye popping exploits
that Britain's in Thailand get up to.

 

No, that particular decision was taken long before he came on the scene. The real villain of the piece is, I suspect, some anonymous mandarin in the Home Office with sadistic tendencies!

[sanemax]

On 3/5/2018 at 1:48 PM, Kinnock said:

Welcome to the future of the British Embassy in Thailand - now that the near-bankrupt UK Government has had to sell the family silver and move from Wireless Road to a 'tower block'.

The British Embassy hasnt dealt with issuing new passports for a few years now

[sanemax]

On 3/5/2018 at 11:27 AM, Bangkok Barry said:

It should be simple, but of course nothing in Thailand ever is. It took me over 15 minutes simply to get into the lift as there were people queuing almost out of the building when I arrived.

Are you sure that you are not exaggerating ?

The building entrance is a long way from the lift , if the queue stretched that far back, it would take hours to get into the lift

[sanemax]

On 3/5/2018 at 11:27 AM, Bangkok Barry said:

Another thing - I have read on here that passports usually take two weeks to arrive for collection. Today I was told that it is four weeks, but I wait and see what the reality is.

They tell you that it will take four weeks, for them to be on the safe side , in reality, its more like two weeks

[sanemax]

On 3/5/2018 at 11:47 AM, Bangkok Barry said:

I've never in my life had to wait nearly 20 minutes to get into a lift

I jolly well hope that you started tutting , huffing & puffing and stamped your feet, when you finally walked into the lift , and then started waving your arms around, before standing silently in the lift with your arms folded and refusing to squeeze into the lift , to show them how annoyed you were.......and muttered something under your breathe, when you departed the lift

[Bangkok Barry]

1 hour ago, sanemax said:

Are you sure that you are not exaggerating ?

The building entrance is a long way from the lift , if the queue stretched that far back, it would take hours to get into the lift

No. Soon after I joined it the queue backed up nearly to the door, so I consider myself lucky to have only waited 15 minutes. Actually, it was 20, including the ride to the top.

[Bangkok Barry]

55 minutes ago, sanemax said:

I jolly well hope that you started tutting , huffing & puffing and stamped your feet, when you finally walked into the lift , and then started waving your arms around, before standing silently in the lift with your arms folded and refusing to squeeze into the lift , to show them how annoyed you were.......and muttered something under your breathe, when you departed the lift

No. Stiff upper lip and all that. I've lived in Thailand a very long time and know the only way to survive is to count to 100 and suffer in silence.

[dick dasterdly]

On 3/5/2018 at 7:47 PM, observer90210 said:

I would raise the issue with London, the UK press or an MP in England....or why not a crispy letter signed by any UK Expats Association in Thailand and directly sent to the Foreign Office ??.... it is indecent for any country to treat one's nationals as such, abroad.

A good point, but we all know that 'expat' problems are very low on the list of the brit. govt. and embassies.

 

I pay a visa agent to deal with retirement visa extensions/90 day reports on my behalf, and also intend paying a 'passport renewal' agent when necessary.

 

Having learned from this forum a few months ago that it's no longer possible to renew our passports by post (unless employing an agent)  - I'm still bad tempered about it!

[OJAS]

2 hours ago, dick dasterdly said:

Having learned from this forum a few months ago that it's no longer possible to renew our passports by post (unless employing an agent)  - I'm still bad tempered about it!

You are not alone!

[OJAS]

On 3/5/2018 at 11:58 AM, worgeordie said:

I have to renew my passport later this year and i am

dreading having to go there,so it will be 2 trips from

Chiang Mai,just to get a passport.

regards worgeordie

What I would find particularly galling if I were in your shoes is that Brits are not permitted to submit their applications and receive their new passports through the VFS local office in Chiang Mai, given that the Home Office has decreed in its infinite wisdom that the sole purpose of this particular office is to provide local Thais with a convenient facility for seeking UK visas!

Edited March 7, 2018 by OJAS

[Eff1n2ret]

1 hour ago, OJAS said:

What I would find particularly galling if I were in your shoes is that Brits are not permitted to submit their applications and receive their new passports through the VFS local office in Chiang Mai, given that the Home Office has decreed in its infinite wisdom that the sole purpose of this particular office is to provide local Thais with a convenient facility for seeking UK visas!

I don't disagree. The problem is that VFS have two  separate mandates from the Home Office - UKVI for visa applicants and HMPO for passports. My impression is that the two operations run separately at Trendy - the booths to the left of the entrance are for passport applicants, and I wasn't in there long enough to sus out the Visa operation, which I believe is for more countries than just the UK. If VFS and HMPO between them decide that there wouldn't be a sufficient flow of passport applicants in Chiang Mai to justify the cost of providing the  service, they could perhaps train selected staff for both operations.

But roll on the day when we can apply online - well, perhaps not me, I have a replacement within a couple of years and if they haven't done it by then I wouldn't expect to need another passport after that.

[worgeordie]

2 hours ago, OJAS said:

What I would find particularly galling if I were in your shoes is that Brits are not permitted to submit their applications and receive their new passports through the VFS local office in Chiang Mai, given that the Home Office has decreed in its infinite wisdom that the sole purpose of this particular office is to provide local Thais with a convenient facility for seeking UK visas!

Yes,I just got my last passport through Chiang Mai Consulate (?), a few weeks before

they stopped doing them there,sometimes you feel the UK does not give a fig about

their subjects that live overseas,Passports been one and no increase in your Pension another.

 

regards worgeordie

[Lungstib]

1 hour ago, worgeordie said:

Yes,I just got my last passport through Chiang Mai Consulate (?), a few weeks before

they stopped doing them there,sometimes you feel the UK does not give a fig about

their subjects that live overseas,Passports been one and no increase in your Pension another.

Not sometimes. All times. I have got 14 old British passports in my possession and there's not a doubt that they just got more difficult to get as time passed. As I understand it there are now agents that can do this for you which gets me more than a little agitated that some unknown, non-British agent is trusted more than the British individual. As a man on very small money this 3,200kms double, return trip from my home to Bangkok is unrivalled in its stupidity. DHL can do the job perfectly. My passport wont give a toss about doing the trip, but a man closing on 70 doesn't need it. Senseless.

[Lungstib]

4 hours ago, OJAS said:

What I would find particularly galling if I were in your shoes is that Brits are not permitted to submit their applications and receive their new passports through the VFS local office in Chiang Mai, given that the Home Office has decreed in its infinite wisdom that the sole purpose of this particular office is to provide local Thais with a convenient facility for seeking UK visas!

And finding this out just makes my blood boil. What a ducking outfit!

[OJAS]

13 hours ago, Eff1n2ret said:

But roll on the day when we can apply online

Agreed - although I strongly suspect that security considerations would probably mean that we would still need to collect our new passports in person. But 1 enforced trip to Bangkok would certainly be better than 2!

[sanemax]

13 hours ago, worgeordie said:

Yes,I just got my last passport through Chiang Mai Consulate (?), a few weeks before

they stopped doing them there,sometimes you feel the UK does not give a fig about

their subjects that live overseas,Passports been one and no increase in your Pension another.

The Chiang Mai Consulate closed down

[Mattd]

Walk up to the 28th floor via the stairs............... Far easier to take another lift to the 29th floor and walk down one flight 

[Bangkok Barry]

I have lost the receipt that I was given when I made my passport renewal application, and wrote to VFS Global asking if it would be a problem when I show up with my old passport to collect the new one. This was their incomprehensible and grammar-challenged reply:
 

You can print out the collection letter along with your old passport to provide when you collecting a new passport in our office.

 

I would expect staff dealing with British citizens to be able to comprehend and write proper English. But maybe I'm just being fussy.

[Eff1n2ret]

16 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

I would expect staff dealing with British citizens to be able to comprehend and write proper English. But maybe I'm just being fussy.

I would say you are, given that a fair number of contributors to these forums, whose first language may be presumed to be English, are grammatically challenged.

[transam]

22 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

I have lost the receipt that I was given when I made my passport renewal application, and wrote to VFS Global asking if it would be a problem when I show up with my old passport to collect the new one. This was their incomprehensible and grammar-challenged reply:
 

You can print out the collection letter along with your old passport to provide when you collecting a new passport in our office.

 

I would expect staff dealing with British citizens to be able to comprehend and write proper English. But maybe I'm just being fussy.

Considering the staff there are Thai l thought they did very well...

[Mattd]

34 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

You can print out the collection letter along with your old passport to provide when you collecting a new passport in our office.

To be honest, this is a perfectly acceptable and understandable reply, apart from a slight mistake.

You can print out the collection letter, along with your old passport,when your collecting a new passport in our office.

[Eff1n2ret]

11 minutes ago, Mattd said:

when your collecting

Perhaps you meant  "when you're collecting"

[Bangkok Barry]

7 minutes ago, Mattd said:

To be honest, this is a perfectly acceptable and understandable reply, apart from a slight mistake.

You can print out the collection letter, along with your old passport,when your collecting a new passport in our office.

 

YOU added the  punctuation and it still says I can print out my old passport. What they wrote is that I can print out my old passport along with a collection letter that I don't have. I am assuming they have a copy of that in their system, but that isn't clear, and they don't actually mean I can print out the old passport but merely present it.

When dealing with any official documents, especially passports, surely clarity is essential, and they are incapable of delivering that.

[Mattd]

10 minutes ago, Eff1n2ret said:

Perhaps you meant  "when you're collecting"

True!

[Mattd]

10 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

YOU added the  punctuation and it still says I can print out my old passport. What they wrote is that I can print out my old passport along with a collection letter that I don't have. I am assuming they have a copy of that in their system, but that isn't clear, and they don't actually mean I can print out the old passport but merely present it.

When dealing with any official documents, especially passports, surely clarity is essential, and they are incapable of delivering that.

If you really wanted to be pedantic then yes, however I'd imagine that most people would get the jist, you are after all dealing with non native English speakers, so you must put some sort of context in to the statement they made.

The point is that you are required to bring your old passport with you, so that it can be cancelled, so once you receive the notification that the new passport is ready for collection, print out that notification, take that and your old passport and all will be fine.

[Bangkok Barry]

19 minutes ago, Mattd said:

If you really wanted to be pedantic then yes, however I'd imagine that most people would get the jist, you are after all dealing with non native English speakers, so you must put some sort of context in to the statement they made.

The point is that you are required to bring your old passport with you, so that it can be cancelled, so once you receive the notification that the new passport is ready for collection, print out that notification, take that and your old passport and all will be fine.

 

Yes, I am pedantic when dealing with official documents.  Anything wrong with trying to keep standards up? These are people dealing daily with UK citizens, so is it really too much to ask that they employ people highly proficient in English?

[transam]

5 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

Yes, I am pedantic when dealing with official documents.  Anything wrong with trying to keep standards up? These are people dealing daily with UK citizens, so is it really too much to ask that they employ people highly proficient in English?

There are many English folk who are not chummy, l am one.....

[Mattd]

9 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

Yes, I am pedantic when dealing with official documents.  Anything wrong with trying to keep standards up? These are people dealing daily with UK citizens, so is it really too much to ask that they employ people highly proficient in English?

The only problem with this is that it would drive you nuts in the end.

[pearciderman]

1 hour ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

Yes, I am pedantic when dealing with official documents.  Anything wrong with trying to keep standards up? These are people dealing daily with UK citizens, so is it really too much to ask that they employ people highly proficient in English?

 

Seeing as they are Thai, why don't you write to them in Thai and I am sure the reply will be totally correct.

 

Seeing as you deal with Thais every day - I presume you are highly proficient in Thai.

[Bangkok Barry]

47 minutes ago, pearciderman said:

 

Seeing as they are Thai, why don't you write to them in Thai and I am sure the reply will be totally correct.

 

Seeing as you deal with Thais every day - I presume you are highly proficient in Thai.

It's always interesting to me to see how ready some people who come to Thailand are so ready to accept lower standards. Perhaps that's the very reason many are here, because they have no wish to keep up in their home country.