British Embassy Bangkok Change of Consular Section Opening Hours

[Mattd]

What were the previous opening times of the consular section?

If the hours are now indeed less, then it does make me wonder why, as there is usually quite a long waiting time to get an appointment on the online system, reducing the hours could make this worse?

For example, currently all times on the 12th March are available, after that the next available date is 23rd April, Songkran doesn't help mind!

The most likely need for consular services for most expats here is for some sort of notarial or document service.

It has to be said that this is not the only thing that they do though, I'm sure that there is a lot of work in the background that we do not see.

 

Personally I can see why they have sold the plot where the embassy sits now and will move to an office block, there is much less of a need in maintaining a big expensive embassy as a pure status symbol nowadays, a lot of the previous stuff handled is now either outsourced or online.

[TKDfella]

4 hours ago, hobobo said:

They work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. The above hours are the times open to public.

That may be so but what so secret about what they do for the rest of the time, covert operations?

[Baerboxer]

4 hours ago, hobobo said:

They work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. The above hours are the times open to public.

 

Yeah right. Industrious little beavers one and all !

[BangkokNicky]

1 hour ago, Mattd said:

What were the previous opening times of the consular section?

If the hours are now indeed less, then it does make me wonder why, as there is usually quite a long waiting time to get an appointment on the online system, reducing the hours could make this worse?

For example, currently all times on the 12th March are available, after that the next available date is 23rd April, Songkran doesn't help mind!

The most likely need for consular services for most expats here is for some sort of notarial or document service.

It has to be said that this is not the only thing that they do though, I'm sure that there is a lot of work in the background that we do not see.

 

Personally I can see why they have sold the plot where the embassy sits now and will move to an office block, there is much less of a need in maintaining a big expensive embassy as a pure status symbol nowadays, a lot of the previous stuff handled is now either outsourced or online.

Consular Section: 
Mon-Thurs: 08:00-11:00 / 13:00-15:30
Fri: 08:00-12:00

[evadgib]

3 hours ago, Surasak said:

Why do they bother to open at all, they don't do much for the British expats.

What would you have them do?

 

[BangkokNicky]

8 minutes ago, evadgib said:

What would you have them do?

 

Am sure that will get outsourced like everything else these days ... 

 

By the way people the land was given to them ..  it's mentioned in this True Brits The British Embassy In Bangkok .. amazing nothing much has changed since this was aired back in 1993 it would seem they just push everything on to other people to sort out while they soak up the sun.. 

 

 

[evadgib]

3 hours ago, steve187 said:

what do the embassy staff do now?

"Nuffink!" according to the serial posters who pop up whenever they're mentioned online.

[OJAS]

1 hour ago, Mattd said:

What were the previous opening times of the consular section?

If the hours are now indeed less, then it does make me wonder why, as there is usually quite a long waiting time to get an appointment on the online system, reducing the hours could make this worse?

For example, currently all times on the 12th March are available, after that the next available date is 23rd April, Songkran doesn't help mind!

 

37 minutes ago, BangkokNicky said:

Consular Section: 
Mon-Thurs: 08:00-11:00 / 13:00-15:30
Fri: 08:00-12:00

So it looks like we're losing the 5,.5 hours of consular services on a Wednesday, which, by my reckoning, accounts for around 21% of the total weekly hours. Hardly conducive to shortening the waiting time for an appointment, I would have thought, quite the reverse, in fact.

 

I wonder what those who man the consular section on a Wednesday will be doing with their time instead that day?

[VBF]

4 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Typed 'british embassy bangkok emergency contact numbers' in google and got this.

 

 

Now that's done, are you going to print it out or write it down somewhere or has the potential UK taxpayers bellyache been put to rest?

Despite the evident sarcasm on your part @NanLaew, thank you so much for the information, which I have indeed copy-pasted somewhere safe!

Oh, by the way I'm not a potential UK taxpayer - I am a UK taxpayer who spends some of his time in Thailand and other places. 

Edited March 8, 2018 by VBF

[steve187]

5 hours ago, theoldgit said:

m not sure which services have been taken over by private companies though

visa applications handled by a private company and are issued in India, passports again handled by a private company, and as you posted income statements handled by post as are marriage letters i believe.

[BangkokNicky]

3 hours ago, OJAS said:

 

So it looks like we're losing the 5,.5 hours of consular services on a Wednesday, which, by my reckoning, accounts for around 21% of the total weekly hours. Hardly conducive to shortening the waiting time for an appointment, I would have thought, quite the reverse, in fact.

 

I wonder what those who man the consular section on a Wednesday will be doing with their time instead that day?

Most likely interfering with local laws as there are two sets of rules these days one for expats and the other for Thais ...  it's amazing when expats have problems they don't wish to know or help as we have seen over the years on here  but if its human rights or whatever bs involving Thais they are like  flies  around shit with there manipulation and these people fail for it every time..  

Edited March 8, 2018 by BangkokNicky

[theoldgit]

1 hour ago, steve187 said:

visa applications handled by a private company and are issued in India, passports again handled by a private company, and as you posted income statements handled by post as are marriage letters i believe.

Not strictly correct are you?

A private company does accept the paperwork, but then sends it to the UKVI team in the Embassy for prcessing, and in June will be sending the documents to the UKVI in Delhi who will take over the processing applications, so they've only outsourced the delivery of the papers, which the Embassy never did anyway, VFS are a glorified mail drop.

Likewise with the passports, the Embassy haven't issued passports for well over a decade. Passports are issued by the HMPO, a Governmemnt Body in the UK, so hardly outsourced, the only involvement of VFS is to receive the application and pass it on, again a glorified mail drop, but it certainly couldn't be described as outsourcing.

Yes the income letters, something I know Consular staff don't see as part of their role, are handled by Consular staff as before, to save us the trouble of going to the Embassy they will accept applications via post or email, again not outsourcing.

The affirmation of freedom to marry does require a visit to the Embassy as you can't swear an affidavit by post.

I think the Embassy are right to reduce the need for us to visit the Embassy, and to be truthful who really wants to?

By reducing the need to visit they can reduce opening times and thus the costs, and has been pointed out Consular Staff are on call 24/7 in an emergency.

[Mattd]

1 hour ago, theoldgit said:

I think the Embassy are right to reduce the need for us to visit the Embassy, and to be truthful who really wants to?

By reducing the need to visit they can reduce opening times and thus the costs, and has been pointed out Consular Staff are on call 24/7 in an emergency.

Sorry, but the waiting times for an open slot for an appointment suggests that there is a need for people to go to the embassy, there is usually at least a 3 week backlog before an an appointment can be made, the loss of 21 odd % of the week can only make this worse, the income letters have been able to be done by post for quite some time now.

There have been a few reports on here recently of immigration offices refusing to do certificate of residence letters, plus DLT offices insisting on one from an embassy, again if this proves to be the case, then folks will have no choice but to go to the embassy.

I would agree about who wants to go, sometimes you have no choice.

Not so sure that any cost saving would be seen by anybody using the consular services!

[BritTim]

11 hours ago, theoldgit said:

You will be aware that the Consular and Visa Sections are totally seperate, and whilst they share the same building have a different line management, one reporting to the FCO and the other to the Home Office. A previous ECM was, and still is, a FCO employee but when she was an ECM she was in the Home Office Line Management  structure. 

Neither point is really relevent to this discussion though.

I disagree that the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) is under the control of the FCO. All consular services (and that includes visa processing, assistance to UK nationals (such as it still exists), issuing emergency travel documents,  and issuing income letters) are all part of the consular section and funded through the Home Office.

 

I think you are consuming this with the distinction between the consular section and diplomatic section. The diplomatic section (which leads to the plum jobs) is indeed controlled and funded by the FCO.

[BritTim]

8 hours ago, BangkokNicky said:

By the way people the land was given to them

It is a little more complicated. At the time, the Thai authorities wanted the Brits to vacate their original embassy compound. The large plot of land just outside the city proper was offered as compensation.

[Mattd]

9 hours ago, BritTim said:

It is a little more complicated. At the time, the Thai authorities wanted the Brits to vacate their original embassy compound. The large plot of land just outside the city proper was offered as compensation.

According to history, the British opened their first owned mission building on the river banks in 1876, the land it was built on was gifted to the British government by King Mongkut.

This was sold to the Siamese government for 110,000 GBP around 1922, whereby the British purchased used that money to purchase 12 acres of land in Ploenchit and build a new mission, the site where they are now.

They moved to there in 1926 and it was designated as an embassy in 1947.

So from a gift originally, to 110,000 GBP to 420,000,000 GBP............. not a bad deal!

Edited March 9, 2018 by Mattd

[dabhand]

38 minutes ago, Mattd said:

According to history, the British opened their first owned mission building on the river banks in 1876, the land it was built on was gifted to the British government by King Mongkut.

This was sold to the Siamese government for 110,000 GBP around 1922, whereby the British purchased used that money to purchase 12 acres of land in Ploenchit and build a new mission, the site where they are now.

They moved to there in 1926 and it was designated as an embassy in 1947.

So from a gift originally, to 110,000 GBP to 420,000,000 GBP............. not a bad deal!

Even better deal than that as they sold about a third of the Ploenchit plot back in 2006. Possibly for about GBP30m. This was to Central Group and currently has Central Embassy on the site. Really shows the land price inflation, or put another way, if HMG had waited a decade a possible further GBP180m could have been raised if sold now.

[theoldgit]

10 hours ago, BritTim said:

I disagree that the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) is under the control of the FCO. All consular services (and that includes visa processing, assistance to UK nationals (such as it still exists), issuing emergency travel documents,  and issuing income letters) are all part of the consular section and funded through the Home Office.

 

I think you are consuming this with the distinction between the consular section and diplomatic section. The diplomatic section (which leads to the plum jobs) is indeed controlled and funded by the FCO.

I never said that the UKVI is under the control of the FCO, I said they had a different line management, lets move on now please.

[Mattd]

16 minutes ago, dabhand said:

Even better deal than that as they sold about a third of the Ploenchit plot back in 2006. Possibly for about GBP30m. This was to Central Group and currently has Central Embassy on the site. Really shows the land price inflation, or put another way, if HMG had waited a decade a possible further GBP180m could have been raised if sold now.

True, I'd forgotten that bit in 2006 and that was a 3.6 acre plot which they sold for 50m GPB (95m USD)

Edited March 9, 2018 by Mattd

[OJAS]

17 hours ago, BangkokNicky said:

Most likely interfering with local laws as there are two sets of rules these days one for expats and the other for Thais ...  it's amazing when expats have problems they don't wish to know or help as we have seen over the years on here  but if its human rights or whatever bs involving Thais they are like  flies  around shit with there manipulation and these people fail for it every time..  

Doubt whether this is actually the case. However I certainly do think that it doesn't look particularly good presentationally for the consular section to shut up shop for a whole day midweek. Might not Friday have been a better day for them to shut up shop completely on, bearing in mind that they are only open in the morning that day in any event?

Edited March 9, 2018 by OJAS

[evadgib]

Wednesday closure will almost certainly be to enable uninterrupted training of the whole team rather than trying to do it in dribs and drabs.

[OJAS]

1 hour ago, evadgib said:

Wednesday closure will almost certainly be to enable uninterrupted training of the whole team rather than trying to do it in dribs and drabs.

But this would equally be possible on Friday, would it not?

[evadgib]

9 minutes ago, OJAS said:

But this would equally be possible on Friday, would it not?

Wednesday is likely to be the quietest and falls within whatever their contractual hours per week might be. 

[OJAS]

41 minutes ago, evadgib said:

Wednesday is likely to be the quietest and falls within whatever their contractual hours per week might be. 

But in any case why would the Embassy feel that as much as a whole working day would need to be devoted to communal staff training each week? For example, banks and building societies back in the UK appear to be of the view that 30 minutes is sufficient for this purpose, based on the fact that this is by how long the opening times of individual branches are generally delayed on 1 day each week!

[evadgib]

Comparing a high st bank to a consular post as busy as Bkk is akin to likening a market stall to a branch of Marks & Spencer.

 

Edited March 9, 2018 by evadgib