First British Passport for baby born in Thailand Experiences

[edwinchester]

Hi, this forum has been of great help to me and my family in the past so hopefully this post can be of some help to others.

Our daughter was born in September last year so as we plan to travel to the UK soon a British passport is required. I am British, my wife is Thai.

I sent off an email request on the morning of 23rd January for an appointment at 10.00am on the 30th January. In the afternoon a reply arrived giving me a 10.05 appointment.

I was informed in the email that as my daughter was so young she didn't have to attend.

The documents I took in support of the application were....

My British passport and colour copies of every page.

My original UK Birth Certificate and colour copy.

My House Yellow Book, colour copy and translation to English.

My Thai wifes ID card and colour copy.

My Thai wifes House Blue Book, colour copy and translation to English.

Our daughters Thai passport and colour copies of every page.

Our daughters Thai birth certificate, colour copy and translation to English.

Copy of our daughters entry in the Blue House Book and translation to English.

2 passport pics of our daughter one of which was countersigned.

Copy of our daughters passport picture countersignatory.

 

I arrived at Trendy House early, just after 9am.

The ride up the infamous lifts wasn't too long a wait and I informed the reception desk I had a passport application.

I had only just sat down when my number was called and I handed over the application.

It was checked, all the original documents returned and a receipt, that I had to show again on collection, issued.

I was out 10 minutes after I entered.

On the 5th February I got an email from the Liverpool passport office saying they couldn't accept the countersignatory.

I had used a Thai teacher we have known for 15 years and had countersigned my own UK passport application a few years previously.

B*gger I thought not knowing any professionally qualified UK, Irish, EU, Commonwealth or US citizens living in Thailand.

The passport office keep your application live for 60 days so I had time to fill out another application form and post it to a family friend in the UK along with 2 more passport pics. She filled in her part of the form and forwarded it to the Passport Office where it arrived 23rd February.

On 2nd March I received an sms from DHL with a tracking number informing me our daughters passport was delivered to Trendy House. The sms was in Thai so I ignored it at first as I wasn't expecting anything from DHL and when I applied I was only told to expect an email that the passport was ready to collect. Curiosity got the better of me and after clicking on the DHL link in the sms I was directed to their tracking page. Shortly after an email arrived from Trendy House letting me know I could collect our daugthers passport.

I sent a short email to Trendy House informing them when I would like to pick up the passport and got a short email next day saying ok.

Pick up was another 10 minute breeze, I showed my passport and the original receipt.

All in all a good experience and I am very impressed by the speed at which the passport was delivered once they had the correct countersignatory.

 

[Jonathan Fairfield]

good info, thanks for sharing

[OOLEEBER]

I did similar last month. 1st passport for our 6 year old and 2nd passports for our 15 year old twins. The process was flawless. II think it took about 10 days from application to when they were available for collection. They have a very slick operation going on there at Trendy.

I hope I'll be able to say the same when we get the result for my wife's 6 month tourist application we applied for a few days ago. That process was very fast too. Way better than the 4 hour debacle we endured 7 years go at the old place.  

[baansgr]

Thanks Ed for taking the time to post this very useful and helpful info, it's very much appreciated. I noticed you say colour copies. Is this their requirement or did you just do it that way. Enjoy your time in the U. K. 

[edwinchester]

1 hour ago, baansgr said:

Thanks Ed for taking the time to post this very useful and helpful info, it's very much appreciated. I noticed you say colour copies. Is this their requirement or did you just do it that way. Enjoy your time in the U. K. 

In the guidance notes it requests colour copies.

[edwinchester]

1 hour ago, OOLEEBER said:

I did similar last month. 1st passport for our 6 year old and 2nd passports for our 15 year old twins. The process was flawless. II think it took about 10 days from application to when they were available for collection. They have a very slick operation going on there at Trendy.

I hope I'll be able to say the same when we get the result for my wife's 6 month tourist application we applied for a few days ago. That process was very fast too. Way better than the 4 hour debacle we endured 7 years go at the old place.  

We applied for 2 tourist visas for wife's mum and dad last year and the process was very quick, a week to when we were informed of a successful application. That was their second TV.

Edited March 18, 2018 by edwinchester

[prakhonchai nick]

In providing advice and assistance to Brits out in deepest Isaan for passport renewal, the major difficulty comes in providing proof of address.  An official letter such as a pension payment, tax demand, insurance bill etc is fine as long as it shows the name and address in English, or can be translated. However many Brits resident here have no such documents apart from a Yellow Book. Although the Yellow book is valid indefinitely once issued , or at least until there is a change of address. HMPO refuse to accept this as proof for residence  if it is more than 1 year old.  In fact whatever is submited must be less than 1 year old (including driving licences).

 

Edwinchester's account above relects the service we have always received from VFS.  so long as all the documents are in order,

[edwinchester]

1 hour ago, prakhonchai nick said:

In providing advice and assistance to Brits out in deepest Isaan for passport renewal, the major difficulty comes in providing proof of address.  An official letter such as a pension payment, tax demand, insurance bill etc is fine as long as it shows the name and address in English, or can be translated. However many Brits resident here have no such documents apart from a Yellow Book. Although the Yellow book is valid indefinitely once issued , or at least until there is a change of address. HMPO refuse to accept this as proof for residence  if it is more than 1 year old.  In fact whatever is submited must be less than 1 year old (including driving licences).

 

Edwinchester's account above relects the service we have always received from VFS.  so long as all the documents are in order,

Both our house blue book and my yellow book were issued 10 years ago. Both were accepted by HMPO as proof of address.

[prakhonchai nick]

22 minutes ago, edwinchester said:

Both our house blue book and my yellow book were issued 10 years ago. Both were accepted by HMPO as proof of address.

Thanks for that information. It was VFS that rejected the yellow book before it even got to Liverpool

[edwinchester]

11 minutes ago, prakhonchai nick said:

Thanks for that information. It was VFS that rejected the yellow book before it even got to Liverpool

Strange although thinking about it my daughter's entry in the blue book is last September so I wonder if this helped my wife's proof of address even though her entry is 10 years old?

Doesn't explain my address, as the person applying on behalf of our daughter, being accepted in a 10 year old yellow book.

Maybe my good luck, a change of policy or your bad luck.

[NanLaew]

On 3/17/2018 at 1:24 PM, edwinchester said:

Copy of our daughters passport picture countersignatory.

I understand that this a colour copy of the biodata page of the passport belonging to the person countersigning the child's passport picture.

 

I need to get a first British passport for our newest family member, born here so this is a timely check-list. The British friend who lived here and countersigned my older boy's first British passport as well as both my passport renewals has passed away. I note from the online guidance that the countersignatory can be from a 'Commonwealth country' so I assume that another long-time friend from New Zealand will be acceptable.

[edwinchester]

50 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

I understand that this a colour copy of the biodata page of the passport belonging to the person countersigning the child's passport picture.

 

I need to get a first British passport for our newest family member, born here so this is a timely check-list. The British friend who lived here and countersigned my older boy's first British passport as well as both my passport renewals has passed away. I note from the online guidance that the countersignatory can be from a 'Commonwealth country' so I assume that another long-time friend from New Zealand will be acceptable.

Yes, that's the way I understand it too.

My friend, the Thai teacher who HMPO turned down as countersignatory, was most put out when I joked it wouldn't have been a problem if she was Malaysian.

If time isn't a problem you could always send the application and a photo back to the UK if you know a suitably qualified person there, they complete their part, send back to you in Thailand and you take to Trendy.

Edited March 18, 2018 by edwinchester

[baansgr]

What about her birth cert,  I remember a long time ago they used to issue both,  or is this something you need to do when in UK.  I don't want to deviate from your topic but it is relevant to the subject. 

[edwinchester]

7 minutes ago, baansgr said:

What about her birth cert,  I remember a long time ago they used to issue both,  or is this something you need to do when in UK.  I don't want to deviate from your topic but it is relevant to the subject. 

Our daughter was born in Thailand. Birth certificate was obtained from the Tessabaan in town.

Translation to English cost 300 baht.

I stand to be corrected but I don't believe you can get a UK birth certificate from the British Embassy, merely register a birth there which is not good enough to support a passport application.

Edited March 18, 2018 by edwinchester

[anon537687643]

All these folk having kids in Thailand with Thai partners and then getting dual nationality and 2 passports no doubt with ever setting foot in Uk! What a soft touch Uk is !


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[evadgib]

23 minutes ago, markaoffy said:

All these folk having kids in Thailand with Thai partners and then getting dual nationality and 2 passports no doubt with ever setting foot in Uk! What a soft touch Uk is !

Where are you from and why don't they do it?

https://www.gov.uk/dual-citizenship

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_citizenship

Edited March 18, 2018 by evadgib

[brewsterbudgen]

Great post from the OP. The process seems to be running very efficiently these days.

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[brewsterbudgen]

Our daughter was born in Thailand. Birth certificate was obtained from the Tessabaan in town.
Translation to English cost 300 baht.
I stand to be corrected but I don't believe you can get a UK birth certificate from the British Embassy, merely register a birth there which is not good enough to support a passport application.

Yes. The birth certificate needs to be issued in the country of birth, in this case, Thailand.

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[baansgr]

On 3/18/2018 at 7:24 PM, markaoffy said:

All these folk having kids in Thailand with Thai partners and then getting dual nationality and 2 passports no doubt with ever setting foot in Uk! What a soft touch Uk is !


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But the children are of British parentage so are entitled to British nationality 

[Bangel72]

Good stuff, I agree very straight forward and efficient. About 3 weeks to arrive. Yellow/Blue book was fine in our case.