Thai FLR/Passport Renewal in UK

[nerjaron]

Hi, I am looking for some advice regarding a passport renewal application in the UK. On 20 July my Thai wife lodged her passport renewal application at a Consular outreach day at Newcastle. Coincidentally her Leave to Enter visa expired on 19 August and a FLR application was lodged around the same time and a decision is still awaited. Getting back to her passport, as everyone knows airports will refuse foreign travel if there is not at least 6 months validity left in a passport (plus, in our case a valid Leave to Enter/FLR permit). Since my wife's passport expires January 2020 the Consular outreach day came at exactly the right time as it saved us a costly trip from Northumberland to London. Her new passport arrived 2 days ago and I was shocked to find that it runs from July 2019 to July 2024 and not to January 2025 as I had expected. I feel somewhat peeved that, having been forced to apply for renewal 6 months before expiry, the passport does not include the remaining time from the existing passport (as DOES happen with UK passports) and therefore every time my wife wants to renew her passport she will lose 6 months through no fault of her own! I realise of couirse that we could just wait until January to renew the passport but that leaves us in a situation where my wife would not be able to travel for 6 months, and since we have family in Spain we like to fly there every couple of months. I emailed the Thai Embassy about this but they have replied that "Thai passport renewal is not like that". I find it appalling that hundreds of thousands of Thai citizens living in Europe and elsewhere are effectively being "ripped off" every time they renew their passports. Has this injustice ever been queried by anyone else and what was the outcome?

[theoldgit]

A couple of points from your post, not every country requires six months validity on a passport, some do have have that requirement, some have less, whilst many countries, the UK for instance, require that the passport is valid for the intented length of stay, and she doesn't need six months validity on her passport to return to Thailand.

 

As to your point regarding the transferring unused portion of a passport when renewing, again some countries may well extend the passport by the unexpired length, but Thailand doesn't, and neither does the UK.  

[St George]

I think the OP is unaware that the rule changed this year and any unexpired passport term, up to 9 months,  is no longer added.

[theoldgit]

6 minutes ago, St George said:

I think the OP is unaware that the rule changed this year and any unexpired passport term, up to 9 months,  is no longer added.

The change was actually made in September last year, how time flies.

[nerjaron]

Many thanks for your replies. I was unaware that the UK had changed their policy - the last time I renewed my UK passport I got almost 9 months unexpired validity added to my new passport. I shall have to remember the new arrangements next time I am due to renew!