Passport expiring before visa, 6 month validity required?

[bermondburi]

Planning on travelling to the UK in March for a couple of weeks. Thai wife's passport expires in June. Does she need a new passport to have six months validity? 

 

UK visa is good till January 2022. If she does need a new passport is it just a case of taking both and showing the visa in the old one on arrival in the UK? And at check-in leaving swampy? 

 

TIA

[BobbyL]

Yeah, just show her new passport and her old expired passport with the valid visa inside. We have done that for both the UK and USA with no issues. 

[Jip99]

The UK is one of the countries that do not have a 6 month rule. As long as you leave before the expiry date, no problem.

 

Whilst that is no issue I rarely trust staff of airlines when it comes to check in. Whilst unnecessary, I might consider emailing the airline to get their confirmation that they have no issue boarding your wife.

 

Get the new passport in June and should you travel to the UK again before January 2022, then show both passports.

Edited February 1, 2020 by Jip99

[theoldgit]

When Jip99 says you must leave before the exipry date, for the avoidance of doubt, he means the expiry of the visa, not the passport.

 

As both the previous posters have correctly confirmed just carry both passports, the Border Force Officer at the UK Border will stamp the holder in, usually with VPP, visa previous passport, next to the entry stamp.

 

My wife has done it a number of times, her only hiccup was a lower end security person, whilst we were connecting in KL, was trying to refuse her, but the airline person soon put him right.  

[bermondburi]

So how long does it take to get a Thai passport after application? 

 

And what would be the closest office to Hua-Hin? I'm guessing West Bangkok somewhere. 

[jimn]

12 hours ago, bermondburi said:

So how long does it take to get a Thai passport after application? 

 

And what would be the closest office to Hua-Hin? I'm guessing West Bangkok somewhere. 

My wife went to the sub office in Pattaya on Monday morning. They send the passport from Bangkok, they said it would take about 7 days. In fact it arrived by EMS on Wednesday, super fast service. We did not pay any extra other than sending by EMS post.

Edited February 2, 2020 by jimn

[swissbie]

12 hours ago, bermondburi said:

So how long does it take to get a Thai passport after application? 

 

And what would be the closest office to Hua-Hin? I'm guessing West Bangkok somewhere. 

To get a Thai passport after the application takes just a few days, don't know where to go from Hua Hin though.

[Chaaang]

Have a similar situation.

Get a new passport for the wife, tell there is a valid visa there. Then... when you get a new passport, you have to submit an old one to a specific window, so they put a stamp in it, that all valid visas are still valid etc. Takes some time but saves your nerves...

[isnakebite]

On 2/1/2020 at 10:18 AM, BobbyL said:

Yeah, just show her new passport and her old expired passport with the valid visa inside. We have done that for both the UK and USA with no issues. 

I'm in the middle of preparing my wife's first settlement visa for her to live with me in the UK. I've estimated that her passport will probably be valid for 25 of the allowed 33 months before it expires.

 

I was concerned that her passport runs out before the full length of the visa. Are you stating that UK visas are always valid for the full allowed period regardless of when the passport expires?

 

Obviously with her pasport expiring during the 2.5 years I know that at some point she would need to get a new passport via the Thai Embassy in London. Are you claiming that she won't need to get the visa transfered to the new passport?

 

Thanks in advance

[BobbyL]

2 hours ago, isnakebite said:

I'm in the middle of preparing my wife's first settlement visa for her to live with me in the UK. I've estimated that her passport will probably be valid for 25 of the allowed 33 months before it expires.

 

I was concerned that her passport runs out before the full length of the visa. Are you stating that UK visas are always valid for the full allowed period regardless of when the passport expires?

 

Obviously with her pasport expiring during the 2.5 years I know that at some point she would need to get a new passport via the Thai Embassy in London. Are you claiming that she won't need to get the visa transfered to the new passport?

 

Thanks in advance

The settlement visa I am not sure about. My only experience is with the 10 year UK and 10 year USA tourists visa.

 

As the poster above reminded me, when my wife obtained her new passport last year (old passport with the visas in) she did pay for a signed stamp to confirm that her visas are still valid even though she has a new passport. 

[ThaiBunny]

2 hours ago, isnakebite said:

Are you stating that UK visas are always valid for the full allowed period regardless of when the passport expires?

Australian visas are certainly valid for the entire period of the visa regardless of when the passport expires. A friend has a 3-year METV for Australia and his Thai passport expires in a few months' time. The Australian Immigration Department even has an online facility (in the original passport application) to advise of a new passport number, and they transfer the visa electronically

[bermondburi]

On 2/2/2020 at 7:21 PM, Chaaang said:

Have a similar situation.

Get a new passport for the wife, tell there is a valid visa there. Then... when you get a new passport, you have to submit an old one to a specific window, so they put a stamp in it, that all valid visas are still valid etc. Takes some time but saves your nerves...

Yeah, which is what we're doing just to be on the safe side. It's not uk immigration that concerned me, but some of the idiots at check-in. 

 

So should get the new passport back in a day or two, and the people there said to then take it back before she travels and they make some note in the new one about the visa being valid, or something like that.