Current situation at Trendy Building (Renew UK passport)

[HashBrownHarry]

On 9/23/2020 at 4:07 PM, chilly07 said:

Using a trusted agent is easier

+1

[Bredbury Blue]

1. UbonJoes answer on photocopying is correct.

2. Can't help on your 2nd point. Worth knowing that when I did my son's renewal in August, I used a British friend as counter-signatory. Got him to provide me with a signed copy of his UK passport. Very first thing the passport office official asked t the appointment was, did I have a signed copy of the countersignatory passport? Seems they may put greater importance on that these days than they used to.

[kwak250]

10 minutes ago, Bredbury Blue said:

1. UbonJoes answer on photocopying is correct.

2. Can't help on your 2nd point. Worth knowing that when I did my son's renewal in August, I used a British friend as counter-signatory. Got him to provide me with a signed copy of his UK passport. Very first thing the passport office official asked t the appointment was, did I have a signed copy of the countersignatory passport? Seems they may put greater importance on that these days than they used to.

Photocopying double pages is a great bonus

Huge problem with countersigning though and didnt realise they need a copy of the signed passport

Is there any way i can contact and ask them as with the current situation the 2 english guys i knew went home 6 months ago.

[sidgy]

On 9/22/2020 at 1:30 PM, Brigand said:

I know you can get the photos done at the place on the ground floor

Is that a booth or a shop? Is it still there and open? Thanks

[OJAS]

1 hour ago, sidgy said:

Is that a booth or a shop? Is it still there and open? Thanks

According to @2530Ubon in the thread linked below, VFS can do the photos for 200 THB. Some places on the 5th floor can also do the photos apparently.

 

 

[VocalNeal]

I just renewed an expire Brit Passport. Took 3 weeks. I believe the time taken depends on what documents they have to check. 

There is a new page on the application site that lists quite clearly what you will need.  

[007 RED]

On ‎9‎/‎30‎/‎2020 at 2:59 PM, ubonjoe said:

Two pages per sheet will be accepted.

 

21 hours ago, kwak250 said:

I have to go to Trendy soon and want to be sure 2 pages on 1 A4 are accepted?

Is this correct ?

I will need to renew my passport shortly, so I emailed the VSF helpline in July to enquired if they will accept 4 passport pages, in colour, on one sheet of A4.  They replied within a few hours confirming that 4 pages on one sheet of A4 is acceptable, so if you have only 2 pages per sheet of A4 that is definitely going to be OK.

See attached email & response.

BKK HMPO Email_Redacted.pdf

Edited October 1, 2020 by 007 RED
typo

[hanuman2]

I hope this isn't off topic but I need to have my 'passport translated into Thai by the UK Embassy'. I think this means getting the UK Embassy to produce a certified translation or certify someone else's translation. It's needed for applying for a yellow Tabien Baan book.

 

Question is, can this be done at Trendy House at the moment?

 

Thanks for any advice you can give.

[007 RED]

18 minutes ago, hanuman2 said:

I hope this isn't off topic but I need to have my 'passport translated into Thai by the UK Embassy'. I think this means getting the UK Embassy to produce a certified translation or certify someone else's translation. It's needed for applying for a yellow Tabien Baan book.

 

Question is, can this be done at Trendy House at the moment?

 

Thanks for any advice you can give.

Sorry but the British Embassy will not translate your passport for you.  For a price, they will produce a certified copy of the data (photo) page of your passport.  You will then need to have the Embassy certified copy translated by a so called ‘certified translator’.  There are a few located near the old British Embassy premisses on Wireless Road and I believe there are some in Trendy Building.

 

What I’m not sure is whether your local Amphor will accept the Embassy certified copy with the Thai translation.  They may want to put some more hoops for you to jump through namely, you may have to get the translation certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Department of Consular Affairs.

 

Good luck.

[OJAS]

17 hours ago, 007 RED said:

What I’m not sure is whether your local Amphor will accept the Embassy certified copy with the Thai translation.  They may want to put some more hoops for you to jump through namely, you may have to get the translation certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Department of Consular Affairs.

Not to mention, of course, that they might require all dates indicated on the photopage and in visas and stamps (both Thai and non-Thai) contained in the passport to be accurately translated into the B.E. calendar year format (e.g. 2563 for 2020)!

Edited October 2, 2020 by OJAS

[ubonjoe]

28 minutes ago, OJAS said:

Not to mention, of course, that they might require all dates indicated on the photopage and in visas and stamps (both Thai and non-Thai) contained in the passport to be accurately translated into the B.E. calendar year format (e.g. 2563 for 2020)!

The embassy will only certify the photo page and only a translation of it is needed.

[phetchy]

On 9/22/2020 at 1:30 PM, Brigand said:

I know you can get the photos done at the place on the ground floor but then that's a bit of an issue if you need them to be countersigned. How strict are they on the "significant appearance change" ... does it have to be a ludicrous difference or just something like you lost weight or gained it. Has anyone had any experience/issues on that or was it pretty lax?

I was a bit apprehensive when we went for my wife's renewal.  I had tried to photoshop out the beard and piercings from the photos, but thankfully they weren't needed. 

[john terry1001]

On 10/1/2020 at 2:41 PM, sidgy said:

Is that a booth or a shop? Is it still there and open? Thanks

I went to Trendy this morning. The shop doing photos on the ground floor is still open. There is also a photo booth outside a small shop just a few yards from Trendy, towards the Sukumvit.

[sidgy]

17 hours ago, john terry1001 said:

I went to Trendy this morning. The shop doing photos on the ground floor is still open. There is also a photo booth outside a small shop just a few yards from Trendy, towards the Sukumvit.

Thanks. im there next week so good to know. Hopefully the ones that do the photos at Trendy should have enough experience to  comply with the UK requirements. Ive had enough of other photo shops telling me "is ok" when it very clearly isnt haha

[anterian]

I renewed mine 4 weeks ago, I used the agent in Pattaya. Absolutely no hassle and took 4 weeks. I hate the new passport though, its black not blue, the photo is B&W and there is no signature. It feels and looks tacky. 

[john terry1001]

4 hours ago, sidgy said:

Thanks. im there next week so good to know. Hopefully the ones that do the photos at Trendy should have enough experience to  comply with the UK requirements. Ive had enough of other photo shops telling me "is ok" when it very clearly isnt haha

The photo booth I was talking about I an automatic photo booth so the photos should be correctly sized, not somebody in a shop taking the photos.

[john terry1001]

Just one more minor thing that might be useful to some from when I went to Trendy yesterday. When I handed in all my documents I had typed out the application and payment forms. They wanted to give them back to me and offered new forms, saying they must be hand written. I pointed out that, due to arthritis I found it very difficult to write by hand and explained that typing the forms out meant they were neat and legible. But if I had to write them out, they would be returned because they would be totally ineligible by the time I'd reached the bottom of the first page. 

 

They were more than happy to accept the typed out versions ????.

 

 

 

[Sir Dude]

Just a quick update on my application. Got the notification back that passport is ready for collection the other day, so that's 3 weeks from application day. The application only took about 4 days to get to the UK and the payment to go through if nothing wrong ... so, pretty quick at the moment.

 

Other thing worth mentioning is that they are now closing at 2 pm because of the protests and say that if you are collecting your passport, then you should come from 11 am - 1 pm and applications are taken from 08:30 -13:00.

[brewsterbudgen]

I submitted my son's renewal application at VFS on 2 September, and although DHL tracking confirms it was received by HMPO in Liverpool on 4 September, I've heard nothing since.????

[kwak250]

I submitted 3 passport applications on 5th October .

My one was a renewal and 2 more were my sons first uk passports.

I was told on 20th October to expect delays of up to 8 weeks.

Next day got an email saying 2 have arrived but waiting for the 3rd one and will collect at the same time.

Must say great service just hope the last one isn't delayed past 30 days.

 

[john terry1001]

I'm about to collect my replacement UK passport next week. Here's a timeline  of my application.

 

10-9-20. applied for appointment at Trendy. Told there was a three week waiting time and currently a 6 week processing time, with currently only available on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Given an appointment for 2-10-20

 

Supplied docs, payment details and application, then received a confirmation email from HMPO the same day, on 2-10-20, confirming the application

 

2-10-20, also had a text message confirming the application had been forwarded to HMPO Liverpool

 

Payment deducted from my UK bank account on 6-10-20

 

15-10-20 email from HMPO confirming COVID-19 could delay the process by up to 8 weeks

 

Just four days later, on 19-10-20 had an email to say my new passport had been delivered to HMPO at Trendy already and was available for collection at any time after 21-10-20, between 11.00am - 13.00pm

 

21-10-20, received at text from HMPO confirming the new passport had arrived at Trendy and was available for collection after 11.00am on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday 

[sidgy]

On 10/3/2020 at 4:25 PM, john terry1001 said:

On 10/3/2020 at 12:01 PM, sidgy said:

Thanks. im there next week so good to know. Hopefully the ones that do the photos at Trendy should have enough experience to  comply with the UK requirements. Ive had enough of other photo shops telling me "is ok" when it very clearly isnt haha

The photo booth I was talking about I an automatic photo booth so the photos should be correctly sized, not somebody in a shop taking the photos.

 

So i used the photo booth , and for the coorect size you get 8 photos for 120 baht, unfortunately they are on one piece of photographic paper, luckily a kind lady in one of the visa shops on level one cut them into singles for me.

however on Tuesday i received email from HMPO saying they cannot accept these photos due to print quality so i have to submit two more phots to them. i did this yesterday. i also recieved notification that due to current circumstances, processing times will be up to 8 weeks

 

[Deserted]

On 9/22/2020 at 9:29 AM, pontious said:

If you do not / cannot wait for an appointment you can use the 'walk in without an appointment' service. The charge is Baht 1560.

What do you mean? Appointment fee? The cost of a passport must be more than that surely? Do you mean the total cost for appointment and passport is 1560 baht?

[pontious]

1 hour ago, Deserted said:

What do you mean? Appointment fee? The cost of a passport must be more than that surely? Do you mean the total cost for appointment and passport is 1560 baht?

No of course not. You could pay the extra to just walk in with no appointment for a Premium service. . If that service is still available I have no idea - look at there website.

[Deserted]

I tried but got no further than the British gov website. So, if you don't mind me asking, what is the cost of a British passport renewal for Thailand?

[ubonjoe]

11 minutes ago, Deserted said:

I tried but got no further than the British gov website. So, if you don't mind me asking, what is the cost of a British passport renewal for Thailand?

Go through steps here to find more info about the cost and applying for a new passport at VFS in Bangkok or Chiang Mai.

https://www.gov.uk/overseas-passports

 

[SidJames]

On 10/2/2020 at 11:40 AM, phetchy said:

I was a bit apprehensive when we went for my wife's renewal.  I had tried to photoshop out the beard and piercings from the photos, but thankfully they weren't needed. 

Couldn't she just have a shave?