When should one begin the passport renewal process?

[andrewfenn]

• The government website says it can take up to 10 weeks to receive a new passport. When should one apply in Bangkok to renew their passport?
• When is the earliest a passport will be accepted for renewal?

[brewsterbudgen]

You can apply for a new passport at any time.  The new one will be valid for 10 years from the date of issue, so if you apply early you will lose some of the time on the old passport.  I wouldn't leave it too late however, as renewals from Bangkok are taking a little longer than normal due to the Covid situation.  Also the VFS/HMPO office where you submit the application is currently only open 2 days a week.

[Upnotover]

You can renew a British passport whenever you like, there is no maximum time limit before expiry.  But since 2018 you no longer have any remaining months added to the new passport, it will be 10 years.

[Dazinoz]

Mine is due July next year. My visa extension is due October this year so I would not get a fully year extension, only until July next year. 

 

I really didn't want to go through the process of doing an early visa extension so I actually did my passport renewal a few days ago. Its Australian. I visited the Australian Consulate in Chiang Mai on the 18th and they did the paperwork, I received an email receipt the next day from the embassy in Bangkok. I was told it would be about 3 weeks to receive the new one back from Australia. As I was required to keep my old passport for a 90 day report I will have to goto the consulate again to collect the new one. If I didn't need old one they would have done what was needed and new one posted direct to my house.

[Ralf001]

10 minutes ago, Dazinoz said:

Mine is due July next year. My visa extension is due October this year so I would not get a fully year extension, only until July next year. 

 

I really didn't want to go through the process of doing an early visa extension so I actually did my passport renewal a few days ago. Its Australian. I visited the Australian Consulate in Chiang Mai on the 18th and they did the paperwork, I received an email receipt the next day from the embassy in Bangkok. I was told it would be about 3 weeks to receive the new one back from Australia. As I was required to keep my old passport for a 90 day report I will have to goto the consulate again to collect the new one. If I didn't need old one they would have done what was needed and new one posted direct to my house.

 

Mine is being posted to me (email yesterday to inform me its in the post), they cut half the front page off my old one and gave it back to me.

[Dazinoz]

8 minutes ago, Ralf001 said:

 

Mine is being posted to me (email yesterday to inform me its in the post), they cut half the front page off my old one and gave it back to me.

Yep, they would have done that but I need passport for 90 day report beginning of June.

[tpbon]

If this is for a US Passport, it takes two to three weeks going through the embassy. That ten week statement is for applying in the US.

 

I just did mine and it took 2 1/2 weeks.

[clonetom]

Because most countries will not allow entry with a passport validity <6 months, my formula is:

 

6 months + 3 months (delivery) = 9 months before expiration

[khunjeff]

Members have done their best to help, but it's impossible to give you useful information unless you tell us which country's passport you're applying for.

[andygrr]

Just did my UK passport quoted up to 6 weeks but got it back within 3 weeks.

[NE1]

7 minutes ago, andygrr said:

Just did my UK passport quoted up to 6 weeks but got it back within 3 weeks.

Did you do it yourself or through an agent ?

[Ombra]

6 minutes ago, andygrr said:

Just did my UK passport quoted up to 6 weeks but got it back within 3 weeks.

Me, too. I submitted my application on April 19th and they told me to expect to wait 11 weeks. Two weeks and four days later, it arrived.

[Old Croc]

41 minutes ago, khunjeff said:

Members have done their best to help, but it's impossible to give you useful information unless you tell us which country's passport you're applying for.

I was  going to ask the same question until I checked the forum heading.

[Old Croc]

No response from the British Consular team?

[British Consular Team]

48 minutes ago, Old Croc said:

No response from the British Consular team?

 

Passport applications and renewals are managed by Her Majesty’s Passport Office in the UK, not the Embassy or the Consular team, so we don't have anything to add to the good advice others have shared here or the info on the HMPO website.

[renaissanc]

5 hours ago, Dazinoz said:

As I was required to keep my old passport for a 90 day report I will have to goto the consulate again to collect the new one. If I didn't need old one they would have done what was needed and new one posted direct to my house.

You've mentioned that you need to keep your current passport for the June 90-Days Report. A way around this is to report by mail, then you don't need to show the actual passport. I report by mail because the provincial Immigration office is still over in the 20th century.

[Dazinoz]

5 minutes ago, renaissanc said:

You've mentioned that you need to keep your current passport for the June 90-Days Report. A way around this is to report by mail, then you don't need to show the actual passport. I report by mail because the provincial Immigration office is still over in the 20th century.

Ok thanks for that. Online is also ok if it works, which is not often lately.

[Rimmer]

Troll post removed

[danferguson]

7 hours ago, British Consular Team said:

 

Passport applications and renewals are managed by Her Majesty’s Passport Office in the UK, not the Embassy or the Consular team, so we don't have anything to add to the good advice others have shared here or the info on the HMPO website.

 

I am confused. You are saying it must be done in the UK??

 

I cannot renew my UK passport in Thailand?

[Dazinoz]

13 minutes ago, danferguson said:

 

I am confused. You are saying it must be done in the UK??

 

I cannot renew my UK passport in Thailand?

if its like the Australian passport  you do paperwork and pay here in Thailand and its sent to Australia (england in your case) and passport is sent back to you direct or your embassy/consulate. I am pretty certain no passports are done in thailand but I could be wrong.

[Upnotover]

16 minutes ago, danferguson said:

 

I am confused. You are saying it must be done in the UK??

 

I cannot renew my UK passport in Thailand?

You apply through VFS in Bangkok or Chiang Mai.  Your new passport is collected from VFS.  In the meantime you retain your existing passport for ID purposes.  Everything is clearly explained at gov.uk

[Old Croc]

22 hours ago, British Consular Team said:

 

Passport applications and renewals are managed by Her Majesty’s Passport Office in the UK, not the Embassy or the Consular team, so we don't have anything to add to the good advice others have shared here or the info on the HMPO website.

The OP was simply asking advice about timelines, not seeking your direct action.

As the Embassy website was consulted, and your site where the questions were placed, you could have proffered  something useful for one of your nationals.

[Dazinoz]

7 minutes ago, Old Croc said:

The OP was simply asking advice about timelines, not seeking your direct action.

As the Embassy website was consulted, and your site where the questions were placed, you could have proffered  something useful for one of your nationals.

Seems to me the embassies just don't care, I know the Australian one doesn't seem to. I had to travel from Chiang Mai to Bangkok and back again to simply get a photo copy of my passport stamped to say it was a genuine copy. The honary consular here in CM was not allowed.

 

When I visited the embassy I did not see one Australian, all Thai. I know that is one of the Thai rules for businesses in Thailand but I really don't think a Thai would care about a farang to the degree of an embassy, even if that is their job.

 

Having said that I find the honary consular in Chiang Mai very helpful.

[Rawairat]

I applied for a British passport renewal, through an agent in Pattaya at the beginning of December 2020 as my Thai visa expired February 2021. After the usual Christmas delays and the agent and VFS delays followed by an email from the British passport office on the 14th January that it would be completed within 8 weeks, I got the new passport at the end of February. Cost me B5000 for the agent and another B6000 overstay as I was a 12 days late applying for the new visa.

My advice if your on a deadline go to Bangkok and do it yourself, don't believe the agents "everything will be fine" he doesn't have to pay the fines!!

[Eff1n2ret]

1 hour ago, Rawairat said:

I applied for a British passport renewal, through an agent in Pattaya at the beginning of December 2020 as my Thai visa expired February 2021. After the usual Christmas delays and the agent and VFS delays followed by an email from the British passport office on the 14th January that it would be completed within 8 weeks, I got the new passport at the end of February. Cost me B5000 for the agent and another B6000 overstay as I was a 12 days late applying for the new visa.

My advice if your on a deadline go to Bangkok and do it yourself, don't believe the agents "everything will be fine" he doesn't have to pay the fines!!

You were very unlucky. The timeline for my passport and extension renewal was the same as yours - except a year previously. I applied in  December 2019 and received the new passport, dated 2nd January 2020, in mid-January in plenty of time for the extension application. I didn't bother with an agent.

Because HMPO will no longer add on the unexpired time from one's old passport, it effectively means that your new passport is valid only for 9 full year extensions. I hope to live long enough to be grumbling about this in 8 years' time.

[danferguson]

18 hours ago, Upnotover said:

You apply through VFS in Bangkok or Chiang Mai.  Your new passport is collected from VFS.  In the meantime you retain your existing passport for ID purposes.  Everything is clearly explained at gov.uk

 

I was thinking of old passport retention in case there is a delay, and you have to do the 90 day reporting before you get new passport.

[Upnotover]

18 minutes ago, danferguson said:

 

I was thinking of old passport retention in case there is a delay, and you have to do the 90 day reporting before you get new passport.

Exactly.  No problem as you still have the old passport while waiting for the new one.

[Old Croc]

6 hours ago, Dazinoz said:

Seems to me the embassies just don't care, I know the Australian one doesn't seem to. I had to travel from Chiang Mai to Bangkok and back again to simply get a photo copy of my passport stamped to say it was a genuine copy. The honary consular here in CM was not allowed.

 

When I visited the embassy I did not see one Australian, all Thai. I know that is one of the Thai rules for businesses in Thailand but I really don't think a Thai would care about a farang to the degree of an embassy, even if that is their job.

 

Having said that I find the honary consular in Chiang Mai very helpful.

I understand it  costs many hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to send Australian staff on overseas postings. Not surprisingly only senior staff are sent to Embassies and Consulates. You would never normally see these staff manning counters, they work on major casework and decision making away from the public. Most office personnel are engaged locally and paid accordingly. They are known as LES (locally engaged staff). Diplomatic staff have appropriate visas and are not subject to local rules on work rights.

Honorary consuls usually have little power to help citizens with consular paperwork and are just there to provide a liaison to locally authorities when citizens die, are imprisoned or similar. They would normally just direct you to the Embassy for any consular service.

My experiences with the Phuket Australian Consulate General have been very satisfactory, a new PP took less than 3 weeks from interview to pick-up. 

The last "honorary" consul in Phuket was extremely unhelpful.

[danferguson]

Any suggestions for a Pattaya-based agent that can do a UK passport renewal??

 

If you have other reasons to regularly go to Bangkok, then I understand doing it yourself probably not too difficult.

 

But if you don't want to travel to Bangkok twice, and you have plenty of time, probably easier to use an agent.

[tinca tinca]

On 5/20/2021 at 6:26 AM, Dazinoz said:

Mine is due July next year. My visa extension is due October this year so I would not get a fully year extension, only until July next year. 

 

I really didn't want to go through the process of doing an early visa extension so I actually did my passport renewal a few days ago. Its Australian. I visited the Australian Consulate in Chiang Mai on the 18th and they did the paperwork, I received an email receipt the next day from the embassy in Bangkok. I was told it would be about 3 weeks to receive the new one back from Australia. As I was required to keep my old passport for a 90 day report I will have to goto the consulate again to collect the new one. If I didn't need old one they would have done what was needed and new one posted direct to my house.

uk passports are NOT posted to the passport owners address, have to go collect and sign for new passsport...!!!!