Applying for a retirement visa on a soon-to-expire passport

[Rigsby]

I'm sure this has been answered many times, so I apologize before I start.

 

A friend's British passport expires in January 2022 and he needs to renew his retirement visa this month.

 

Am I correct in saying that when he renews it now he will only get his retirement visa up until the expiry of the current passport and not the full year. When his new passport arrives, he will need to re-apply next January for the next retirement visa.

[ubonjoe]

1 minute ago, Rigsby said:

Am I correct in saying that when he renews it now he will only get his retirement visa up until the expiry of the current passport and not the full year. When his new passport arrives, he will need to re-apply next January for the next retirement visa.

That is correct.

[Rigsby]

Thanks ubonjoe. Just wanted to ensure I was giving him the correct info. 

[EricTh]

8 minutes ago, Rigsby said:

Thanks ubonjoe. Just wanted to ensure I was giving him the correct info. 

 

Yes, I had to renew my passport in a hurry because the officer told me the same thing.

 

They can only renew visa until the passport expiry date. It sucks,..

 

Edited June 10, 2021 by EricTh

[sirocco]

Good evening,
In order not to have a visa application, at the expiry of my passport, I anticipated by requesting this passport, one year before the end of its validity.
And I did well, because the year after the embassy was closed -Covid 19- and it was impossible to get papers or information.
By the way, I got this passport in 12 or 13 days, unlike the information I received;

[Moonlover]

34 minutes ago, EricTh said:

 

Yes, I had to renew my passport in a hurry because the officer told me the same thing.

 

They can only renew visa until the passport expiry date. It sucks,..

 

You might feel that it sucks, but how can they possibly award an extension beyond the expiry date of the passport, when you cannot legitimately stay in the country without a valid passport?

[Rigsby]

8 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

You might feel that it sucks, but how can they possibly award an extension beyond the expiry date of the passport, when you cannot legitimately stay in the country without a valid passport?

 

I agree. But I believe a few years ago they did give you a full years visa on a soon-to-expire passport and they would transfer it over to the new one when you got it. I might have dreamt this, I'm not sure.

[Myran]

10 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

You might feel that it sucks, but how can they possibly award an extension beyond the expiry date of the passport, when you cannot legitimately stay in the country without a valid passport?

They did it a few years back, before they changed the rules, so it was obviously possible. Whether they gave you an extension up until the passport expired and then gave you the rest when you brought in the new passport, I don't remember, but they sure did it.

[EricTh]

45 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

You might feel that it sucks, but how can they possibly award an extension beyond the expiry date of the passport, when you cannot legitimately stay in the country without a valid passport?

 

Well, I suggest that immigration renew an extension for 1 year provided that the new passport is presented to immigration within a month or two after expiry date, then we don't have to renew two times.

 

Isn't this more accommodating for those who forgot to renew their passport for one reason or another?

 

Edited June 10, 2021 by EricTh

[DrJack54]

25 minutes ago, EricTh said:

Isn't this more accommodating for those who forgot to renew their passport for one reason or another?

It's called forward planning. I'm a bit jaded by threads exactly the same as this. We learn by our mistakes and this is good example.

[ubonjoe]

10 hours ago, Myran said:

They did it a few years back, before they changed the rules, so it was obviously possible.

August of 2013 is more than a few years ago but many people still think it is being done the old way.

I remember when if changed since I got a new passport the month before (9 months early) and my extension was due in August. 

[ukbiker]

18 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

That is correct.

Do you need to just apply for the visa extension or do you need to start from the beginning with immigrant O ect.

  

[ubonjoe]

14 minutes ago, ukbiker said:

Do you need to just apply for the visa extension or do you need to start from the beginning with immigrant O ect.

  

You just apply for a new extension of stay when the shortened one is near to ending.

[Dazinoz]

16 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

It's called forward planning. I'm a bit jaded by threads exactly the same as this. We learn by our mistakes and this is good example.

I think some farang have been too long in Thailand and learn the Thai way of blaming someone else and not themselves.

 

I agree with you and I have just renewed mine over a year early. A bit of time wasted but I wanted to make sure everything right for next visa extension renewal,

[Eaglekott]

8 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

August of 2013 is more than a few years ago but many people still think it is being done the old way.

I remember when if changed since I got a new passport the month before (9 months early) and my extension was due in August. 

When I got my new passport in February 2017, I had an extension of stay stamp valid to end on June 2017, Now when extend I only got to Feb 2022 when my passport expire. Hate to only have 5 years validity in passport, should be 10.

[ubonjoe]

3 minutes ago, Eaglekott said:

Hate to only have 5 years validity in passport, should be 10.

Some countries issue 5 and 10 year passports but you have to request a 10 year passport when you apply for a new one.

[Seeall]

21 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

That is correct.

I think he means Extention

[OJAS]

22 hours ago, EricTh said:

 

Yes, I had to renew my passport in a hurry because the officer told me the same thing.

 

They can only renew visa until the passport expiry date. It sucks,..

 

 

What sucks considerably more IMHO are the nonsensical bureaucratic hoops which @Rigsby's pal will be required to jump through in order to renew his British passport. He will need to make 2 trips in person from wherever he lives in Thailand to an office in Bangkok or Chiang Mai, firstly, to submit his renewal application and, secondly, to collect his new passport a few weeks later. The only way in which he can avoid making these trips, if they are particularly arduous in his case for whatever reason, will be through employing the services of an agent at considerable extra cost. Now most Western nationals living in Thailand are able to submit their passport renewal applications and receive their new passports by snail mail - but not us Brits, because the passport-issuing powers-that-be back in the UK presumably consider the use of the snail mail system, which was introduced in 1840 back in the UK,  by passport renewal applicants in Thailand to be far too hi-tech for some ridiculous reason!

 

Edited June 11, 2021 by OJAS

[Jurg]

22 hours ago, sirocco said:

Good evening,
In order not to have a visa application, at the expiry of my passport, I anticipated by requesting this passport, one year before the end of its validity.
And I did well, because the year after the embassy was closed -Covid 19- and it was impossible to get papers or information.
By the way, I got this passport in 12 or 13 days, unlike the information I received;

This is definitely a very good way to do it. In Australia you can get a new passport at any stage during the existing valid passport dates too.????

[Upnotover]

12 minutes ago, OJAS said:

The only way in which he can avoid making these trips, if they are particularly arduous in his case for whatever reason, will be through employing the services of an agent at considerable extra cost

Not so.  If he's married/cohabiting he can send his other half, get some value out of her.  They like bus travel.

[Thingamabob]

21 hours ago, Rigsby said:

 

I agree. But I believe a few years ago they did give you a full years visa on a soon-to-expire passport and they would transfer it over to the new one when you got it. I might have dreamt this, I'm not sure.

You dreamt it.

[ubonjoe]

1 hour ago, Seeall said:

I think he means Extention

Just the normal error of calling a extension of stay a visa. Decided not to comment about it.

[thaisabai]

That is absolutely correct

 

thaisabai

[StevieAus]

On 6/10/2021 at 7:34 PM, EricTh said:

 

Yes, I had to renew my passport in a hurry because the officer told me the same thing.

 

They can only renew visa until the passport expiry date. It sucks,..

 

The simple answer then is to plan ahead and renew your passport in time it’s not hard they last for ten years.

Or are you one of the many on this site who what the rules written to suit your circumstances ?

My daughter holds a UK passport and we renewed it recently which wasn’t hard and hers only lasts for five years.

[Gahn5]

If, in the case you obtain a new Passport early and your old one expires 6 months AFTER you are due to renew an annual Extension of Stay, should you have the current Extension of Stay stamps transferred into the new Passport? Then, when time comes to renew the Extension of Stay, Immigration has your new Passport no. recorded?

To put in context, a Passport expires Oct 2022 and Extension of Stay is due for renewal in January 2022, so obtaining a new Passport early would allow the Extension of Stay renewal to go for the full 12 months?

[OJAS]

@Rigsby Your British pal may not realise this, but the procedures for renewing British passports from Thailand are probably very different from those applying when he obtained his current passport in 2012. On that occasion all that he needed to do (assuming that he was living in Thailand at that time) was to travel to no further than his local post office in order to send his application to an office in Hong Kong and then have his new passport delivered directly from the UK to his home address a few weeks later. On the basis that we are here talking about a standard renewal, the current procedures (which are, I think, definitely a backwards step when compared to those applying 10 years ago) can be gleaned in all their complex detail by clicking on the following link:-

 

https://www.passport.service.gov.uk/overseas/information/thailand/renew/adult

 

IMHO your pal needs to set the wheels in motion for renewing his current passport ASAP, given that, as things stand at the present time, he can expect to wait at least 10 weeks for his new passport to arrive from the UK for collection at Bangkok or Chiang Mai.

 

[OJAS]

On 6/10/2021 at 9:24 PM, DrJack54 said:

It's called forward planning. I'm a bit jaded by threads exactly the same as this. We learn by our mistakes and this is good example.

 

Forward planning is IMHO all the more crucially important in the case of us Brits given the need for us to get our heads around passport renewal procedures which, I think, are infinitely more complicated than those applying to American, Australian and most other Western nationals (except, maybe, in the case of Brits who live within a stone's throw of the VFS offices in Bangkok or Chiang Mai).

[OJAS]

47 minutes ago, StevieAus said:

My daughter holds a UK passport and we renewed it recently which wasn’t hard and hers only lasts for five years.

 

Presumably you and your daughter live in Bangkok or Chiang Mai - in which case easy peasy, as you say.

 

[berybert]

I came to Thailand to get away from the paper shuffling in my home country. Life is so much easier in Thailand. It's like a breath of fresh air.

WHAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!! why don't they do things like they do them in my home country, this place is so backwards. 

 

[StevieAus]

51 minutes ago, OJAS said:

 

Presumably you and your daughter live in Bangkok or Chiang Mai - in which case easy peasy, as you say.

 

The latter, but still a six hour round trip. Before the Embassy started using the agency we would have had to travel to Bangkok involving airfares and overnight stay both to lodge and collect.

We used an agent instead, I appreciate that you shouldn’t have to pay but if you choose to live outside your home country you cannot expect the same services, costs us more to renew our Australian passports as well.

They could all learn from the Thai “ passport office” very efficient and helpful no copies of documents required, originals scanned, photographs taken at the office, delivered to our home 48 hours later and considerably cheaper.