Sent off passports to UK for renewal for myself and her indoors (BNO) passport. Received mine back in just 3 weeks.

Major problem with the renewal of the BNO passport that could have caused us enormous problems that potentially could have resulted in us having to leave Thailand.

I won't go in to details but the "rules"  were such that the BNO would not be issued.

After a few emails with a team at HMPO it was finally decided yesterday,despite the rules, to issue a new BNO passport with conditions. 

They had weighed up a difficult situation, concluded that the rules could be "relaxed" and saved us all sorts of hassle. I must say when we first made contact after the initial refusal to issue the passport I thought we were in deep sh-t, but they came through. As I said in the subject line brilliant.Common sense prevailed.

 

Did try to contact the BE in Bangkok a couple of weeks ago asking for help/advice but simply got an acknowledgement, thankfully HMPO UK were on the ball. 

For those not in the know BNO stands for British National Overseas.  Save you all from looking it up!

Just because an author knows what the abbreviation stands for it does not always follow that the reader will know. 

It is good practice to spell the phrase out and then put the abbreviation in brackets after it; e.g. British National Overseas (BNO).

 

10 hours ago, fangless said:

For those not in the know BNO stands for British National Overseas.  Save you all from looking it up!

Just because an author knows what the abbreviation stands for it does not always follow that the reader will know. 

It is good practice to spell the phrase out and then put the abbreviation in brackets after it; e.g. British National Overseas (BNO).

 

And despite everyone knowing how to use Google?

Anyway,the thread was about HMPO (Her Majesty's Passport Office) in the UK (United Kingdom) and their rising to the occassion and resolving a potentially difficult situation. 

Not surprising the British Embassy didn't step up to the plate

Just a rider to this. Got my new British passport, very dissapointed. Was hoping it would look like the ones from the old days.

Basically it's just the EU (European Union) passport in a different colour （blue） with  "British Passport" across the top.

And designed in France and made in Poland I believe!

Did you get an official letter to facilitate the transfer of any Extension stamps from your old passport to the new one?  Or don't you need to do this?

7 minutes ago, Thailand said:

Got my new British passport, very dissapointed.

Thank-you for getting back to the usual moaning and complaining , I was rather shocked to read a positive thread on these forums , actually ruined my morning someone being happy  and content and praising something 

10 minutes ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

Thank-you for getting back to the usual moaning and complaining , I was rather shocked to read a positive thread on these forums , actually ruined my morning someone being happy  and content and praising something 

Sorry you were disappointed that I was disappointed.

21 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

Not surprising the British Embassy didn't step up to the plate

I guess it was simply something that was not within their purview. 

21 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Did you get an official letter to facilitate the transfer of any Extension stamps from your old passport to the new one?  Or don't you need to do this?

22 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Yes, it was given to me when I collected my passport from VFSGlobal in ChiangMai

2 hours ago, Thailand said:

And despite everyone knowing how to use Google?

They wouldn't have to if the original post did not require it.

i think most people expect to read a post without having to resort to google, or whatever, to find out what the post is about.

2 hours ago, Thailand said:

Yes, it was given to me when I collected my passport from VFSGlobal in ChiangMai

Ah, OK. I assumed from your original post that you had sent the passports back to the UK yourself, rather than via VFS.

8 hours ago, fangless said:

They wouldn't have to if the original post did not require it.

i think most people expect to read a post without having to resort to google, or whatever, to find out what the post is about.

I disagree, keeps the brains of the old codgers working. So simply doing my bit to promote healthy minds. And of course quoting part of posts can easilybe taken out of context.

 

Anyway, HMPO UK did good with the BNO passport problem. 

CLOSED on request.