Passport held by shady agent for 8 months - please help

[rodyy]

Hey everyone, in last May I decided to use the service of a (well known) agent in Bangkok to renew my marriage visa. I didn't get my passport back after 8 months (the visa expired in August 2021). The agent won't say anything about the situation other than very vague stuff and she keeps pushing the date back. I had used the same agent previously without problems (other than an already long delay but it was ok).

I'm a bit desperate at this point and was wondering if anyone had a similar experience? Any advice would be welcome. I'm a French citizen if that matters. I'm considering reporting her to the police and getting a new passport. Thanks!

[Ohyesuare]

I'd report it as stolen and get a new passport, seems like you have no choice. If your visa is expired and you didn't have your passport since, that means you're on overstay though?

[JackGats]

The agent most probably lost the passport. How could you wait for 8 months? I get the jitters after 4 days when I leave my passport in the hand of strangers.

[DrJack54]

OP, what assistance did you require for a marriage extension?

It's unusual for agents to assist with extensions marriage. They can deal with organization of docs etc. Not much else. 

Did you meet the financials.

What was the agent required to do. 

Don't just state "obtain the extension". 

Edited January 7, 2022 by DrJack54

[dddave]

7 minutes ago, JackGats said:

The agent most probably lost the passport. How could you wait for 8 months? I get the jitters after 4 days when I leave my passport in the hand of strangers.

Even worse but not outside of the realm of possibility: the agent could have "loaned" your passport to a roughly similar looking individual, perhaps somebody blacklisted.

 

If she won't return it immediately, you probably should report it lost with the details to your Embassy.  You will have to file a police report to get your old visas and permissions reinstated.

[Chris.B]

22 minutes ago, Ohyesuare said:

I'd report it as stolen and get a new passport, seems like you have no choice. If your visa is expired and you didn't have your passport since, that means you're on overstay though?

Overstay of more than 90 days which means banned from Thailand for 1 year and a 20,000 baht fine. ☹️

 

[Gottfrid]

14 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

It's unusual for agents to assist with extensions marriage.

No, it is not unusual at all. I know many that does.

[DrJack54]

3 minutes ago, Gottfrid said:

No, it is not unusual at all. I know many that does.

And what exactly do the agents do for extensions marriage. Please outline

[clivebaxter]

25 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

And what exactly do the agents do for extensions marriage. Please outline

Same as retirement just more expensive- they pay under the table for people who do not have the funds in the bank

[Lite Beer]

A shady agent?

Surely not. they are all upstanding pillars of society and would never break the law.

[gargamon]

I'm sure thankful I never use agents for this type of thing. It's bad enough when immigration keeps your passport for a few hours or overnight.

 

OP, your passport is lost, you will never see it again. Take the required steps and have it replaced. 

[worgeordie]

Why wait so long , after a couple of weeks I would

be doing everything to get it returned .....8 months !

regards worgeordie

[DrJack54]

9 minutes ago, clivebaxter said:

Same as retirement just more expensive- they pay under the table for people who do not have the funds in the bank

Marriage extensions completely different to Retirement.

Extensions retirement are sent up country. All that's required is to circumvent money in bank requirement. The passport holder of course is not even required to attend. Just hand over pp to agent.

Marriage is completely different.

Anyway this is off topic.. I asked the OP what the agent was actually doing on his behalf. 

Don't think the op has contributed as yet. 

Vague thread with little detail. 

[richard_smith237]

You’re between a rock and hard place. 

 

You can’t involve the police because you’ve been on overstay since August ’21 and you’ll get banned from re-entering Thailand for 5 years. 

 

Your options:

Wait it out with the Visa agent and hope they sort out the issue.

Or....

Report the passport stolen (or lost), get an Emergency travel document from your Embassy. 

Travel home, pay the overstay fine, accept a 1 year ban. 

 

 

Is it possible to go and meet the visa agent, actually see the passport itself ?.... see that its not lost etc

 

IF she still has ‘connections’ and can sort out your overstay issue this could be the best option still, but its a horrible gamble. 

[Ohyesuare]

1 hour ago, DrJack54 said:

And what exactly do the agents do for extensions marriage. Please outline

Get married to you. Sin Sod required of course.

[LoeiI]

Wow bit of a gift to the agent bashers on the forum anyone smell a ???? ??

[BritTim]

You may or may not be on overstay. That will depend on whether the passport was mislaid before or after the extension was processed.

 

At this point, send a registered latter to the agent demanding to know:

1. When they lost your passport?
2. Was an extension successfully processed?
3. Can they guarantee return of the passport within the next two weeks?

Make clear that you intend to take legal action if you do not get satisfactory written answers to those questions within three days. [As a practical matter, the legal action would not achieve suitable compensation, but no agent who wants to stay in business would want to risk a possible very public court case publicising their incompetence.]

Edited January 7, 2022 by BritTim

[bobandyson]

3 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

Extensions retirement are sent up country. All that's required is to circumvent money in bank requirement. The passport holder of course is not even required to attend. Just hand over pp to agent.

The above info is what I got from an agency in Pattaya. Hand over PP and pick up 2 weeks later? No thanks.

 

Jan 4th at CW I met an agent to get a retirement ext. First we went to photo copy pages in PP. Then to the bank to open account with 800,000b.

Then to immigration. No ticket, just walked straight in (Fast Track). A few signatures were needed. Had photo taken by them as usual so had to attend (and I preferred to anyway). PP stamped with ext. and then it was back to the bank to extract 800,000b.

 

The whole process took just over an hour and most of that was spent in the bank opening an account with signing forms and photo copies.

 

My agent had my PP almost all of the whole time from start to finish and not once was she ever out of my sight. 

[rodyy]

Thank you for your answers! Yes I'm thinking the passport may have been lost or stolen and I will talk to my embassy on Monday. She wasn't able to produce a photo of my passport when asked recently.

And yes I can meet her anytime, but she won't give any reliable info. Good point about the registered letter.

 

I'm not sure what a legal action would look like since I'm not even supposed to give my passport to a private person in the first place.

[Mitkof Island]

I would expose her and make sure her name is on every website that deals with Thailand. You have a YouTube channel? If not might be a good time to take action so others won,t be harmed. After two weeks I would have been pounding on her day daily. Where's my damn passport?

[Mitkof Island]

6 hours ago, LoeiI said:

Wow bit of a gift to the agent bashers on the forum anyone smell a ???? ??

Most of them I would never trust with my passport period.!

[Gottfrid]

10 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

And what exactly do the agents do for extensions marriage. Please outline

With the right connections, they also provide the money in such cases, as they accept that the money is only in the account at the day of application. That´s as easy as it is, and that´s the outline you get. Can´t always be right dear doctor.

[DrJack54]

1 minute ago, Gottfrid said:

With the right connections, they also provide the money in such cases, as they accept that the money is only in the account at the day of application. That´s as easy as it is, and that´s the outline you get. Can´t always be right dear doctor.

Indeed.

Never ran into any agent doing that. Or for that matter someone doing that. 

 

The person and his wife would still need to attend immigration.

Perhaps be subject to home visit.

Still be required to furnish other docs related to marriage.

For marriage extensions you have an under consideration period as application is reviewed. 

That's completely different to situation with extensions retirement.

In any event at some point I no doubt I will run into someone that uses agent for marriage extension. Maybe they might be married to an io.

The OP has now mentioned something about a certification of marriage certificate (or whatever). Seems a strange course of action to need agent for that.

[mvdf]

Might have lost it... might have sold it to some underworld chap for "urgent banking services"... might have sold it to someone who "doctored" it for a desperate foreign criminal willing to pay big bucks to move from country A to country B with the ease of a Frenchman's passport... might have auctioned it off to highest bidder at the annual mafia goodies auction... might have found its way to Kaoh San Rd for that "passport with Sorbonne Université diploma package deal for 100k baht"

 

Or her kid might have snipped it into pieces and said "look mama สวยมาก!!"

 

Lost in a maze of possibilities. 

Edited January 8, 2022 by mvdf

[Gottfrid]

9 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

Indeed.

Never ran into any agent doing that. Or for that matter someone doing that. 

 

The person and his wife would still need to attend immigration.

Perhaps be subject to home visit.

Still be required to furnish other docs related to marriage.

For marriage extensions you have an under consideration period as application is reviewed. 

That's completely different to situation with extensions retirement.

In any event at some point I no doubt I will run into someone that uses agent for marriage extension. Maybe they might be married to an io.

The OP has now mentioned something about a certification of marriage certificate (or whatever). Seems a strange course of action to need agent for that.

Yes, it seems strange, to need an agent for the reason the OP mentions.

[mrmicbkktxl]

31 minutes ago, Mitkof Island said:

I would expose her and make sure her name is on every website that deals with Thailand. You have a YouTube channel? If not might be a good time to take action so others won,t be harmed. After two weeks I would have been pounding on her day daily. Where's my damn passport?

Defamation laws in Thailand???

[mtls2005]

Passports got switched accidently. Or it fell down behind the desk at the "well-known" agent's desk.

 

Maybe you could get the passport of the chap who has yours?

 

 

[Tracyb]

EIGHT MONTHS!?  Really?

Who goes on for eight months without a passport?

Best of luck, pal!

[PeachCH]

Perhaps sounds odd, but I would contact one of this Pattaya agents, which are doing hundreds of visas. With his advice, he can tell you step by step what to do to prevent a ban. (with a little help from his friends at the immigration) 

[brianthainess]

I would contact the agent again, and tell them if it's not returned say within 7 days or less, you will have no choice than make a police report, because at the end of the day that is true, it just might make them take more effort in trying to find it. If they can.