Agent stole me and wife passport! We need help!

[RetiredJohn]

Hi

My wife and me used an agent in Bangkok to get a retirement visa. Our current visas are expired. My wife called on 25.3 and said our passports are lost. I got angry and said to her that I will go to the police and then the husband talked to me and said they know people and can arrest me if I go to the police because I do not have a passport and it is lying even if is is real.  We are very scared and we do not know what to do because we are old people who wanted to be retired. What can we do now?  The agency is <removed> do not use them! 

[Lite Beer]

Go to the police and report the theft.

You will need a police report to get another passport.

 

A bit late now but stay away from agents and do it yourself.

It is pretty simple to do.

[ubonjoe]

How were they lost?

You can do a police report for a lost or stolen passport without being arrested. You were given false info from the person that told you that would happen.

You need to contact the agency and get them to assist you with your problems.

[Tom H]

police!

[chickenslegs]

8 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

How were they lost?

You can do a police report for a lost or stolen passport without being arrested. You were given false info from the person that told you that would happen.

You need to contact the agency and get them to assist you with your problems.

But he says that their visas have now expired.

[TheScience]

Dear First Poster,

 

Is this a panic screed or what did you believe we could do about your passports?

 

I always do my own 90 day reports. When traveling, I always do my own visas no matter the transportation hassles, time and cost. People laugh, they smirk but I just think of posts like this ...

 

Once it's gone...it's gone.

 

Hopefully, your ppts are just missing. Take your paperwork and reciept to the police and make a report that the company lost your ppts. Don't make threats or say they were stolen.

[ubonjoe]

1 minute ago, chickenslegs said:

But he says that their visas have now expired.

The police will not know about that or care when the police report is done.

There is no way to avoid doing a police report sine that is required to get a replacement passport at their embassy.

[mtls2005]

46 minutes ago, RetiredJohn said:

I got angry and said to her that I will go to the police and then the husband talked to me and said they know people and can arrest me if I go to the police

 

Perhaps he/they have experience being arrested?

 

Maybe because of a bit of "gardening"? 

[DrJack54]

32 minutes ago, RetiredJohn said:

We are very scared and we do not know what to do because we are old people who wanted to be retired. What can we do now?

How did you enter Thailand.

Meaning tourist visa or.....etc?

When does your current permission of stay end? 

Did you deal with an agency with an office or just some random guy? 

If no progress can be made with agent then report your passports lost. 

Which country are you from?

You will need emergency pp.

 

Lot depends on your permission of stay status. 

[scubascuba3]

Can you post a receipt from the agent? they issue that as standard, obviously hide the name

[Lite Beer]

50 minutes ago, Lite Beer said:

.

 

23 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

How did you enter Thailand.

Meaning tourist visa or.....etc?

When does your current permission of stay end? 

Did you deal with an agency with an office or just some random guy? 

If no progress can be made with agent then report your passports lost. 

Which country are you from?

You will need emergency pp.

 

Lot depends on your permission of stay status. 

His permision to stay status is irrelevent.

To get a new passport from his Embassy needs a Police Report.

Get it ASP.

 

[SunnyinBangrak]

Sorry to hear your situation. First thing to do, and most important. Calm down, get your breathing under control. Making threats and getting emotional will worsen your situation immeasurably.

 

 Step 2, as pointed out above. Contact the police and report your passports lost. They will give some documents and your embassy will use them to start issuance of new passports. It is a frequent occurrence and no eyebrows will be raised at any stage. I had mine stolen years ago from a hotel safe (the hotel claimed the whole safe was stolen and pointed to a huge hole in the wall where it used to be!) and all replaced easily after the initial shock and panic wore off.

 

Good luck with it, and pls keep us updated.

[DrJack54]

11 minutes ago, Lite Beer said:

 

His permision to stay status is irrelevent.

To get a new passport from his Embassy needs a Police Report.

Get it ASP.

 

If he still has a valid POS and entered on tourist visa or visa exempt he may have time to obtain emergency pp and apply for covid extension.

Problem is not sure how immigration treats emergency pp regarding extension. 

BTW I mentioned the passport and police report. 

[DrJack54]

OP, joined 2 hours ago. 

Posted one hour ago.

Last visited AseanNow one hour ago.

Jay Jay market must be open. 

@RetiredJohn any added information? 

[worgeordie]

One reason I would not use a 3rd party Person /Company

to do Visa ,Extension ,if I lose my passport its my fault ,you

are taking a risk handing your passport over to someone

you don't really know , My passport is precious to me,I take

really good care of it all the time, knowing the problems if

I lost it

regards Worgeordie

[whereyougo]

Joined 2 hours ago surprise surprise ???? 

[chuang]

Report to the police ASAP.

[zugzug123]

10 minutes ago, whereyougo said:

Joined 2 hours ago surprise surprise ???? 

why is it a surprise, dude needs urgent help, signs up here to post.

 

The agent is a real piece of work... threatening not to go to the police... OP don't listen to the agent and go to the police ASAP and get yourself a new passport. You will have to pay overstay fee of 500THB/day but it is how it is. 

[rose33]

This is the third story I have heard about passports being confiscated from foreigners. There's always a price to get it back.

 

I say a prayer every time mine has to go out of my possession, even for 5 minutes.

[whereyougo]

18 minutes ago, zugzug123 said:

why is it a surprise, dude needs urgent help, signs up here to post.

 

The agent is a real piece of work... threatening not to go to the police... OP don't listen to the agent and go to the police ASAP and get yourself a new passport. You will have to pay overstay fee of 500THB/day but it is how it is. 

So urgent he hasnt bothered to reply ...

[humbug]

4 minutes ago, whereyougo said:

So urgent he hasnt bothered to reply ...

yes, maybe the same ones who normally start threads with outlandish stories involving elite, then just disappear, once they see enough taking the bite, maybe its the turn of the retirement visa, it felt reading to be unreal, not that bad things can't happen, just a hunch on reading it, maybe after this, they be replies with lots of evidence, and I be eating humble pie, lets see

[WEBBYB808]

Sounds fishy to begin with, but why wouldn't  you report the theft or lost passport  to your Embassy  beig that every passport  is property of the perspective  countries Government.   If I knew who stole or had my Passport  I would go to the Authorities  and my Embassy.   Have you went to your Embassy  or is there a reason you haven't?

[Thailand]

He and his are probably at the police station reporting the loss of their passports so not available to reply to the thread.

[richard_smith237]

16 hours ago, whereyougo said:

Joined 2 hours ago surprise surprise ???? 

16 hours ago, whereyougo said:

So urgent he hasnt bothered to reply ...

So someone joins and asks a question on a forum most likely to have people with useful answers, yet you feel compelled to offer exactly nothing of value whatsoever..... Is that a common theme in your life ? (offering exactly nothing of value).

 

OP is clearly concerned that he is now on overstay and without a passport in hand - he’s stuck between a rock and hard place and potentially facing extortion from a cheating visa agent. 

 

-----

 

IMO - the agent is lying. They’ve promised a service they have been unable to provide. 

Instead of owning up and returning the passports they’v made up some BS and then threatened the Op (and his wife). 

Op only has one option: Report directly to the police.

Op has a better chance if he knows some ‘respected’ Thai’s who can go with him to the police station so that they take the issue seriously instead of just ‘filing a report’.

 

It's a fair assumption that the agent still has the Passports but is attempting to figure out how to extort more money, or simply wants to ‘cut the Op off’ so that they can keep whatever money they were given to process the retirement visa... 

 

In summary, the Op has been ’scammed’....   he should get both his Embassy and the Police involved. 

 

Of course, the issue is that he’s now on overstay, a police report highlighting that a visa agent stole his passport may result in that issue being dealt with more favourable when those ‘chips’ fall. 

[DrJack54]

8 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

So someone joins and asks a question on a forum most likely to have people with useful answers......

Think that's bit over the top post.

Indeed nothing wrong with opening an account and starting a thread.

What's a little unusual is to exit AseanNow as soon as the thread is started. 

Then not a revisit in next 5+ hours.

 

It's a reasonable response from some to question the validity of this topic.

In any event if genuine uj (as usual) has given the op advice echoed by others. 

 

 

 

 

[orchis]

In the title the passports are "stolen"but in the post they are "lost".

Which is it?, one or the other.

[BritTim]

21 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

It's a fair assumption that the agent still has the Passports but is attempting to figure out how to extort more money, or simply wants to ‘cut the Op off’ so that they can keep whatever money they were given to process the retirement visa... 

Assuming this is not a troll thread, the chances are 80% that the passports have been mislaid (and cannot be located after a search); 19% that the passports were stolen, but not by the agent; and 1% something abnormal. Especially if the passports are sent to another province for processing, the passports will tend to pass through many hands. This provides many opportunities for passports to go astray. Some agents have appalling administrative skills, and are temporarily losing track of passports and applications all the time. There is a very good chance that the passports could still turn up, but unknown when this might happen.

 

If the claim that the OP was threatened to prevent reporting to the police, this suggests that the agent believes the passports may still turn up. This would be a best case scenario, as the couple might then not be on overstay if the extensions were issued before the passports went astray.

 

If filing the police report (safest IMHO) try to find out from the agent where the passports were sent for the extension, and whether the extension had been granted. Unfortunately, it might be necessary to travel to another province to get stamps reinstated in new passports if the extensions were processed prior to the passports going missing.

 

It is a mess.

[Maestro]

11 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

If he still has a valid POS

POS = point of sale, but you probably meant permission to stay.

[JimTripper]

If it were me I would just go straight to my embassy and forget about the police, tell the embassy it's lost (not stolen) have them give me a slip and pick up the new one when it arrives.

 

Then goto immigration and have the visa re-issued, they should have something on file.

 

If you really need the report first, 

Try reporting it to the police in another city, like Chiang Mai. Go for vacation.

Just tell them you lost it (not stolen) in Chiang Mai.

 

If the agent stole the passports they are going to get nicked anyway once you get a replacement if they try to use them, so does not matter if you report it as stolen or lost.

[Onerak]

Must report as soon as possible and tell the truth how it is lost. If you gave it to the agent, give full info. I lost my passport in the hotel (I did not lose it but my GF took it and left after an altercation) and I immediately reported to the police and told them I left the hotel door unlocked and my GF was in the hotel but I have no way to know if she took it or not. I told the police where she lives and police went to her home. Her mother told that I have a baby with her. Police than told  me that it is a family matter and I should get it from her. But they wrote a letter for me to take it to embassy for a new passport and gave me a ride to the bus station for a bus to Ubon. It all happened in Rasi salai.