US Passport Renewal in Thailand

[MangoRice90]

If you're a US citizen, you can renew you're passport in Thailand. It's easy enough except I can't find the way to pay the renewal fee. Has anyone else renewed their passport here? If so, please let me know where the 'pay.gov link' they refer to is. Thanks

[ubonjoe]

You either pay with a bank draft mailed in with your passport or on pay.gov.

Info is here after going the through the steps. https://th.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/passports/renewing-your-u-s-passport-by-mail/

Link for paying online. https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/790155895

[MangoRice90]

55 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

You either pay with a bank draft mailed in with your passport or on pay.gov.

Info is here after going the through the steps. https://th.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/passports/renewing-your-u-s-passport-by-mail/

Link for paying online. https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/790155895

Thanks so much

[JimGant]

53 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

You either pay with a bank draft mailed in with your passport or on pay.gov.

Two months ago you could find that option on the Embassy/Consulate websites. And being able to pay for the new passport with a bank draft made sense, since you had to go to the bank anyway to get the 100 baht bank draft for the return postage. Might as well get another bank draft while you're there.

 

But, I can't find that option anymore. Maybe because they had to update their site too often with the new baht equivalent rate....

 

Anyway, pay.gov is easy to navigate, so no big deal. But you do need a printer, so if all your computing these days is on your mobile, maybe a bigger deal for some.

[ubonjoe]

31 minutes ago, JimGant said:

Two months ago you could find that option on the Embassy/Consulate websites. And being able to pay for the new passport with a bank draft made sense, since you had to go to the bank anyway to get the 100 baht bank draft for the return postage. Might as well get another bank draft while you're there.

But, I can't find that option anymore. Maybe because they had to update their site too often with the new baht equivalent rate....

Anyway, pay.gov is easy to navigate, so no big deal. But you do need a printer, so if all your computing these days is on your mobile, maybe a bigger deal for some.

I cannot find if now either. Apparently they have ended the bank draft option.

That could cause problems for people that don't have a debit or credit card to pay for it.

[CMBob]

Ignore....double post

 

Edited October 7, 2022 by CMBob

[CMBob]

Renewed my US passport here this past December and used the bank draft option for both the renewal fee and the 100 baht return mailing fee; however, checking the Embassy website info, the bankdraft option for the renewal fee isn't available anymore (although one still has to go get a bankdraft for the 100 baht return mailing fee).  Would obviously be helpful simply to allow a credit/debit card for both fees and that'd eliminate the need to go get a bankdraft.  And, yea, anybody without a workable credit/debit card apparentlyl simply can't renew their US passport here.

[jingjai9]

Can you pay with Thai baht if you renew at the embassy? My daughter has to go in person because she is applying as a first time adult.

 

 

[thailand49]

JI went and renewal Sept 14th. I paid in That Baht it was like 4900 baht. then told to walk outside Citizen services there was still small booth paid in Thai baht 100, given an envelope to fill out with my address in Thailand with a receipt that had a tracking number Went back inside to Citizen services window handed in told 3-4 weeks, got message Sept 29th by Embassy being sent out arrived sign Oct 1st. 

Opened,  new passport great,  Old. and letter for immigration 

Edited October 7, 2022 by thailand49

[ubonjoe]

18 minutes ago, jingjai9 said:

Can you pay with Thai baht if you renew at the embassy? My daughter has to go in person because she is applying as a first time adult.

Info can be found here for the first passport. It depends upon her age.

https://th.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/passports/

[BonMot]

In early August I did my renewal. I opted for bank draft. Already the currencies were in flux so I emailed the embassy and got the rate. The app was done online.

 

It was lightning fast. From the time I mailed the passport to it being returned was under 14 days.

 

Some months back my wife also had her B1 processed, returned in something like ten days.

 

We are in central BKK

 

I would recommend paying dollars however you need to deal with that.

Edited October 7, 2022 by BonMot

[Pib]

You can now pay the passport fee (i.e., adult passport $130) via U.S. bank acct (ACH transfer), Amazon acct, Paypal acct, or Debit/Credit Card.  The return mailing fee of Bt100 is still by Thai bank draft.  As mentioned below you must have a Thailand mailing address for your new passport, but when you pay like via debit/credit card for yourself or another person you can enter your card "billing" address since I know a lot of U.S. people living in Thailand have cards linked to a U.S. billing/mailing address (like me) and sometimes payment attempts can reject if the billing address you enter is not correct.

 

 

https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/790155895

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[HNLDennis]

Hello,

     I applied for a new passport by mail 14 Sept. 2022 and received it 7 Oct.2022. I checked online and could not find the option of paying with a bank draft as in previous info. . I sent a email to the embassy and the following is the reply. 

RE: New submission from Bangkok Contact Form

Inbox

Bangkok ACS <[email protected]>	Aug 29, 2022, 3:06 PM
to me

Thank you for contacting ACS Bangkok,

 

Process is updated due to exchange rate is frequently changed. You may please pay passport application fees $130 on-line, please see Step 6 here https://th.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/passports/instructions-for-ds-82-processing-by-mail-and-online-fee-payment-for-u-s-citizens-residing-in-thailand/ . 

 

You may please purchase 100THB bank draft for a return envelope fee, please see the attached bank draft request form for your reference.

 

Regards,

ACS Bangkok

 

From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2022 1:33 PM
To: Bangkok ACS <[email protected]>
Subject: New submission from Bangkok Contact Form

 

Please select the entry which best describes your enquiry:   My question is not covered by information on your website. Please provide the FULL NAME of the applicant (as it appears on the U.S. passport):     Please provide BRIEF details of additional information relevant to your question:   I need to renew my passport and reviewed the instructions. When I got to the part about payment for passport and return envelope fee by bank draft. The old Embassy instructions had ( Should you wish to pay passport application fees by Bank draft, please click here. ) I think it took you to a Bank draft Request Form for passport. I want to pay for the passport renewal with a bank draft and also the return envelope fee 100 baht. I would like to get the Bank Draft request form for passport renewal fee mailed to me or at lease provide info. who to make it Pay To: and the amount in Baht for the passport renewal fee. Thank You. Please provide your contact email address:

IP Address:

 

[Pib]

Although a person can pay via ACH bank acct, Amazon acct, Paypal acct, or credit/debit card (4 methods) I can easily see where some U.S. folks and/or dual citizen Thai/US folks have dropped their financial links with the U.S. and no longer have a U.S. bank acct to accomplish an ACH withdrawal/debit, nor have a Amazon or Paypal acct, or even have a debit/credit card.    I don't know if the debit/credit card needs to be a U.S. issued; hopefully, it would be a debit/credit card issued from any country like a Thai bank debit card.

 

For such folks who have dropped their financial links to the U.S. I would hope the U.S. Embassy would still allow payment of the basic fee via Thai bank draft, but I expect a person would first need to stress they can not pay using one of above mentioned methods since they do no have any of the accts or debit/credit cards. 

 

Guess we'll have to wait and see if anyone succeeds in being allowed to pay the basic fee via Thai bank draft since the new payment policy went into effect in Sep 2022.  

 

 

[10years]

What is the difference between a bank draft and a cashier's check?

[hotandsticky]

1 minute ago, 10years said:

What is the difference between a bank draft and a cashier's check?

In reality, none. They are both drawn on the bank

[skatewash]

15 hours ago, hotandsticky said:

In reality, none. They are both drawn on the bank

Agree.  As a practical matter there is no difference in this case.

There is a minor technical difference in the English language explained here, but that doesn't really apply to the situation in Thailand.  Ironically, Bangkok Bank calls what they offer a bank draft but in the English language it would most likely be called a cashier's check.

https://bizfluent.com/info-8528031-escrow-account-payout.html

[JimGant]

On 10/8/2022 at 9:11 AM, Pib said:

I don't know if the debit/credit card needs to be a U.S. issued; hopefully, it would be a debit/credit card issued from any country like a Thai bank debit card.

Can be issued from a foreign bank. But a debit card must have either a MasterCard or Visa logo. Thus, my Union Pay Bangkok Bank card wouldn't work (not that I'd try and use it, having a nice cash back US credit card -- and being adverse to any and all debit cards, for security reasons).