Passport run out of pages but due for visa extension 30/12

[azt219]

Hi

 

So I'm due for a visa extension (non-imm O) by 30/12/23.

 

Unfortunatley I just ran out of pages on my UK passport (Business travel and I didn't realise Cambodia uses a whole page for their visa, thought it would just be a stamp).

 

I'm not going to be able to renew my passport in time I don't think, spoke to HMPO who gave me an appointment on 15/01/24 in Bangkok but I assume i'd over stay my visa if that's the case.

 

Just wondering if there's any solution where I can get my visa while i'm still in Thailand, can I get a short visa extension without any pages in my passport? (there's some small space left in the penultimate page for an entry stamp size)

 

Currently the only solution I can think of is to just return to the UK so I don't end up overstaying my visa and then renew my passport in the UK.

 

If I go back to the UK and my visa lapses, do I have to restart the whole non-imm O visa extension process (as compared to renewing? - since the first time doing it seemed much more ardous than renewing) 

[expat_4_life]

9 minutes ago, azt219 said:

Hi

 

Unfortunatley I just ran out of pages on my UK passport

 

If I go back to the UK and my visa lapses, do I have to restart the whole non-imm O visa extension process (as compared to renewing? - since the first time doing it seemed much more ardous than renewing) 

 

Not sure how u get around the fact your passport is full, maybe there is some type of temporary passport that can be issued?  Suspect someone that has been in this situation will be along with a work-around.

 

As to allowing your permission to lapse while visiting the UK, yes definitely you would have to start the extension process from scratch.

Edited December 13, 2023 by expat_4_life

[zzzzz]

A full passport is a full passport!!!

u near Ranong?  exit stamp , entry stamp to Burma, exit stamp an entry stamp back to thailand BUT since u have a full passport  ur F#@Ked>  

A Cambodian Evisa is only entry/exit stamp BUT ur going to need 2 pages for ur 1 hear extension>
PLUS ur exit /entry stamp for Thailand.

Why on earth did u wait??

My 1 year extension ends March 28th, passport expires Deb 2025 and just got a new US one 2 weeks ago>
100% stupid to wait till the last week/month/year even

if i were u, id book a flight home

[Crossy]

Edited, yeah, I think you're screwed  

 

The extension stamps use up a whole page (although two half-pages would probably work).

 

 

 

[tomazbodner]

Get on the plane to UK, get a new passport there, hopefully before your current visa expires, return with both passports, new and old, present old one for visa, then before expiry date go and extend visa and transfer it to new passport. You'll need to have enough time and possibility to get new passport there on time, and enough space in current passport to have exit stamp from Thailand.

 

If that's not workable, you'll need to start applying from scratch with new passport. Your current passport is useless if it has no pages left.

[sandyf]

22 hours ago, azt219 said:

If I go back to the UK and my visa lapses, do I have to restart the whole non-imm O visa extension process (as compared to renewing? - since the first time doing it seemed much more ardous than renewing) 

I have been back to UK a couple of times in recent years and come back on a new visa. It is not much different doing an extension with a new visa to a renewal.

It is very unlikely you can get back to UK and back again before end of the month. The same day service for passport renewal is suspended so the quickest option is the one week service but you have to bear in mind the old passport comes back sometime later. The E-visa can be quite quick but you need the new passport before application and with the holiday could be a challenge.

[WorriedNoodle]

22 hours ago, azt219 said:

Currently the only solution I can think of is to just return to the UK so I don't end up overstaying my visa and then renew my passport in the UK.

+1, you answered it yourself.

[OJAS]

48 minutes ago, sandyf said:

The E-visa can be quite quick but you need the new passport before application and with the holiday could be a challenge.

 

In these circumstances I wonder whether the most practicable course of action in the OP's case might be to return to Thailand on his new passport with a 30-day visa exemption and then apply for a 90-day non-imm visa conversion at his local immigration office under the appropriate heading in his case as set out in the following link:

 

https://www.immigration.go.th/en/?page_id=2537

 

If he were minded to proceed on this basis, however, he should be aware that, in order to avoid potential challenges at LHR (or from whichever UK airport he will be flying) with boarding his return flight, he would be strongly advised to purchase a cheap throw-away ticket for a flight out of Thailand to a neighbouring country within the following 30 days beforehand. Air Asia flights in particular have previously been recommended on here for this purpose.

 

Edited December 14, 2023 by OJAS

[Sheryl]

19 minutes ago, OJAS said:

 

In these circumstances I wonder whether the most practicable course of action in the OP's case might be to return to Thailand on his new passport with a 30-day visa exemption and then apply for a 90-day non-imm visa conversion at his local immigration office under the appropriate option in his case as set out in the following link:

 

https://www.immigration.go.th/en/?page_id=2537

 

If he were minded to proceed on this basis, however, he should be aware that, in order to avoid potential challenges at LHR (or from whichever UK airport he will be flying) with boarding his return flight, he would be strongly advised to purchase a cheap throw-away ticket for a flight out of Thailand to a neighbouring country within the following 30 days beforehand. Air Asia flights in particular have previously been recommended on here for this purpose.

 

The other issue is that not all Imm offices will do the conversion from VE. If planning this approach he should first ascertain if his IO will do it.

 

Other option would be to get a non-Imm O visa while in the UK and enter on that. Eliminates one step in the process and gives him 90 days to do the extension. I would personally favor that if there is any uncertainty about his local IO doing the conversion to non-O.

[brianthainess]

23 hours ago, azt219 said:

Unfortunatley I just ran out of pages on my UK passport (Business travel and I didn't realise Cambodia uses a whole page for their visa, thought it would just be a stamp).

A lesson for all, get an E-visa for Cambodia, before going, no full page visa, just half a page used for stamps. 

[Gottfrid]

Reminder for everyone. Check the date your passport expire, that there are 3 or more pages left and always renew in time. 

As you stated yourself, your best option is to return to UK as quick as possible. As other have stated, you might be lucky and get your new passport there, before your permission to stay/extension ends. Just do not forget to apply and pay for a single re-entry permit before you leave.

[Lazybones]

At Tha Li, The border to Loas, they had a form which they attached to my passport which was full. This enabled me to do the border hop and then apply for a new passport. Vientiane denied that they had a form so I went to Tha Li who had told me about the form on a previous occasion.

[OJAS]

3 hours ago, Gottfrid said:

As you stated yourself, your best option is to return to UK as quick as possible. As other have stated, you might be lucky and get your new passport there, before your permission to stay/extension ends. Just do not forget to apply and pay for a single re-entry permit before you leave.

 

Unlikely that he'll be able to obtain a new passport in the UK before his current permission to stay expires since the UK closes down for a fortnight over the Christmas/New Year period. So he'd be wasting his time (and 1,000 THB) by obtaining a re-entry permit, I think.

 

@azt219 - one thing that I would definitely recommend in your case, though, is that you pay extra for a jumbo-sized passport so as to reduce the risk of being caught out in future by filled-up passport pages in advance of its expiry date.

Edited December 14, 2023 by OJAS

[Dirk Z]

Exactly the same happened to me. I found out on Friday 3  November about lack of pages, had an appointment at CW on 16 November for renewal of visa (expiring 30 November). I sent my Embassy (NL) an email. Normal appointment would be at least two weeks later, but they said I could come that Monday 6th. I got my passport with an express service on Friday 10th, well in time. To my surprise the express handling cost only 10 euros and the business size cost nothing extra. You should get in touch with your embassy and tell them you need a passport urgently. I think it happens all the time, e.g. when it gets stolen or lost.

I am surprised that people recommend traveling to the UK for a new passports. I think all embassies handle these things, that is what they are there for!

Edited December 14, 2023 by Dirk Z

[Gottfrid]

22 minutes ago, Dirk Z said:

Exactly the same happened to me. I found out on Friday 3  November about lack of pages

No, these things just not happen to people. Last time you looked in your passport, your were made aware of the lack of pages, but you decided to overlook that little thing.

Edited December 14, 2023 by Gottfrid

[sandyf]

9 hours ago, OJAS said:

In these circumstances I wonder whether the most practicable course of action in the OP's case might be to return to Thailand on his new passport with a 30-day visa exemption and then apply for a 90-day non-imm visa conversion at his local immigration office under the appropriate heading in his case as set out in the following link:

Indeed. A suggestion that also takes away the possibility of extension recovery.

[sandyf]

8 hours ago, Gottfrid said:

As you stated yourself, your best option is to return to UK as quick as possible. As other have stated, you might be lucky and get your new passport there, before your permission to stay/extension ends. Just do not forget to apply and pay for a single re-entry permit before you leave.

The re-entry permit and new passport are not related. It is the old passport that is related to the re-entry permit.

When I applied for a new passport at Liverpool in Sept I was told the old passport would be returned 7-10 days after the new passport. It actually came 2 days after the new passport but not something that could be relied upon.

[Morch]

Contact your embassy, explain the situation, see what they can do for you.

If they can issue you a new passport in time, contact immigration ahead of your due date, explain the situation to them, and ask for guidance.

Depending on location some of them can be quite accommodating.

[brianthainess]

12 hours ago, brianthainess said:

A lesson for all, get an E-visa for Cambodia, before going, no full page visa, just half a page used for stamps. 

I meant to ask as it's many ago years ago since I did it, do you have to pay for the e-visa with a credit card?

[novacova]

On 12/13/2023 at 9:51 AM, azt219 said:

Just wondering if there's any solution

Why not “lose” your passport then file a police report, and get an emergency/temporary replacement from the embassy. Be sure to have photos and photo copies of the necessary pages. Then process an application for a new passport here.

Edited December 14, 2023 by novacova

[Gottfrid]

3 hours ago, sandyf said:

The re-entry permit and new passport are not related. It is the old passport that is related to the re-entry permit.

When I applied for a new passport at Liverpool in Sept I was told the old passport would be returned 7-10 days after the new passport. It actually came 2 days after the new passport but not something that could be relied upon.

My god, how clever you are! My response was related to if he might have a chance to not lose his remaining extension. But, as I have been made aware of another poster, thta they close minimum  14 week for holiday, that is no longer a good choice.

 

Maybe you just stayed too long time, this time, and forgot how it works here. Anyway, you are excused.!

[OJAS]

19 hours ago, Dirk Z said:

I am surprised that people recommend traveling to the UK for a new passports. I think all embassies handle these things, that is what they are there for!

 

The British Embassy plays no part in the renewal of UK passports from Thailand these days, unfortunately. Instead we are required to deal (either in person or through an agent at an extra cost of 5,000 THB or thereabouts) with a local outfit called VFS acting on behalf of His Majesty's Passport Office back in the UK. This entails a couple of trips to one or other of their offices in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, firstly, for the submisison of paper applications, and, secondly, a few weeks later for the collection of replacement passports.

 

No question of us Brits being permitted to avail ourselves of even snail mail "hi-tec" dating back to the mid-19th Century as part of this process, let alone the internet!

 

The UK passport renewal process from Thailand is, not to put a too fine point on it, a complete and utter bureaucratic shambles, and certainly appears to stand in stark contrast to the relatively sleek efficiency and convenience of the Dutch process as you have described it.

 

When renewing your passport in the UK, however, you ARE allowed to use the internet (and, indeed, this method is actively encouraged by His Majesty's Passport Office these days)! Go figure why that is the case in the UK but not here in Thailand!!

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by OJAS

[azt219]

1 hour ago, OJAS said:

 

The British Embassy plays no part in the renewal of UK passports from Thailand these days, unfortunately. Instead we are required to deal (either in person or through an agent at an extra cost of 5,000 THB or thereabouts) with a local outfit called VFS acting on behalf of His Majesty's Passport Office back in the UK. This entails a couple of trips to one or other of their offices in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, firstly, for the submisison of paper applications, and, secondly, a few weeks later for the collection of replacement passports.

 

No question of us Brits being permitted to avail ourselves of even snail mail "hi-tec" dating back to the mid-19th Century as part of this process, let alone the internet!

 

The UK passport renewal process from Thailand is, not to put a too fine point on it, a complete and utter bureaucratic shambles, and certainly appears to stand in stark contrast to the relatively sleek efficiency and convenience of the Dutch process as you have described it.

 

When renewing your passport in the UK, however, you ARE allowed to use the internet (and, indeed, this method is actively encouraged by His Majesty's Passport Office these days)! Go figure why that is the case in the UK but not here in Thailand!!

 

 

Yea I spoke with the UK embassy who were spectacularly unhelpful as they said they have no involvement with passport issues now and it's all done by the HMPO team back in the UK, so tried to redirect me back to the UK directly, even asked me to call the UK directly.

 

Went the Chaeng Wattana in the end, and the immigration lady (after waiting in line with the other extension people just to ask a question) was kind enough to explain that they can stamp anywhere in the passport (doesn't have to be sequential) so she found a couple of half used pages and said it'd be ok to extend with my current passport still but would need to renew pretty much straight after the extension.  

 

Then went back the next day and did my visa extension, no problems, going to get the stamp on 5th of Jan, extended until then, then need to sort out work permit on 6th of Jan as that expires Jan 30th, and have an appointment with VFS for a new passport on 15th of Jan, so hopefully new passport will arrive around 15th Feb (website seems to advise renewal from Thailand takes about 4 weeks in total to receive the new and old passports).  

 

11 hours ago, novacova said:

Why not “lose” your passport then file a police report, and get an emergency/temporary replacement from the embassy. Be sure to have photos and photo copies of the necessary pages. Then process an application for a new passport here.

 

Yea, nice one, I think if I really didn't have any options I might have done this, not sure what the implication to Visa extension would be though. 

 

19 hours ago, Gottfrid said:

No, these things just not happen to people. Last time you looked in your passport, your were made aware of the lack of pages, but you decided to overlook that little thing.

 

Yea this was my bad but I'm not sure if I could have done much in my case as I had more than 10 pages left in my passport about 3 months ago.  Unfortunatley I've had a change in role in my job recently which means I'm travelling in and out of Thailand weekly if not twice a week sometimes so my passport suddenly just exploded with stamps and I calcualted that I would have 2 whole pages left by the end of all my work trips, but did not account for Cambodia burning through my pages, luckily UK doesn't require visas to a lot of places so it's just stamps.

 

Immigration also don't care about your page issues sometimes so they stamp more wastefully (sometimes I only get 2-3 stamps a page, somtimes i manage 8 stamps if the officiers are nice and tidy).  

[Gottfrid]

29 minutes ago, azt219 said:

Yea this was my bad but I'm not sure if I could have done much in my case as I had more than 10 pages left in my passport about 3 months ago.  Unfortunatley I've had a change in role in my job recently which means I'm travelling in and out of Thailand weekly if not twice a week sometimes so my passport suddenly just exploded with stamps

That´s a new situation. However, if it goes that quick, then order new passport when you have 5 pages left. When it arrives you might only have 1-2 pages left. You never want to put yourself in the position to be out of passport pages.

Edited December 15, 2023 by Gottfrid

[novacova]

39 minutes ago, azt219 said:

Yea, nice one, I think if I really didn't have any options I might have done this, not sure what the implication to Visa extension would be though.

I’ve done this in the past. If I recall correctly, I got a letter from the US consulate in cm stating I lost my passport when I got the emergency replacement. The IO in cm put new stamps in the temporary passport. The process was a piece of cake after acquiring the passport.

Edited December 15, 2023 by novacova

[sandyf]

17 hours ago, Gottfrid said:

My god, how clever you are! My response was related to if he might have a chance to not lose his remaining extension. But, as I have been made aware of another poster, thta they close minimum  14 week for holiday, that is no longer a good choice.

 

Maybe you just stayed too long time, this time, and forgot how it works here. Anyway, you are excused.!

It was obvious there was little chance of keeping the extension before you posted, but that would have required some understanding of the UK passport system.

BTW, there is no 14 week, or even 14 day holiday, I only went for 2 weeks to renew my passport as I am fully aware of how it works here.

[OJAS]

On 12/15/2023 at 3:26 PM, sandyf said:

I am fully aware of how it works here.

 Or, more to the point, doesn't!

 

[Lemsta69]

On 12/15/2023 at 9:30 AM, azt219 said:

Unfortunatley I've had a change in role in my job recently which means I'm travelling in and out of Thailand weekly if not twice a week sometimes so my passport suddenly just exploded with stamps and I calcualted that I would have 2 whole pages left by the end of all my work trips, but did not account for Cambodia burning through my pages

 

Out of curiosity, did you use the Cambodian e-visa system or did you just rock up at the airport?

 

If the former, would you mind sharing what they stamp into your passport on entry? Pretty please 😀

 

I haven't been to Cambodia for a while so haven't had the opportunity to see for myself, but I read on another thread that they still put a sticker in your passport even if using the e-visa system.

[sandyf]

12 hours ago, OJAS said:

 Or, more to the point, doesn't!

 

Quite. I was one of the first to use VFS back in 2014 and after about 10 weeks got the embassy to intervene. Never going to chance it again, but I suspect I have just obtained my last passport.

 

[sandyf]

21 minutes ago, Lemsta69 said:

I haven't been to Cambodia for a while so haven't had the opportunity to see for myself, but I read on another thread that they still put a sticker in your passport even if using the e-visa system.

I would be very surprised if that were the case, neither Lao or Vietnam do that.

You have to be a bit careful over what people post as it may not be what should have happened.

A few years ago I went with a visiting friend to Vietnam and as he was on an Irish passport I got him an e-visa. When we arrived at the IO desks he went first and the IO sent him to another office. I looked over and it was VOA office so I said to him go straight to the front of the queue and just hand over the e-visa. He did that, the guy just put a stamp on the back of the e-visa, went back to the same IO desk and got straight through. Was told he must keep the e-visa in his passport.

Had my friend joined the queue and handed over his passport like everyone else, may well have ended up with a sticker.