Time nears for renewal of my Thai wife's UK Passport. She has held one since 1996.

HMPO specifies that she will need to provide photo-identity (easy: the current passport will suffice). A second document is required "as evidence of name and address and/or residency dated within the last year"

Acceptable documents listed in the official guidance, along with my comments in brackets:

• visa or resident permit (as a Thai she doesn't need/have one)

• tax record (she doesn't pay tax)

• educational record (she left school in the early 1970s , not within the past year"

• employment record (occasionally works, but as a self-employed EFL teacher)

• Letter sent from a central, regional or local government department (no such connection)

• medical health card (uses private hospital)

• voter's card (hasn't got one)

• immigration documents (she enters and leaves Thailand on her Thai passport)

So ... what document might satisfy HMPO? One solution might be a bank statement (her name only), but no suggestion in this thread that would be aceptable. Has anyone here tried that?

Any other proven alternatives?

Thanks in advance!

Are you sure all those are required? as a renewal should be far simpler than a new application. As for address, you can use bank statement with address in English, i also provided thai driving licence. Provided to VFS Global

Are the wife's Thai and UK passports in the same name, when my wife's UK passport was renewed i had a friendly local hotel say she was living there, Thai DL if in English would also be ok

I am not not a fan of agents but i think for UK passport renewal they come in handy

16 hours ago, yang123 said:

Time nears for renewal of my Thai wife's UK Passport. She has held one since 1996.

HMPO specifies that she will need to provide photo-identity (easy: the current passport will suffice). A second document is required "as evidence of name and address and/or residency dated within the last year"

Acceptable documents listed in the official guidance, along with my comments in brackets:

• visa or resident permit (as a Thai she doesn't need/have one)

• tax record (she doesn't pay tax)

• educational record (she left school in the early 1970s , not within the past year"

• employment record (occasionally works, but as a self-employed EFL teacher)

• Letter sent from a central, regional or local government department (no such connection)

• medical health card (uses private hospital)

• voter's card (hasn't got one)

• immigration documents (she enters and leaves Thailand on her Thai passport)

So ... what document might satisfy HMPO? One solution might be a bank statement (her name only), but no suggestion in this thread that would be aceptable. Has anyone here tried that?

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Any other proven alternatives?

Thanks in advance!

Just use a bank statement, in English, that shows her name and address. This has worked for me (Bangkok Bank).

Recently renewed my sons UK passport at Bkk VFS. He also has a Thai passport.

As he doesn't really have anything with his home address in English language, so we got a certified translation of his relevant pages of the blue book. Accepted at VFS.

If your wife has a Thai passport she's supposed to provide also a copy of all pages with her application for UK passport at VFS.

Have Blue book and Thai passport with her when visiting VFS.

1 hour ago, Bredbury Blue said:

Recently renewed my sons UK passport at Bkk VFS. He also has a Thai passport.

As he doesn't really have anything with his home address in English language, so we got a certified translation of his relevant pages of the blue book. Accepted at VFS.

If your wife has a Thai passport she's supposed to provide also a copy of all pages with her application for UK passport at VFS.

Have Blue book and Thai passport with her when visiting VFS.

It's not about VfS, they don't decide what is acceptable - that is HMPO's job. VfS will tell you if you haven't supplied sufficient supporting documentation but they are not the decision makers. On one occasion they questioned what I had submitted as address verification and I told them it was fine, just submit it (as HMPO had said it would be OK). The document was a wife's ID copy with a signed statement saying "I confirm that Joe Bloggs lives me at the following address" ..................HMPO readily agreed to accept it - they do not put up obstacles.

Applying for a passport from outside the UK: supporting documents (group 3) (accessible) - GOV.UK

For all other passport applications, you must provide from the list below:

• at least one document with photo identity; and

• one document as evidence of name and address and/or residency within the last year

• Your British passport (if you are renewing)

• Non-British uncancelled passport (if you are in a country where you must apply online, we will accept a colour photocopy of every page of your non-British passport, including those that are blank, in place of the original document, but we retain the right to request the original if needed)

• National identity card or equivalent (or colour photocopy)

• Visa or residence permit (or colour photocopy)

• Tax record (for example, a letter from a tax authority) •Educational record (for example, a school report)

• Employment record (for example, an official letter from your employer)

• Letter sent to you from a central, regional or local government department

• Medical/health card

• Voter’s card

• Immigration documents

21 minutes ago, hotandsticky said:

It's not about VfS, they don't decide what is acceptable - that is HMPO's job. VfS will tell you if you haven't supplied sufficient supporting documentation but they are not the decision makers. On one occasion they questioned what I had submitted as address verification and I told them it was fine, just submit it (as HMPO had said it would be OK). The document was a wife's ID copy with a signed statement saying "I confirm that Joe Bloggs lives me at the following address" ..................HMPO readily agreed to accept it - they do not put up obstacles.

Applying for a passport from outside the UK: supporting documents (group 3) (accessible) - GOV.UK

For all other passport applications, you must provide from the list below:

• at least one document with photo identity; and

• one document as evidence of name and address and/or residency within the last year

• Your British passport (if you are renewing)

• Non-British uncancelled passport (if you are in a country where you must apply online, we will accept a colour photocopy of every page of your non-British passport, including those that are blank, in place of the original document, but we retain the right to request the original if needed)

• National identity card or equivalent (or colour photocopy)

• Visa or residence permit (or colour photocopy)

• Tax record (for example, a letter from a tax authority) •Educational record (for example, a school report)

• Employment record (for example, an official letter from your employer)

• Letter sent to you from a central, regional or local government department

• Medical/health card

• Voter’s card

• Immigration documents

Accepted at VFS for submission to HMPO. Happy now?

5 hours ago, Bredbury Blue said:

Accepted at VFS for submission to HMPO. Happy now?

I wasn't being pedantic, wind your neck in 😊.............I just wanted posters to be aware that VfS have no authority whatsoever; they are the processing agents for HMPO. VfS can help in completing the application where applicants are unfamiliar with the process, or haven't read the guidelines.