New Thai E-passport

[jackspratt]

Travelled to Khon Kaen today with TGF and her 8yo son to get passports for them - her second, his first.

To backtrack a little, yesterday we had to go to the Amphur office in Ban Dung to get an official paper declaring that TGF was the sole guardian - (the charming father had pissed off during the pregnancy, never to be seen again). This was a simple exercise, involving an elder sister of the TGF, and the assistant Puyi Baan going to the office, and declaring "dad" was in places unknown. Fortunately the TGF had also had the foresight a number of years ago to have the son's surname changed into her family name - without this, the process at this stage is rather more complicated I understand.

Anyway - back to Khon Kaen. Arrived about 9.15, and the 3 stage process started with filling out the application forms, a cursory check, and then get a number and wait (a bit like in the bank).

Took a seat in an adjoining room, and waited for a maximum of 5 minutes. Then an interview, detailed check of the papers, photos, finger scan - all up about 15 minutes. No need for certified copies of documents - each interviewing officer has a PC, printer, document scanner, fingerprint scanner and camera at their desk.

3rd stage is to pay the bin - TBH1000 for the passport, and 35 for EMS postage. All over in about 1 hour.