Wife's Thai Passport Soiled In The Wash

[Clive sorts]

Hi all

We have been married for three & a half years in the UK & my Thai wife has FLR ( 2nd FLR as she hadn't passed LITUK test or two levels of ESOL ) and we are applying for ILR later this year as she has now passed two levels in her ESOL. The plan was to extend her passport, travel to her brother's wedding in Thailand in March this year & then couple of months later apply for ILR. Extending her passport we were told takes approx 1-2 weeks.

Bad news is her passport is ruined as it accidentally was put in the washing machine. It was to expire in March this year & she had already booked an appointment at the Thai Embassy in London to extend it. We read on the Embassy site that non electronic passports ( which she has ) can only be extended to July 2010 ( then apply for electronic passport in 2010 ), which at the time was OK but after speaking to the Embassy since it was ruined they said she will need a new passport which will take 6-8 weeks.

Also I spoke with the Home Office & I asked them about the FLR visa in her passport being soiled & that she would be obtaining a new passport & they said that she will have to make an appointment to have a new FLR visa put in her new Thai passport when it arrives.

Postal application for this is £160 ( takes approx. 12-14 weeks ) or day visit £500.

Before the accident we had planned plenty of time to extend the passport for the wedding in March this year.

Is the above steps the only way my wife can get her new passport quickly ? Why does it take so long for the Thai Embassy to get her new passport ? By the time the passport arrives it will be early March or even the end of, then we have to do the visa at the Home Office.

Any advice is most appreciated.

Regards

Clive

[mariner29]

Thought you could apply in person ?

If you do get a passport you will have to use same day service to get a new visa inserted.

[Eff1n2ret]

If you want to know why the Thai Embassy need 6 weeks to issue the passport, they're the ones to tell you, but I think it's because all the necessary work to produce the document with the chip in it is done in Thailand, they can't do it in London. I've no idea whether they offer any such service, but you could try asking them if they can issue any form of emergency document for one journey, so that she can travel to Thailand and then get a new passport there. But then she'd have to apply for a visa to come back.....unless the visa in the damaged document is sufficiently legible to show that she still has LTR.

Edited January 26, 2009 by Eff1n2ret

[Clive sorts]

Hi

Thank you for the replies.

Mariner, yes we are aware that we can do the same day service at the Home Office, thats not a problem. It is the time that the Thai Embassy needs for the replacement passport.

I understand & accept that it takes that long to produce as I realise now that the process is done in Thailand however its a bit frustrating taking into account what has happened to the original passport.

Eff, your proposal is an option but we don't really want to go down the route of applying for a visa just so that my wife can return back to the UK where she has now lived for nearly 4 years. We did those applications 4-5 years ago in Bangkok and that was enough then.

I guess we have to just accept the process as it is.

If anyone else has some advice then we would be very grateful.

Thank you

Regards

Clive

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Hi

Thank you for the replies.

Mariner, yes we are aware that we can do the same day service at the Home Office, thats not a problem. It is the time that the Thai Embassy needs for the replacement passport.

I understand & accept that it takes that long to produce as I realise now that the process is done in Thailand however its a bit frustrating taking into account what has happened to the original passport.

Eff, your proposal is an option but we don't really want to go down the route of applying for a visa just so that my wife can return back to the UK where she has now lived for nearly 4 years. We did those applications 4-5 years ago in Bangkok and that was enough then.

I guess we have to just accept the process as it is.

If anyone else has some advice then we would be very grateful.

Thank you

Regards

Clive

Get an Emergency passport from the Thai Embassy and then apply for a new ePassport in Thailand. It is usually about a three day turnaround.