Transfer Of Visa From Old To New Passport

[duncaw]

Yes I know - go to immigration and fill in the form. Just looking for any helpful tips / advice. Whereabouts in immigration do I need to go? How much is the fee? Etc. Any help appreciated.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Yes I know - go to immigration and fill in the form. Just looking for any helpful tips / advice. Whereabouts in immigration do I need to go? How much is the fee? Etc. Any help appreciated.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Believe it or not ... there is no charge

[lopburi3]

And your embassy should provide you with instructions as to where to go and a letter requesting transfer. Immigration has an officer assigned to answer questions who is easy to find directly inside entry area.

[lungbing]

Duncaw,

I obtained a new passport a couple of months ago and so had to get my entry stamp , visa and extension transferred to my new passport. It was easy.

My nearest immigration office is Nong Khai, but I suppose the procedure is the same no matter where you go. (optimist aren't I? )

Take your old and new passports to immigration, and ask them to transfer the visas. You must take with you the letter your embassy gives you saying that the passport is genuine and you haven't just knocked it up yourself with Photoshop. However, if you are British, whose Embassy don't give such a letter, you must take the receipt for the passport which looks just like a 7/11 receipt, so don't throw it away!

Fill in a simple form saying why you need to swap passports, ie old one expired, old one lost etc. the old and new passport numbers etc and date and sign it. They will carefully transfer all relevant visas and the current extension to your new passport and also transfer the landing card to your new passport carefully stapling it in the most useless of positions so you can't easily copy it. But that's easy to change of course.

The whole procedure took 15 minutes and best of all is completely free.

I am now trying to update my 5 year Thai drivifng license as that shows my old address and my old passport number . But that's another story.

Ever so technically as soon as your embassy cancelled your old passport by cutting off the corner you are here with no visa! ie there is no visa in your current passport. So get the transfer done asap.

This does not count as reporting in for your 90 days and has no effect on your 90 day reporting , just to forestall any queries on that point.

Lung Bing

Edited January 21, 2005 by lungbing

[RDN]

Excellent post, lungbing - just two points:

1.

....if you are British, whose Embassy don't give such a letter....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Absolutely bl00dy typical! (I am a Brit, by the way)

2. From the Phuket Gazette:

“It would be best if you renewed your passport before the extension to stay expires.

Thai Immigration will not issue any permits to people with passports that will expire within six months. If your passport is valid for more than six months but less than a year, Immigration will issue permits valid only to the date that the passport expires.

For example, say your passport will expire on December 31 this year. If you apply for another one-year extension to stay to continue from May 19 this year, and your application is approved, you will be issued an extension to stay valid only until December 31.

After you have been issued with a new passport, bring to the Phuket Provincial Immigration Office (PPIO) both your old passport, with the current extension to stay and the multiple re-entry permit, and your new passport, and we will transfer both permits into your new passport – free of charge. ”

Wednesday, April 7, 2004  Pol Capt Krissarat Nuesen, PPIO.

[morning glory]

I would like to offer some advice---don't forget to thoroughly check your new passport to be sure that ALL the stamps have been transferred from your old passport to the new one. A co-worker didn't do this and so he didn't know that they had failed to transfer his multiple re-entry visa, so the next time he left the country and re-enterd, his non-immigrant B was cancelled by the 30 day transit visa stamp! And even though he went down to immigration (bangkok) with both passports to explain the situation, it all fell on deaf ears. Luckily he was going back home anyway at Christmas and could get another non-immigrant B (after the hassle of getting more documents from his workplace) so the story does have a happy ending....well, sort of

[lungbing]

RDN,

Thanks for your kind words.

The example in The Gazette is quite right. But what it doesn't clearly say is that when they transfer the visas etc they will give you back the full extension ie in the example given, the visa extension in the new passport will be until 19th May.

This is exactly what happened to me, although it was only a matter of two weeks. But I was given these two weeks back in the new passport.

Lung Bing

[RDN]

....don't forget to thoroughly check your new passport to be sure that ALL the stamps have been transferred...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for the tip - that would be horrendous for me with an O-A visa extension, to have to start all over again!

... they will give you back the full extension ...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Again, thanks for the info - when I renew mine next year I'll be sure to check. (I'm storing all these good tips on my PC to remind me )

[astral]

....if you are British, whose Embassy don't give such a letter....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You don't need the letter.

The British Embassy will leave you Thai visa uncancelled,

and the Thai immigration will transfer it over in about 15 minutes.

[Axel]

No embassy can cancel or void a visa of another country.

When voiding myh p/port the embassy cuts off the outside corners and stamps every empty page as void, but certainly no page that has any visa on or a chop issued by another country.

Not so sure about the letter. For a year or so the immigration wants to see that.

[duncaw]

Thanks all, all done, very easy.