Passport For My Baby Daughter

[gwyd1982]

Hi,

First of all, im not sure if this is the right place to post this so i appologize in advance if its wrong and also appologize if its been answered before. I dont have so much time to search...

My baby girl is 3 months old and im going up to Bangkok on Monday to get her a British passport. Im just a bit concerned that I dont have someone to countersign the application as I haven't known a professional for more than 2 years here in Thailand! I know that before it wasn't a problem because the passports were issued in Bangkok. But now they are issued in Hong kong. So I guess I need a signiture??? Or can this be signed by someone in the british embassy before it is sent to Hong Kong?

Also looking for a hotel close to the embassy, any suggestions, (budget 1500 thb max). Thanks.

[Kadafi]

Last week i went up there and forgot to get it countersigned by someone, i just asked someone in the waiting room to kindly do it for me....

[SantiSuk]

I went through this last week. The Embassy's answer was to get the document countersigned by the doctor who delivered the baby here in Thailand. That wasn't too difficult (although had to make a special trip to Ubon and burn 500 baht diesel) as the private hospital doctor could at least speak English. But the private hospital seemed to be insisting they would give me a certificate to say that the baby had been born at the hospital. My wife said that was probably because they wanted to make some money. After a stressful 10 minutes of insisting that I really only wanted them to sign the form and the photo the doctor took it away and brought it back perfectly (and didn't charge). I did write out the confirmation for them in English on the back of the photograph, I crossed out the 2 years bit and put in a few words to say 'I was the doctor delivering the baby on x and I did not know the father before that date', and afterwards I had to copy down her hospital contact details as the doctor just used some illegible rubber stamp!

The form was accepted so let's hope the Hong Kong processing people will also accept it.

Other things to look out for. You have to go to the Embassy first to get your English Birth certificate verified (cost 1,300 baht). Then take that for translation with the original certificate. The translation agency for my birth certificate (one of the two in the mini mall across the road from the Embassy) said that the translated certificate would need to be taken to the Ministry of Finance in Chaeng Wattana for legalisation afterwards. They would probably have added that they could do it for me at a price had I not interjected '<deleted>' (having already asked that question at the Embassy).

The translation agency will ask for 400 plus baht - you can get it for 300 baht (now someone will tell us you can get it for 100 baht no doubt). I have been so many times to that translation two-some - I just play them off against each other. [Other simpler stuff like marroage certs they ask for 300 baht and you can get 250]

The passport will cost 5,200 baht. I thought I was going to have to pay more for DHL delivery when they asked us to fill out the DHL docket. However the cost is included in the standard price. The website leads you to believe there will be an additional cost if DHL is required - I suspect they have had so many complaints (I had decided I was going to complain about them moving stuff to Regional processing centres to suit themselves but sod the customer).

Respect to Gadafi - that's a ballsy move mate to leave it so late in the piece. On reflection though, if some Brit asked me to do it for them I would do it. It's a stupid piece of bureaucracy that even Thailand does not require (though they have a tighter national ID card scheme.

Oh OP, one more thing - do look out for the very restricted hours the Embassy opens - particularly for collection (of the birth cert verification) and worse on Friday. You need to be in Bangkok over two days. Our expected delivery timing on the finished passport was 10 days. Oh and if you have any other questions the Thai-staffed helpdesk at the Embassy speaks good English and handles questions very professionally - most impressive.

What a bl**dy performance.

[Kadafi]

Respect to Gadafi - that's a ballsy move mate to leave it so late in the piece. On reflection though, if some Brit asked me to do it for them I would do it. It's a stupid piece of bureaucracy that even Thailand does not require (though they have a tighter national ID card scheme.

Well i couldnt believe i missed it out, just totally forgot to get someone to do it. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive and then had a further delay which made me not get there until 11.10am (embassy shut for lunch 11.00-13.00) so had to wait further 2 hours. Embassy told me to go get it signed and come back tomorrow (i picked up my baby and showed his face to her with the passport picture and asked her to sign it but she wouldnt). Then i just spoke to the guy i was next to in the waiting room, explained the situation and showed him both my son and his passport photo and thankfully he helped out....