Had applied for a new passport 3 weeks prior to the expiration of the existing passport and Visa in Thailand. Previously, it only took me a day to do this at my Embassy. Apply in the morning and get the new passport in the afternoon. I was surprised to learn it takes 3 to 4 weeks now, as passports need to be processed at the home country. Any advice?

Normally the Immigration accepts renewal or extension of visas at least 15 days before your current visa expires. There are times that the officer accepts extension 30 days but it's on a case to case basis and it helps if you can show ticket of on-going travel if you are traveling out of the country. We can recommend the following, depending on your current status of your passport:

(1) If your embassy has not yet "clipped" your passport or has not yet "cancelled" your old passport, we highly recommend extending the visa and negotiate with the officer to accept it within at least 30 days before expiration, provided that you still have empty pages on it. Once the officer agrees, the stamp can be transferred to your new passport once you have obtained it.

(2) If in the event that your embassy has already cancelled your old passport or has clipped it, this invalidates your old passport hence you will have to wait until your new passport has been issued. The Immigration Officer will not agree to extend your visa at any point since your passport is technically invalid already. Having said that, this also means that when your visa expires, you will be charged an overstay fee of THB 500 per day until such time you receive the new passport and facilitate the extension of the visa. Overstay though has no adverse effect on any future visa extensions or applications. You will just have to remit the overstay fee at the Immigration and they will extend the visa.

(3) You may apply for an "emergency passport" that is usually valid for 1 year. This may be the passport that you have applied before as this is usually issued overnight. Obtain an emergency passport first then consequently extend your visa and then transfer the visa extension stamp to the "new" passport.

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