Experience At Royal Thai Embassy - London

[dvdlock]

Hi all,

Just thought I would share our experience today at Thai Embassy as it may be of some interest to someone in a similar position.

Our daughter is 9-years old, born in the UK, has British passport.. Wife of 15-years is Thai. We currently have our house on the market and as soon as sold will be moving to Thailand. In the meantime I wanted to get our daughters Thai Passport so it's one less thing to worry about when relocating. In order to get the Passport we needed to get her a Thai Birth Certificate. Both could be applied for at the same time.

We booked the appointment at the Embassy over 3-months ago. 11:00am today was the soonest we could get in. Downloaded all the relevant forms from the Embassy website for Birth registration and E-passport and filled in prior to the appointment.. All three of us had to be there.

Documents required for Birth Registration;

Duly completed application form. Copy of daughters British Passport accompanied by original.

Copy of daughters Birth Certificate accompanied by original. Copy of UK marriage Certificate accompanied by original.

Copy of Wife's Thai ID card accompanied by original. Although not requested I provided a copy & original of my UK Photo Driving Licence.

Copies and original of parents Passports. Only copied ID page with page copy of last entry to Thailand for mine and page copy of Wife's Leave to Remain Indefinitely Stamp (only 2-pages of each, not the full passport.

One Passport Photo of daughter.

Documents required for E-passport Application;

Duly completed application form.

Copy of Thai Birth Certificate (in our case this was being applied for at the same time).

Copy of Wife's Thai ID card accompanied by original. Although not requested I provided a copy & original of my UK Photo Driving Licence.

Copy of UK marriage Certificate accompanied by original.

Copies and original of parents Passports. (same pages as with Birth Reg Application).

Daughter had to sign the application

One Passport Photo of daughter. I don't think this was actually needed as they take a picture there but supplied it anyway.

Turned up at our 11:00am appointment 45-minutes early. Still had to take a ticket for the queue. All passport applications/renewals & Birth Registration etc. are by appointment only so I guess the room full of people there already had appointments. They had 3-service windows open. 1 and 2 for Passport Birth Reg applications etc. and 3 for Visa stuff.

1 and 2 were a green ticket and 3 was a blue one so bear this in mind if you find the need to visit. Our ticket was No. 65 and at that time No. 50 was being seen to.

Each person was taking on average 10-15 minutes, however, window one had a Thai girl there who was taking forever. She hadn't filled any forms, didn't understand any of the questions on the application form and had to be walked through the whole process. The problem was that when it was 12:30pm the placed closed. If you hadn't been seen by then, tough, come back tomorrow. We had travelled 4 hours to get to London and stayed over in a Hotel the night before, so having to come back the next day would have been a real bummer. Luckily, we got the applications checked by 11:30am.

Although we had 15 numbers in front of us some didn't come forward. I presume these were from were people picked the wrong coloured ticked and threw it away when they realised.

The girl who dealt with us was very polite and efficient. She checked over both applications, stapled the photos to the forms. The girl gave us a Royal mail Special Delivery envelope for forwarding the Birth Certificate and Passport to us when it was ready. I filled our home address and handed it back. All paperwork was put into a plastic sleeve and handed back to us. Original docs were returned.

Payment then had to be made in cash. Total cost was £31.00. It was £25.00 for the passport and £6 for the Special Delivery. There was no charge for the Birth Registration.

We then had to hand the folder over to another person sat at the desk near the entrance who was equipped with a PC, a Scanner, a fingerprint scanner and a Photo taking set-up.

After waiting in turn once again, the two applications were checked over a second time. I think the documents in the folder may have been scanned to the PC but I couldn't swear to it as I popped out for a quick smoke. Our daughters right and left forefinger fingerprints scanned and a photo taken. These were all filed electronically and the applications retained.

That was it. We were out by 12:15pm which was a relief. The Birth Certificate and Passport should be with us in 4-6 weeks.

As an aside, you can park pretty much outside the Embassy or at least just along the road a bit. Parking is in marked bays. Parking is £3.00 per hour, into the pay and display machine. Don't forget to put your ticket on your dashboard, drivers side and clearly visible. The area is alive with wardens.

Also, the Embassy is located well inside the Congestion Charge area. You can pre-pay this on-line. On the website HERE just enter your car Reg Number, the post code of were you are going and will tell you the charge. You can pay by card. We have a SUV and the was £8.00.

Royal Thai Embassy London 29 - 30 Queen's Gate London SW7 5JB

Service Hours : Monday - Friday 9.30 AM - 12.30 PM

Tel : 020-7589-2944 Ext. 55

Website

Hope someone finds this is ofsome interest.

[lopburi3]

Thanks very much for the detailed report - it should be helpful and will add that this is a process that is not well known (from the amount of questions we have on it) and would urge those with Thai children to take the time to have Thai birth certificate made even if not planning a move or use of Thai nationality as it is vital if the child ever decides to return to Thailand.

[tigerfish]

one side note to add.

seem to remember, but it was a while back though. that on several occasions on visiting the royal thai embassy in london, seeing a lot of cars with parking tickets stuck to their windscreens. reason being and please someone correct me if i am wrong, that most people do not realize that when parking in queens gate that two london boroughs operate parking bays on either side of the road and down the middle section of the street on each side. thus making it either confusing for some as to which pay and display machines or meter to feed, as the boroughs quite conveniently do not point this out or people do not even notice the fact and just pay at any or the nearest machine, which may come under the jurisdiction of the neighboring borough.

so just be careful and keep it in mind if you happen to have to pay a visit to the embassy.

Edited September 22, 2010 by tigerfish

[lopburi3]

I suspect it may have something to do with diplomatic cars not being worried about paying parking tickets. At least that is the case in the US.

[lingyaiyai]

A very interesting and informative post.

Had your daughter been born in Thailand and you had been applying for a British Passport and Birth Certificate here, the total cost at today's exchange rate would have been an eye watering £270 - and that's before paying postage and courier charges.

[dvdlock]

A very interesting and informative post.

Had your daughter been born in Thailand and you had been applying for a British Passport and Birth Certificate here, the total cost at today's exchange rate would have been an eye watering £270 - and that's before paying postage and courier charges.

Indeed. Yet another mitigating factor to wanting to get off this sinking ship.

[Bizz]

A very interesting and informative post.

Had your daughter been born in Thailand and you had been applying for a British Passport and Birth Certificate here, the total cost at today's exchange rate would have been an eye watering £270 - and that's before paying postage and courier charges.

thank you for taking the time to let us know.