Dhl 'Lost' My Passport

[buggerlugs]

Hi all,

I'd appreciate some advice over this as to my best course of action.

I was due to start a job in W/Africa and had to send my passport to the HR office of the company in London. They would then obtain the necessary work permit and visa then courier the passport back to me.

I sent it a few weeks ago but it never arrived.

DHL initially claimed it was lost somewhere in Heathrow but after a few days they said it never went into the container and must still be in Bangkok.

After a few more days they admitted it was lost (probably stolen) and I have to go back to the agent tomorrow and fill in a claim form.

My options seem to be to apply for a new passport from here and go through the process again or to get an emergency travel document, fly to the UK and get a same day issue passport.

My old passport had my new retirement visa . Will I have a problem leaving the country and replacing it on my return?

I believe it may take up to 6 weeks for a replacement lost passport. Is this correct?

I photocopied the front page and the visa page of my passport before sending.

I also removed my departure card before sending.

Obviously time is important as they will only keep the job open for a reasonable period.

Cheers.

[merijn]

You re not allowed to sent your passport out of the country during your stay here.

Officially you have to carry your passport on your body during your stay but at least you should be able to show it if required.

You will need a new ( emergency ) passport before you can leave the country.

When you receive the new passport you will need the transfer the visa information to the new passport.

But to able to do ( applying for new passport and visa information transfer ) this you will need a police report for your lost passport.

I don’t know how they will respond if you tell that the passport is lost while sending it to England.

If you leave the country before transferring the visa information everything is gone and you have to start over. ( unless you find an immigration officer which is willing to help you )

[crille30]

If I understand correct what you done is very illigal so I would not tell the police or any one that you did that.You just go and report that you lost your passport and make a police report.Get emergency passport and go back you Uk do you business ther.You can deal with DHL later and sort out the stuff about retirment visa later with your new passport.

[Thanyaburi Mac]

Note, it is NOT illegal to send your passport out of Thailand for a visa to another country, this is done all the time.

The only thing that is supposedly illegal, is to send your passport out to a Thai Consulate in order to obtain a THAI visa. This is not allowed.

Regarding carrying your passport on your body while here, this is still not really clear for foreigners. Normally, a copy is OK, I carry a scanned and printed color copy of the important pages. Have never carried my passport with me, unless staying at a hotel, needful for check-in.

To the OP, sorry, no suggestions from me, but, yes, you'll need a Thai police report for getting a replacement passport, whether from HKG or the UK. And for getting your Retirement Extension transferred to the new document.

I've been reading on this forum that a new passport from HKG seems to be taking just 2-3 weeks, not to bad. Unless, of course, it's lost by a courier again!

Mac

a Yank

[moe666]

Go talk to your Embassy as this is the people you need to deal with for passport or emergency travel.

[puchooay]

Note, it is NOT illegal to send your passport out of Thailand for a visa to another country, this is done all the time.

The only thing that is supposedly illegal, is to send your passport out to a Thai Consulate in order to obtain a THAI visa. This is not allowed.

Regarding carrying your passport on your body while here, this is still not really clear for foreigners. Normally, a copy is OK, I carry a scanned and printed color copy of the important pages. Have never carried my passport with me, unless staying at a hotel, needful for check-in.

To the OP, sorry, no suggestions from me, but, yes, you'll need a Thai police report for getting a replacement passport, whether from HKG or the UK. And for getting your Retirement Extension transferred to the new document.

I've been reading on this forum that a new passport from HKG seems to be taking just 2-3 weeks, not to bad. Unless, of course, it's lost by a courier again!

Mac

a Yank

I believe that lost or damaged UK passports can be replaced via Bangkok.

[lopburi3]

Not to my knowledge but a one year version I believe is available at Embassy. For full UK passport it must be obtained from UK (via Hong Kong office payment in the case of Thailand).

[Colabamumbai]

You really should never send your passport to a company or any organization or anyone claiming to be. If some one asked me to send them my passport, alarm bells would start going off . A photocopy should have been sufficient.

[lopburi3]

He can not obtain a visa with a photo copy. Suspect country did not have representation in Thailand so sending passport was proper thing to do (although from Thailand a second passport should have been sent as entry passport should always be available).

On 3rd read see he may not really be employed by the company he sent passport (was thinking he sent to his hqs for entry visa to an assignment country). In this case I would want a lot more assurance than answering an advertisement to be allowing them access to my passport.

[Soutpeel]

You really should never send your passport to a company or any organization or anyone claiming to be. If some one asked me to send them my passport, alarm bells would start going off . A photocopy should have been sufficient.

I must confess after 25 years working all over the world and having had to get visa's/WP etc...I have never had to send my passport on an international journey on its own, certainly to an organisation I dont work for...things may have changed these days and this is considered norm..but would be very wary sending my only PP through the post, if had two (as the OP may be entitled to) maybe a lessor problem to do this

[stoneyboy]

You really should never send your passport to a company or any organization or anyone claiming to be. If some one asked me to send them my passport, alarm bells would start going off . A photocopy should have been sufficient.

I must confess after 25 years working all over the world and having had to get visa's/WP etc...I have never had to send my passport on an international journey on its own, certainly to an organisation I dont work for...things may have changed these days and this is considered norm..but would be very wary sending my only PP through the post, if had two (as the OP may be entitled to) maybe a lessor problem to do this

Exactly,frequent travellers in certain industries/business are able to obtain a second passport to accommodate this problem,another reason for this would be that some countries won't allow you entry if you have certain stamps from countries such as Israel or Iran,I forget the exact ones.

[Soutpeel]

You really should never send your passport to a company or any organization or anyone claiming to be. If some one asked me to send them my passport, alarm bells would start going off . A photocopy should have been sufficient.

I must confess after 25 years working all over the world and having had to get visa's/WP etc...I have never had to send my passport on an international journey on its own, certainly to an organisation I dont work for...things may have changed these days and this is considered norm..but would be very wary sending my only PP through the post, if had two (as the OP may be entitled to) maybe a lessor problem to do this

Exactly,frequent travellers in certain industries/business are able to obtain a second passport to accommodate this problem,another reason for this would be that some countries won't allow you entry if you have certain stamps from countries such as Israel or Iran,I forget the exact ones.

Libya was another one

Think the point being, if you can convince the British goverment you need 2, usually with the suport of your company, you can get a second PP and these issues go away

[NancyL]

This situation seems a little fishy. Why didn't the OP have the DHL tracking number and check the transit path of his passport a couple times during its travel? We receive items via DHL several times a month and I always follow their path, getting the tracking number from the sender.

[merijn]

Note, it is NOT illegal to send your passport out of Thailand for a visa to another country, this is done all the time.

The only thing that is supposedly illegal, is to send your passport out to a Thai Consulate in order to obtain a THAI visa. This is not allowed.

Regarding carrying your passport on your body while here, this is still not really clear for foreigners. Normally, a copy is OK, I carry a scanned and printed color copy of the important pages. Have never carried my passport with me, unless staying at a hotel, needful for check-in.

To the OP, sorry, no suggestions from me, but, yes, you'll need a Thai police report for getting a replacement passport, whether from HKG or the UK. And for getting your Retirement Extension transferred to the new document.

I've been reading on this forum that a new passport from HKG seems to be taking just 2-3 weeks, not to bad. Unless, of course, it's lost by a courier again!

Mac

a Yank

That it is done many times does not mean that it is not illegal.

Every foreigner in Thailand is required to carry proper ID with them all the time.

For tourist this is a passport, A copy is officially not allowed but it is accepted most of the time.

Specially for this kind of reason qualified persons can request a second passport from their government. ( i have one for this exact reason )

Long time foreigners which have a Thai DL etc can use this for ID so an passport is not required.

[meand]

I would definitely try and work it out so that new job reimbersed me, perhaps that is putting the cart before the horse, but that is what id be thinking all the way... you wanted my passport, you must now pay this price.

[Soutpeel]

I would definitely try and work it out so that new job reimbersed me, perhaps that is putting the cart before the horse, but that is what id be thinking all the way... you wanted my passport, you must now pay this price.

That would be the last thing I would be worried about currently...

[QED]

Buggerlugs, lots of b***sh1t on here. This is what I would do.

Apply for a new passport via Hong Kong, they only need a copy of the front page for this. This will take 3-4 weeks unfortunately so you will probably miss the job in Africa (not a great loss to be fair). When your new passport arrives, file a police report for a lost passport (your old one), then take the police report with your copies of visa and front page to immigration and see what they can do.

Normally they will not transfer the visa to a new passport and you have to travel with both the old and the new, but in this case they must be able to give you something (a paper or a note in your new passport)?

Good luck!

[lopburi3]

I suspect OP may have had a retirement extension of stay and that indeed is transferred into new passport; but he did say visa.