New Passport - Letter?

[cms22]

Hello.

I received my new (UK) passport yesterday. I know I need to transfer stamps etc from my old passport to the new one.

But do I require a letter from the British Embassy to present to immigration at Chaeng Wattana?

I have no letter from the Embassy and have no other documents (apart from a DHL receipt).

Any advise will be much appreciated.

Kind regards

C

[ubonjoe]

You will need to get the letter.

In the past if you had the receipt for when you got the new passport that was enough.

I suggest you contact the embassy about getting the letter. They might even be able to mail it to you.

[beano2274]

I did not need a letter for the transfer of my stamps, and anyhow the Embassy would probably charge you for it. Just take both to immigration and you will be okay, they do it many times.

[lopburi3]

The letter has long been a written requirement/cutesy - but for whatever reason the UK Embassy normally did not provide and immigration would still stamp but recent reports from posters is that the Embassy will now provide when asked and that immigration will require something. There is no charge AFAIK.

[ubonjoe]

There was a recent report of it being asked for at an immigration office. The member making the post managed to get his embassy on the phone and they faxed the letter to immigration while he waited.

[beano2274]

Then I would have thought the Embassy would inform IPS and have a letter sent with the new passport confirming that the other passport had been cancelled.

Buy hey good thinking again.

[Dah fahrang]

I’m in the same boat as you.

I got my spanking new British Passport a month ago, and was kind of hoping/wishing that I would not need a letter from the British Embassy to tell Thai Immigration my ‘old’ passport was cancelled, as the top right corner of the cover was cut off by me, upon receipt of the new passport.

Courtersy of this thread, I have decided to eliminate doubt in my mind, ambiguity about which Immigration Office may or may not want such a letter, and ensure that my ‘local’ Immigration Office has yet another piece of maybe unnecessary paperwork in order to transfer my extension of stay stamp. I have just written to the British Embassy with a request for a letter, which will be sent EMS tomorrow morning. I will post a copy of their reply into this thread.

I won’t be rushing to complete the 170 km round trip to my local Immigration Office, though. My next 90 day report is due late March, so I intend to combine the two reasons for visits into just one trip. I’ll post whether my office “do” or “don’t” require such a letter from the British Embassy after that visit. My ‘local’ office is Nakhon Pathom. I live in Ratchaburi. My next extension of stay is due late May, so want to make sure the stamp is firmly in place in my new passport before then!

[theoldgit]

There was a recent report of it being asked for at an immigration office. The member making the post managed to get his embassy on the phone and they faxed the letter to immigration while he waited.

But in the case of UK Passports, the Embassy has no involvement in the renewing of passport process.

[lopburi3]

But even when they did they did not issue letters when other embassies did. Recent reports have been that they now will issue; although as you say they are not directly involved in the issue process anymore. It is simply a courtesy letter asking the immigration department to transfer stamps into a new passport for the person named.

[Pib]

Well, here's my story on transferring stamps from my old U.S. passport to my new/renewed passport. I did it just today at Chaeng Wattana Immigration.

OK, I picked up my new passport in mid Jan (took 8 business days from the application date just as FYI) and the U.S. Embassy automatically gave me a letter addressed to immigration that it would be appreciated if they would transfer the stamps from the old to new passport.

Last night I filled out the Thai Immigration Transfer Stamp to New Passport Form and as requested in the directions on the back of the form I attached the embassy letter (it did say if available), copy of former passport photo page, copy of new passport photo page, copy of passport page showing last arrival stamp, copy of visa stamp in passport (if available it said), copy of passport page showing last extension of stay, and copy of TM arrival card.

This morning I go to Chaeng Wattana Immigration with passports and above mentioned paper package in hand. Get called in my the immigration officer who I hand the passports and paper package to. She glances at the Transfer Stamp to New Passport Form for about 1 second (repeat one second) but never looks at the attached documents like the embassy letter. Instead she lays the package to the side and just immediately opens the old passport, finds the stamp information she needs and then begins stamping and annotating new stamp information into my new passport....takes her about 5 minutes. She then hands me the passports and paper package (the package she never looked at) and tells me to go over the her supervisor to finish up the process.

I hand my passports and paper package to the supervisor who only looks at the new stamp info in the new passport and she initials several of those stamps...but she never looks at the paper package. She hands my passports back to me and I'm out of there...as I leave I see her lay the paper package off to the side as the next customer sets down in front of her.

So, in my case only the transfer stamp form, which was the top form in my paper package, was glanced at for about a second and then the immigration officer just started transferring stamps. Maybe they use the paper package for recycling profits. Just my story...your results may (will) probably vary as it is Thailand. But one thing for sure, both immigration officers were efficient and courteous in transferring the stamps today...an easy and quick process.

[NancyL]

A few months ago Hubby got a new American passport here in Chiang Mai. He somehow thought that nifty "please transfer the visas" letter from the U.S. Consulate was his Income Letter and threw the "real" income letter out in the trash. I must admit that I shameslessly used the Consulate's 24-hr emergency number to call the morning of his retirement extension appointment and he high-tailed it into the Consulate, plucked down another $50 for a new Income Letter and made it to Immigration before his 10 am appointment.

Drat, I was kind of hoping they hadn't removed the trash from our condo building early that morning. I'd much rather see him wading thru all the trash bags from a high-rise condo, attempting to find his income letter.

[cms22]

To update....

I have just returned from Immigration at Chaeng Wattana.

The officials there stamped my new UK passport with the relevant details (two pages) and no one - at any time - asked for a letter from the UK Embassy.

So you were completely correct, Mr beano2274: no Embassy letter was required and none was asked for.

Cheers!

C

[Dah fahrang]

I wrote to the British Embassy to request a letter - just in case one is needed, enclosing photocopies of old & new passports.

They phoned me this afternoon.

" We only provide this service face to face. We need to see the originals of both the old and new passports, and will then issue a letter, free of charge"

I live outside Bangkok. I don't want to make the long excursion to the British Embassy should it be unnecessary.

So, optimistically I'll go along to Immigration and see if I get the same 'treatment' as cms22 got.

If not, then ...........

[pontious]

Complete madness. You can get a new passport by sending a copy of your old passport to HK.

You have to travel to Bangkok to get a simple free letter when you recieve it.

[KhunBENQ]

A first hand experience from a German passport holder going to Jomtien/Pattaya two days ago: no transfer of stamps without the explicit letter from the embassy.