As a British passport holder and frequent traveller you are entitled to hold a second passport. I have held two passports for many years and is handy to be able to travel while visa's are being applied or and no problem when one passport needs renewal.

I will stand corrected but to be 100% accurate I believe that the passports are couriered direct to the applicant, not via HK.

Quite correct. Earlier this year, my old passport was returned from HK, cancelled, and arrived same day as my new passport direct from UK

I am nearing the same problem and until I read your post also had my head in the sand. I will get mine done now. Thanks for the post. I think I would go to immigration and very politely ask for some help.

Is the Hong Kong application on the gov site?

Yes it is. It's actually just the standard application form, it hasn't changed. Because of the fraudulent issuing of UK passports in the region in the recent past all applications for the region are now collated and checked in HK then (assuming they're OK) couriered to the UK for the passport to be issued, couriered back to HK and distributed. These are the new chipped passports

I will stand corrected but to be 100% accurate I believe that the passports are couriered direct to the applicant, not via HK.

Well mine was odd, got an email and a phone call from DHL to say it had arrive in Vietnam and would arrive next day in Bangkok.. and it did as midday got a email from BKK to say they had the 2 packets.. 1x passport 1x receipt..

Before giving you the packages they asked me for Passport for i.d

It's not rocket science. Every British subject is entitled to more than one passport as long as you give a good reason for it. One of those reasons can be that your passport gets full very quickly due to the amount of travel you do, be it for work or personal. That's why I have a second one.

It's not rocket science. Every British subject is entitled to more than one passport as long as you give a good reason for it. One of those reasons can be that your passport gets full very quickly due to the amount of travel you do, be it for work or personal. That's why I have a second one.

americans as well can have two, usefull if u do business in the middle east or travel frequently and need to obtain visas.

for awhille back in the 90's i had 2 US passports

I recently renewed my UK passport via HK and it took exactly 4 weeks to get back to me, a friend also did his recently (a few weeks after mine) and his also took 4 weeks, so I'm guessing you'll be looking at a similar turnaround time.

Unfortunately I cannot give any other advise.

Good luck sorting things out.

The American consulate adds extra pages for free. Go to your consulate and request additional pages. I don't know if your consulate charges for them.

The American consulate adds extra pages for free. Go to your consulate and request additional pages. I don't know if your consulate charges for them.

Incorrect information.

82 USD for additional pages. US passport cost... http://travel.state....s/fees_837.html

3 times is the max for adding of pages.

UK do not add extra pages.

48 pages is the Big size. I am not aware of any bigger and did not notice any bigger size when I was looking through the relevant gov.uk pages the other day. Mind you do not actually get 48 pages clear for stamps - that includes the pages with content on front and back.

gets 41 pages for stamps, another UK rip off, how they can sell it as a 48 page passport then make 7 pages unusable for stamps is a complete con.

I have no idea if the UK does this.. but the US embassy for a small cost (it used to be free... but these are the times I guess we live in) will add additional visa pages into you present passport. Usually takes a few hours to process. But at least there is no need to redo any Thai visas or carry around the old passport. I am sure that the UK embassy in BKK will do this. Cannot imagine why they would not, as you will not be the only one with said 'problem'.

The US is probably the only country in the world that adds pages to their passports. The UK certainly does not.

I have no idea if the UK does this.. but the US embassy for a small cost (it used to be free... but these are the times I guess we live in) will add additional visa pages into you present passport. Usually takes a few hours to process. But at least there is no need to redo any Thai visas or carry around the old passport. I am sure that the UK embassy in BKK will do this. Cannot imagine why they would not, as you will not be the only one with said 'problem'.

Not possible to add pages to a UK passport.

I believe the USA is virtually unique in offering this "extra page" service.

UK do not add extra pages.

48 pages is the Big size. I am not aware of any bigger and did not notice any bigger size when I was looking through the relevant gov.uk pages the other day. Mind you do not actually get 48 pages clear for stamps - that includes the pages with content on front and back.

gets 41 pages for stamps, another UK rip off, how they can sell it as a 48 page passport then make 7 pages unusable for stamps is a complete con.

?? a 48 page Passport it is that why is it a con ? stating 41 blank page Passport is not a very English way of saying this..

Same as the small 32 page passport, same amount of pages are used for contents

My bug bear is the extra cost and time it takes + and a big Plus is you can track it to H.K. then nothing, H.K. takes the money from Visa card.. would it be so very difficult for UK to have a automatic system that sends out advise that it has arrived or at the very least it is being returned.?

The whole passport system is out of date.

An ID card with a bar-code would solve the problem;
and a corresponding bar-code somewhere on your body(more realistically an eye scan, or voice recognition)
would keep immigration happy (less work!).

You get zapped on arrival and departure, and fines would be deducted from your ID card as it would double as
an emergency debit/credit card - you would need a minimum balance on your card on entry.

Look at London's Heathrow Airport's arrival procedure, their bio scanner is excellent - no immigration in evidence.

It would take a while (eons) for all countries to get on-board, and of course most of SEA will be at the back of the queue.
Unfortunately, there wouldn't be any money in it for officials - there's no fun in cashless systems.

Imagine! if it were to be introduced by a global consensus, and that the transition is over a period of say, three years -

what would that be in Thai years?

Just wondered.

Anyway, until that happens, it's back to the 1950s I suppose.

nonsequitur

Imagine! if it were to be introduced by a global consensus, and that the transition is over a period of say, three years -

what would that be in Thai years?

Just wondered.

Anyway, until that happens, it's back to the 1950s I suppose.

NO in the 1950 s there were not as many travellers or the very long sometimes hours waiting at Immigration and Customs to enter.

Emigrate.

It's not rocket science. Every British subject is entitled to more than one passport as long as you give a good reason for it. One of those reasons can be that your passport gets full very quickly due to the amount of travel you do, be it for work or personal. That's why I have a second one.

americans as well can have two, usefull if u do business in the middle east or travel frequently and need to obtain visas.

for awhille back in the 90's i had 2 US passports

Only in the past if you had to have an Israeli Visa in your US passport since many Muslim countries did not recognize Israel as a state. They reasoned that a passport with a visa in it from a country that did not exist invalidated the passport so the US State Department would issue you duplicate passports but only for that reason.

US citizens traveling illegally to Cuba for instance will not get their US passports stamped by Cuban authorities, They will just insert an official piece of paper into the passport, which will be removed when you exit the country. So when you return to the US no stamp to show where you were

Hong Kong is now stamp free for tourist visas.

Why not just go to HK early?

Why would he want to go to Hong Kong?

He would not gotten his passport any quicker if that is what you are thinking. All passports are issued in the UK and sent by courier.

Thx for all your replies. I'm on a flight to KL this afternoon as i've hopefully got just enough space for there visa stamp!

BTW new UK passports issued in Asia are done through FCO HK and have nothing to do with the ones issued actually in UK as the process was outsourced a while back. Going to HK doesn't make a difference as you can't just walk in and get one like in Liverpool (or London). They will courier your new one back to you.

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Thx for all your replies. I'm on a flight to KL this afternoon as i've hopefully got just enough space for there visa stamp!

BTW new UK passports issued in Asia are done through FCO HK and have nothing to do with the ones issued actually in UK as the process was outsourced a while back. Going to HK doesn't make a difference as you can't just walk in and get one like in Liverpool (or London). They will courier your new one back to you.

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As a matter of fact all UK passports are issued in the UK. HK just acts as a collection and forwarding "agency"

As said UK passports are made in the UK for last year or so and HK is only a transit point in that process now.

Either way it's still a ballache!

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Either way it's still a ballache!

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Not for those who renew their passports in time. The process is actually very easy

Let's just say the words "well organised" don't appear on my CV.

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Let's just say the words "well organised" don't appear on my CV.

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If that is true and it must be because you say so, there is little point in railing against systems which do not fit with a chaotic lifestyle.

I'm not sure I railed against any system. However, being perfect like your good self you've probably never realise that out of chaos perfection can materialise.

I really couldn't face the trip to KL so went to Chang Wattana instead to see what I should do. Dressed in my smartest clothes (Leeds Utd tracksuit) I managed to get 30 days extension by flirting with the immigration officer. Who was female before anyone asks. Not only did I wangle that she let me off my overstay fee and gave me her phone number. All in all a good Monday.

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In any case i got an SMS yesterday telling me my fee had been charged to my CC in HK for the new passport assumingly making the one i have now invailid.

In that case it's extremely unlikely that you'll receive your new passport from the UK much before 8th November, based on my renewal experience with HK earlier in the year.