Passport Office - The Avenue. Service?

[NanLaew]

We have a couple of Thai passports that expired last week, wife and son. What's the current situation at the fairly new Pattaya passport office? Is it fully open now? If so, is it a major day out with waiting for ages. Tha Bang Na one has overload at the moment after the demonstrations messed with the big one at CW. Wondering if there's overspill from Bangkok due to their shenanigans.

Thanks,

NL

[slygeeza]

my guess is its a major day out considering there are about 30 people camping out in the corridor every night

[dsfbrit]

My friend went and used this service a couple of weeks ago. He needed a passport for his Thai wife. They went to The Avenue at about 8am.

There was a long queue and he was told they only issued a certain number of passports each day and it would better if he made an appointment and came back another day.

They took his wife's name and address and told them to come back a week later.

The appointment was not for a specific time, just the day.

They arrived there at 8am on the day of the appointment and were 'processed' at around 10am.

The actual processing of the passport information by the staff there was quite quick - I think he said less than 15 minutes.

They received the passport in the post a week later.

[Upnotover]

My wife was there this week, the first day arrived at 7 a.m. and was told too late for a queue number, went back the next day at 3 a.m., got a number when they opened and was seen around 9 a.m. Apparently very efficient when you get to the desk, it's the getting there that seems the problem.

[NanLaew]

Thanks for all this fresh and relevant info. I will let the wife decide if she wants to get in line but maybe wait till the school hols as they will need a new picture of the lad as well.

Is the old passport all they need? I assume ID car for her and maybe proof of local address so they know where to mail it.

[thailandbeachisland]

With SONGKRAN coming and angry Thai absolutely needing to travel abroad, I wouldn't take the risk to go there...

[dsfbrit]

When my friend went they took:-

- old passport

- Thai Id card

- House Book showing address

The photos were taken at the office by the person they were interviewed by - using the camera attached to their PC.

[TexasRanger]

In and out in an hour today. Very good service.

Much better than I expected to be honest.

[TexasRanger]

In and out in an hour today. Very good service.

Much better than I expected to be honest.

As a side note the passport just arrived. 6 days, not bad at all.

[NanLaew]

Thanks for that delivery update TR. When you said 'in and out in an hour' that would be for the date in the appointment. How did the initial appointment making go? Early rise and wait in line?

I guess it's go early and queue to make appointment.

Go to appointment and expect to 'queue' a couple of hours waiting for the actual 15-20 minute processing.

Then wait for the passport to turn up the following week.

[TexasRanger]

Thanks for that delivery update TR. When you said 'in and out in an hour' that would be for the date in the appointment. How did the initial appointment making go? Early rise and wait in line?

I guess it's go early and queue to make appointment.

Go to appointment and expect to 'queue' a couple of hours waiting for the actual 15-20 minute processing.

Then wait for the passport to turn up the following week.

That's pretty much it. We went in at eleven am and they gave us a number and said be back at 2pm. We arrived an hour early but our number was called at 2 minutes past 2. We were done in 15 minutes.

[Jayman]

Thanks for that delivery update TR. When you said 'in and out in an hour' that would be for the date in the appointment. How did the initial appointment making go? Early rise and wait in line?

I guess it's go early and queue to make appointment.

Go to appointment and expect to 'queue' a couple of hours waiting for the actual 15-20 minute processing.

Then wait for the passport to turn up the following week.

That's pretty much it. We went in at eleven am and they gave us a number and said be back at 2pm. We arrived an hour early but our number was called at 2 minutes past 2. We were done in 15 minutes.

Guess it's the luck of the draw what day you show up. You showed at 11am and got an appt for 2pm while others claim to show at 7am and be turned away for the day.

I too need to take my wife in for a renewal but there is no way either of us is going to camp out from 3am to get a que number. Showing up at 11am and coming back at 2pm would be perfect though.

[NanLaew]

^ Once again Jayman, whatever you and the wife decide to do, please update with your experiences.

[TexasRanger]

So, how did it go?

[Chang_paarp]

Thanks for that delivery update TR. When you said 'in and out in an hour' that would be for the date in the appointment. How did the initial appointment making go? Early rise and wait in line?

I guess it's go early and queue to make appointment.

Go to appointment and expect to 'queue' a couple of hours waiting for the actual 15-20 minute processing.

Then wait for the passport to turn up the following week.

That's pretty much it. We went in at eleven am and they gave us a number and said be back at 2pm. We arrived an hour early but our number was called at 2 minutes past 2. We were done in 15 minutes.

Guess it's the luck of the draw what day you show up. You showed at 11am and got an appt for 2pm while others claim to show at 7am and be turned away for the day.

I too need to take my wife in for a renewal but there is no way either of us is going to camp out from 3am to get a que number. Showing up at 11am and coming back at 2pm would be perfect though.

There was an article in one of the papers last week about an enterprising motcy rider who will do the standing in line for you. Ask locally I'm sure you will find one to do the hard yards, and call you when you need to be there.

[Jayman]

We went on April 17th thinking that maybe it wouldn't be so full given songkran. We were told when we got there that the que for the day was full by 530am and anyone showing up after 530am was out of luck. Now that we are no longer in Pattaya we'll just go to a less popular office to get the passport renewed.

[NanLaew]

Thread bump!

Any changes in the waiting times to get the appointment? We are wondering if the 'surge' in aplications has abated with recent developments. We also have the option of doing the passport renewals at home in Udon so I will be checking if that is even easier before making the plan.

Thanks

NL

[Jayman]

Thread bump!

Any changes in the waiting times to get the appointment? We are wondering if the 'surge' in aplications has abated with recent developments. We also have the option of doing the passport renewals at home in Udon so I will be checking if that is even easier before making the plan.

Thanks

NL

I would say go do it in udon. We ended up doing ours there and it was very pain free. Got there in the afternoon. No lines. Was in and out in like 15 mins. Couldn't have been easier.

[i claudius]

We went in last week as our sons had expired ,went in 2 oclock ,out by 3, 5 days later we got the passport in the post.

[NanLaew]

Thanks jayman and claudius. We are in Udon since Friday afternoon so will do it on Monday. But good to know that the Pattaya passport office seems to be less busy.

Just noticed the lads UK passport expires in October so there's the next 'challenge'. I will need to see if the backlog in overseas passport renewals has been cleared before using the people at Trendy in Bangkok.

[NanLaew]

Just an update; we hit the Udon Thani passport office just after lunch last Monday and it was jammed with maybe +60 applicants plus they wanted me to sign something on the lads application (and I was still cruising around looking for a parking spot) so we abandoned the idea.

I scoped out the Pattaya passport office around 8 AM on Tuesday morning and there was only about a dozen people waiting. We turned up at 11 AM, took a number, filled in the applications and waited for the number to be called. The wife popped out and noticed the flat screen with the number waiting list was also displayed in Daeng & Dam restaurant across the walkway. So we had lunch and a beer while waiting for the number to be called. Very sensible and all done and dusted by 1 PM.

[tjb30i]

Can you pick up your passport in the Thai office or do they only mail it to you? We need to get our passport in 5 business days and don't want to rely on Thai mail. Do they offer expedited passport service?

[NanLaew]

I don't know if that is an option; you would need to drop bt and ask. All I can say is the EMS mail service they use for delivering the passports seems to get 'priority' in that when ours came back, it was a separate postman who made the 'sign for' delivery and off he went. The regular mail man came by about 2 hours later.

[chris2004]

Got my tgf a passport yesterday. Great service. We just walked in about 11am. Got a ticket number within 5 minutes. You can judge roughly what time your number will come up so you are free to go home or go shopping and come back to finish the application. Total waiting time about 30 minutes and the passport is posted on. A million times better than the previous full day trip to bangkok.