British Embassy/Consulate email phone or dropin?

[rikki]

With some major passport renewal and Visa problems, I emailed ChiangMai Consulate over a week ago,and still have not heard from them

So I emailed the British Embassy and hoping they will reply before its too late.

Their automatic reply included " the Consular Team will reply to you at the earliest opportunity within the Embassy’s 20 working days timeframe"

So how long should I wait before I telephone them or drop in?

[ubonjoe]

You can try calling them. But I am not sure they will be of much help they will be with passport problems. All they can do is a ETD or a one year extension if you qualify for them.

[digitalchromakey]

Shows how overloaded they are, revert time was 48 hours until a couple of weeks ago!

Now worth phoning the British Embassy Consular section in BKK if you have a specific passport application problem as they have transferred staff to specifically help deal with passport enquiries.

Plus you will get someone who actually knows something about UK Passports, which unfortunately nowadays often is not the case with the UK HMPO Helpline.

[mikebell]

The Embassy offer minimal service unless a fast buck can be turned: income letters. I wrote to them regarding their VFS employees & made suggestions to improve the service by making it more efficient/client friendly. They promised a reply within 20 working days. Last week, two months down the line I received a reply. Correspondence is farmed out to another off-shoot (I think in Singapore). Very good English; nice soothing tone; failed to address any contentious issues or my suggested improvements.