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Changes To British Passport Services In Thailand


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I discovered this by using the DHL tracking code that Ann gave me. Just this second had an email from Trendy stating that my passport has arrived.

Fingers have been pulled out..

Got mine just now but embassy closed till monday because went around to the embassy also package normally gets to Trendy House ..9:30 to 10:00am

14 Delivered - Signed for by : KHAI JAI BANGKOK 09:28

13 With delivery courier BANGKOK - THAILAND 08:52

Total time & 51 emails

120 days can be converted to one of these units:

  • 10,368,000 seconds
  • 172,800 minutes
  • 2880 hours
  • 120 days
  • 17 weeks (rounded down)
Edited by NickyBurma
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I discovered this by using the DHL tracking code that Ann gave me. Just this second had an email from Trendy stating that my passport has arrived.

Fingers have been pulled out..

Got mine just now but embassy closed till monday because went around to the embassy also package normally gets to Trendy House ..9:30 to 10:00am

14 Delivered - Signed for by : KHAI JAI BANGKOK 09:28

13 With delivery courier BANGKOK - THAILAND 08:52

Total time & 51 emails

120 days can be converted to one of these units:

  • 10,368,000 seconds
  • 172,800 minutes
  • 2880 hours
  • 120 days
  • 17 weeks (rounded down)

You can order the pro-forma confirmation letter from the British Consulate in BKK by email, just supply scans of old/new passport details (guessing you now have this info, even though your previous passport was stolen).

They produce the 'transfer' pro-forma letter FOC and EMS to your home address, just a few days - big contrast with HMPO/trendy who we all now know are next to useless.

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Ah I thought you could just do all that over email? I need to do it to connect my two passports as my extension of stay is in my old passport.

Yeah it's better to have it then not have it incase they ask for it from immigration as for me ? am just going to fly out and not bother with the immigration office .. don't fancy being locked up for overstaying my visa what wasn't my fault but technically still breaking the law due to getting attacked and robbed ...

Also still no one has apologize for the delay or inconvenience i have been put throw ... I will not hold my breath even for that matter to be fair with you ..

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I discovered this by using the DHL tracking code that Ann gave me. Just this second had an email from Trendy stating that my passport has arrived.

Fingers have been pulled out..

Got mine just now but embassy closed till monday because went around to the embassy also package normally gets to Trendy House ..9:30 to 10:00am

14 Delivered - Signed for by : KHAI JAI BANGKOK 09:28

13 With delivery courier BANGKOK - THAILAND 08:52

Total time & 51 emails

120 days can be converted to one of these units:

  • 10,368,000 seconds
  • 172,800 minutes
  • 2880 hours
  • 120 days
  • 17 weeks (rounded down)

You can order the pro-forma confirmation letter from the British Consulate in BKK by email, just supply scans of old/new passport details (guessing you now have this info, even though your previous passport was stolen).

They produce the 'transfer' pro-forma letter FOC and EMS to your home address, just a few days - big contrast with HMPO/trendy who we all now know are next to useless.

I will just wait because will fly out of Bangkok and come back in via Chiang Mai easy for me that way don't wish to travel 15 hours done that already 75 hours back and forth to bkk .. You know what i mean ..

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Ah I thought you could just do all that over email? I need to do it to connect my two passports as my extension of stay is in my old passport.

Yeah it's better to have it then not have it incase they ask for it from immigration as for me ? am just going to fly out and not bother with the immigration office .. don't fancy being locked up for overstaying my visa what wasn't my fault but technically still breaking the law due to getting attacked and robbed ...

Also still no one has apologize for the delay or inconvenience i have been put throw ... I will not hold my breath even for that matter to be fair with you ..

Did you have an extension in your old passport or were you on a visa entry?

If you were on an extension, then the letter would help you to get that extension and permission to stay added to you new passport, if you had a visa it is lost.

If you were on a visa entry, then you might get a way with it, but I think you would be safer in going first to immigration and getting the entry stamp added before you try to exit Thailand with a blank passport!

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I have recently removed a Chinese visa from 2010 in my passport as it was taking a full page up

I do keep it at hand but don't really think anyone other than China will be interested.

Its not been picked up on by Thai, Malay and Singapore immigration

Sorry soihok, I am not trying to be the thought police but I read on this forum sometime ago that a British Passport "remains the property of HM Government and be withdrawn at any time.. It should not be tampered with or passed to an unauthorised person"

I suspect that nobody is really interested except for UK passport officials.

I had a Cambodian visa come out of my passport, adhesive just gave up. There were a few others just hanging on so I mentioned it to the immigration officer at Heathrow. He said it was not a problem, they had no interest in expired visas.

When I went for my extension the first IO was going to put the under consideration stamp where the visa had become detached, the visa was still there loose between the pages. The senior IO however overruled and they squeezed it into a corner where it was overlapping other stamps.

There is obviously conflicting views on this topic and is probably a bit of an unknown. Any situation would probably be at the discretion of those involved at the time.

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Ah I thought you could just do all that over email? I need to do it to connect my two passports as my extension of stay is in my old passport.

Yeah it's better to have it then not have it incase they ask for it from immigration as for me ? am just going to fly out and not bother with the immigration office .. don't fancy being locked up for overstaying my visa what wasn't my fault but technically still breaking the law due to getting attacked and robbed ...

Also still no one has apologize for the delay or inconvenience i have been put throw ... I will not hold my breath even for that matter to be fair with you ..

Did you have an extension in your old passport or were you on a visa entry?

If you were on an extension, then the letter would help you to get that extension and permission to stay added to you new passport, if you had a visa it is lost.

If you were on a visa entry, then you might get a way with it, but I think you would be safer in going first to immigration and getting the entry stamp added before you try to exit Thailand with a blank passport!

From my understand i just need a letter from the embassy because will have all the new and old passport info plus they all share the same system plus if i was to go to the immigration office they may ask for police report what the passport office has lost and i don't have a copy of it ... I forgot to mention also now you don't go to a counter its all moved to a interview room at the far end of the room plus everything was open .. i waited outside from 8:30 for the DHL Guy .. so just go upstairs

Edited by NickyBurma
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Ah I thought you could just do all that over email? I need to do it to connect my two passports as my extension of stay is in my old passport.

Yeah it's better to have it then not have it incase they ask for it from immigration as for me ? am just going to fly out and not bother with the immigration office .. don't fancy being locked up for overstaying my visa what wasn't my fault but technically still breaking the law due to getting attacked and robbed ...

Also still no one has apologize for the delay or inconvenience i have been put throw ... I will not hold my breath even for that matter to be fair with you ..

Did you have an extension in your old passport or were you on a visa entry?

If you were on an extension, then the letter would help you to get that extension and permission to stay added to you new passport, if you had a visa it is lost.

If you were on a visa entry, then you might get a way with it, but I think you would be safer in going first to immigration and getting the entry stamp added before you try to exit Thailand with a blank passport!

From my understand i just need a letter from the embassy because will have all the new and old passport info plus they all share the same system plus if i was to go to the immigration office they may ask for police report what the passport office has lost and i don't have a copy of it ... I forgot to mention also now you don't go to a counter its all moved to a interview room at the far end of the room plus everything was open .. i waited outside from 8:30 for the DHL Guy .. so just go upstairs

British Embassy and trendy/HMPO do not share the same system.

Embassy will ask you for copies of the old/new passport and, I also suspect, the police report.

You can make a police report that the police report re your lost passport has been lost and that might just do!

Btw you didn't answer my question on your visa/extension status.

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I should have said immigration share the same system .. Anyway am on a tourist visa also making another police report is classed as fraud ..

Ok, no extension.

Not fraud, you are simply reporting the loss of a police report whose subject is the theft of your old passport, quite legal.

Still better that you have the stamp in your passport before you go to the airport.

As you are on a Tourist Visa (and even with a Tourist Visa 30 day extension), you can go to any Immigration Department to get the stamp in your new passport using the Embassy pro forma (and almost certainly a police report).

Without the admission stamp, you may find your self delayed at the airport - better go to immigration before if you prefer a painless/stress less approach.

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Is there a "time limit" for want of a better word for transferring your extension of stay from your old to your new passport? I'm in Bangkok for the next month and won't go back to Khon Kaen ( where I did my extension) until November. I'd hate to roll up to KK immi and they say something crazy like " Sorry you took too long to transfer your extension and it's no longer valid"

Paranoid, moi? smile.png

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Is there a "time limit" for want of a better word for transferring your extension of stay from your old to your new passport? I'm in Bangkok for the next month and won't go back to Khon Kaen ( where I did my extension) until November. I'd hate to roll up to KK immi and they say something crazy like " Sorry you took too long to transfer your extension and it's no longer valid"

Paranoid, moi? smile.png

The old passport is invalid for travel and will have had the front cover corners cut off by trendy (this is the norm now, but was not the case last April/May), so it can't be used for ID

Why push your luck by not transferring?

I see no reason to delay transfer, you never know when you might need your new passport with the old extension transferred into it.

Just imagine the stress if suddenly you need to travel the next day due to some emergency overseas......

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Is there a "time limit" for want of a better word for transferring your extension of stay from your old to your new passport? I'm in Bangkok for the next month and won't go back to Khon Kaen ( where I did my extension) until November. I'd hate to roll up to KK immi and they say something crazy like " Sorry you took too long to transfer your extension and it's no longer valid"

Paranoid, moi? smile.png

The old passport is invalid for travel and will have had the front cover corners cut off by trendy (this is the norm now, but was not the case last April/May), so it can't be used for ID

Why push your luck by not transferring?

I see no reason to delay transfer, you never know when you might need your new passport with the old extension transferred into it.

Just imagine the stress if suddenly you need to travel the next day due to some emergency overseas......

Visas/extensions are still valid in an expired/cancelled passport.

No time limit and no need to transfer to the new passport until you are ready.

I did mine after a couple of months. I actually traveled to Cambodia on my cancelled passport (before Trendy cut any corners off)

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So can you leave the country without transferring / having the letter from the embassy? Just take both passports with me?

Categorically - yes.

I have done it (twice), 2 friends have done it and I think there is a post on this thread from Nan Laew (International Gypsy Member) who has regularly done it.

By embassy letter I presume this relates to the issue of the new passport. Not relevant for travel and not required by my local immigration office. I am no expert on this but I think the main use relates to when the old passport has been lost or stolen.

If you would prefer the assurance on a Thai Visa moderator I would recommend a PM to Ubonjoe - his knowledge is extensive - or just post this question in the visas section of the forum,

Edited by Jip99
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Good to know. The plan is to leave with both passports. Apply for a multiple entry tourist visa in my new passport and renter.

But seeing as I have time I may as well get a letter from the British embassy.

As you are obtaining a brand new tourist visa, in a brand new passport, (presumably from the UK) then I would suggest that the embassy letter is unnecessary. The letter is an occasional requirement of Thai immigration when transferring/granting extensions.

I wouldn't stop you doing it if it makes you more comfortable but I just don't see who needs to see it. Going out you are simply being stamped out (if the corners are not cut off they would probably stamp the old passport as the immigration system computer would not be aware of the new passport) and when you come back you are starting from scratch - new passport and new visa.

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Is there a "time limit" for want of a better word for transferring your extension of stay from your old to your new passport? I'm in Bangkok for the next month and won't go back to Khon Kaen ( where I did my extension) until November. I'd hate to roll up to KK immi and they say something crazy like " Sorry you took too long to transfer your extension and it's no longer valid"

Paranoid, moi? smile.png

The old passport is invalid for travel and will have had the front cover corners cut off by trendy (this is the norm now, but was not the case last April/May), so it can't be used for ID

Why push your luck by not transferring?

I see no reason to delay transfer, you never know when you might need your new passport with the old extension transferred into it.

Just imagine the stress if suddenly you need to travel the next day due to some emergency overseas......

I did my extension in Khon Kaen but am in Bangkok for the next month. Unless I can transfer the stamp at any immi and then I'll do it in Bangkok?

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Is there a "time limit" for want of a better word for transferring your extension of stay from your old to your new passport? I'm in Bangkok for the next month and won't go back to Khon Kaen ( where I did my extension) until November. I'd hate to roll up to KK immi and they say something crazy like " Sorry you took too long to transfer your extension and it's no longer valid"

Paranoid, moi? smile.png

Good point, I picked up new passport on Tuesday (30th Sep) but cannot get to Immigration for at least 2 weeks, its a 500km round trip for me to Phitsanulok. Do you have to get this form/letter from Brit Embassy confiming passport is for real!!.

When I did my extension they just told me to bring both passports.

I will give the Embassy a call Monday just in case.

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Is there a "time limit" for want of a better word for transferring your extension of stay from your old to your new passport? I'm in Bangkok for the next month and won't go back to Khon Kaen ( where I did my extension) until November. I'd hate to roll up to KK immi and they say something crazy like " Sorry you took too long to transfer your extension and it's no longer valid"

Paranoid, moi? smile.png

Good point, I picked up new passport on Tuesday (30th Sep) but cannot get to Immigration for at least 2 weeks, its a 500km round trip for me to Phitsanulok. Do you have to get this form/letter from Brit Embassy confiming passport is for real!!.

When I did my extension they just told me to bring both passports.

I will give the Embassy a call Monday just in case.

The pro-forma transfer letter from the British Embassy Consular Facility in Bangkok is required by immigration departments in some areas but not others.

You need to check with your local immigration department - the Consular facility at the embassy (and trendy) will probably just tell you that it's required.

If you do need it, you can order it by email and they will EMS to your home address FOC.

edit - added (and trendy) as I had forgotten that they also misadvise on this issue

Edited by digitalchromakey
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Do you have to get this form/letter from Brit Embassy confiming passport is for real!!.

When I did my extension they just told me to bring both passports.

I will give the Embassy a call Monday just in case.

When I picked my passport up from Trendy I specifically asked them this question and the supervisor said "Yes".

I know some folks say that they didn't need the letter at immi but for me it's definitely a case of better safe than sorry.

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KK is the place to go, unless you change your residence.

So I'm hoping the month's delay in swapping the extension from my old to new passport shouldn't be a problem. After all my extension hasn't expired. It's still valid until December. But after all TIT so you never know what they'll come up with.

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So can you leave the country without transferring / having the letter from the embassy? Just take both passports with me?

Categorically - yes.

I have done it (twice), 2 friends have done it and I think there is a post on this thread from Nan Laew (International Gypsy Member) who has regularly done it.

By embassy letter I presume this relates to the issue of the new passport. Not relevant for travel and not required by my local immigration office. I am no expert on this but I think the main use relates to when the old passport has been lost or stolen.

If you would prefer the assurance on a Thai Visa moderator I would recommend a PM to Ubonjoe - his knowledge is extensive - or just post this question in the visas section of the forum,

Jip99- when you renewed your passport, trendy didn't cut the corners off the old passport and I also recollect you posting that the guy in immigration at the border happened to be the same guy who did the extension in your old passport.

Now trendy have 'learned' and will always demand the old passport and cut the front cover corners off themselves.

With a visa/visa in the old cancelled passport, you show both and will get the exit stamp in your new passport with a note re the entry/visa being in your old passport number xyz....

With an extension, the generally received wisdom is that it must be transferred to the new passport before exiting the country, but there is of course an argument if the extension itself is at its expiry date on exit.

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So can you leave the country without transferring / having the letter from the embassy? Just take both passports with me?

Categorically - yes.

I have done it (twice), 2 friends have done it and I think there is a post on this thread from Nan Laew (International Gypsy Member) who has regularly done it.

By embassy letter I presume this relates to the issue of the new passport. Not relevant for travel and not required by my local immigration office. I am no expert on this but I think the main use relates to when the old passport has been lost or stolen.

If you would prefer the assurance on a Thai Visa moderator I would recommend a PM to Ubonjoe - his knowledge is extensive - or just post this question in the visas section of the forum,

Jip99- when you renewed your passport, trendy didn't cut the corners off the old passport and I also recollect you posting that the guy in immigration at the border happened to be the same guy who did the extension in your old passport.

Now trendy have 'learned' and will always demand the old passport and cut the front cover corners off themselves.

With a visa/visa in the old cancelled passport, you show both and will get the exit stamp in your new passport with a note re the entry/visa being in your old passport number xyz....

With an extension, the generally received wisdom is that it must be transferred to the new passport before exiting the country, but there is of course an argument if the extension itself is at its expiry date on exit.

When I picked my passport up in June Trendy didn't even ask to see the old passport !

As I mentioned, I have been on trips to Cambodia with friends who have shown 2 passports - their visa/visa extension being in the old passport. IF anything is mentioned you can just say that you plan to visit your local immigration on your return. I know people who have passed through Suvarnabhumi in the same way.

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