Changes To British Passport Services In Thailand

[soihok]

All these news reports highlight how British Citizen's holiday plans have been disrupted but no mention of those citizens overseas facing penalties from the Governments of the countries they are residing in, disruption to employment, life in general. Especially Thailand where the procedure is an absolute joke. Not to mention the cost of having to go through the joke.

Ridiculous

[watso63]

All these news reports highlight how British Citizen's holiday plans have been disrupted but no mention of those citizens overseas facing penalties from the Governments of the countries they are residing in, disruption to employment, life in general. Especially Thailand where the procedure is an absolute joke. Not to mention the cost of having to go through the joke.

Ridiculous

Exactly, the media always report passport news linked with holiday makers. Pathetic.

[OJAS]

All these news reports highlight how British Citizen's holiday plans have been disrupted but no mention of those citizens overseas facing penalties from the Governments of the countries they are residing in, disruption to employment, life in general. Especially Thailand where the procedure is an absolute joke. Not to mention the cost of having to go through the joke.

Ridiculous

Exactly, the media always report passport news linked with holiday makers. Pathetic.

Or news linked with travellers to Syria and Iraq who should never have been issued with passports in the first place!

[OJAS]

Some good news! Bouses? OK, from last year.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-29073232

So no doubt the celebratory sounds of chinking glasses and raucous laughter will be ringing out loudly from the pubs in the vicinity of HMPO offices while the orange boxes containing outstanding renewal applications are forever gathering more dust......

[soap]

Some good news! Bouses? OK, from last year.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-29073232

Should this report not be in the "Jokes thread"

[Dogmatix]

Passports used to be available at the British Embassy in Bangkok within a week and no courier costs. The consular staff would vouch for your likeness in the photograph, saving you the trouble of finding another British citizen to sign.

The current system is a disgrace and must cause countless British businessmen around the world to cancel business trips. I thought embassies were now supposed to be just promoting trade now but this is not helping. They are staffed with bright civil servants who don't have a clue about promoting business because they have never worked in it or unsuccessful businessmen like the former British ambassador who was dumped in Northern Nigeria by Stanchart for years. No one would willingly swap a high flying career as banker for a civil service salary.

[watso63]

Passports used to be available at the British Embassy in Bangkok within a week and no courier costs. The consular staff would vouch for your likeness in the photograph, saving you the trouble of finding another British citizen to sign.

The current system is a disgrace and must cause countless British businessmen around the world to cancel business trips. I thought embassies were now supposed to be just promoting trade now but this is not helping. They are staffed with bright civil servants who don't have a clue about promoting business because they have never worked in it or unsuccessful businessmen like the former British ambassador who was dumped in Northern Nigeria by Stanchart for years. No one would willingly swap a high flying career as banker for a civil service salary.

My big hope, within the next ten years, or before I next need to renew my passport, is that we can do everything online, with a HMPO personal account, similar to a bank account. At least a selfie would be worthwhile in this case or someone sees sense and returns this vital service back to consular level.

[soihok]

Yes, that is more like it.

[AlanAunuum]

congratulations to the HMPO for shafting me and many others like me,I stupidly though that well I would apply 3 months in advance so i would get my new passport back before my visa expired and would be ok as my new passport would be full of empty pages YIPEEE, as my old one is full,you can;t even get a posta. ge stamp on any page.I can not even leave the country to get a new visa as there is no room for anything,This i have explained to the call centre staff in Bangor N Ireland and to maxine from the HMPO office when she called me but all i am getting is excuse after excuse.So as of 12th September i will be on overstay I am now entering my 14th week.It will be 15 weeks next Thursday is there no light ast the end of the tunnel or has David cameron switched it off,just like his <deleted> br.ain. THIS IS A BLOODY DISGRACE AND A FARCE

[thaibry]

I wonder if you will agree that the passport office should receive a bonus, as reported by the guardian newspaper today?

Passport Office staff given up to £674,000 in bonuses amid delays

http://gu.com/p/4xatz

Posted from my phone using predictive text, please excuse any spelling or grammatical errors.

[transam]

I wonder if you will agree that the passport office should receive a bonus, as reported by the guardian newspaper today?

Passport Office staff given up to £674,000 in bonuses amid delays

http://gu.com/p/4xatz

Posted from my phone using predictive text, please excuse any spelling or grammatical errors.

Not me, folk are paid to do a job, thats it..............

Bonus for what, a shorter lunch hour, giving up a couple of weeks paid holiday.?

[digitalchromakey]

ok...this is crazy now....i keep getting automated responses..its not like we can choose an ideal date because like you guys say..it takes weeks to get an appointment- i wrote that " i'm available day 1 september 8th 8.30-16.00, day 2 september 9th 8.30-16.00,day 3 september 10th 8.30-16.00 but if you are busy i am available from monday to friday 8.30-16.00". but

what am i doing wrong???

If you refer back to my previous post, I mentioned that these guys don't have English skills and suggested you keep it super simple, sorry that you took my paradigm literally.

Say you are looking for an appointment on the 8,9, or 10th September, then write:

Dear Sirs,

Please can I have an appointment to renew my UK Passport on one of the following three dates:

1) Monday 8th September 08:30 - 15:30

2) Tuesday 9th September 08:30 - 15:30

3) Wednesday 10th September 08:30 - 15:30

Thank you.

Yours, etc

Your report of the automated replies fills me with dread, as you may now be dealing with something with even less English comprehension than any of the Thais who used to make appointments......

.

[digitalchromakey]

congratulations to the HMPO for shafting me and many others like me,I stupidly though that well I would apply 3 months in advance so i would get my new passport back before my visa expired and would be ok as my new passport would be full of empty pages YIPEEE, as my old one is full,you can;t even get a posta. ge stamp on any page.I can not even leave the country to get a new visa as there is no room for anything,This i have explained to the call centre staff in Bangor N Ireland and to maxine from the HMPO office when she called me but all i am getting is excuse after excuse.So as of 12th September i will be on overstay I am now entering my 14th week.It will be 15 weeks next Thursday is there no light ast the end of the tunnel or has David cameron switched it off,just like his <deleted> br.ain. THIS IS A BLOODY DISGRACE AND A FARCE

Understand your anger and frustration.

When did you contact the British Consulate about your case, did they ask you to send them an email referring to your case and have you also now resolved the alleged outstanding debt issue with them yet?

Edited September 5, 2014 by digitalchromakey

[placidlake]

After reading through the horror stories on this thread I applied for a new passport with considerable trepidation. Exactly six weeks later (as per the time quoted at Trendy) my passport has arrived. I sincerely hope this indicates an appearance of a light at the end of the tunnel for those of you still waiting, but maybe I was just lucky.

Edited September 5, 2014 by placidlake

[digitalchromakey]

After reading through the horror stories on this thread I applied for a new passport with considerable trepidation. Exactly six weeks later (as per the time quoted at Trendy) my passport has arrived. I sincerely hope this indicates an appearance of a light at the end of the tunnel for those of you still waiting, but maybe I was just lucky.

Does your six week figure include the waiting time for your appointment at trendy?

Agreed, it does represent an improvement compared to previous, however 6 weeks is still an appallingly bad level of service for the renewal of such an important identity document.

Most civilized nations offer < two week turnaround for overseas passport renewals and some still offer a next day service - so HMPO are still performing very poorly indeed.

Next July we will probably be reading about the massive bonuses being paid to HMPO staff for having 'improved' the turn around on the service during 2014.

Let's not forget that the new 'service' has now already been running for five months, if there was no improvement at all, then lots of heads would have to roll..

[GoonDizzy]

After reading through the horror stories on this thread I applied for a new passport with considerable trepidation. Exactly six weeks later (as per the time quoted at Trendy) my passport has arrived. I sincerely hope this indicates an appearance of a light at the end of the tunnel for those of you still waiting, but maybe I was just lucky.

Does your six week figure include the waiting time for your appointment at trendy?

Agreed, it does represent an improvement compared to previous, however 6 weeks is still an appallingly bad level of service for the renewal of such an important identity document.

Most civilized nations offer < two week turnaround for overseas passport renewals and some still offer a next day service - so HMPO are still performing very poorly indeed.

Next July we will probably be reading about the massive bonuses being paid to HMPO staff for having 'improved' the turn around on the service during 2014.

Let's not forget that the new 'service' has now already been running for five months, if there was no improvement at all, then lots of heads would have to roll..

You're right about the appointments at Trendy. It took them three weeks to see me after emailing them. When I finally went, I was really miffed. Why?

Well, the place was almost empty and it took them about 2 minutes to check my stuff, get me to sign a form and...that was it! There seemed to be plenty of those little booths with staff in and only one person (me) was being dealt with.

You should be able to just turn up and sort it out. Three weeks for an appointment to start the ball rolling is a disgrace and a complete joke. Including travelling around sorting it out (and an ETD is being sorted next week) my passport will end up costing me a small fortune.

The ETD (on the internet anyway) looks a bit like a UK passport, just a different colour. The Embassy can issue you with one on the same day. If it's just about money, why not just charge 15,000 baht for a same day passport at the Embassy (or within a week)? My hunch is that this is just about p..ssing off Brits living abroad. Concerns have been raised in parliament about the 'brain drain'. I'm not suggesting I'm part of that, but a good way to make them come back is to make it impossible/difficult for employees abroad to stay there.

[placidlake]

It only took me a week to get appointment so again have been lucky.

[OJAS]

ok...this is crazy now....i keep getting automated responses..its not like we can choose an ideal date because like you guys say..it takes weeks to get an appointment- i wrote that " i'm available day 1 september 8th 8.30-16.00, day 2 september 9th 8.30-16.00,day 3 september 10th 8.30-16.00 but if you are busy i am available from monday to friday 8.30-16.00". but

what am i doing wrong???

If you refer back to my previous post, I mentioned that these guys don't have English skills and suggested you keep it super simple, sorry that you took my paradigm literally.

Say you are looking for an appointment on the 8,9, or 10th September, then write:

Dear Sirs,

Please can I have an appointment to renew my UK Passport on one of the following three dates:

1) Monday 8th September 08:30 - 15:30

2) Tuesday 9th September 08:30 - 15:30

3) Wednesday 10th September 08:30 - 15:30

Thank you.

Yours, etc

Your report of the automated replies fills me with dread, as you may now be dealing with something with even less English comprehension than any of the Thais who used to make appointments......

.

Although I have previously suggested in jest that HMPO would introduce a further requirement for us to pass a suitably-advanced test in the Thai language as a condition of renewing our passports here for the convenience of their local "reps" in With-It Tower, I am seriously tempted to wonder, in the light of this comment, whether this might, in fact, now happen sooner rather than later.

After all, had I suggested this time last year that we would now be required to make 2 trips to Bangkok from wherever we lived in LOS at passport renewal time, such a suggestion would almost certainly have equally been regarded as a joke!

Edited September 6, 2014 by OJAS

[steviewonder46]

ok...this is crazy now....i keep getting automated responses..its not like we can choose an ideal date because like you guys say..it takes weeks to get an appointment- i wrote that " i'm available day 1 september 8th 8.30-16.00, day 2 september 9th 8.30-16.00,day 3 september 10th 8.30-16.00 but if you are busy i am available from monday to friday 8.30-16.00". but

what am i doing wrong???

If you refer back to my previous post, I mentioned that these guys don't have English skills and suggested you keep it super simple, sorry that you took my paradigm literally.

Say you are looking for an appointment on the 8,9, or 10th September, then write:

Dear Sirs,

Please can I have an appointment to renew my UK Passport on one of the following three dates:

1) Monday 8th September 08:30 - 15:30

2) Tuesday 9th September 08:30 - 15:30

3) Wednesday 10th September 08:30 - 15:30

Thank you.

Yours, etc

Your report of the automated replies fills me with dread, as you may now be dealing with something with even less English comprehension than any of the Thais who used to make appointments......

.

i also wrote a letter to them like that and got an automated response..and gave up...luckily i work near soi 13..so i went down there and explained the problem i was having.i was told to wait and after about 10 minutes a lady came to to the reception area where i was standing and told me to write my name and e mail address down.she then told me she would send me an e mail...to my surprise,when i got home and checked my e mail there it was-it's on the 18th of September (12 days from today)...not the best but compared to some posts on here of waiting a month or so for a date i'm o/k with this.

if anyone is reading this then i advise you to book an appointment at the 'trendy building' the same day that you start filling your forms out...don't make the same mistake i did (it took me about a week to run around getting all the supporting documents and someone to sign my photos-then i realised that you couldn't just send it all off by yourself).

one thing the woman at the visa application centre told me is to get my police report translated..I'm glad she told me as nowhere is it written on my application form and help list that i need to get this done...I'm sure if i wasn't told then i would be asked to go and do it-and then wait again for another appointment...is there anything else they forget to tell us that i should know when i go for my scheduled appointment ? (i have the passport application,lost passport form,letter from my boss as proof of address,driving licence as proof of I.D-even though its expired i'm told it will be ok,signed passport photos and the payment).

[digitalchromakey]

ok...this is crazy now....i keep getting automated responses..its not like we can choose an ideal date because like you guys say..it takes weeks to get an appointment- i wrote that " i'm available day 1 september 8th 8.30-16.00, day 2 september 9th 8.30-16.00,day 3 september 10th 8.30-16.00 but if you are busy i am available from monday to friday 8.30-16.00". but

what am i doing wrong???

If you refer back to my previous post, I mentioned that these guys don't have English skills and suggested you keep it super simple, sorry that you took my paradigm literally.

Say you are looking for an appointment on the 8,9, or 10th September, then write:

Dear Sirs,

Please can I have an appointment to renew my UK Passport on one of the following three dates:

1) Monday 8th September 08:30 - 15:30

2) Tuesday 9th September 08:30 - 15:30

3) Wednesday 10th September 08:30 - 15:30

Thank you.

Yours, etc

Your report of the automated replies fills me with dread, as you may now be dealing with something with even less English comprehension than any of the Thais who used to make appointments......

.

i also wrote a letter to them like that and got an automated response..and gave up...luckily i work near soi 13..so i went down there and explained the problem i was having.i was told to wait and after about 10 minutes a lady came to to the reception area where i was standing and told me to write my name and e mail address down.she then told me she would send me an e mail...to my surprise,when i got home and checked my e mail there it was-it's on the 18th of September (12 days from today)...not the best but compared to some posts on here of waiting a month or so for a date i'm o/k with this.

if anyone is reading this then i advise you to book an appointment at the 'trendy building' the same day that you start filling your forms out...don't make the same mistake i did (it took me about a week to run around getting all the supporting documents and someone to sign my photos-then i realised that you couldn't just send it all off by yourself).

one thing the woman at the visa application centre told me is to get my police report translated..I'm glad she told me as nowhere is it written on my application form and help list that i need to get this done...I'm sure if i wasn't told then i would be asked to go and do it-and then wait again for another appointment...is there anything else they forget to tell us that i should know when i go for my scheduled appointment ? (i have the passport application,lost passport form,letter from my boss as proof of address,driving licence as proof of I.D-even though its expired i'm told it will be ok,signed passport photos and the payment).

Not sure if we covered this before, but you can't actually pay at trendy, they just pass on your credit card details to HMPO Liverpool who debit the card.- Thai Debit cards normally don't work in this way and you can't send cash/cashiers cheques, etc.

So now even the trendy email appointment system is not working, although I must admit , it's a cunning strategy to cut down the backlogs, for me I would not be happy with having to make a third 2,000km round trip, just because trendy are no longer answering emails..

Thanks for the info on getting the police lost passport report translated to English - good point as trendy are only a glorified post box, it's Liverpool who actually check and file your application.

Good Luck.

Edited September 7, 2014 by digitalchromakey

[soap]

After reading through the horror stories on this thread I applied for a new passport with considerable trepidation. Exactly six weeks later (as per the time quoted at Trendy) my passport has arrived. I sincerely hope this indicates an appearance of a light at the end of the tunnel for those of you still waiting, but maybe I was just lucky.

Does your six week figure include the waiting time for your appointment at trendy?

Agreed, it does represent an improvement compared to previous, however 6 weeks is still an appallingly bad level of service for the renewal of such an important identity document.

Most civilized nations offer < two week turnaround for overseas passport renewals and some still offer a next day service - so HMPO are still performing very poorly indeed.

Next July we will probably be reading about the massive bonuses being paid to HMPO staff for having 'improved' the turn around on the service during 2014.

Let's not forget that the new 'service' has now already been running for five months, if there was no improvement at all, then lots of heads would have to roll..

You're right about the appointments at Trendy. It took them three weeks to see me after emailing them. When I finally went, I was really miffed. Why?

Well, the place was almost empty and it took them about 2 minutes to check my stuff, get me to sign a form and...that was it! There seemed to be plenty of those little booths with staff in and only one person (me) was being dealt with.

You should be able to just turn up and sort it out. Three weeks for an appointment to start the ball rolling is a disgrace and a complete joke. Including travelling around sorting it out (and an ETD is being sorted next week) my passport will end up costing me a small fortune.

The ETD (on the internet anyway) looks a bit like a UK passport, just a different colour. The Embassy can issue you with one on the same day. If it's just about money, why not just charge 15,000 baht for a same day passport at the Embassy (or within a week)? My hunch is that this is just about p..ssing off Brits living abroad. Concerns have been raised in parliament about the 'brain drain'. I'm not suggesting I'm part of that, but a good way to make them come back is to make it impossible/difficult for employees abroad to stay there.

You are right Dizzy

There is no logic or common sense or reasoning in this day and age to compel anyone to make a 2,000k journey to present passport documents that takes 2 minutes to check.

You can imagine the uproar in the UK if you were compelled to travel from lands end to John O'groats to present passport documents that take 2 minutes to check.

The only conclusion I can come too is whoever sanctioned this contract with Trendy must be a complete and utter DIMWIT who did not bother to do any homework on the travel difficulties people would face for a 2 minute check,and still persist in going hand in hand with the Trendy to enforce these stupid rules in order for their finance sheet to show a healthy profit.

[digitalchromakey]

After reading through the horror stories on this thread I applied for a new passport with considerable trepidation. Exactly six weeks later (as per the time quoted at Trendy) my passport has arrived. I sincerely hope this indicates an appearance of a light at the end of the tunnel for those of you still waiting, but maybe I was just lucky.

Does your six week figure include the waiting time for your appointment at trendy?

Agreed, it does represent an improvement compared to previous, however 6 weeks is still an appallingly bad level of service for the renewal of such an important identity document.

Most civilized nations offer < two week turnaround for overseas passport renewals and some still offer a next day service - so HMPO are still performing very poorly indeed.

Next July we will probably be reading about the massive bonuses being paid to HMPO staff for having 'improved' the turn around on the service during 2014.

Let's not forget that the new 'service' has now already been running for five months, if there was no improvement at all, then lots of heads would have to roll..

You're right about the appointments at Trendy. It took them three weeks to see me after emailing them. When I finally went, I was really miffed. Why?

Well, the place was almost empty and it took them about 2 minutes to check my stuff, get me to sign a form and...that was it! There seemed to be plenty of those little booths with staff in and only one person (me) was being dealt with.

You should be able to just turn up and sort it out. Three weeks for an appointment to start the ball rolling is a disgrace and a complete joke. Including travelling around sorting it out (and an ETD is being sorted next week) my passport will end up costing me a small fortune.

The ETD (on the internet anyway) looks a bit like a UK passport, just a different colour. The Embassy can issue you with one on the same day. If it's just about money, why not just charge 15,000 baht for a same day passport at the Embassy (or within a week)? My hunch is that this is just about p..ssing off Brits living abroad. Concerns have been raised in parliament about the 'brain drain'. I'm not suggesting I'm part of that, but a good way to make them come back is to make it impossible/difficult for employees abroad to stay there.

You are right Dizzy

There is no logic or common sense or reasoning in this day and age to compel anyone to make a 2,000k journey to present passport documents that takes 2 minutes to check.

You can imagine the uproar in the UK if you were compelled to travel from lands end to John O'groats to present passport documents that take 2 minutes to check.

The only conclusion I can come too is whoever sanctioned this contract with Trendy must be a complete and utter DIMWIT who did not bother to do any homework on the travel difficulties people would face for a 2 minute check,and still persist in going hand in hand with the Trendy to enforce these stupid rules in order for their finance sheet to show a healthy profit.

I think there may in fact be a cynical logic to the recent long waits for an appointment at trendy along with the newly reported difficulties in even getting a reply to an appointment email.

This way, if done world wide, it could cut down the weekly HMPO overseas passport renewal work load, so they can then demonstrate a 'reduction' in waiting times.

It would fit in with Paul Pugh's 'no problem here' (i.e. within HMPO) approach.

However these guys are so incompetent that this may in fact be beyond their grasp and there may instead be a simpler, more chaotic explanation.

[Sena Dave]

Have to get a new passport in the next couple of months , is my Passport and Birth cert good enough ?

[churchill]

Not sure if this has been mentioned ..

I applied for my daughter's passport in April before the new regulations and fee reduction , which included return of the passport to my home address in Samui ..

I have just been informed that the passport is ready for collection in Bangkok .

I suggested that they should at least refund the difference in fees charged to compensate but no .

Same has been reported by others - new passport applied for prior to 26th march, returned to Trendy BKK, no refund.

New passport application system started in Thailand on 26th March, so if you sent yours to the UK in April, you were really lucky not to get bounced.

I have just been informed that I will receive a refund

'Thank you for your e-mail regarding your daughter's passport application.

As you will be aware, we have been experiencing unprecedented levels of passport demand and I apologise that it has taken us longer that usual to address your complaint.

I have now reviewed your daughter's application and can confirm that we received the application onto our system on 24/03/2014. The changes in Thailand took effect from 25/03/2014 and therefore our examiner followed the correct procedures in place by the time your daughter's application was received into an examining section. It is unfortunate that your application was submitted at the same time that our arrangement with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was drawing to a close and I apologise that this does not appear to have been made clear to applicants at that time.

It is Her Majesty's Passport Office (HM Passport Office) policy to reimburse out of pocket expenses incurred by customers as a direct consequence of operational errors or omissions by its staff by means of an ex-gratia payment without accepting any legal liability. As the fees for applying for a UK passport were reduced on 7 April 2014 from £128.00 to £83.00 (a reduction of £45.00), I have authorised a refund for this amount which will be sent to you separately.

Please accept our apology that HM Passport Office did not achieve its usual service standards on this occasion, we do genuinely aim to provide a high standard of service to customers. This has been a challenging few months for HM Passport Office, trying to meet the exceptional demand we faced and I am genuinely sorry that your experience was not typical of that normally enjoyed by the vast majority of our customers. We will be carrying out a review of our procedures in the near future and any lessons that we can learn from this review will be implemented to improve our service to our customers.'

All the HMPO are trying to do here is exonerate themselves from the bungling incompetence that they created in the first place.

Who would have believed that an institution like the HMPO would have left it up to the OP on this thread, for a Mr Bassett ( who came and went like a thief in the night ) on the 26th March,one day after the stated changes were implemented to give the good news that peoples lives would now be thrown into complete chaos,with their stress,blood pressure levels rocketing to a all time high as they try to avert overstaying after reading and believing the lies on the HMPO web site that their passport would take no more than one month to be returned and having people knock their heads against a expensive brick wall ringing help lines and getting no sense whatsoever from the Trendy office.

This whole episode as been an absolute disgrace were common sense and logic have gone right out the window to be replaced with dinosaur thinking rules,when these changes were first implemented,that gave no option for a elderly or disabled British citizen but to travel a possible 4,000 kilometer journey to renew their passport.

What a deleted,deleted ,deleted,deleted

as a follow up … I was telephoned last week by Trendy to say that if I did not pick up my daughter's passport in 30 Days it would be returned to the UK ! OK so I have to visit BK a bit earlier than planned

And

a week ago I had confirmation of the refund

'I have requested that this be returned to your Debit card from which your original payment was taken. If our finance team require any further information from you, they will contact you directly.

Kind regards

Jan

Correspondence Team'

BUT ! Then today I received this from a totally new office in Glasgow

'I am writing to you with regards to your email dated 16/07/14.

It is the policy of Her Majesty’s Passport Office that all UK passports being delivered to Thailand are delivered to a central location which is Trendy Office Building in Bangkok. This is laid out in our guidelines www.gov.uk. I am sorry for any confusion that you have had in relation to this, but unfortunately I cannot consider any reimbursement of fees incurred in order to collect the passport.

Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to your complaint. We are currently dealing with unprecedented demand and it appears we have fallen short of the expected standard on this occasion.

Yours sincerely

N Jones'

***** ??!!

Edited September 7, 2014 by churchill

[AlanAunuum]

well not living in hope,as it is entering my 15th week next week since i visited trendy in bkk to put my new passport app in,as my old one was nearly full.Well now it is full and same old excuses,it is undergoing security checks,even the progress room can't enlighten me. So i have now fired an e-mail of to number 10,to the office of the RH D. Cameron PM MP lets see what this brings,apart from being on overstay very soon,i can't think of anything else to do. I can't go back to UK to see how my passport appp is doing.I can't get a new visa in it,as there is nowhere to stick it.although a part of David Camerons anotomy comes to mind. Anyone on here beat 14/15 weeks so far.

[Jip99]

Have to get a new passport in the next couple of months , is my Passport and Birth cert good enough ?

Try reading the thread - or at least have a go at attempting to link to:-

https://www.gov.uk/overseas-passports/y/thailand/renewing_new/adult

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/overseas-passport-supporting-documents-group-2

[digitalchromakey]

well not living in hope,as it is entering my 15th week next week since i visited trendy in bkk to put my new passport app in,as my old one was nearly full.Well now it is full and same old excuses,it is undergoing security checks,even the progress room can't enlighten me. So i have now fired an e-mail of to number 10,to the office of the RH D. Cameron PM MP lets see what this brings,apart from being on overstay very soon,i can't think of anything else to do. I can't go back to UK to see how my passport appp is doing.I can't get a new visa in it,as there is nowhere to stick it.although a part of David Camerons anotomy comes to mind. Anyone on here beat 14/15 weeks so far.

Did you contact the British Consulate in BKK about your case?

Did they ask you to send them an email referring to your case?

Have you yet resolved the alleged outstanding debt issue with them yet?

[properperson]

...English bloke down our way just accepted the new rules, made an appointment in good time at Trendy, went along with the required documents and is now waiting for his new passport.....

Ridiculous, in my book when he could have been on here moaning and whinging............

[AlanAunuum]

hi digitalchromemakey,yes done all that.I have no outstading debt and i have contacted the british embassy and they fired asn e-mail off. Still waiting for any ggod news,but all i get is it is still undergoing security checks,maybe i should not have renewed my jihad membership this year ha ha

[OJAS]

The ETD (on the internet anyway) looks a bit like a UK passport, just a different colour. The Embassy can issue you with one on the same day. If it's just about money, why not just charge 15,000 baht for a same day passport at the Embassy (or within a week)? My hunch is that this is just about p..ssing off Brits living abroad. Concerns have been raised in parliament about the 'brain drain'. I'm not suggesting I'm part of that, but a good way to make them come back is to make it impossible/difficult for employees abroad to stay there.

Not just employees either but also pensioners like myself who, after a lifetime of working in good old Blighty, have relocated to LOS. If these passport renewal hassles were not enough in their own right, we are not entitled to the annual increases in the State Pension which pensioners back home receive. And now the UK government is threatening to deprive us of the personal allowance on our taxable UK income, which would, of course, result in the jolly old taxman at HMRC clobbering us for even more tax! Both issues discussed at great length in other threads elsewhere on TV, of course.

Regarding digitalchromakey's oft-quoted comment that we are 3rd class citizens in the UK govenment's eyes, I would be inclined to add a zero or 2 after the 3 in the case of us increasingly hard-pressed pensioners at any rate!

Edited September 7, 2014 by OJAS