New UK passport and letter from embassy

[kurd]

Just a quickie.

Waiting for new UK passport to arrive and am told I need a letter from the embassy to confirm it is the real thing to show at immigration when extending visa..

Just going through the consular website and it says you have to make an appointment to go there but it seems fully booked until the 27th April.My visa expires on the 20th.I am probably reading it wrong.Can't you just turn up the embassy to get a letter done?

Thanks

[OJAS]

Yes, no appointment needed for this particular service, as confirmed to me by the Embassy in a recent email.

Attached is the notice which the With-It Tower Mob should give you when you collect your new passport. As alternatives to a personal trip to the Embassy it is also possible to apply for the letter by email or snail mail (although these options appear unlikely to be practical in your situation)..

150211 Visa Transfer Letter Final.docx

[MrMo]

What seems to be ridiculous and typical Thai bureaucracy about the requirement is that the British Embassy will NOT give you a letter stating that it is a genuine passport. What the British Embassy will do is produce a letter which states that in the Embassy's opinion the passport doesn't appear to be a forgery. That's what happened with me.

About 10 years ago, a senior American State Department official (Assistant Secretary of State role if I recall correctly) made a comment about Thai bureaucracy being world class.

[OJAS]

What seems to be ridiculous and typical Thai bureaucracy about the requirement is that the British Embassy will NOT give you a letter stating that it is a genuine passport. What the British Embassy will do is produce a letter which states that in the Embassy's opinion the passport doesn't appear to be a forgery. That's what happened with me.

About 10 years ago, a senior American State Department official (Assistant Secretary of State role if I recall correctly) made a comment about Thai bureaucracy being world class.

Well, British bureaucracy must be equally, if not more, world class, then! Like HMPO now forcing us to traipse in person not once but twice to a ridiculously-named office building in Bangkok from whatever far-flung corner of LOS we live in at passport renewal time, for reasons which they have deliberately chosen not to justify or explain explicitly! And then for the With-It Tower Mob not to issue the necessary letter on the Embassy's behalf as a matter of course when we collect our new passport, but instead insist that we either trudge round to the Embassy for the letter or submit a request for it by email or snail mail! Which other Western nation subjects its expat citizens living in LOS to such bureaucratic nonsense?

[ubonjoe]

You might be surprised to know that most other countries require their citizens to make a trip to the embassy to apply for a passport and then again to pick up your passport.

I think you folks from the UK got spoiled when you could apply for them by mail and forgot the days when you had to go to the embassy to apply for it.

[russjohn]

Anyone any idea where I get the application form needed to verify new Uk passport that is needed to transfer visa by immigration?

[ubonjoe]

They will give you the form when you pickup your passport according to the latest reports.

[russjohn]

Thanks again ubonjoe

[jjray]

ubonjoe thanks for your answer!!

[mca]

Its worth checking with the particular immigration office you extend at whether they require a letter.As of last October Khon Kaen didn't.

[h90]

What seems to be ridiculous and typical Thai bureaucracy about the requirement is that the British Embassy will NOT give you a letter stating that it is a genuine passport. What the British Embassy will do is produce a letter which states that in the Embassy's opinion the passport doesn't appear to be a forgery. That's what happened with me.

About 10 years ago, a senior American State Department official (Assistant Secretary of State role if I recall correctly) made a comment about Thai bureaucracy being world class.

In the Austrian Embassy you get a short letter: "We kindly ask the big boss of Immigration to transfer the Visa from Passport Nr.xxxx to Passport Nr. xxxx as the old is not valid anymore." Stamp and signature...case finish, they only change the Passport numbers. You get it automatic if you want it or not.

[OJAS]

What seems to be ridiculous and typical Thai bureaucracy about the requirement is that the British Embassy will NOT give you a letter stating that it is a genuine passport. What the British Embassy will do is produce a letter which states that in the Embassy's opinion the passport doesn't appear to be a forgery. That's what happened with me.

About 10 years ago, a senior American State Department official (Assistant Secretary of State role if I recall correctly) made a comment about Thai bureaucracy being world class.

In the Austrian Embassy you get a short letter: "We kindly ask the big boss of Immigration to transfer the Visa from Passport Nr.xxxx to Passport Nr. xxxx as the old is not valid anymore." Stamp and signature...case finish, they only change the Passport numbers. You get it automatic if you want it or not.

As I have already said, why on earth can't the With-It Tower Mob issue a similar letter on the British Embassy's behalf to us Brits when we collect our new passports, instead of forcing us to jump through yet more hoops first? Surely it wouldn't be all that difficult to obtain the necessary consular accreditations for 2-3 suitably-senior "Mobsters" to enable them to sign letters? And what difference would it make in practice if the Embassy stamp was impressed on to letters in With-It Tower rather than Wireless Road?

[Eff1n2ret]

What seems to be ridiculous and typical Thai bureaucracy about the requirement is that the British Embassy will NOT give you a letter stating that it is a genuine passport. What the British Embassy will do is produce a letter which states that in the Embassy's opinion the passport doesn't appear to be a forgery. That's what happened with me.

About 10 years ago, a senior American State Department official (Assistant Secretary of State role if I recall correctly) made a comment about Thai bureaucracy being world class.

In the Austrian Embassy you get a short letter: "We kindly ask the big boss of Immigration to transfer the Visa from Passport Nr.xxxx to Passport Nr. xxxx as the old is not valid anymore." Stamp and signature...case finish, they only change the Passport numbers. You get it automatic if you want it or not.

As I have already said, why on earth can't the With-It Tower Mob issue a similar letter on the British Embassy's behalf to us Brits when we collect our new passports, instead of forcing us to jump through yet more hoops first? Surely it wouldn't be all that difficult to obtain the necessary consular accreditations for 2-3 suitably-senior "Mobsters" to enable them to sign letters? And what difference would it make in practice if the Embassy stamp was impressed on to letters in With-It Tower rather than Wireless Road?

It is a little bizarre that the Thai authorities place reliance on a letter validated only by an embossing stamp to authenticate a passport which contains a great number of security features. Those with the skill to produce a passable counterfeit or forged passport are unlikely to be defeated by a single-sheet letter. If Thai Immigration haven't the confidence to inspect the travel documents presented to them it doesn't speak well of their forgery detection training, if indeed they have any.

[OJAS]

Those with the skill to produce a passable counterfeit or forged passport are unlikely to be defeated by a single-sheet letter.

Particularly if they also possess the rather less formidable skills required to produce a passable counterfeit of the single-sheet letter in question! Which begs the obvious question of Immigration's capabilities of detecting forged Embassy letters (e,g, confirming income) in general.