black fox Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 in a couple of months time i will need a letter from the british embassy to show to immigration for my i year visa,can anyone tell me how long it takes if i use one of the visa shop as i dont want to go to bangkok personally also how much will it cost approximately.thank you in advance for any helpful advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzexpat Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 It can only be obtained by post . https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/423129/Pension_10_02_15__Master.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnC Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Key Visa by Big C South Pattaya, they take the information up on a Wednesday and collect the letters on the Friday, they check all your paperwork and take photocopies. Their charge for the service is 500 baht, the embassy charge 3000 baht for the letter! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzexpat Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 (edited) Key Visa by Big C South Pattaya, they take the information up on a Wednesday and collect the letters on the Friday, they check all your paperwork and take photocopies. Their charge for the service is 500 baht, the embassy charge 3000 baht for the letter! Really ? The Embassy charge is actually 2340 Bht If the link I provided had been opened the heading would have been noted ! "Consular Letter Confirming Pension/Income for Retirement Visa This service is only available by post." Edited May 25, 2015 by nzexpat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctormann Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Yes. only available by post - recommendation is to send documents by EMS and the Embassy are supposed to send them, and the letter, back the same way, for which there is an additional 100 Baht charge. Payment has to be by money order. Last year, my letter went into limbo for about three weeks for some reason. I was not provided with an EMS tracking number by the Embassy, which makes the whole EMS thing a bit pointless. I had to get them to re-issue the letter - no extra charge for this. The original letter did turn up eventually - still no idea where it had been! My advice is to leave plenty of time. The letter, when you get it, will be valid for six months anyway so you can do this well in advance of your extension date. DM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MYKTHEMIN Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 (edited) Yes. only available by post - recommendation is to send documents by EMS and the Embassy are supposed to send them, and the letter, back the same way, for which there is an additional 100 Baht charge. Payment has to be by money order. Last year, my letter went into limbo for about three weeks for some reason. I was not provided with an EMS tracking number by the Embassy, which makes the whole EMS thing a bit pointless. I had to get them to re-issue the letter - no extra charge for this. The original letter did turn up eventually - still no idea where it had been! My advice is to leave plenty of time. The letter, when you get it, will be valid for six months anyway so you can do this well in advance of your extension date. DM only valid for 1 month where i go Edited May 25, 2015 by MYKTHEMIN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
black fox Posted May 25, 2015 Author Share Posted May 25, 2015 thanks for all the info,i havent got a printer so i presume i can print one of the form off at a computer shop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PattayaPhom Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Key Visa by Big C South Pattaya, they take the information up on a Wednesday and collect the letters on the Friday, they check all your paperwork and take photocopies. Their charge for the service is 500 baht, the embassy charge 3000 baht for the letter! It makes me wonder why some people, who haven't a clue, offer help which only hinders. Key Visa were offering this service quite recently as know guys that use them, unless its changed the information is very relevant and could make life easy for the OP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eff1n2ret Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Key Visa by Big C South Pattaya, they take the information up on a Wednesday and collect the letters on the Friday, they check all your paperwork and take photocopies. Their charge for the service is 500 baht, the embassy charge 3000 baht for the letter! It makes me wonder why some people, who haven't a clue, offer help which only hinders. Key Visa were offering this service quite recently as know guys that use them, unless its changed the information is very relevant and could make life easy for the OP If you look at the Key Visa website here, http://www.keyvisathailand.com/services/pension-letters/ you can see the source of the confusion. They say that the cost of their "professional service" is 500baht, but the total charged to the client is 3,500, so the obvious inference is that the embassy's charge is 3000baht. However, as nzexpat has already stated, the embassy charge less than 2500baht (it varies from time to time according to the exchange rate). I suppose as their market is people who can't be bothered (it can't be people who are too busy, it's an application for a retirement extension), they can charge what they like, but anybody who takes the trouble to download the simple proforma available from the British Embassy can fill it in within 5 minutes. Then a trip to the Post Office and it's done. Earlier this year I posted on the Monday and the letter was returned on Friday the same week.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluemoon99 Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 (edited) I used key visa three weeks ago - total cost 3020bht (2520+500) - took three days to get my letter. Great service Edited May 25, 2015 by Bluemoon99 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jip99 Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Yes. only available by post - recommendation is to send documents by EMS and the Embassy are supposed to send them, and the letter, back the same way, for which there is an additional 100 Baht charge. Payment has to be by money order. Last year, my letter went into limbo for about three weeks for some reason. I was not provided with an EMS tracking number by the Embassy, which makes the whole EMS thing a bit pointless. I had to get them to re-issue the letter - no extra charge for this. The original letter did turn up eventually - still no idea where it had been! My advice is to leave plenty of time. The letter, when you get it, will be valid for six months anyway so you can do this well in advance of your extension date. DM only valid for 1 month where i go The Thai immigration 'official' period of validity is 6 months (confirmed last year). I accept each immigration office can be a law unto itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jip99 Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Key Visa by Big C South Pattaya, they take the information up on a Wednesday and collect the letters on the Friday, they check all your paperwork and take photocopies. Their charge for the service is 500 baht, the embassy charge 3000 baht for the letter! Really ? The Embassy charge is actually 2340 Bht If the link I provided had been opened the heading would have been noted ! "Consular Letter Confirming Pension/Income for Retirement Visa This service is only available by post." Why would anyone pay somebody to do something as simple as getting an embassy letter ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henryford Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 Key Visa by Big C South Pattaya, they take the information up on a Wednesday and collect the letters on the Friday, they check all your paperwork and take photocopies. Their charge for the service is 500 baht, the embassy charge 3000 baht for the letter! Really ? The Embassy charge is actually 2340 Bht If the link I provided had been opened the heading would have been noted ! "Consular Letter Confirming Pension/Income for Retirement Visa This service is only available by post." Why would anyone pay somebody to do something as simple as getting an embassy letter ? The charge is only 500 baht (used to be 300). That's much easier than travelling to Bangkok to get it myself. Not sure i would trust the post for something that important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jip99 Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 Key Visa by Big C South Pattaya, they take the information up on a Wednesday and collect the letters on the Friday, they check all your paperwork and take photocopies. Their charge for the service is 500 baht, the embassy charge 3000 baht for the letter! Really ? The Embassy charge is actually 2340 Bht If the link I provided had been opened the heading would have been noted ! "Consular Letter Confirming Pension/Income for Retirement Visa This service is only available by post." Why would anyone pay somebody to do something as simple as getting an embassy letter ? The charge is only 500 baht (used to be 300). That's much easier than travelling to Bangkok to get it myself. Not sure i would trust the post for something that important. ..... so you think agents don't use the post ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edd Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 No they send one of there staff with a load of stuff twice a week Did mine for me 4 weeks ago. Great service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jip99 Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 No they send one of there staff with a load of stuff twice a week Did mine for me 4 weeks ago. Great service. So the following statement does not apply to agents ? "Consular Letter Confirming Pension/Income for Retirement Visa This service is only available by post." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emilymat Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 No they send one of there staff with a load of stuff twice a week Did mine for me 4 weeks ago. Great service. So the following statement does not apply to agents ? "Consular Letter Confirming Pension/Income for Retirement Visa This service is only available by post." Jip99 It may simply be that they mean 'we don't want loads of people turning up here at the embassy, so use only the post". But, like all things, if one guy from Key Visa turns up with 20 applications or so, he can hand them in and then get them back within a couple of days. Obviously there is no link between a private company (KV) and the Brit Embassy, so they are not going to make any reference to it in the official blurb - even though it probably suits the Embassy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edd Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 100 % correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jip99 Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 No they send one of there staff with a load of stuff twice a week Did mine for me 4 weeks ago. Great service. So the following statement does not apply to agents ? "Consular Letter Confirming Pension/Income for Retirement Visa This service is only available by post." Jip99 It may simply be that they mean 'we don't want loads of people turning up here at the embassy, so use only the post". But, like all things, if one guy from Key Visa turns up with 20 applications or so, he can hand them in and then get them back within a couple of days. Obviously there is no link between a private company (KV) and the Brit Embassy, so they are not going to make any reference to it in the official blurb - even though it probably suits the Embassy. fair point. I have no issue with anyone using such a service (whether the agents collects or deals by post) it is just that I can't see the point of paying for such a simple task. I may think differently if I lived in Pattaya. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pontious Posted September 21, 2015 Share Posted September 21, 2015 Just to update the charge for this service went from 300 to 500 Baht. At present the charge is a blanket Baht 3500. The Embassy charge is Baht 2475. The cost therefore is now Baht 1025. Not a complaint just saying what it is. I did mine by EMS -B2575 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBobThai Posted September 21, 2015 Share Posted September 21, 2015 Does anyone if this service is available from the U.S. embassy. Part of the reason I moved to Chiang Mai. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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