How long before visa expires to renew passport?

[Acharn]

I extended my visa (that's the language they use at the Nakhon Sawan Immigration Office) and my passport expires next year. Of course the nice lady gave me a visa expiration date the same as the passport expiration date and reminded me that I will have to come in at that time to transfer the visa to my new passport and further extend it. I checked the embassy web site and they said you should allow about two weeks for processing the new passport. Some other site said that during busy times you may have to wait up to ten weeks. You can renew you passport any time while it's still valid, and I don't really mind doing it two and a half months before the expiration date, just to be sure, but I was wondering if anyone has recent knowledge of how the system is working. I seem to recall that ten years ago there was something about having to send them to Korea to be done, now the web site says they have to be mailed to the U.S. I don't know why, but I get anxious every year,

Edited August 12, 2015 by Acharn

[ubonjoe]

You can apply for the new passport at anytime as long as you do it far enough ahead of time to get it before your shortened extension ends.

You keep your old passport when you apply for a new US passport. Your application is submitted online by the consular section staff as soon as the fee is paid and the application is accepted.

It seldom takes more than 2 weeks to get the new passport. Most people get them in 10 days or less.

You must be reading something very old that said 10 weeks.

When I got my new passport I got an email informing me had been received exactly 10 days after I applied. The issued date of it is the same date I applied for it.

I applied for my new passport 9 months before the old one expired. I timed it so I could do my extension and stamp transfer all in one trip to immigration. This was just before they changed the rules for passport validly 2 years ago today.

[Acharn]

Ah, thanks. I understand that you keep your old passport until you pick up the new one in person. If you want them to mail you the new passport when it comes you have to leave your old passport with them so they can punch holes in it to cancel it before mailing you the new one, along with your old, canceled, passport. I presume that along with the new passport they send a copy of their letter to Immigration requesting the transfer of your visa to the new passport.

I thought about renewing my passport early, but the expiration date was only a month before the visa ending date, so this way seemed better.

[ubonjoe]

I made 2 trips to Bangkok when I got my new passport. I bought the tickets 4 months ahead of my planned trips to do it.

I needed to make the 2nd trip to get an income affidavit with my new passport number on it.. For me it was just one extra trip to get my new passport.

I personally would not want to be without my passport for those 2 weeks or more.

[Acharn]

Hmmm. I don't remember having to get a new income affidavit last time, but it was ten years ago and they may have changed the rules since then,or I may have just forgotten. Anybody else reading this thread who has done this recently? She did say I would have to get a new visa after transferring the old one to the new passport, which I suppose meant doing a new extension. Thanks for the reminder. On the other hand, if I do the affidavit at the same time I submit the application for the new one, the affidavit would still be valid when the new one comes, if it only takes two weeks or so. Well, plenty of time to think about it. I'm talking about middle of July next year, so submitting application about middle of June just to leave some slack. My preference would be to time things so I get the new passport about three days before the visa expires and do the extension then, but I don't think I can time things so finely.

I can't really imagine any circumstances where I would have to show my passport. I always figured it was possible in Bangkok, but here in Nakhon Sawan I rarely go anywhere, so the chance of being stopped is vanishingly small. If I had a break-in or other reason to interact with the police I would think an explanation and a copy of the old passport would be enough.

Edited August 13, 2015 by Acharn

[ubonjoe]

If you are applying for an extension of stay that requires financial proof you need to get a new income affidavit for every extension. They will accept them that are up to 6 months old.

I was concerned about immigration not accepting an income affidavit that had info on it about my cancelled passport.

When started thinking about he passport renewal I was looking at different options for getting it. One was doing the passport application at a consular outreach in Khon Kean and then going to Bangkok to pickup my passport and getting the income affidavit. But when I checked air fares for the trip to Bangkok the trip to there was the least costly and less hassle way to do it.

[Suradit69]

You can apply for the new passport at anytime as long as you do it far enough ahead of time to get it before your shortened extension ends.

You keep your old passport when you apply for a new US passport. Your application is submitted online by the consular section staff as soon as the fee is paid and the application is accepted.

It seldom takes more than 2 weeks to get the new passport. Most people get them in 10 days or less.

You must be reading something very old that said 10 weeks.

When I got my new passport I got an email informing me had been received exactly 10 days after I applied. The issued date of it is the same date I applied for it.

I applied for my new passport 9 months before the old one expired. I timed it so I could do my extension and stamp transfer all in one trip to immigration. This was just before they changed the rules for passport validly 2 years ago today.

"I applied for my new passport 9 months before the old one expired. I timed it so I could do my extension and stamp transfer all in one trip to immigration. This was just before they changed the rules for passport validly 2 years ago today."

Late last year I also got a new passport well before it would have expired so that when I went in to do the next extension of stay at immigrations I'd get a full year.

I applied at one of the embassy's outreach visits to Pattaya. Since I wanted to hold on to the old passport, when I received an email that the new passport was ready I went to Bangkok to collect it in person. There was also the option to hand in my old passport during the outreach visit and then they would have mailed both the new & old passports to me, along with the letter for immigrations.

The new passport was ready in about 10 days. I did the transfer of the extension stamp and the stamp showing the info about the visa and visa entry I that I had last used 8 years ago. Despite what they may say at Nakhon Sawan, the long expired & now invalid visa itself is not transferred, only the information about it.

Edited August 13, 2015 by Suradit69

[GOLDBUGGY]

I have the same issue as you do right now.

What I am going to do is apply for my New Passport after my last 90 day report period. That still gives me 60 days before my Visa expires. So after my new Passport arrives I will apply for my Extension at the normal time and about 1 month before it expires on a Marriage Visa..

[gjoo888]

I just renewed my US passport about 3 months ago at the US Embassy, it only took about 10 days for the new passport to arrive from the day I applied, but give yourself plenty of time just in case. If you choose to pick-up the new passport at the embassy when it arrives, you can keep your old passport, but was told that you can't use the old passport for foreign travel during that time, as your old passport is invalidated when the new passport processing begins. If you choose the option of having your new passport sent to your home when it arrives, you must turn in your old passport when you apply for the new passport. I chose to pick-up mine when it arrived, mainly because I didn't feel comfortable not having a passport for an indeterminate length of time. Your old passport will be hole-punched and given back to you when you pick up the new one if you choose to pick it up.

If you apply a month or so in advance of any visa extensions, you shouldn't have any issues, but it can't hurt to apply soon after your last 90 day report before you need to apply for your extension. I needed to extend my visa about a month after receiving the new passport and was able to transfer stamps and extend the visa at the same time. I also had a 90 day report a few weeks after I extended my visa, and was asked to show the old passport as well as the new one at that time, although I don't know that it was absolutely necessary to do so. All in all, it was a fairly easy process and everything went smoothly from both the US and Thai sides. We'll see what happens when I try to do my next 90 day report online.

[ubonjoe]

I have the same issue as you do right now.

What I am going to do is apply for my New Passport after my last 90 day report period. That still gives me 60 days before my Visa expires. So after my new Passport arrives I will apply for my Extension at the normal time and about 1 month before it expires on a Marriage Visa..

After applying for a new passport you can still use your old passport to do a 90 day report. You can use the old passport for about anything but international travel.

[Acharn]

Thanks for the help, everybody. I can do my last 90 report in May next year and then have two months until the passport/visa expiration date. Normally I'm a person who likes to put everything off until the last minute, but the risk in this case (of not getting the new passport in time) outweighs my preference. Really glad I asked here because otherwise I might have forgotten the income affidavit.