My wife gained her her British Passport about 2 months before we left to stay in Thailand for a while, we have been here for nearly a year now.

Most of you probably know that there are many rumours amongst Thai ladies regarding issues of visas etc, many of which are made up. My wife has been told that she needs to return at least every 2 years to the UK to enable her to re-new her British passport once it expires.

Is this the case? If so then surely I, being British too would have to do the same which I don`t think is correct.

If she did`t return to the UK for the entirity of her passport`s life and tried to re-new her passport here in Thailand would there be an issue?

I am sure we will return for a break in the UK one day but at the moment I really can`t see a reason to or have a will to.

Thanks

If you wife has a UK passport then presumably she also has unrestricted British citizenship.

If the above is true then she has been listening to "Thai lady nonsense".

If you remain in doubt address your questions to the Home Office/HM Passport Office.

Your wife has been misinformed. Don't tell her that though. Instead pack her off on a round trip to the UK once a year to bring back 30kg of life's little luxuries.

Your wife has been misinformed. Don't tell her that though. Instead pack her off on a round trip to the UK once a year to bring back 30kg of life's little luxuries.

And a key selling point for this course of action, of course, is that every 10th year she will be able to renew her passport in a relatively convenient fashion while in the UK, instead of having to submit herself to the rigours of the dreaded "With-It Tower Passport Renewal Experience"!

Your wife has been misinformed. Don't tell her that though. Instead pack her off on a round trip to the UK once a year to bring back 30kg of life's little luxuries.

In similar vein I read the title and thought:

'Nah - get the lazy B to get on a plane and come over here herself to see you!'

OP as a British citizen do you have to return to the UK every 2 years...think carefully before you answer and the answer is the same for your wife if she had a British passport

The Thai lady rumour mill or your wife is confused and most likely referring to maintaining PR in a country versus citizenship, not the same thing

Once you are a naturalised British Citizen, with UK citizenship and Passport, not Overseas Territories or whatever, you have the same status as a UK born British Citizen. Presumably she has a passport with biometric data that expires in 10 years or so? I wonder what route you went down to achieve this? There are residence requirements to become a British Citizen; but once you have fulfilled those and have citizenship and a passport they no longer apply. Anyway If that is the case she can live and travel wherever that is permitted for as long as she wants. All this not to be confused with renewing Leave To Remain in the UK, which does require that you actually live in the UK for the stipulated number of days so that P/FLR can be renewed. There is a huge amount of b****etc believed by Thais of what you have to do and can do. Most of the requirements are nowadays pretty clearly set out in gov.uk material. Of course there are grey areas. Don't think this is one of them. Does she have a Thai Passport also? Is she even Thai. Not sure from your avatar where you are from

Your wife has been misinformed. Don't tell her that though. Instead pack her off on a round trip to the UK once a year to bring back 30kg of life's little luxuries.

And a key selling point for this course of action, of course, is that every 10th year she will be able to renew her passport in a relatively convenient fashion while in the UK, instead of having to submit herself to the rigours of the dreaded "With-It Tower Passport Renewal Experience"!

Still banging that old gong are we? There's absolutely NOTHING rigorous or dreadful about the UK passport renewal process and it hasn't been a challenge for well over a year already. The usual doom and gloom merchants forecasting a repeat of the UK passport office meltdown of the summer of 2014 were proven wrong last year and most of those have wisely pulled their heads in.

Let it go.

And it's Trendy btw. Apart from showing your age, all you're doing by calling it what you want is causing confusion.

Your wife has been misinformed. Don't tell her that though. Instead pack her off on a round trip to the UK once a year to bring back 30kg of life's little luxuries.

And a key selling point for this course of action, of course, is that every 10th year she will be able to renew her passport in a relatively convenient fashion while in the UK, instead of having to submit herself to the rigours of the dreaded "With-It Tower Passport Renewal Experience"!

Still banging that old gong are we? There's absolutely NOTHING rigorous or dreadful about the UK passport renewal process and it hasn't been a challenge for well over a year already. The usual doom and gloom merchants forecasting a repeat of the UK passport office meltdown of the summer of 2014 were proven wrong last year and most of those have wisely pulled their heads in.

Let it go.

And it's Trendy btw. Apart from showing your age, all you're doing by calling it what you want is causing confusion.

To be fair to VFS, the agents, I've completed 2 applications for UK passports in the last 12 months and both times I've had a good experience.

Passports delivered in about 2 weeks, both times.

The experiences of others may differ, but that's my experience.

My wife, who is Thai renewed her 10 year UK Passport last year.

We haven't been back to the UK since we left in 2007.

Easy and surprisingl quick to renew. Dealing with Trendy absolutely fine.

You lot on here always make me laugh.

My wife lived with me in the uk until last year for 9 years and went through all the crap to enable her to get her passport.

Then we left.

Thanks for all your replies

OP as a British citizen do you have to return to the UK every 2 years...think carefully before you answer and the answer is the same for your wife if she had a British passport

The Thai lady rumour mill or your wife is confused and most likely referring to maintaining PR in a country versus citizenship, not the same thing

The second paragraph is correct.

However, the notion pooh-poohed in the first paragraph is not absurd. Let me quote a paragraph from Wikipedia:

Since 1 April 2003, following an amendment to the Netherlands Nationality Act of 1985, Dutch subjects with dual nationality will lose their Dutch citizenship if they hold a foreign citizenship and reside outside the Kingdom of the Netherlands or the European Union for ten years.

Britain has had laws like that for naturalised citizens, though back in the days when a woman's British nationality depended on her husband's.

Since 1 April 2003, following an amendment to the Netherlands Nationality Act of 1985, Dutch subjects with dual nationality will lose their Dutch citizenship if they hold a foreign citizenship and reside outside the Kingdom of the Netherlands or the European Union for ten years.

Britain has had laws like that for naturalised citizens, though back in the days when a woman's British nationality depended on her husband's.

Indeed, without fresh legislation, primary or secondary, wives in the situation of the OP's wife but naturalised from late 2017 (more likely 2018) onwards could start to lose their British nationality for living outside the UK. The mechanism would be as follows:

• ILR achieved as a wife is achieved under the condition that "the applicant and their partner must intend to live together permanently in the UK" (Immigration Rule E-LTRP.1.10, applicable to the 5- and 10-year routes.)
• British nationality is granted on the basis of that ILR.
• Husband and wife depart to Thailand.
• Home Secretary deduces that this was their plan all along - live in the UK long enough to get British nationality, and then retire to Thailand while retaining the right to come to the UK.
• ILR was therefore achieved by misrepresentation - either fraud or concealment of a material fact, and therefore the wife is deprived of British nationality.

The only weak point in that chain is the deduction that the original plan was to leave the UK.

Oh i see, we didn`t actually plan for it to happen like that but it just did. With visas to visit the UK becoming harder to obatain we didn`t want to run the risk of Thailand not working out and then me having to return and start the whole process again, would have been a disaster, especially with a 6 yr old and newborn girls thrown into the equation.

We will no doubt visit the UK within the 10 yrs anyway, she used it to enter and exit Japan which worked well

There are always rumours of law change etc everywhwere, I ignore most but check some.