Thai police check from overseas - need help with confusing details

[usherer]

My Thai partner and I are trying to get our police checks from Australia where we want to get PR.

 

The information by all embassies and the Thai police check website, and experiences by people, all conflict each other. Would like to hear more anecdotal evidence, hopefully by people who have successfully gotten their police checks from overseas.

 

1. Do we need a letter from the Australian immigration office? 

The Thai police website (English version) - said we need 'a letter' (sounds like one we can write), or we can simply fill in a request form template. (Same goes for most Thai embassy and official foreign immigration websites)

The Thai police website (Thai version) - said we need a letter from the immigration office.

The NZ immigration website said, applicants in Thailand need it. It had the same wording as in the first example - need a 'letter' or request form template.

One person in a forum who applied years ago said his wife needed a letter from the Oz immigration office.

 

2. "Passport-styled photos" - 1"x 2"? 2" x 2"? Or Thai size?
Most websites said " 1 or 2 inches passport size" without indicating width or length. 
Thai passport photos by 35mm x 45mm - neither  1 nor 2 inches.

Been searching for weeks - including asking the consulate which didn't know a thing, then called the embassy in Canberra who gave wrong information (most info conflicted every piece of info we've found). 

Would be very appreciate for anyone who can offer clues.
We don't want to risk sending all our docs only to be told we're missing a letter or photos. But then, really wondering if anyone at the police station would know any better since it's all so confusing!

[ubonjoe]

1. You need a request or such for it from Australian immigration. 

2. They mean either a 1" X 1" or a 2" X 2". Passport size photos are traditionally 2" X 2".

Have you looked at this from the Police Clearance website. It is in Thai and English. http://pcscenter.sb.police.go.th/filedownload/infomation.pdf

[usherer]

52 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

1. You need a request or such for it from Australian immigration. 

2. They mean either a 1" X 1" or a 2" X 2". Passport size photos are traditionally 2" X 2".

Have you looked at this from the Police Clearance website. It is in Thai and English. http://pcscenter.sb.police.go.th/filedownload/infomation.pdf

 

@ubonjoe, yep, that's the "Thai police website" I had quoted. 

2" x 2" isn't standard Thai size. Source: my partner's own passport! (Oddly, when I took passport photos in Thailand, I was given photos of such size as one of the many sizes they gave me)

[Thaibrisbane]

There are 2 options to get a Thai police clearance certificate when you are overseas; 

 

1. Normal process: Use the link provided by ubonjoe.    http://pcscenter.sb.police.go.th/filedownload/infomation.pdf  The processing time is about 4-6 weeks. But there is no guarantee that you will receive the certificate. I heard many people complained about missing documents. The advantage of this option is only the 100 bath fee.   

 

2. Express process: This service is provided by an outsource company, named  a-plusservice. Here is the link from the Thai Police Clearance Centre about the outsource details: http://pcscenter.sb.police.go.th/news-detail.php?newskey=18  Then click to their website www.a-plusservice.com There is only 1 approved outsource company . The other agents are fake. The advantage of using their service is i) There is no need to send documents by mail. You can scan all documents and send them to their email.(For Thai citizen only / If you are Non Thai citizen, you have to post all documents to them)  ii) No need for a letter from an immigration office. iii) No need to go a local police station to have a finger print taken. (For Thai only  / If you are non Thai citizen you have to have it taken at a local police  stationor a Thai Embassy) For Thai, you can do it by yourself at home by using black ink and then stamp your fingerprints on to their template. Then scan it. iii) The process takes about 2 weeks in total including posting time to your overseas home by FedEx service with tracking number. However, the disadvantage is that it is  much more expensive. It costs 4,000 bath for the Fee and 2,500 bath for delivery by FedEx.

 

I used option 2 when I applied for my partner visa 2 years ago in Australia (I saw the recommendation on the Thai Embassy website in Australia) and I remember it cost me 3,500 bath. It took about 10 days to receive the certificate at my home in Australia delivered by FedEx.  I guess it is more popular now so they have increased their service fee.  Don't ask me why it is more expensive. I guess we all know. Lol

Edited November 2, 2016 by Thaibrisbane

[Thaibrisbane]

55 minutes ago, Thaibrisbane said:

There are 2 options to get a Thai police clearance certificate when you are overseas; 

 

1. Normal process: Use the link provided by ubonjoe.    http://pcscenter.sb.police.go.th/filedownload/infomation.pdf  The processing time is about 4-6 weeks. But there is no guarantee that you will receive the certificate. I heard many people complained about missing documents. The advantage of this option is only the 100 bath fee.   

 

2. Express process: This service is provided by an outsource company, named  a-plusservice. Here is the link from the Thai Police Clearance Centre about the outsource details: http://pcscenter.sb.police.go.th/news-detail.php?newskey=18  Then click to their website www.a-plusservice.com There is only 1 approved outsource company . The other agents are fake. The advantage of using their service is i) There is no need to send documents by mail. You can scan all documents and send them to their email.(For Thai citizen only / If you are Non Thai citizen, you have to post all documents to them)  ii) No need for a letter from an immigration office. iii) No need to go a local police station to have a finger print taken. (For Thai only  / If you are non Thai citizen you have to have it taken at a local police  stationor a Thai Embassy) For Thai, you can do it by yourself at home by using black ink and then stamp your fingerprints on to their template. Then scan it. iii) The process takes about 2 weeks in total including posting time to your overseas home by FedEx service with tracking number. However, the disadvantage is that it is  much more expensive. It costs 4,000 bath for the Fee and 2,500 bath for delivery by FedEx.

 

I used option 2 when I applied for my partner visa 2 years ago in Australia (I saw the recommendation on the Thai Embassy website in Australia) and I remember it cost me 3,500 bath. It took about 10 days to receive the certificate at my home in Australia delivered by FedEx.  I guess it is more popular now so they have increased their service fee.  Don't ask me why it is more expensive. I guess we all know. Lol

 

Adding for the express process:  at ii) No need for a letter from an immigration office is only for Thai application only. For non Thai application you can use a certified copy of the latest stamped page of the Thai visa or working document permit in Thailand or a letter from an Embassy/Immigration that you are applying/processing a visa.

Note: Preparing documents for Thai and non Thai citizen are quite different.  I noticed that Thai and English information do not match each other that may be the reason why people gave you different information.  I recommend your Thai partner to read a Thai version and you read an English version for the document preparation.

Edited November 2, 2016 by Thaibrisbane

[usherer]

@Thaibrisbane
Thanks for your detailed reply!

Quote

“But there is no guarantee that you will receive the certificate. I heard many people complained about missing documents”

We’ve also heard that it takes longer than if we visit the station ourselves. That’s out for us, as we can’t afford travelling from Oz right now.

On A Plus Service – Very usefulto hear this. It provides a glimmer of hope, although I myself would still have to go through the whole process.

Two weeks to process and receive!! Far out. Seems worth it considering the usual length of time is 2 months, not to mention we’ll have to pay for FedEx/international reply coupons etc, and what if certs go missing.

Quote

“Note: Preparing documents for Thai and non Thai citizen are quite different. ”

Yes, we read the Thai and Eng versions of the same documents to make sure we were clear..It only made us as clear as mud. E.g. The Thai version for non-Thai citizen states I need a letter from the Immigration authorities, whereas the Eng version states I need ‘a letter’ (which could go either way – penned by myself or the authorities- maybe some Oz authority? Not just Immigration?)/application template. 

Also, the Thai Consulate in Adelaide rang up the embassy (I think?) in Canberra which told her that Thais do not need to provide military service documentation/household registration cert, and that 'all ‘certified copies’ must be certified by the Consulate' – which would be AUD$25 per doc! So it wasn’t just about ‘lost in translation’ but every official touchpoint we reached is really providing different versions of reality.