UK passport renewal

[jwest10]

On 24/3/2560 at 9:48 AM, petermik said:

I applied for my replacement (expired) passport at the Trendy building on 21st february I received a call on the 10th of this month my new passport was ready to be collected,I went up to BKK yesterday to collect,simple/straightforward and very efficient

 

Just to clarify and yes one needs to have an appointment at Trendy, but you can have your new passport delivered to your home via EMS, but you must advise them when you go down and think there is tick on a form or similar.

[pontious]

1 hour ago, jwest10 said:

Just to clarify and yes one needs to have an appointment at Trendy, but you can have your new passport delivered to your home via EMS, but you must advise them when you go down and think there is tick on a form or similar.

Not correct - it has to be collected by a 'person'.

[sjbrownderby]

16 hours ago, Anon999 said:

The Visa company must be misreading the site.

I suspect the visa company got caught out not checking that photos conform (or not) to the standard required before submitting on behalf of clients and used this to say that the rules changed regarding photos in order to save face. He clearly stated to me that the reason was due to new biometric passport requirements. I did check this with the UK passport office and was told that what he said is just not true so it was not just a case of misreading the site. Bear in mind this is a person who does this for a living, who is supposedly a professional.........who regularly advertises the services of this company.

Edited May 10, 2017 by sjbrownderby
Addition

[sjbrownderby]

4 hours ago, pontious said:

Not correct - it has to be collected by a 'person'.

A person in possession of the old passport because it is invalidated by cutting off the corners. 

[sjbrownderby]

On 04/05/2017 at 6:31 AM, sanemax said:

There was recent thread here on TV, where someone contacted the PP office in the UK and they stated that the old PP is only cancelled when the corner is cut off and its still valid for travel  whilst the new application is in process

You are actually talking about two different dates of significance here. The process to issue my new passport, which was applied for in Bangkok, took four days and I collected it 19 days after it was issued. The first date is fixed but the second is not. The application process ends when the new passport is issued and is not dependent on when you decide to pick it up. I did not know the validity date of the passport until I picked it up and I was very surprised to see it took only four days to process. This is why they tell you not to travel once you have applied. 

[MiKT]

3 hours ago, sjbrownderby said:

You are actually talking about two different dates of significance here. The process to issue my new passport, which was applied for in Bangkok, took four days and I collected it 19 days after it was issued. The first date is fixed but the second is not. The application process ends when the new passport is issued and is not dependent on when you decide to pick it up. I did not know the validity date of the passport until I picked it up and I was very surprised to see it took only four days to process. This is why they tell you not to travel once you have applied. 

This sounds correct, but the key question here is if the Thai immigration authorities actually know you have a new passport until you turn up at immigration with it?

 

If, as suspected by many because we have seen no proof otherwise, there is no such thing as a world-wide passport information database; there really seems no reason why you could not use your old passport (if it still appears to be valid date wise) to go out and come back as many times as you want whilst waiting to use your new passport (and some posters have said that it actually has been done).

 

Which means you could use your old passport until you actually pick up your new one, when they will clip the corner of the old one, thus invalidating it.

 

It seems possible that some long time in the future there might be world-wide database, but I don't think so yet. Because who want North Korea/Somalia/ISIS/Russia/US to have a list of all the passports of the citizens from your county?

 

Sorry, delete Russia from that list, they have already hacked your counties passport database and "they know who you are".

 

[Doiger]

16 minutes ago, MiKT said:

This sounds correct, but the key question here is if the Thai immigration authorities actually know you have a new passport until you turn up at immigration with it?

 

If, as suspected by many because we have seen no proof otherwise, there is no such thing as a world-wide passport information database; there really seems no reason why you could not use your old passport (if it still appears to be valid date wise) to go out and come back as many times as you want whilst waiting to use your new passport (and some posters have said that it actually has been done).

 

Which means you could use your old passport until you actually pick up your new one, when they will clip the corner of the old one, thus invalidating it.

 

It seems possible that some long time in the future there might be world-wide database, but I don't think so yet. Because who want North Korea/Somalia/ISIS/Russia/US to have a list of all the passports of the citizens from your county?

 

Sorry, delete Russia from that list, they have already hacked your counties passport database and "they know who you are".

 

In theory you probably could go through borders with your old passport while you are waiting for you new one, however if you did travel and something happened to you, you could find yourself in quite a bit of trouble, for instance, if you got arrested, were in an accident or required assistance from your embassy.

As soon as your application is received in the uk then your current passport is cancelled.

 

[sjbrownderby]

3 hours ago, MiKT said:

Which means you could use your old passport until you actually pick up your new one, when they will clip the corner of the old one, thus invalidating it.

Okay but if you are in Thailand on a long term basis and travelled on a passport through a border after your new passport was issued then it does not take Sherlock Holmes to look at the dates in your old passport compared with the validity dates of your new passport because you have to present both to Thai immigration in order to get your stamp transferred. Even if there is no data base to actually check it you would have presented them with the perfect evidence to show them that you used your old passport after the new one was issued thus giving them a reason to dig further and find that you actually did something legally wrong. Is it really worth the hassle? 

[MiKT]

10 hours ago, sjbrownderby said:

Okay but if you are in Thailand on a long term basis and travelled on a passport through a border after your new passport was issued then it does not take Sherlock Holmes to look at the dates in your old passport compared with the validity dates of your new passport because you have to present both to Thai immigration in order to get your stamp transferred. Even if there is no data base to actually check it you would have presented them with the perfect evidence to show them that you used your old passport after the new one was issued thus giving them a reason to dig further and find that you actually did something legally wrong. Is it really worth the hassle? 

Aha, Sherlock, the question is: "Is it legally wrong in Thailand to be using the old passport when you don't have the new one"?

 

If there is no world-wide database, why should they care and what would they charge you with? Your old passport would be the one which is in the Thai immigration database; and that cannot be updated until you present them with the new one to transfer your chops.

 

You can't really pop into immigration and say "Oh I have just applied for a new UK passport, please remove me from being legally resident in Thailand until I get the new one".

 

This is exactly why Trendy don't clip you old one until you get the new one; you can still legally use it "for identification purposes".............. so you use it to identify yourself to Thai immigration when you go in and out, until you get the new one. That's got to be legal.

 

What about people who have applied for a new passport say from Malaysia and then travel to Thailand for 3 months holiday using their old passport. Nobody will know or stop them entering or leaving Thailand, and when they get back to KL they will still be admitted as KL immigration won't know they have a new one waiting at the Malaysian equivalent of Trendy.

 

All theoretical I know, but how else can it work? Its not just in LOS, but also applies to any other country in the world; except perhaps those whose immigration might be directly linked to UK immigration (if there are any like that) Northern Ireland maybe, but then they would also know that you had been issued a new passport and were just using the old one "for identification purposes" so it would all be legal.

 

The British Passport office cannot stop people from travelling around the rest of the world, whilst they bugger about issuing you with a new passport. I don't even think they could stop you leaving and returning to the UK with your old passport.

 

Get Watson to mull over that for a while.

 

All very 555.

 

 

 

 

 

[sjbrownderby]

23 hours ago, MiKT said:

This is exactly why Trendy don't clip you old one until you get the new one; you can still legally use it "for identification purposes".

So why does the gov.uk website tell you that you should not use the old passport for travel purposes after you have applied for the new one? At some point the old passport is superceded by the new one and when you receive the new one you also receive a letter from the British Embassy asking Thai immigration to transfer your stamp to the new passport. This must be done at your earliest opportunity and when both passports are presented it is possible that if you used your old passport for cross border travel after the new one was issued you would at least give Thai immigration an excuse to delve further. The fact that there is no international database does not mean that the data can not be checked with a phone call or online communication. There must be a mechanism or protocol in place for such enquiries. It is not border immigration officers you need to worry about, it is those in the various immigration offices around the country, the same people that many on this website complain about when things go wrong. Why give them the opportunity to break your day?

[MiKT]

1 hour ago, sjbrownderby said:

So why does the gov.uk website tell you that you should not use the old passport for travel purposes after you have applied for the new one? At some point the old passport is superceded by the new one and when you receive the new one you also receive a letter from the British Embassy asking Thai immigration to transfer your stamp to the new passport. This must be done at your earliest opportunity and when both passports are presented it is possible that if you used your old passport for cross border travel after the new one was issued you would at least give Thai immigration an excuse to delve further. The fact that there is no international database does not mean that the data can not be checked with a phone call or online communication. There must be a mechanism or protocol in place for such enquiries. It is not border immigration officers you need to worry about, it is those in the various immigration offices around the country, the same people that many on this website complain about when things go wrong. Why give them the opportunity to break your day?

You are not assimilating what this particular post has been about;

 

its about travelling in and out of Thailand (or any country) after you have applied for a new UK passport at Trendy (or equivalent in other countries) but before you have received your new one. Please read again.

 

It is of course impossible to travel on your old passport after you get the new one as they cut-the corner off so everybody knows it is invalid.

 

This never happened in the good old days when you applied for you new passport at the Brit Embassy and they kept the old one as you only had to wait a day or so whilst they issued the new one and immediately gave you the old one back with the corner cut-off.

 

The requirement to transfer visa's immediately also seems to be a new thing; if you had valid visa's in your old style blue passport, they cut the corner off the old one and tied the two together with red ribbon (I still have a couple like this) and they were accepted together everywhere for the life of the new passport, even after you had a new visa put in the new passport.

 

When they issued the new red type it was perfectly acceptable to travel with both passports (although not tied together - but the old one with the corner cut-off) and only stop using the old one when you next went to immigration to renew your visa and they put the visa chop in the new one; this could be months after the new passport was issued.

 

I myself have travelled to/from Los with blue, linked pairs of blue, linked pairs of blue and a new red (Burgundy)passport, and with old and new red passports together and never had any problems here or in the countries I was visiting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 12, 2017 by MiKT

[gandalf12]

On 3/20/2017 at 0:35 PM, MiKT said:

 

Sorry but you are totally misinformed.

 

You CANNOT renew a British Passport at the Embassy anymore. As I said they stopped this 5/6 years ago. I know because I last renewed my passport in October 2012 and had to send it to HK. Unfortunately the 32 pages are already filled-up and now I must get a new one, so I have checked the British Embassy website several time lately to be sure of what to do now.

 

Pick-up the phone an call the embassy before you waste time and money going to Bangkok and go to this website for renewal of British passport if you are overseas:-https://www.gov.uk/overseas-passports

 

to contact the

British Embassy Bangkok

Email[email protected]

Telephone +66 (0) 2 305 8333

Fax +66 (0) 2 255 9278

 

Do NOT believe anyone who says you can renew your passport in Bangkok.

I renewed mine last year in Bangkok. The Embassy doesnt do it but they have a passport office in Soi 13 (cant remember the mall complex it is in) off Sukhumvit. It is, or was if things have changed, on the 22 or 23rd floor.

[Nong Khai Man]

19 minutes ago, gandalf12 said:

I renewed mine last year in Bangkok. The Embassy doesnt do it but they have a passport office in Soi 13 (cant remember the mall complex it is in) off Sukhumvit. It is, or was if things have changed, on the 22 or 23rd floor.

It's In The " Trendy " Building in Soi 13 Sukumvit,THIS Is the ONLY Place where you can apply to RENEW Your'e BRITISH Passport & You DO Need to have An Appointment....Can't Write it any CLEARER Than that......

[gandalf12]

10 minutes ago, Nong Khai Man said:

It's In The " Trendy " Building in Soi 13 Sukumvit,THIS Is the ONLY Place where you can apply to RENEW Your'e BRITISH Passport & You DO Need to have An Appointment....Can't Write it any CLEARER Than that......

That is the one. Thanks for reminding me. Yes you do  need an appointment as well.

[YetAnother]

the UK reduced it's presence in c mai years ago; it is now just a shadow spot for information only

[Nong Khai Man]

1 minute ago, gandalf12 said:

That is the one. Thanks for reminding me. Yes you do  need an appointment as well.

I'm Happy to Clear that up for YOU & Any other DOUBTERS,I've got MY Appointment in July....Already Booked....

[gandalf12]

6 minutes ago, Nong Khai Man said:

I'm Happy to Clear that up for YOU & Any other DOUBTERS,I've got MY Appointment in July....Already Booked....

I did it April last year. Not the same as when the Embassy did them but was not a problem

[sjbrownderby]

 

1 hour ago, MiKT said:

You are not assimilating what this particular post has been about;

 

its about travelling in and out of Thailand (or any country) after you have applied for a new UK passport at Trendy (or equivalent in other countries) but before you have received your new one. Please read again.

You are a little confused. The post was originally about applying for a new British passport and the rules surrounding the submission of photographs..................that is until someone suggested (bogus information) that a trip to Bangkok was not neccessary as you could get a new British passport online. After that the post went a bit off track and someone suggested that despite advice to the contrary it was okay to travel across borders before you actually had you new passport in your possession. 

[MiKT]

2 hours ago, sjbrownderby said:

 

You are a little confused. The post was originally about applying for a new British passport and the rules surrounding the submission of photographs..................that is until someone suggested (bogus information) that a trip to Bangkok was not neccessary as you could get a new British passport online. After that the post went a bit off track and someone suggested that despite advice to the contrary it was okay to travel across borders before you actually had you new passport in your possession. 

 

Do try to keep up and read all the posts before you criticize. You replied incorrectly to my specific post that was about traveling whilst waiting for your passport to come back from the UK which carried on from other posts. This is not off track at all, its a legitimate a part of this long running thread.

 

If you don't think its part of the thread, why did you bother to reply (inaccurately to my post). You could have written to the mods and had all the posts about this issue removed.

 

 

 

[evadgib]

5 hours ago, YetAnother said:

the UK reduced it's presence in c mai years ago; it is now just a shadow spot for information only

Going digital was a step up not a step down.

All the public has to do is get used to it.

The only thing I don't like or fully understand is why passports in Thailand require a trip to bkk yet Brits in Malaysia etc can apply for renewals without leaving home.

 

 

[Upnotover]

22 minutes ago, evadgib said:

Going digital was a step up not a step down.

All the public has to do is get used to it.

The only thing I don't like or fully understand is why passports in Thailand require a trip to bkk yet Brits in Malaysia etc can apply for renewals without leaving home.

 

 

Because from Malaysia you have to send your current passport with the application.

[MiKT]

21 minutes ago, evadgib said:

Going digital was a step up not a step down.

All the public has to do is get used to it.

The only thing I don't like or fully understand is why passports in Thailand require a trip to bkk yet Brits in Malaysia etc can apply for renewals without leaving home.

 

 

Yes, its a bum, but I think that it is the same in several countries where they have agencies like Trendy..............and that's a bad trend.

[evadgib]

9 minutes ago, Upnotover said:

Because from Malaysia you have to send your current passport with the application.

Yeah, I forgot about that but it's been a while since i looked it up 

[Eff1n2ret]

35 minutes ago, evadgib said:

 

The only thing I don't like or fully understand is why passports in Thailand require a trip to bkk yet Brits in Malaysia etc can apply for renewals without leaving home.

 

 

Good question - I had a little root around the passport office website and found this:-

 

"Methods of posting/delivery used for Overseas mail/passports

From 3 December 2012, in phased approach, the majority of overseas customers will send their applications directly to HM Passport Office in the UK for processing and their supporting documents and passports will be returned directly back to the customer.  There will be some overseas locations where there are issues of fraud, security, payment issues or prohibitive local laws on the transfer to identity documents over borders, which will mean that customers will need to use local services provided by the FCO network on a contractual basis, to both apply for their passports and receive their documents back"

 

That's from this document:- https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/496333/Posting_Passports_and_Documents_-_redaction_-_final__clean_.pdf

 

So either they think there's a far higher risk of fraud than in Malaysia, or maybe it's simply a question of numbers. The UK High Commission website in Kuala Lumpur estimates 16000 Brits resident in Malaysia, which is far lower than here, so it's not commercially attractive to any organisation to run a similar operation as at Trendy.

[sjbrownderby]

On 11/05/2017 at 4:06 AM, MiKT said:

Aha, Sherlock, the question is: "Is it legally wrong in Thailand to be using the old passport when you don't have the new one"?

....But we weren't talking about using your old passport in Thailand whilst waiting for the new one. We were talking about using the passport to go outside of Thailand i.e using it to enter another country and then to re-enter Thailand. With some visas a re-entry permit is required but if you had applied for a new passport you would not know when the new one was issued. It would not be enough to say that you were waiting for the new one if you got caught out, particularly if you had applied for the re-entry permit after the new passport had been issued. When you go to immigration to have the stamp, visa and departure card transferred all of the relevent dates would be plain to see in both passports. What you may have done in the past has no bearing on what is acceptable now because the rules have changed. 

[MiKT]

1 hour ago, sjbrownderby said:

....But we weren't talking about using your old passport in Thailand whilst waiting for the new one. We were talking about using the passport to go outside of Thailand i.e using it to enter another country and then to re-enter Thailand. With some visas a re-entry permit is required but if you had applied for a new passport you would not know when the new one was issued. It would not be enough to say that you were waiting for the new one if you got caught out, particularly if you had applied for the re-entry permit after the new passport had been issued. When you go to immigration to have the stamp, visa and departure card transferred all of the relevent dates would be plain to see in both passports. What you may have done in the past has no bearing on what is acceptable now because the rules have changed. 

1. You still are not reading what was wrote.

2. Which rules have changed and since when? 

3. If they "caught you out" as you put it, what would they do? Quote real Thai immigration rules please, not some fancy of yours because you have had problems with immigration in the past.

4. You keep talking about being "caught out" because you are still living in a dream world of shared passport information. A statement by UK authorities that you should not use your old passport for travel whilst waiting for the new one has no legal validity in Thailand or anywhere else. In fact when I was in Trendy last week applying for my new passport I specifically asked the girl if it was forbidden to use your old passport for travel in and out of Thailand and she would not specifically state that. Only humming and harring and said you can use it for identification purposes...............see previous posts.

5. In fact it is quite irrelevant when it was issued in the UK its not legal for you to use until you have it in your hot little hands, so the old one is still valid till you get the new one, hence to reiterate, no cropped corner on the old one until you get the new one.

NB there are quite a few Trendies around the world now, its much cheaper than using consular staff at the front end.

 

 

[evadgib]

5 hours ago, Eff1n2ret said:

Good question - I had a little root around the passport office website and found this:-

 

"Methods of posting/delivery used for Overseas mail/passports

From 3 December 2012, in phased approach, the majority of overseas customers will send their applications directly to HM Passport Office in the UK for processing and their supporting documents and passports will be returned directly back to the customer.  There will be some overseas locations where there are issues of fraud, security, payment issues or prohibitive local laws on the transfer to identity documents over borders, which will mean that customers will need to use local services provided by the FCO network on a contractual basis, to both apply for their passports and receive their documents back"

 

That's from this document:- https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/496333/Posting_Passports_and_Documents_-_redaction_-_final__clean_.pdf

 

So either they think there's a far higher risk oflicence than in Malaysia, or maybe it's simply a question of numbers. The UK High Commission website in Kuala Lumpur estimates 16000 Brits resident in Malaysia, which is far lower than here, so it's not commercially attractive to any organisation to run a similar operation as at Trendy.

A Thai driving licence should be more than adequate to serve as temp ID for long term residents awaiting renewal IMO.

 

I have never had a problem in either direction using trackable mail.

 

Edited May 12, 2017 by evadgib

[MiKT]

3 hours ago, evadgib said:

A Thai driving licence should be more than adequate to serve as temp ID for long term residents awaiting renewal IMO.

 

I have never had a problem in either direction using trackable mail.

 

By Thai Law you should have your valid passport with you at all times (although by concession a photocopy can do for streetwise identification) that's why they don't cut the corner off in Trendy, its still valid till its cut and you can't get the new one until you give them to old one to cut  .................so you could still use it to go in and out if you really needed to.

 

Of course if the old one was actually out of date before you got the new one, then you could not use it to travel in and out and if you were stopped by the police and they saw it was out of date, you might have to make a report and take the new one in to show them when you got it; although mostly they would not bother if they understood you were just waiting for a new one and you/your wife/partner spoke enough Thai for them to understand.

 

5 or six years ago, when they stopped issuing passports at the Embassy in Bangkok, you had to send it to HK by secure post/courier; they returned the old and new very quickly but if you had to travel out of Thailand then you had to get a special travel document from the Embassy.

 

Now all passports have to go via Trendy, so trackable mail (eg as used to send to HK) does not come into it any more, unless you are using a UK address, where your application can be dealt with and securely sent via the post office, but somebody needs to be in the UK to do that for you and then send it back here (presumably by trackable mail).

 

Theoretically of course, during the time you were not in possession of a valid passport here you would be breaking Thai law, but they would make a concession if you could prove you had sent for a new one.

 

This is why the current trendy situation suits everyone, you still retain your old passport while you wait for your new one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sjbrownderby]

6 hours ago, MiKT said:

Now all passports have to go via Trendy, so trackable mail (eg as used to send to HK) does not come into it any more, unless you are using a UK address, where your application can be dealt with and securely sent via the post office, but somebody needs to be in the UK to do that for you and then send it back here (presumably by trackable mail).

Trackable mail DOES come into it. Once again you are grossly misinformed. HMPO uses DHL to return your passport to the VFS office in Bangkok, and DHL inform you when your passport is in their trackable system. I received the first communication from DHL on April 9 after my April 3 submission of application. You can follow every stage of the delivery process through their website. Mine went from London, to East Midlands, to Leipzig, to Bangkok, to the local distribution centre, to delivery. The process from application to landing in Bangkok  took 9 days. It arrived in Bangkok on April 12 and for obvious reasons was not delivered to Trendy until April 18. Later on that day I received an email backed up with a phone call telling me that my passport was ready for collection. On receipt I found out that my passport had actually been issued on April 7. By any standards that is a very efficient process.

 You really need to stop spreading false information.

 And..............I have had no problems with immigration in the past so your assertion is incorrect. It may be that in the past you were able to present both passports at the border so they could see you had a valid visa. That is no longer the case. That is what I meant about rule changes. 

 The reason why they would not commit to an answer at the Trendy building is because they did not know. If you passport was still acceptable for travel after you applied for a new one then they would tell you so and the gov.uk website would also state that it was acceptable to use your old passport for cross-border travel. You seem to know better but ehn you knew better when you argued vehemently that you had to apply on line in order to get a new British passport. You also said that anyone who told you that you had to go to Bangkok to get a new passport was wrong. On those points you argued with several people, not just me. You can not put the genie back in the bottle so an apology did little to enhance your credibility. 

 

[evadgib]

My point was that resident applicants subject to 90 day reporting should be able to rely on their Thai DLs and photocopies of their passports for the duration of the renewal process instead of the thousand mile round trip to bkk. A two minute Skype/Wattsapp interview between HMPO in UK and applicants worldwide costs nothing and is entirely within HMGs grasp if necessary, including for proof of life pension ID verification periodically required by DWP/HMRC.

 

How easy would that be and why isn't it happening?

 

 

 

Edited May 13, 2017 by evadgib