new passport - swapping current visa help?

[cyber_surfer]

Hi Guys,

my passport was full had to send it away for a replacement, go it back today but have to be out of the country before 23rd, B visa also runs out on 6th June.

As today is public holiday no immigration open so i must go first thing in the morning..........

Being a new passport number i have to swap over the Visas..........Anyone done this process and know how long it takes if i bring my departure card, old passport and new passport will it be done on the spot or will it take a few days?

I need to book flights (preffereably for 21st) so i can get the B visa application in before the weekend and get back.

Any help appreciated with the visa swap process, any strange papers i will be asked for?

If it will take longer than one day i think the only other option is overstaying and leaving next monday, as i believe Thai embassy is shut saturdays???

Dont want to be stuck in KL for 5 days for nothing, preferrable itinerary would be.........

Tuesday 20th (tomorrow) - Phuket immigration early for visa swap over
Wednesday 21st - Fly to KL
Thursday 22nd - lodge B visa application in KL Thai Embassy
Friday 23rd - collect B visa from embassy, fly out to phuket in the arvo

Is this realistic or am i dreaming at things going so smoothly?

Thanks guys

[Simbo]

Silly question but have they cancelled your old passport- if not why tx visa for the sake of a day? As you are getting a new visa anyway it seems a waste of time. Also if you do want to swap are you sure you can do it in Phuket- as far as I am aware it can only be done in Bkk, a daunting prospect but once you are through the queue it is fairly straight forward. Timings at KL seem OK, but bear in mind you cannot normally collect PPorts til the next day at 1130, still gives you time to make the afternoon Air Asia flight even with the skybus but not a lot of leeway.

[Dodger]

My old passport ran out and my visa was still current, I applied for and got a new passport and they gave me back my old passport with the corner cut off. When I went on a visa run to Cambodia I just took the two passports. Thai immigration had a little problem and it needed a senior officer, who then passed it to an even more senior officer, who then proceeded to stamp my old passport with 200 hundred differing stamps and also my new passport (okay not quite 200 but a lot). I had already been to Cambodia immigration or whatever to get the Cambo Visa, but they put that in my old passport and this caused problems entering and then leaving Cambo, because they wanted the cambo visa thingy in my new passport. Some Cambo police officer drove back into Thailand for me and got another one put in my new passport. Entered Thailand again, all this done in the same day, and a whole load more stamps going all over the two passports.

So after that long winded story, my conclusion is take both and no problems just a lot of stamping stuff to endure.

[Simbo]

Based on what Dodger has said if you got your passport back without the corner chopped it may not be an issue. You leave on one passport and return on the other. Stating the obvious but make sure you enter Malaysia on the New One!! As you are getting your new visa in your new visa I can't forsee any probs. I left Thailand on the UK one, entered malaysia on the Canadian one- no probs. Either way it would be nice to read how you got on as a future reference.

[cyber_surfer]

so i took the safe route and decided to go to Phuket immigration yesterday, they told me dont worry just go the airport with both and you will be fine.

Went to airport today, got to immigration and WAAAAHAAY, took them 2 minutes, looked at the old passport, stamped the new passport with the departure stamp then under the stamp wrote in my old passport number......that was it! all that worry for nothing

Now in the Reggae Bar, Chinatown, KL enjoying a beer (happy hour so only 100 baht for a tiger)

next hurdle is the B visa tomorrow morning, was told also to show both to the embassy as they will reference the history of B visas on the old and HOPEFULLY issue me the multiple B for a year as usual!

hope this helps anyone else in the same siutuation.

[TanMan]

I don't know what country you are from, but wouldn't it have been a much simpler process to just add blank pages to your existing passport? Or, was it about to expire soon? As a US passport holder, that's the route I would have pursued...

[Simbo]

Steve you may find under the new rules that most countries no longer issue extra pages as a certain country which dictates what is an acceptable form of passport will not recognise them- they may however continue to issue extra pages themselves and expect the rest of the world to honour them! Not exactly sure on this so hope others don't bite my head off.

[cyber_surfer]

just knew this was all too good to be true!

went to the embassy just now, everything hunky dory, papers all there, pictures, work permit THE LOT!

just about to pay my fee and she tells me i cant have a Multiple B this time just a 3 month single entry, i insisted to know why and showed her my passport (old one) with 5 years of consecutive B visas all Multiple entry.

she said now i must go to the Labour office and get them to sign below my last stamp that i am eligible for another 1 year renewal, they are saying the "work period" must be confirmed by the labour office prior to application AND only on the most recent stamp.

DAMN DAMN DAMN! fecking wasted trip, this means i gotta go back with a 3 month, renew work permit and get this stamp, then return immediately to do yet ANOTHER B visa...............really angers me how hard they make it, i actually do pay my taxes and employ 10+ Thai staff, all above board....then this happens.

Funniest thing about it all is my mate just got a letter headed paper sent to Hull consulate UK, they handed him a multiple entry B in one day, no papers needed only an acceptance letter!

I might consider hull next trip, would end up costing the same as these 2 trips combined.

rant over!

[Simbo]

In agreement with you on that. Thought I'd do the easy route by posting passport back to UK, the time I hung around in KL wiating for it to come back I may as well have gone back and picked some stuff up. Tis amazing everytime things seem OK they throw up another hurdle.

[Dodger]

I am popping back to UK next month to get new 'B' visa, flights are costing 41,000bht but I thought in the end, can see my mum, sister and friends, guaranteed visa from Hull, already had email confirmation.

I considered popping over to KL and sending to England and return, but every courier company I looked at couldn't confirm amount of days and I reckoned on 10 to 14 by the time I'd factored in weekends and re-posting from my uk home address etc, so thought, not saving much money by not going and takes a lot less time.

Funny thing is, I really do not want to go back to UK, even for this short trip, but perhaps when you are not looking forward to something it actually turns out better than you expected??

[cyber_surfer]

definately considering the HULL option, 41k aint that bad, if i work out my time off work for this trip and the next to come, flights, hotel, beer & food, i may not be that far off that mark

i just dont get how one embassy can differ to the next, should there not be set rules across the board to make it easier.............then again nothing is easy in this country apart from the obvious.

[LivinLOS]

Originally Posted by TanMan

I don't know what country you are from, but wouldn't it have been a much simpler process to just add blank pages to your existing passport? Or, was it about to expire soon? As a US passport holder, that's the route I would have pursued...

We cant just add pages to a UK passport.. Never have been able to for as long as I have been getting them. I think its purely a US centric thing.

[LivinLOS]

Originally Posted by cyber_surfer

just knew this was all too good to be true!

went to the embassy just now, everything hunky dory, papers all there, pictures, work permit THE LOT!

just about to pay my fee and she tells me i cant have a Multiple B this time just a 3 month single entry, i insisted to know why and showed her my passport (old one) with 5 years of consecutive B visas all Multiple entry.

she said now i must go to the Labour office and get them to sign below my last stamp that i am eligible for another 1 year renewal, they are saying the "work period" must be confirmed by the labour office prior to application AND only on the most recent stamp.

DAMN DAMN DAMN! fecking wasted trip, this means i gotta go back with a 3 month, renew work permit and get this stamp, then return immediately to do yet ANOTHER B visa...............really angers me how hard they make it, i actually do pay my taxes and employ 10+ Thai staff, all above board....then this happens.

Funniest thing about it all is my mate just got a letter headed paper sent to Hull consulate UK, they handed him a multiple entry B in one day, no papers needed only an acceptance letter!

I might consider hull next trip, would end up costing the same as these 2 trips combined.

rant over!

If you would have asked we could have confirmed.. Getting the 1 year multiples in south east asia is a lot more complex in the last year..

[LivinLOS]

Originally Posted by cyber_surfer

definately considering the HULL option, 41k aint that bad, if i work out my time off work for this trip and the next to come, flights, hotel, beer & food, i may not be that far off that mark

i just dont get how one embassy can differ to the next, should there not be set rules across the board to make it easier.............then again nothing is easy in this country apart from the obvious.

Hull breaks the rules and is a known soft touch.. The embassys and consuls in the local SE Asian areas obviously get many more visa running type applicants not returning to home country and are that much tighter (actually tighter than the rules in some cases)..

What I do is have 2 passports and mail one while on vacation.. Means I got a few weeks / 1 month vacation and just dont need to either go to UK or worry too much.

[Nicke]

Thanks for the heads up! I hate those surprise changes that you are not prepared for. I had the same problem last year when they suddenly required work period to be 1 year in work permit and I had to change that and then go back to KL embassy 3 months later to apply again.

Thanks to your post now I will prepare for the new requirements also, but sounds a lot more hassle than it used to be.

Originally Posted by cyber_surfer

just knew this was all too good to be true!

went to the embassy just now, everything hunky dory, papers all there, pictures, work permit THE LOT!

just about to pay my fee and she tells me i cant have a Multiple B this time just a 3 month single entry, i insisted to know why and showed her my passport (old one) with 5 years of consecutive B visas all Multiple entry.

she said now i must go to the Labour office and get them to sign below my last stamp that i am eligible for another 1 year renewal, they are saying the "work period" must be confirmed by the labour office prior to application AND only on the most recent stamp.

DAMN DAMN DAMN! fecking wasted trip, this means i gotta go back with a 3 month, renew work permit and get this stamp, then return immediately to do yet ANOTHER B visa...............really angers me how hard they make it, i actually do pay my taxes and employ 10+ Thai staff, all above board....then this happens.

Funniest thing about it all is my mate just got a letter headed paper sent to Hull consulate UK, they handed him a multiple entry B in one day, no papers needed only an acceptance letter!

I might consider hull next trip, would end up costing the same as these 2 trips combined.

rant over!

[Nicke]

Its still little bit unclear; work permit also have a work period column, so labour office still have to confirm that every time you apply for a new visa, by a written statement under your last visa stamp?

I hope labour office is aware of what they have to do on their part on request.

Looks like they want people to use visa extensions in Thailand and make it more difficult to get one year visas outside Thailand.

[Geir]

Originally Posted by LivinLOS

We cant just add pages to a UK passport.. Never have been able to for as long as I have been getting them. I think its purely a US centric thing.

I know we can add pages in Norwegian ones............Before it could be done in Phuket, but I think we need to go to the Norwegian Embassy in BKK now.....

[TanMan]

Originally Posted by cyber_surfer

i just dont get how one embassy can differ to the next, should there not be set rules across the board to make it easier.............then again nothing is easy in this country apart from the obvious.

There IS "set" rules across the board... It's the interpretation of that "set" that makes life hard sometimes...

[sishow]

Originally Posted by Dodger

I am popping back to UK next month to get new 'B' visa, flights are costing 41,000bht but I thought in the end, can see my mum, sister and friends, guaranteed visa from Hull, already had email confirmation.

I considered popping over to KL and sending to England and return, but every courier company I looked at couldn't confirm amount of days and I reckoned on 10 to 14 by the time I'd factored in weekends and re-posting from my uk home address etc, so thought, not saving much money by not going and takes a lot less time.

Funny thing is, I really do not want to go back to UK, even for this short trip, but perhaps when you are not looking forward to something it actually turns out better than you expected??

If you are near me, arrange to meet me so that you can cancel it again! 55555555555

Hope that it all goes well B.

[Nicke]

I still hear people get declined 1 year B visas in KL, anyone with more details and what they require now to give you a multiple entry visa?

One of my friends go tomorrow and we will see how that turns out.