British Passport Renewals Now Available in Northern Thailand

CHIANG MAI – British citizens living in Northern Thailand can now opt to renew their passports at the UK Visa Application Centre in Chiang Mai.

A Centre, managed by VFS Global in partnership with the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, is located at 191 Siripanich Building, 6th Floor, Huay Kaew Road, Suthep, Mueng Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The passport renewal service was introduced in Chiang Mai to cater to large number of British nationals living in the northern region of Thailand.

VFS Global processes approximately 5,000 passport renewal requests every year, with a steady growth observed in recent years. A dedicated email id and helpline number are in place to address the queries of applicants in Chiang Mai.

British nationals who have questions around the renewal their passports can either call the helpline number +44 (0) 300 222 0000 or reach out via email addressed to HMPO.CM@vfshelpline.com for appointment booking.

Usually, an application takes four weeks from the time it is received by Her Majesty’s Passport Office in the UK. In case an applicant needs to travel while this renewal is underway, an application for emergency travel document needs to be made.

The 34-page standard passport will cost an applicant £118.51 while the jumbo 50-page passport costs £128.51 (passport and courier fee included).

To book a passport renewal submission appointment, applicants need to send email to (HMPO.CM@vfshelpline.com) by mentioning their first and last names along with 3 alternative dates and times and received the confirmation mail. Once the passport renewal is completed, applicants are informed that passport will be delivered to the UK Visa Application Centre, from where they can collect it in person.

Commenting on the launch, Ben Svasti, British Honorary Consul, Chiang Mai said “We are glad to introduce the second passport renewal facility for the British passport holders in Thailand in association with VFS Global at the current state of the art UK Visa Application Centre, Chiang Mai. Many British nationals have retired in Chiang Mai and surrounding provinces and this new passport facility will make life much easier for them when they need to renew their passports”.

Added, Jiten Vyas, Regional Group COO, VFS Global, ” We are pleased to further strengthen our partnership with the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office in Thailand by introducing a second facility for passport renewals of British nationals. We believe the facility will bring a greater convenience to the British residents in the northern parts of the country.”

VFS Global shares a long-standing association with UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) since 2003 and currently serves the client government in 57 countries through a network of 136 Centres for visa, information as well as identity and citizen services. The company has been servicing the client government of UK in Thailand since 2006 in both Bangkok and Chiang Mai at present. Besides serving the applicants who seek a UK visa through its visa application centres in the country, VFS Global also introduced the Mobile Visa Application Centre for the UK visa applicants in April 2018.

Key features of the centre will include:

Quick appointment availability and faster turnaround times for receipt of processed documentation
Dedicated email to answer queries from applicants

About VFS Global

VFS Global is the world’s largest outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions worldwide. VFS Global, has Swiss parentage and is a portfolio company of EQT, a leading global private equity firm headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. With 3070 Application Centres, operations in 147 countries across five continents and over 199 million applications processed as on 30 April 2019, VFS Global is the trusted partner of 63 client governments.

Source: CityNews