Thailand Visa question No. 240/23: New passport, what to do?

Questioner: Martin

My passport expires next year and I have to renew it at the embassy. But what happens to my retirement visas? I thought I once read that the embassy sent a letter to immigration with the request to transfer the visa to your new pass. But does that still happen or do you have to go to immigration with your old and new pass?

Anyone know how this goes?

Reaction RonnyLatYa

1. You cannot renew your passport. You just request a new one. Previously, the embassy included a letter confirming that the new passport replaces the old one, but normally that is no longer necessary and I don't know if they still do that. You can always ask, of course. Your residence details in the old passport remain valid as long as they have not been transferred to the new passport. That is why the embassy is not allowed to destroy that data when you apply for a new passport, but normally they know that.

2. Once you have the new passport, go to immigration with the old and new passports and ask to have the data transferred from the old to the new passport. You have to do that yourself and the embassy will not intervene. There is a form for that.

“Transfer stamp to new passport form” https://www.immigration.go.th/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/22.Transfer-Stamp-to-New-Passport-Form.pdf

Once that has happened, you no longer need the old one and you can continue with everything with the new passport.

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