Application for a Thai passport

[Bazle 1,583]

In a post on another thread, a BM posted information on how a Thai living in Pattaya could apply for a passport (http://www.pattayatalk.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=53823&view=findpost&p=870098).

 

A passport for a Thai is easy to get in the rear of the Central Plaza building in Bangkok. All she needs is her Thai I.D and THB 1000. After she applies for her passport, she will have to wait 2 days before she can pick it up. She will not have to bring her own passport photos. The Thai passport office will take the picture for her. Tell her to get the Ekamai bus at the Pattaya Nua bus station and the bus driver will drop her of at Central, before the bus gets to Ekamai. When she gets off at Central bus station, there is an overpass, where she can get to the other side of the road, where the Central Plaza building is located. The easiest way to get to the passport office on the ground floor, is to walk through the Tops food court and then through the underground car park. There are also signs pointing her in the right direction, or she can ask one of the many security guards. It is really quite simple.

 

I was in Bangkok with a TG, who I was attempting to help get a passport, so the information re the bus from Pattaya was not relevant. However, I did try to follow the remaining instructions and found I could not. I’m not sure whether the information in the other thread is now out of date or whether I went to the wrong location.

 

After some internet research, I had concluded that the “Central Plaza” referred to was the one shown on my map as being at Lardprao on Phahon Yothin Road. So we were at Phahon Yothin BTS station a little after 9am last Friday. We found the Central Plaza building but couldn’t get into it as it is being redeveloped or demolished.

 

An American guy who we asked for help seemed to be well informed about where we needed to go; he flagged down a number 59 bus for us and said to ask the bus conductor to drop us off at the right place. The bus conductor was not at all helpful but a student-looking Thai girl told us where to get off, but said we’d need to catch a further bus – a number 125. We duly did this, and she caught the bus with us and set us off at the stop.

 

When we got to the stop, she indicated the place she said we should go to (a government office). However, when we got there, we were told we should be somewhere different! We took a taxi there and seemed to end up close to where we had caught the 125 bus.

 

But we were at the right place, at last! It was a modern looking government building (Department of Consular Affairs / Ministry of Foreign Affairs) with a triangular design on the front. I couldn’t spot the name of the road.

 

The application process was amazing for its simplicity and speed.

 

My TG had to take a number showing her place in the queue, and fill in a very small form. The number indicated that there were over 60 people ahead of her, and I got mentally prepared for a long wait. I was wrong - she was being seen within 20 minutes! She reckons there were 62 cubicles with staff dealing with passport applications.

 

She was out in about 15 minutes and was told to pick up her passport today. (She has just ‘phoned to say she has her passport, so it was 100% efficient.)

 

When we left, TG took the 'phone a friend option and we waited for a bus directly outside the government office which, allegedly, would take us to Victory Monument. We waited ages and eventually I managed to persuade TG to ask someone if we were doing the right thing. We weren’t! We were advised to cross the road and catch a bus in the opposite direction (number 52, I think) to Mo Chit station. This was accurate information!

 

I’m sure well-informed BMs will be able to

 

- say whether the information given previously is still accurate (and I simply went to the wrong “Central”), and

- give the precise location of the government building I went to eventually.

 

Given the speed of the application, perhaps the best advice is to go to Mo Chit and catch the 52 bus (or, possibly, others).

 

(Mo Chit station is on the Skytrain and is right beside Chatuchak Park BTS station.)

[joekicker 53]

NOT Central Plaza, which is Lardprao and also closed for renovations. The passport branch office convenient to Pattaya is at Central Bang Na, which is near the top of the Bangna-Trad road, taken by the Bangkok-Pattaya buses. Going FROM Pattaya, ask the bus to stop at Central Bang Na - you'll have to cross the highway on a footbridge. Or take a taxi to Central Bangna.

 

There are dozens of signs at the entrance of the mall and at elevators on where to go. If you get lost, you won't be able to fill out the passport form anyhow, so give up.

 

The passport office here keeps government hours, not mall hours - closed weekends and holidays and so on. It's fast, efficient and at least as good as the main consular office you ended up at, Bazle.

 

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