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Any experience renewing their UK passport from Saigon Passport Office

Last activity 22 December 2017 by HenryJo

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HenryJo

My passport is running out of pages. I searched online and saw that we can apply to renew passport from Saigon. Last week I visited the HM Passport Office at:

UK Visa Application Centre,
2nd Floor,
Resco Building,
94-96 Nguyen Du Street,
Ben Nghe Ward,
District 1, Saigon

and asked what the process was.  It was great, they explained everything in plain language and asked me to email for an appointment to hand in application and documents (now confirmed for Wednesday 11 October 2017). They told me a full photocopy of the current passport was needed (all pages including blank ones) and that they will check my original passport with the photocopy (at the appointment) and confirm that its a true copy. They will then send the form and documents to UK. The info here says we need to provide 1 document with photo ID and :

* one document as evidence of name and address and/or residency within the last year.

One of the items on the list is Visa or resident permit. My passport has the current Vietnam visa stamp, and because we are including a page-by-page attested/confirmed photocopy of passport, would that not count for the evidence of name and address and/or residency within the last year? (I have no idea if and/or means both or one or the other)

If not could I obtain a letter from Vietnam police/justice dept. to confirm my current address?

There is some info here (from a Canadian website), says that we can obtain our proof of address from from National Center for Judicial Records (Trung Tam Ly Lich Tu Phap Quoc Gia)


The info also says:

According to the Circular No.07/TTLT-BTP-BCA of Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Public Security dated 08/02/1999, foreigners are entitled to obtain information about themselves while residing in Vietnam.


Sorry about the long post, but i'm really fretting about this, as I really don't want the passport application delayed because of lack of documents. Especially because HM Passport office in Saigon have told me that once the application is submitted, you cannot travel on your "old" passport. You can only use it for ID purposes.

There is a related (old) post about the same topic here.

Guest2023

Not sure about the last part. I think they meant you cant travel on your old passport once its been replaced.

Every property has a house book, ask your landlord/lady for a copy of it. This will show you have been registered at a certain address.

HenryJo

colinoscapee wrote:

Not sure about the last part. I think they meant you cant travel on your old passport once its been replaced.

Every property has a house book, ask your landlord/lady for a copy of it. This will show you have been registered at a certain address.


Thank you very much for the info about the house book.

Re. travelling while the current passport is replaced. I did ask the staff member at Saigon office a couple of times, if "unable to travel on current passport" is from the date of my application, or from the date when it's received at the passport office based in UK.

No conclusive answer could be obtained. However, what she said chimed with what I had read on the .gov.uk website:

Travelling on your passport after submitting your application
Please note that you cannot travel on your current passport once you’ve applied for a new one. You will be able to keep your passport for ID purposes.


It does say "once you've applied".

Guest2023

That seems strange, as you haven't been issued with a new passport. Therefore, your old passport is valid. If that's what they advise, then you should do it, but it makes no sense to me unless you actually left the country and didn't return, or they cancelled your old passport upon application.

SimCityAT

You can no longer renew your passport at any offices in the world, it has to be done online and the passports are delivered from the Liverpool Office. All details are found on their website.

Application form can be found HERE

You need an emergency passport you need to contact the nearest Embassy to you and they will print one for you. it will give up 2 trips through 5 stopovers.

SimCityAT
Expert Team

Please PM me if you need any more information.

1312j

Making your application

You must apply in person. If you’re unable to, someone else can go on your behalf. You must bring photo ID with you.

Bring original supporting documents and a colour photocopy of each one. The original documents will be returned to you.

You must also bring your current passport with you when you apply, and a full colour photocopy of the entire passport (every page including blank pages).

You can’t travel with it after you’ve applied for a new one - but you will be able to keep your existing passport for ID purposes.

You’ll need to book an appointment by email. Include your first name and last name and 3 alternative dates and times. You will receive an email confirming your appointment.

UK Visa Application Centre
Resco Tower, 5th Floor
94-96 Nguyen Du St.
Ben Nghe Ward
District 1
Ho Chi Minh City
Vietnam
Email: VietnamHMPO@vfshelpline.com

UK Visa Application Centre
Gelex Tower Hanoi, 3rd Floor
52 Le Dai Hanh Street
Le Dai Hanh Ward
Hai Ba Trung District
Hanoi
Vietnam
Email: HMPO.Hanoi@vfshelpline.com

HenryJo

Brand new (although its called a 'renewal' application) passport arrived at Resco building on Monday. Very quick!

I applied on Wednesday 11 October 2017. At that appointment, the staff member goes through the checklist. Although they cannot advise on what documents you should include, they will support you with basic tasks. filling checklist etc.. For renewing, there is not much documents to be fair. My landlord couldn't get the housebook copy for the appointment (he only managed to get it the next day). I included a couple of bank documents with my address in vietnam. Don't know if these were necessary or not. But I was concerned that not including them would delay the application.

You can pay fee using credit/debit card. 48 page passport cost: 91.00 pounds, courier fee: 23.01 pounds. Once all the documents, your passport photos, fee form is all sorted. Staff member will go through the checklist. Then put everything in an envelope ready for dispatch through courier. You are given the DHL tracking ID to check the progress (delivery) of the package online. Mine was picked up same day from Saigon and it arrived in Liverpool on the morning of Friday 13 October 2017.

On 20 October When the new passport was posted from Liverpool i received an SMS. When it arrived in Saigon on 23 October, I received another SMS.
On the same day I received an email from Resco building office saying passport is available for collection anytime between 1-4pm.

I went there the next day and collected it. Staff there are friendly and courteous. The manager sits with all the staff, not in some office half way across the city. The staff and I even had a bit of a laugh and a joke how my new passport has 49 pages (not 48 as advertised).

By the way, new passport has new artwork in the pages. Won't spoil the surprise for you. You can see for yourself, when you receive yours. Also, you have to sign new passport using black ball point pen. Unlike the previous one where your signature was already there.

All in all it took 12 days. Even less if you don't count the days for courier.

highly recommend this service for anyone considering renewing their passport.

drippinswagoo

Hi HenryJo

Can you let me know what documents you ended up submitted for proof of identity.  The list on the GOV website shows the below.

Your British passport (if you are renewing)
• Non-British uncancelled passport
• National identity card or equivalent (or colour photocopy)
• Visa or residence permit (or colour photocopy)
• Tax record eg a letter from a tax authority
• Educational record eg school report
• Employment record eg official letter from your employer
• Letter sent to you from a central, regional or local government department
• Medical/health card
• Voter’s card
• Immigration documents

I can submit my passport as I'm looking to renew - same situation as you, my passport is nearly full.  But as only on holiday in Vietnam and living in a guest house, I can't think of any other documents I can get from the list above?

Thanks

jaxkim

Really useful post, thank you. What happened to your visa stamp once you had the new passport? Did you have to go to immigration and get it transferred from the old passport to the new one? Or did you exit Vietnam just by showing both passports

Thanks,
Jax

jpbsimpson

Just to clarify one point when you apply for your new passport you are left with the old passport as an identification document as required by Vietnamese (or in my case Cambodian law) You are NOT allowed to use the old passport for travel after you have applied for the new one. If you need to travel urgently you have to apply for an Emergency travel document from the Embassy. On collecting the new passport the old passport has the corners clipped rendering it no longer valid although you may still have valid visas in it.

HenryJo

jaxkim wrote:

Really useful post, thank you. What happened to your visa stamp once you had the new passport? Did you have to go to immigration and get it transferred from the old passport to the new one? Or did you exit Vietnam just by showing both passports

Thanks,
Jax


Yet to do the visa run. It's in a couple of weeks. I saw some useful posts here: 

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=563172

Also, I had a look at this post:

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.p … 63#3912230

and spoke to Sunviet travel agency (talked about in the post above) last week. THey told me to go to the Airport earlier than usual to do the visa transfer. The transfer can only be done at the airport. Not at the land borders. So I decided to do visa run by air this time. Like i say, it's not until a couple of weeks. so will keep you posted on how that goes.

I was going to get visa letter from Sunviet, but he quoted me 120 USD for a 3 month single entry, and didn't seem overly friendly. So I went to CHi's Cafe instead.

HenryJo

jaxkim wrote:

Really useful post, thank you. What happened to your visa stamp once you had the new passport? Did you have to go to immigration and get it transferred from the old passport to the new one? Or did you exit Vietnam just by showing both passports

Thanks,
Jax


I've done the Visa run. Created a new thread with full report. Sorry, it's a bit long. So, I'll give a short-hand version here.

At Saigon, showing both passports at AirAsia check-in wasn't enough. Check-in staff wanted visa transferred across to new passport. However, immigration said "no need for transfer", as my visa expired the following day. (my visa was a single entry anyway, so I imagine it would have expired upon exit even if I had one month left before expiry)

After AirAsia verified this (that no transfer was necessary) with immigration, they checked me in.

The fun and games started in Kuala Lampur on my return journey. They AirAsia ground staff at the boarding gate made a right song and dance about the new passport not having the "old" Vietnam visa. A supervisor was called, he contacted his boss through WhatsApp, then sent pictures of both my new and old passports and invitation letter. Then following a delay (of what seemed like ages - while everything was checked), I was allowed to board.

I think, if you can get the transfer done before doing the visa run, then do it that way. This would also mean you can do visa run by land border.

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