cake

teddy_bare, on 2010-07-06 00:25:51, said:

British Immigration is very particular about the photo paper used - I have had what I thought were good diy (desk printer with photo paper) efforts refused in London - 'you have done these yourself haven't you!? The paper is too thin and clearly not from a photo shop - go back and get a proper one'

It's dirt cheap to get the photos taken at a photoshop in theThai boondocks. But the first shop I tried for my then 3 month old daughter delivered prints that did not meet the UK requirements - the head took up nowhere near 60-75% of the photo. They were told very specifically in English and Thai what to do but insisted that the photos they had printed (Thai size requirements of course) would be accepted - Thais always know best as we all know! My girlfriend sulked for a couple of hours after I had been so pigheaded as to suggest that perhaps the British Embassy had different requirements and would not be so flexible.

So I had to junk their prints (115 baht for 8) and get another half dozen at the other photo shop in town for 180 baht.

I seem to recall that one of the translation agencies in the shopping centre accross the road from the Brit embassy suggested that one of their translations had to be legalized at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Sorry I can't remember which one it was that they suggested but I knew it did not, told them as such and It did not!

I think (but not 100% sure) that the process of getting the translations and then applying cannot be achieved in one day alone and that you have to check opening times for the Embassy for the specific action you are taking (lodging something or retrieving something) quite carefully not to be caught out.

The countersignature process by someone who has known you for a couple of years is a bit of a pain if you don't have a British Citizen mate handy here. If you can't comply, call them by phone - they will tell you to use the doctor who delivered the baby, even though he has known you for only a week or two. A rural hick doctor might find this worrying - signing off something for an official English document and my not so hick private hospital paediatrician wanted to give me some certificate of birth (which would not have met the Embassy requirements!) but would have allowed them to charge me more money. Somebody on TV did report that they just asked some passing Brit in the Embassy waiting room to do it, but that seems to be a bit of an eleventh hour gamble to me!

I had to photoshop out a feeding tube and tidy up the background cos my daughter was in NICU. The embassy excepted it no problems. She even had her eyes closed, but as per the website that isn't an issue

I obtained my sons passport when he was 3 months old.

No you don't need to take him to the Embassy.

The photograph can be a bit tricky but the guidelines (as per the link above)are pretty clear.

If you are leaving the baby in southern Thailand and going to the embassy on your own, perhaps think about taking a few different photos. If the embassy reject the first lot as not quite meeting the guidelines for whatever reason, it will save you the time and expense of having to travel back a second time.