Maybe it is harder up country but I got a Krungsri account opened in Bangkok a couple of months ago with no Visa at all, just the 30 day stamp and a copy of my lease
surely a visa advice group can only give best advice within the local laws, otherwise it would be a pretty useless group. Sure people will always act outside of the laws and that is of course their decision but I for one am happy to get clear advise based on the current laws
sadly it may be the only way, lost mine before and went back to UK, when you arrive in UK the passport control take the emergency travel document off you, so you can only go to passport office and get a new one
the emergency travel document can only be used to travel back to the UK. its a one way document. when in the UK you could get a new passport same day if required