No it's not required and it serves no real purpose.

When I did mine I had a friend in the UK sign mine.

The directions state:

Your countersignatory must:

Have known you (or the adult who signed the form if the passport is for a child under 16) for at least 2 years

So in the case of a child's passport the counter signatory is signing to say they have known you for over 2 years as you are the person who had signed the form on behalf of your baby.

No need for any agency to help, it's a very straight forward process.

If she is in Thailand you must apply from Thailand, likewise if she's in the UK you apply from the UK.

The process is straightforward no need for an agency.

Thai documents will need to be translated. The passport is processed in Hong Kong (I think, unless it's recently changed).

Her rights to UK citizenship is done through you, and therefore you need to provide the correct supporting documents (passport, birth certificate - the long one etc, the application form will tell you).

The mother also has to provide her details / passport and a signed declaration that she agrees to the process. I just made this on a word document which included a scan of her passport and a sentence that read something like"I (her name) agreed to my daughter (name) applying for a UK passport. Dated/signed

Something like that.

Starling is great, however there is a daily limit for ATM withdrawals which is capped at £300 per day and only 6 withdrawals allowed per day, neither of which are an issue for me. The card works perfectly well in Thailand, and the app is simple to use.

There is a 220B ATM fee for any foreign card. This is not a banking/exchange fee just a greedy bank tax on foreign cards.

@Darren *******

they are free of banking charges however Thai ATMs make an additional charge of 220B for foreign cards. It's not a banking/exchange fee just a rip off fee.

They even charge for other Thai banks to use their ATMs, that's why you'll usually see a range of ATMs at one place.

@Gill ******

if your ultimate aim is to seek work in Thailand you will need to apply for a non-immigrant visa prior to arriving in the country. Without a non-immigrant visa you can't get a work permit.

If that's the case don't bother applying for any other type of visa.

State quarantine is for Thai nationals as free, Alternative State Quarantine is for everyone else and and Thai national that doesn't want to stay at the State Quarantine accomodation. The cost includes room and food and may be but not sure the cost of covid testing.

There's plenty of videos on YouTube showing the rooms and procedures.

Not sure I'd invest in a bachelor's or master degree in Thailand. Great if you stay in Thailand but across a variety of countries I think they do not hold the same value as others. I stand to be corrected. Thailand is so saturated with graduates that it's become almost meaningless.