The regular 10 year passport take about 2 weeks to arrive. And i recommend the EMS option (where you must buy the Envelope at the on-embassy Post Office and fill out an address)
You can request an emergency passport at the same time as you apply for regular one. They can issue that one within 24 hours, and is good for 1 year.
Actually, there is a practical reason in many cases: to enforce certain rules. Or encourage certain visa types over others at specific embassies. But in these cases, the answer is to just go to the embassy that is easier for you.
Sometimes it is to encourage agent use or extra payments. An example of this is when a local immigration office might ask "do you need this right now?" and there is an express fee attached. But if you can wait a few days or weeks, then no extra fees.
Some branches are better about counter withdrawal than others, YMMV. Surprised no one mentioned services like Wise or WorldRemit to transfer funds cheaply (goal is to avoid the ATM fee). Wise is often instantaneous for local bank transfer payments or maybe 30 min for debit card payment. The ATM + trip to bank fees are offset by the better Wise exchange rate.
not true, unless something has changed. But also, some tellers will see the debit word and refuse to do it. Not that it isnt technically possible. [Transfer]Wise is probably a better choice these days. The Wise exchange rate helps to offset the fees to where you actually net better than ATM or (debit option might be breakeven, or maybe ~฿100 after exchange offset)
did you meet all the requirements for non- O-A? And the application said O-A? And the fee paid was for O-A? Did you collect the passport at the embassy/consulate? Or they mailed it to you? If you did it in person, you could have challenged it immediately. Not sure what "dispute" period would be for mail-in applications.
i did know someone (German) who did exactly this (Thai Child, no marriage) and got several back-to-back single non-o at Savannakhet and then did 60 day extension for visiting family.
he did not have legalization papers for his kid. But the mom and kid went to immigration each time; was not a problem. They never did 1 Year extension though.
Penang you can get multiple non-o for Thai Child (no marriage), but must show funds in a bank (can be non-Thai bank).
