Passport photos
Getting passport photos here took only 10 minutes. It was 150 baht for a set of 8 photos. There are quite a few places around town so I just walked around and found one. Of course, they didn't speak English but understood some after I took a few minutes to explain the requirements.... Two 5 x 7 cm photos. The length of the face has to be between 3.1 to 3.6 cm. There can be no shadows. No smiling! The back must be stamped with a date written. It's useful if you have this information on paper so you can just point and show.
Where is the Canadian consulate in Chiang Mai?
When I first googled "Canadian Consulate Chiang Mai" or the address in English, I couldn't get a location on Google Maps. Make sure you enter "Consulate of Canada Chiang Mai" instead, which should give you an address in Thai like this 151 หมู่ที่ 3 ต.ท่าศาลา จังหวัด เชียงใหม่ 50000 — use this to show to drivers who can't speak English.
The Canadian consulate in Chiang Mai is less than a 20-minute drive from the Old City which should cost you 150 baht one way by taxi or songtaew. You should probably get the taxi to wait for you because it's unlikely for you to be able to get one back. Do not take a tuk tuk as it's on the side of the highway. The sign itself is not very big, so look for the Nissan (red on white) sign on the left side of the road, if you're coming from Chiang Mai Old city. It is across from PSI (blue and white sign). It's a house behind a cafe.
How to pay the passport renewal fee
For a 10-year passport, it is CAD $260 or 7800 baht (Note that even though the passport has 36 pages, only 29 pages can be used for visa stamps). The helpful lady at the consulate told me cash is not accepted so I must go get a bank draft. I asked about paying with a credit card, but she said it's better to get a bank draft.... so, I went to a bank with cash, filled in a form, and paid the 30 baht fee and was able to get a bank draft in a couple of minutes. To save yourself a trip to the consulate, I was told to send my application to the Embassy of Canada in Bangkok from the post office via EMS, which cost 37 baht for next day arrival and has a tracking number on the receipt.
How to pick up your passport
Since I haven't found an apartment when I applied for the renewal, under mailing address on the form, I was told to put Consulate of Canada, Chiang Mai so I can go pick up my passport there. Less than 3 weeks later, I got a call from them to go pick up my new passport! Phew~
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Transfer visa to the new passport Go to Chiang Mai Provincial Immigration Office, which is a 25-minute walk from Old City's southwest corner, very close to the airport. Go to the center counter under the TV and show officer your old & new passports to get a passport transfer form. Fill out the form & make copies of the old passport photo page & the visa stamp page as well as the new passport photo page next door for 3 baht each. Sign (anywhere on) all the copies. Hand everything back to the officer at the center counter. I was told to wait for an hour and a half before I could pick my passport up. There's a shopping mall a 6-minute walk down the road so you can go there and come back. |
