Prakhonchai Nick
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I have long advocated that when you believe you are correct or within your rights, never to accept NO or it can't be done, especially when dealing with civil servants, both here in Thailand and in the UK.
During the past year or so I have challenged many officials in the UK Pensions Dept, when they have initially said that a claim is not eligible (mainly because the claimant is in Thailand), or have refused to back-date a claim just because the book says it cannot be done. I am happy to say that in every case I have won, either for myself, or friends whom I have been assisting.
Today I took on the Thai Passport office in Korat. They refused to issue my daughter a passport, simply because the Amphur had mis-spelled her surname on her birth certificate. Now in some cases that could be quite a large mistake, but in this case it was minor in that her surname was shown as starting with พ where as in fact it should have been ฟ Nothing more that a slightly higher stroke on the end. Hardly noticeable.
The passport official advised we needed to have everything corrected by the Amphur, and then re-apply.
My wife was not happy when I announced that I was going to challenge the decision and kept well in the background. First of all I gained the sympathy of a supervisor. I then referred to my son's passport that was issued 4 months ago, and had exactly the same error, which caused no problem with the passport office. His file was found, and everyone pored over it for several minutes. Eventually the matter was referred to a senior official, and after quite a while she agreed to issue the passport with 3 conditions.
1) The surname would be spelt incorrectly -as per birth certificate.
2) My daughter would sign incorrectly.
3) My wife and I had to sign a disclaimer absolving the Passport office from any responsibility if everything went tits up!
Yet another success for Prakhonchai Nick
NEVER ACCEPT NO OR CANNOT DO!
During the past year or so I have challenged many officials in the UK Pensions Dept, when they have initially said that a claim is not eligible (mainly because the claimant is in Thailand), or have refused to back-date a claim just because the book says it cannot be done. I am happy to say that in every case I have won, either for myself, or friends whom I have been assisting.
Today I took on the Thai Passport office in Korat. They refused to issue my daughter a passport, simply because the Amphur had mis-spelled her surname on her birth certificate. Now in some cases that could be quite a large mistake, but in this case it was minor in that her surname was shown as starting with พ where as in fact it should have been ฟ Nothing more that a slightly higher stroke on the end. Hardly noticeable.
The passport official advised we needed to have everything corrected by the Amphur, and then re-apply.
My wife was not happy when I announced that I was going to challenge the decision and kept well in the background. First of all I gained the sympathy of a supervisor. I then referred to my son's passport that was issued 4 months ago, and had exactly the same error, which caused no problem with the passport office. His file was found, and everyone pored over it for several minutes. Eventually the matter was referred to a senior official, and after quite a while she agreed to issue the passport with 3 conditions.
1) The surname would be spelt incorrectly -as per birth certificate.
2) My daughter would sign incorrectly.
3) My wife and I had to sign a disclaimer absolving the Passport office from any responsibility if everything went tits up!
Yet another success for Prakhonchai Nick
NEVER ACCEPT NO OR CANNOT DO!