British passport renewal problems due to different maiden name in Thai passport, any help ideas?

[ASilvereyedwitch]

Hello everyone!

 

I have been struck with an issue renewing my British passport, because I have a different maiden name in my Thai passport, which conflicts with HM British Passport Office's "One Name Policy" - basically I've been told that I have to change the name in my Thai passport to match, in order for me to carry on with my British passport renewal.The reason I have a different name in my Thai passport, is because I was born before my parents were married, and my mother was only legally allowed to use her maiden name on my Thai birth certificate (eventhough my father was present at the registration) and as far as I know this is still an issue for children being born out of wedlock, and this is all under Thai law. 

I was born in London, and on my British birth certicate (which has my father's name), both of my parents are on there. My parents are also now married, and have been since 1993. 

I have looked into legally changing my name to my father's name on my Thai documents, but it seems like a very lengthy process, where I have to present birth certificates and my parent's marriage certificates, to be certified by the Foreign Commonwealth office here in the UK, translated into Thai and then certified by the Royal Thai Embassy. I have even read, that I may have to go to Thailand with my parents to provide a DNA test to prove my father is my father and go through all the legal processes in court. And I hear that this could take months, and my parents and I can't sustain that amount of time, because we all have full time jobs in the UK. And even then, I'll have to wait for my new passport, with the new name, to get a visa or a stamp of residency for the UK, which is ridiculous, because I'm already a British Citizen.

 

Has anyone else encountered this problem or something similar? I have spoke to the British passport office, and they say there's an option to get a Name Exemption letter,  contacted the Royal Thai Embassy in London, and they said there's no policy to provide a letter for this circumstance and to contact the British passport office again! I can't keep going back and forth with them, and neither are really giving me a helping hand. What I really don't want to have to do is to give up my Thai citizenship, it just seems so ridiculous, absurd and excessive, just to renew my British passport. 

 

Anyone have any advice please? Pretty please!

[OJAS]

The only option that I can think of which would be open to you in order to satisfy HMPO's requirement would be to change your name by deed poll so that it exactly matches the one stated in your Thai birth certificate and passport. Details as to how you could go about doing this are to be found at https://www.gov.uk/change-name-deed-poll

 

This whole issue was, however, discussed in the following thread which was originated 15 months ago:-

 

 

 

[ubonjoe]

I don't think it would be that difficult to change your name here in Thailand. Just a basic name change is not that difficult to do for Thais.

You would have to apply for it at a the Amphoe where your house book registry is for. Your father would need to give permission to use his family name.

[Somtamnication]

We had to change my son's name from being a foreign first name to a Thai name to satisfy his school's requirements (long story, not part of the topic).

 

We took him down to the amphur, couple of signatures, he got the name change certificate, in and out in 30 minutes.

 

That certificate we used for ID, passports, etc. 

 

So, OP, go to the amphur, change your Thai name and at the same time, change your ID card. Do the Thai passport change and 2 weeks later you get the new passport, then do the UK one.

 

[OJAS]

The OP may need to be aware that there are potentially at least 3 sound reasons as to why the names stated in his British and Thai passports should be identical:-

 

(1) If he were ever minded to pay an extended visit to his relatives in Thailand on the basis of a one-way flight ticket from LHR to BKK, he would need to present his Thai passport at check-in to prove that he was entitled to stay in Thailand indefinitely without the need for any visa. The check-in assistant would almost certainly notice that the name stated in his flight ticket did not match the one stated in his Thai passport, and could therefore subject him to intensive interrogation before eventually (hopefully) permitting him to board the flight.

 

(2) Likewise, when he eventually exited Thailand for his return flight to the UK, there is a risk of the immigration officer at BKK Departures spotting that the name in his Thai passport did not match that in the boarding pass which he would also need to present to the officer (assuming, of course, that the return flight booking had also been made in his British name). In this connection, he would need to take especial care to avoid disclosing to the officer his dual nationality since Thai immigration officials have, I gather, a tendency to display an antagonistic attitude towards those who, in their eyes, have the temerity and audacity to want to share their Thai nationality with another country’s.

 

(3) Even if he were on this occasion given some special dispensation by HMPO for the name in his British passport to differ from the one in his Thai passport, he could, I would have thought, be faced with the prospect of having to re-prove the case for a further dispensation to be granted at each subsequent British passport renewal.

 

So it would definitely, I think, be best for him to bite the bullet and align the names in his British and Thai passports sooner rather than later.
 

Edited August 18, 2018 by OJAS

[ASilvereyedwitch]

On 8/17/2018 at 9:27 PM, OJAS said:

The only option that I can think of which would be open to you in order to satisfy HMPO's requirement would be to change your name by deed poll so that it exactly matches the one stated in your Thai birth certificate and passport. Details as to how you could go about doing this are to be found at https://www.gov.uk/change-name-deed-poll

 

This whole issue was, however, discussed in the following thread which was originated 15 months ago:-

 

 

 

Thank you for telling me about this option, of changing the name via deed poll. HMPO do not give any mention of this being an option. 

 

And apologies for overlooking this thread, I had briefly glanced at the first couple of pages, thinking it only related to spouses wanting to change their name - not children born with two names. I'm going to continue the discussion in that thread. I'm interested in the outcomes of other posters. 

 

On 8/18/2018 at 2:10 AM, ubonjoe said:

I don't think it would be that difficult to change your name here in Thailand. Just a basic name change is not that difficult to do for Thais.

You would have to apply for it at a the Amphoe where your house book registry is for. Your father would need to give permission to use his family name.

On 8/18/2018 at 2:34 AM, Somtamnication said:

We had to change my son's name from being a foreign first name to a Thai name to satisfy his school's requirements (long story, not part of the topic).

 

We took him down to the amphur, couple of signatures, he got the name change certificate, in and out in 30 minutes.

 

That certificate we used for ID, passports, etc. 

 

So, OP, go to the amphur, change your Thai name and at the same time, change your ID card. Do the Thai passport change and 2 weeks later you get the new passport, then do the UK one.

 

 

Are you sure it's that easy? Bear in mind, I live in London, so I would have to fly to Bangkok, and would I need both my parents there? I am a 27 year old adult after all, and I should be allowed to be called whatever I wanted, right? Hahaha. To be honest I want my Thai name to be changed to be the same as my British one, which actually reflects three different cultures (English, Chinese and Thai). 

 

And besides that, I don't think all three of us would be able to travel back to Thailand together at the same time, as we all have full time jobs. My parents run two owned companies, and I work for a company with only a certain amount of annual leave, and I don't think I would be allowed to extend that, should I need to wait for my British passport to be then issued to me IN Bangkok, if all the paperwork for my Thai documents go ok. HMPO also currently have my old British passport, because I already started my renewal application and they only sent back my Thai passport, but I do have all my older passports and birth certificates, should I need to prove my citizenship to enter either borders. But otherwise, I don't usually have problems with immigration, I've been back to Asia at least once every year for the last 4/5 years and only needed to use the electronic barriers at immigration, so I pretty much avoid talking to anyone. 

Edited August 19, 2018 by ASilvereyedwitch

[manarak]

I'm puzzled about how the name in a foreign passport could in any way hamper a passport renewal in another country.

 

From what I know, only national documents are used, the only foreign documents that are sometimes necessary are birth certificates and marriage certificates, although both have to be legalized and translated into national law before nationality is granted and a passport issued.

 

So... all documents necessary to renew the passport should already exist?

 

[ASilvereyedwitch]

This new policy from the HMPO took me by surprise! They've changed their system, and being the honest person that I am, I presented my other passport on the renewal of my application. Both passports have the same first name, but my British one has my Chinese and Thai middle names and then my Chinese surname. My Thai one only has my first name and then my mother's Thai maiden name. And HMPO require you to have both passports to match. And the Thai embassy don't want to know anything about it. They refuse to issue any kind of letter to help, not even a letter saying "no, we can't help". My mother made several direct phone calls to people at the Thai embassy in London, and she said the lady she talked to didn't want to know or showed any sympathy, and blamed HMPO for making these changes. This lady also said, she attended a serious meeting with HMPO when this policy came into affect in 2015, because it affected so many people, and apparently when they first tried submitting a letter about the difference in names, HMPO were not accepting it or deemed it good enough. So the Thai Embassy stopped giving out letter all together. So it completely baffles me, why every time I call up the HMPO advice line they said it's possible to obtain such a letter, when actually I can't. They're not training their staff right, giving out wrong information. 

[OJAS]

9 hours ago, ASilvereyedwitch said:

Thank you for telling me about this option, of changing the name via deed poll. HMPO do not give any mention of this being an option. 

That being the case, I would strongly advise you to check with HMPO first whether a deed poll name change would, in fact, do the trick in your case. As I recall, there is certainly some caveat to this effect on the GOV.UK website.

[ASilvereyedwitch]

8 hours ago, OJAS said:

That being the case, I would strongly advise you to check with HMPO first whether a deed poll name change would, in fact, do the trick in your case. As I recall, there is certainly some caveat to this effect on the GOV.UK website.

Yes, I have actually emailed them, and they swiftly replied the next morning. They said that if I can't get a letter to exempt from changing my name in my Thai passport, then changing the name via Deed Poll for my British passport is probably the next best thing. But it has to MATCH EXACTLY as it is in the Thai passport, so I would have to cut out all my middle names as well as my surname. So sad :(

[OJAS]

17 hours ago, ASilvereyedwitch said:

Yes, I have actually emailed them, and they swiftly replied the next morning. They said that if I can't get a letter to exempt from changing my name in my Thai passport, then changing the name via Deed Poll for my British passport is probably the next best thing. But it has to MATCH EXACTLY as it is in the Thai passport, so I would have to cut out all my middle names as well as my surname. So sad ?

Not to mention that what would probably be a PITA for you would be all those other people (bank, employer, etc, etc) who would also need to be informed of your name change!