Oz Embassy Cash Grab

[boof623]

hi all,

my wifes sister went to the oz embassy thursday to drop off the remaining requested paperwork to the case manager to complete our application for a child visa for her daughter and was charged 2000 baht for the privelige of doing that for me

what a load of s### already paid $1400 oz dollars to lodge the damm thing, they request other paperwork not on there own application checklists and then charge you for doing it.

is this the normal procedure now or did i just get ripped off??

has anyone out there heard of this before

does this mean that i will have to fork out another 2000 baht just to have the pleasure of their company again to put the visa in her passport ??

[CbrLad]

hi all,

my wifes sister went to the oz embassy thursday to drop off the remaining requested paperwork to the case manager to complete our application for a child visa for her daughter and was charged 2000 baht for the privelige of doing that for me

what a load of s### already paid $1400 oz dollars to lodge the damm thing, they request other paperwork not on there own application checklists and then charge you for doing it.

is this the normal procedure now or did i just get ripped off??

has anyone out there heard of this before

does this mean that i will have to fork out another 2000 baht just to have the pleasure of their company again to put the visa in her passport ??

It would help if you could say what the charge was for, I assume you have a receipt with that written on it? I am willing to bet it was a notarial charge. That is a charge for certifying that what ever copies your dropped off is genuine. Was it charged by the visa office (straight in front as you go up the stairs) or the glass office just to the left of the entry stairs? The rates are quite high, it is something like $30 aus for the first page and then a lesser charge per additional page.

[boof623]

the charges were for seeing the case manager to hand in documents, they wanted to see her passport, and the originals of birth certificate, of which they already had certified copies and certified translations for as well as to drop off the por kor 14 that was requested,

i dont know if an invoice was given i shall have to find out from my wifes sister, still sounds like and extra cash grab to me

once i get the full details and the visa approved then i might stir some s### with them and their dept

[Thai Chi]

i dont know if an invoice was given i shall have to find out from my wifes sister, still sounds like and extra cash grab to me

I would insist on seeing the receipt. It will show you exactly what service was paid for.

The Embassy fees change on an almost daily basis (exchange rate up / down) and thus far I have never paid an exact even amount for various services (visa / passports / stat decs etc etc)

Personally, I find some of their fees, compared to some other Embassies quite cheap

One example is the letter / declaration for proof of income. Oz Embassy 570 Bht. British Embassy 1440 Bht. New Zealand Embassy 850 Bht................... !!!

[CbrLad]

the charges were for seeing the case manager to hand in documents, they wanted to see her passport, and the originals of birth certificate, of which they already had certified copies and certified translations for as well as to drop off the por kor 14 that was requested,

i dont know if an invoice was given i shall have to find out from my wifes sister, still sounds like and extra cash grab to me

once i get the full details and the visa approved then i might stir some s### with them and their dept

If you paid them they would have given you a receipt, no two ways about that. Oh before going to stir some mud get your facts right. I have read your other posts and you clearly have some grounds to be angry, but I will tell you now that getting upset and angry over every thing will do you no favours. This is an example, your two posts (no offence) clearly show you don't know specificaly what the charge was for. With this one I cannot see why you are angry when you haven't been able to identify specificaly what the charge was for. I have never heard of being charged to see someone.

Oh the other fact to get right, the charge is not being made by the embassy it is (depending upon what it is) being made by DIAC. There is another post about this but a lot of people don't realise that, they talk of an embassy as a single entity, when in fact each home department operates their own portfolio, in the case of visa's it is DIAC and consular services DFAT.

[gburns57au]

the charges were for seeing the case manager to hand in documents, they wanted to see her passport, and the originals of birth certificate, of which they already had certified copies and certified translations for as well as to drop off the por kor 14 that was requested,

i dont know if an invoice was given i shall have to find out from my wifes sister, still sounds like and extra cash grab to me

once i get the full details and the visa approved then i might stir some s### with them and their dept

Was the PK14 that you handed in a certified english copy ???

[Krub]

i dont know if an invoice was given i shall have to find out from my wifes sister, still sounds like and extra cash grab to me

I would insist on seeing the receipt. It will show you exactly what service was paid for.

The Embassy fees change on an almost daily basis (exchange rate up / down) and thus far I have never paid an exact even amount for various services (visa / passports / stat decs etc etc)

Personally, I find some of their fees, compared to some other Embassies quite cheap

One example is the letter / declaration for proof of income. Oz Embassy 570 Bht. British Embassy 1440 Bht. New Zealand Embassy 850 Bht................... !!!

No for that letter we British have the privilege of being charged 2.448 baht !

[david96]

Fees for a Class UF Subclass 309 Spouse visa 40870THB

VFS service fee 535THB

Translations and photocopying of documents are done by a translation agency

(responsibility of the applicant)

Consular services ( Australian passport holders only) Statutory Declaration 470THB.

Invoices are not issued only receipts for fees charged.

Fees and charges current April 2007.

Fees and charges payable in THB only and do not vary on a daily basis.

[Thai Chi]

Consular services ( Australian passport holders only) Statutory Declaration 470THB.

Invoices are not issued only receipts for fees charged.

Fees and charges current April 2007.

Fees and charges payable in THB only and do not vary on a daily basis.

david, nobody said the fees vary everyday. I said "....change on an almost daily basis " as pointed out to me in an email from the Embassy last monday.................

............"an Embassy consular official will stamp the document with the Embassy seal and return it to you on payment of Thb 580. Note that the fee varies with exchange rate fluctuations, so you may want to bring a bit extra with you "

I went there last thursday and paid 570 Bht for a Stat Dec.

And as you pointed out, in april, it was 470 Bht.

[boof623]

the charges were for seeing the case manager to hand in documents, they wanted to see her passport, and the originals of birth certificate, of which they already had certified copies and certified translations for as well as to drop off the por kor 14 that was requested,

i dont know if an invoice was given i shall have to find out from my wifes sister, still sounds like and extra cash grab to me

once i get the full details and the visa approved then i might stir some s### with them and their dept

Was the PK14 that you handed in a certified english copy ???

yes it was, that cost about 6000 baht to have it tranlated as it ended up being 6 or 7 pages long, i dont begrudge having to pay that but im not happy about forking out money to give them what they have asked for to be delivered to them as i could have posted it but dont want to risk it getting lost in transit, the only thing i can think of was that they have charged me to make there own copies of requested original documents ie birth certificate, and a name change document, which is rather unfair since they already had certified copies of them and there tranlations as well.

i should find out in i few days as my wifes sister is sending the reciept but accoring to what she told my wife now everyone who drops paperwork of to the immigration dept at the embassy has to pay a fee to see the case manager

[boof623]

the charges were for seeing the case manager to hand in documents, they wanted to see her passport, and the originals of birth certificate, of which they already had certified copies and certified translations for as well as to drop off the por kor 14 that was requested,

i dont know if an invoice was given i shall have to find out from my wifes sister, still sounds like and extra cash grab to me

once i get the full details and the visa approved then i might stir some s### with them and their dept

If you paid them they would have given you a receipt, no two ways about that. Oh before going to stir some mud get your facts right. I have read your other posts and you clearly have some grounds to be angry, but I will tell you now that getting upset and angry over every thing will do you no favours. This is an example, your two posts (no offence) clearly show you don't know specificaly what the charge was for. With this one I cannot see why you are angry when you haven't been able to identify specificaly what the charge was for. I have never heard of being charged to see someone.

Oh the other fact to get right, the charge is not being made by the embassy it is (depending upon what it is) being made by DIAC. There is another post about this but a lot of people don't realise that, they talk of an embassy as a single entity, when in fact each home department operates their own portfolio, in the case of visa's it is DIAC and consular services DFAT.

no worries mate , no offence taken and you are right of course it is the DIAC that im angry with unfortunately that is the only section of the embassy that i have had to have dealings with so i have unwittingly painted them all with the same brush. In a follow up post i added that it seems now that you have to pay a fee just to see your case manager, prehaps its to discourage you going there as they seem to want everyone to goto the vft office instead,

a reciept was issued and is being sent to me to have a look at, i shall try and kerb my anger towards these people but everyone has their breaking point, and when i wrote the original post i had a couple of sherbets before hand so my usually calm exterior was a little brittle that day.