Oh dear, so the strength of your argument compels you to resort to the puerile.

To sum the matter up, you appear to be paranoid about the Thai postal system, I am not.

We also clearly have differing views on what constitutes 'a complete disaster'.

You go your way, I'll go mine.

'Have a nice day'

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No paranoia here mate. ( Only the truth).

Just pointing out your in ability to to realize the importance of

your passport when in a foreign land.

Please no more big words Mr. No All. (puerile).

I had to look that one up in the Lady Bird book of Words used in every day conversation. ( Way to boring )

Have a nice day

Oh dear, so the strength of your argument compels you to resort to the puerile.

To sum the matter up, you appear to be paranoid about the Thai postal system, I am not.

We also clearly have differing views on what constitutes 'a complete disaster'.

You go your way, I'll go mine.

'Have a nice day'

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No paranoia here mate. ( Only the truth).

Just pointing out your in ability to to realize the importance of

your passport when in a foreign land.

Please no more big words Mr. No All. (puerile).

I had to look that one up in the Lady Bird book of Words used in every day conversation. ( Way to boring )

Have a nice day

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No need to get frosty, icecubes.

Let's just agree to differ.

You need to chill out.

No need to get frosty, icecubes.

Let's just agree to differ.

You need to chill out.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ok no worries.

Have a nice day

Now that spat is over, back on topic.

In 2004/5 the British embassy in Bangkok received a total of 43,511 visa applications. Taking into account week-ends and public holidays, the visa section is open for an average of 241 days per year. So, that's 180 per day, assuming a working day of 8 hours that's 22 per hour!

At a very conservative estimate, let's say that a mere 10% of those required an interview, that's 4,311. That is an average of 17.9 people to be interviewed each day, that's 2.2 applicants to be interviewed per hour. As well as all the other work, processing applications, initial interviews,issuing visas (39,938 successful last year) writing reports etc.etc.

People already complain about the long wait for an interview. If every person who visited was greeted with a friendly chat and a cup of tea, the wait would be even longer. Those same people who currently complain about the 'attitude' of the embassy staff would then be shouting even louder about being kept waiting!

I don't know if there are any statistics on the work of the consular section, but I imagine that they have a similar workload.

It is unfortunate, but sometimes in endeavours to be as efficient as possible, people can become somewhat brusque.

43511 visa applications, at around 2500 per visa non refundable thats over 108.000.000 baht.

For that kind of money I would give a cup of tea a chat and a foot massage.

43511 visa applications, at around 2500 per visa non refundable thats over 108.000.000 baht.

For that kind of money I would give a cup of tea a chat and a foot massage.

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Hmmm, and still maintain the hourly processing rate to get the same income or would you give chargeable 'extras' to make up the shortfall?

For this kind of money they can hire more staff, does anyone know how much the Thai employees earn at the embassy.

43511 visa applications, at around 2500 per visa non refundable thats over 108.000.000 baht.

For that kind of money I would give a cup of tea a chat and a foot massage.

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I still find it to hard to say anything good about the staff in the consular section.

Last time I was there the women behind the counter had a slightly red face and appeared to be smiling!! very strange indeed I thought.

Could this be the new image of the staff at the British consulate after a makeover!!!!!!!

Alas no, on closer inspection I realized it was just wind, she must have eaten her lunch a bit quickly in an attempt to get back to her customers as fast as she could.

the EMS system?

Everybody please remember that EMS refers to the speed of delivery and is not directly related to security. (Indirectly, the faster the delivery of a postal item, the lower the collateral risk of it getting misplaced or lost)

I take for granted that everybody understands that important documents must be sent by registered mail. For a small additional fee, a return receipt can also be requested, a red card sent back by the Post Office to the sender with the signature of the person to whom the item was delivered.

Also, the importance of keeping a copy of one’s passport before mailing it or otherwise temporarily letting it go out of one’s possession – as Noel does – cannot be emphasised strongly enough. If in addition I email a copy of my passport to a webmail account of mine or upload it to another password-protected space on the Internet I can then access it from any computer in the world. And I update my copy frequently.

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EMS is not only faster it is also 'registerred' as you need to sign off before receiving it. You cna also trace it online. It is one of the safest, quickest way to send inside Thailand but of course it is not 100% secure but works very well for me.

Embassy Salaries:

A non Executive level admin job was advertised in the Post 2 years ago. They were looking for a farang. It emerged that wages were about THB 25,000 - THB 30,000 per month.

Don't know what the Thais are paid there.