Firstly, reason for posting in this forum is that the question may be specific to Nong Khai (Fao Ria)in as much as the problem may be specific to this birth office.. Mods, if you think this should be in a different forum please move as necessary.

Myself and my Partner (TGF) are living in New Zealand. Have made application for TGF to be granted permanent residency in NZ and have just been contacted by our immigration consultant to say that, after translating necessary documents, what we believed to be her certified copy of Birth certificate (Dad lost original) is in fact a "certified" police report reporting it(the birth certificate) stolen.

Have spoken with my lady and she has indicated that Police Officer who assisted her assured her that this document would act as effectively an alternative - I know this seems, upon reflection, a little daft. That's the back ground - now for the problem.

My Lady had gone to her local Amphur to obtain a certified copy of birth certificate and had been told that office dealing with birth certificates had been amalgamated with neighbouring Pon Pia Sia. TGF, with mum and Dad, went to Pon Pia Sia but were told that in the move of the department handling birth certificates that her original had been lost.

Questions:

1. Has anyone at TV bumped into similar problem? If so, any pointers for resolving?

2. Does the above scenario ring true? I believe the policeman in question charged 500 bhat - no idea if this was tea money or a legit processing fee?

3. If it proves necessary TGF will fly back to Thailand to resolve - but am a little hesitant to go down this road when previous "in person" effort proved unsuccessful - on balance do TV readers think it was just lazy official who needed a "little motivation" to look harder or is loss of records a possibility?

Any help appreciated.

I am also a Kiwi living with my Thai partner in NZ. We had a similar problem with her daughters lost birth certificate when we got PR here. My partner went back to the hospital in Thailand where her daughter was born and they advised her to go to the local district office who issued a copy of the original birth certificate no problems. I can understand NZ Immigration want a birth certificate not a letter stating the original is lost, that's no good at all. Lost originals certificates should not be a problem, a copy is fine.

It is not uncommon for original documents to get lost. The lazy person is a possibility also. I heave read of people having to do the search for records themselves.

My understanding is that they can reproduce records from what they now have in their computer database.

Thanks for the replies guys. Still getting to the bottom of this one.

Will post when we get a result