Hello, name's Steve. I'm posting to here to get some people's opinions on the problem I'm facing right now. I apologise if it's a little long-winded.
I'm a Canadian, and currently I'm in the process of applying a PR for my Taiwanese wife.
One of the requirements for PR registration is that we supply police clearance certification from countries my wife had stayed for more than 6 months. And one of those countries include Thailand. And since I'm currently working in Thailand (and my wife staying in Taiwan), that means I'm in charge of applying the Thai police clearance for her.
I had my wife take her fingerprints at the police station in Taiwan, put together all the paperworks, and I strolled over to the Royal Thai Police Headquarters to apply for her police clearance. After some turbulent application process, they took away my wife's application, I paid my fee, and patted myself in the back a job well done and went on home.
Days later I received a call from the Royal Thai Police, and they told me that there are some problems with my wife's application.
Turns out the fingerprints my wife had taken at the Taiwanese police station are 'too blurry', the ink 'too dark', and that they 'cannot see the prints clearly'. (Somehow this wasn't a problem when I was applying in person at their headquarter). They told me to send my wife's prints in again. They also told me that I'd have to pay a sum of 100 baht to restart the application process again that'll take an extra month. Or, if I fork over 2500 baht, they'd resume my wife's application from where they'd left off.
Now, this being Thailand, one of the first things that crossed my mind was that they're trying to extort money from me (corruption runs DEEP here). But I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and agreed that I'll send them a new set of prints. My wife took her fingerprints again and sent them to me. I gave the new prints to the Thai Police and... again they said 'No, this will not do, it's still too blurry.'
So I had my wife take her fingerprints at the police station for a third time, this time asking her to take extreme care to mimic the sample the Thai Police had sent me when taking her prints. My wife sent me the third set of prints, I took them in...and still they told me it would not do.
By this point I'm stumped. The newest set of fingerprints my wife had taken don't look blurry or smudged or unclear. But yet the Thai Police just downright strikes me down. I don't know if it's really a matter of clarity of the prints or they're just trying to make things difficult for me and extort money from me. It's absurd to think that my wife's chances of obtaining a Canadian PR would be affected by corrupt Thai police officials who decide to choose me to be his cash-cow.
I honestly don't know what I can do at this point. By this point my wife had gone to the police station to get her prints taken 3 times now, and the local police are starting to be suspicious of her (MY GOD!). I strongly doubt the Thai Police would let me through even if I take 100 prints (Because frankly, looking at the 10+ pages of prints I have laid out in front of me, they all look the bloody same). And a last resort would probably mean that my wife would have to personally fly over here and have her fingerprints taken in person at the Thai Police Headquarter (Because if even then they can't get a satisfactory sample, then that would mean their system had utterly failed).
I... just don't know what to think anymore. Mostly just really really angry that a simple stop-over at Thailand for half a year would cause such a nuisance for my wife's PR application. Half of the reason that I'm posting here is just so I can vent off some steam. Can anybody please offer me some advice on this matter or to whom I can reach out for help? (Other than the obvious 'just pay up' route because that is such an everyday inevitability here)
I'm a Canadian, and currently I'm in the process of applying a PR for my Taiwanese wife.
One of the requirements for PR registration is that we supply police clearance certification from countries my wife had stayed for more than 6 months. And one of those countries include Thailand. And since I'm currently working in Thailand (and my wife staying in Taiwan), that means I'm in charge of applying the Thai police clearance for her.
I had my wife take her fingerprints at the police station in Taiwan, put together all the paperworks, and I strolled over to the Royal Thai Police Headquarters to apply for her police clearance. After some turbulent application process, they took away my wife's application, I paid my fee, and patted myself in the back a job well done and went on home.
Days later I received a call from the Royal Thai Police, and they told me that there are some problems with my wife's application.
Turns out the fingerprints my wife had taken at the Taiwanese police station are 'too blurry', the ink 'too dark', and that they 'cannot see the prints clearly'. (Somehow this wasn't a problem when I was applying in person at their headquarter). They told me to send my wife's prints in again. They also told me that I'd have to pay a sum of 100 baht to restart the application process again that'll take an extra month. Or, if I fork over 2500 baht, they'd resume my wife's application from where they'd left off.
Now, this being Thailand, one of the first things that crossed my mind was that they're trying to extort money from me (corruption runs DEEP here). But I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and agreed that I'll send them a new set of prints. My wife took her fingerprints again and sent them to me. I gave the new prints to the Thai Police and... again they said 'No, this will not do, it's still too blurry.'
So I had my wife take her fingerprints at the police station for a third time, this time asking her to take extreme care to mimic the sample the Thai Police had sent me when taking her prints. My wife sent me the third set of prints, I took them in...and still they told me it would not do.
By this point I'm stumped. The newest set of fingerprints my wife had taken don't look blurry or smudged or unclear. But yet the Thai Police just downright strikes me down. I don't know if it's really a matter of clarity of the prints or they're just trying to make things difficult for me and extort money from me. It's absurd to think that my wife's chances of obtaining a Canadian PR would be affected by corrupt Thai police officials who decide to choose me to be his cash-cow.
I honestly don't know what I can do at this point. By this point my wife had gone to the police station to get her prints taken 3 times now, and the local police are starting to be suspicious of her (MY GOD!). I strongly doubt the Thai Police would let me through even if I take 100 prints (Because frankly, looking at the 10+ pages of prints I have laid out in front of me, they all look the bloody same). And a last resort would probably mean that my wife would have to personally fly over here and have her fingerprints taken in person at the Thai Police Headquarter (Because if even then they can't get a satisfactory sample, then that would mean their system had utterly failed).
I... just don't know what to think anymore. Mostly just really really angry that a simple stop-over at Thailand for half a year would cause such a nuisance for my wife's PR application. Half of the reason that I'm posting here is just so I can vent off some steam. Can anybody please offer me some advice on this matter or to whom I can reach out for help? (Other than the obvious 'just pay up' route because that is such an everyday inevitability here)
