Reader submission: Reply Belgian ombudsman regarding affidavit
Eddy received the following reaction from the Belgian ombudsman regarding a complaint about no longer legalizing the affidavit by the Belgian embassy in Bangkok.
Dear sir,
You request the intervention of the Federal Ombudsman at the FPS Foreign Affairs regarding the non-legalization of an affidavit about your income by the Embassy of Belgium in Bangkok.
You informed us that the Belgian Embassy in Bangkok will no longer legalize the signature of the affidavit, where you state your income, while the Embassy has done so until now. You may experience difficulties because you used this affidavit with the
application for the extension of your residence permit with the Thai government.
The Federal Ombudsman can only investigate a complaint if you have made an attempt yourself to resolve your problem with the government concerned, in this case the FPS Foreign Affairs. I observe in your complaint that you have already contacted the Embassy of Belgium in Bangkok. However, the FPS Foreign Affairs has its own complaints service. Therefore, I suggest that you first contact the complaints department of the FPS Foreign Affairs. All information and the complaint form can be found here
you on the following link: diplomatie.belgium.be/nl/Contact/klachten.
I am also prepared to forward your complaint to this complaints department myself if you request me to do so. If you do not receive a satisfactory answer after a period of 1 month, you can still contact the Federal Ombudsman again.
Can I then ask you to provide us with a copy of your complaint form, submitted to the FPS Foreign Affairs, and the response, if any, from the FPS Foreign Affairs?
Best regards,
The Federal Ombudsman
David Bale
I think you need to edit the question.
With an affidavit you do not legalize a signature,
An affidavit is a statement made under oath before an authorized official.
The official indicates that you have made this statement of your own free will, without outside pressure, knowing what you are doing. That is why the official/embassy does not check the statement.
False statements are considered perjury.
Practically, applying for affidavit was arranged by the embassy via email. And this can be a procedural error because the presence of the official, when you draft the affidavit, is necessary for many lawyers.
A statement without the presence of an official is more of a statement on "honour." And a statement under Honor does not have the same probative value as a statement under "oath."
In addition, the embassy still does legalization of signatures. 20 Euro/760 THB per document.
You miss the ball completely!
The embassy only certifies that the signature is genuine.
You are fully responsible for the content!
By the way, it is very clear on your affidavit when you get it back from the embassy.
That is correct Dirk and that is also the reason that this affidavit is no longer issued and accepted by Immigration Thailand.
Thailand wants the relevant embassy to check and approve the data.
The Dutch embassy does this on the basis of pension overviews and tax assessments.
Only legalizing a signature under a self-declaration is no longer accepted.
Where is the difference with what I write?
I write clearly:
The official indicates that you have made this statement of your own free will, without outside pressure, knowing what you are doing. That is why the official/embassy does not check the statement.
end quote.
But in practice, with an affidavit, you make this statement under oath and sign it. The official present will then declare that the procedure has been done correctly, and as a result, your signature will also be legalized.
But an affidavit is not just legalizing a signature. The statement under oath is the most important.
https://www.juridischwoordenboek.nl/zoek/affidavit
procedural law (law of evidence) – English: written statement confirmed under oath and used as evidence in legal proceedings.
I think the Thai Immigration Service requires that this affidavid containing an amount be checked for truth (truth of the amount). Since the Belgian Embassy does not do this, this statement no longer makes sense! The Dutch Embassy does check the amounts and maintains the issuance of the affidavid…
No, NL does not issue an affidavit, but a visa support letter.
Can't the Belgian embassy do that and the Dutch can?
They know how much your income is why make it difficult.?
The problem is, Thailand has to accept this statement from the Belgian embassy.
Same for the Netherlands. The Netherlands spent months working with the Thai authorities to draw up a model “Visa Support Letter”.
And the Netherlands made promises to also check the stated amounts.
For Belgium, Thailand had already indicated years ago that the affidavit is an emergency solution. Main reason, there is no control of the amounts. Can't get to the affidavit either, because it's an honor statement.
Additionally, false statements were not prosecuted.
The Belgian embassy would like to do the same as the Netherlands, but they cannot do it on their own initiative. They must follow the orders and orders of Foreign Affairs, Brussels.
And Brussels does not immediately feel called upon to make the effort for a few thousand Belgians in Thailand, then mainly Flemings.
Nice initiative this email to BZ.
As I read there are different interpretations of the affidavit here, the affidavit is a statement on honor there are different affidavit we are about now is the affidavit of income, so the embassy only legalizes your signature not the content they are allowed to do this for privacy reasons do not.
Another bottleneck is that the affidavit of income is no longer accepted for most immigration agencies or has its end in sight in the short future, so another solution is needed.
Ideally, our Belgian embassy would issue an income statement (similar to the Austrian consulate in Pattaya) which is still accepted at immigration because they confirm and validate the income.
Hopefully our embassy can offer an alternative here to still meet the income requirement for many, an income confirmation from the embassy would be ideal.
You ignore what the National Ombudsman says. As in the Netherlands, you must first have completed the complaints or appeal procedures before the matter is submitted to the National Ombudsman. I would say: do that with priority! Follow the complaint procedure against the Service that deals with it and if it also rejects it and there is no possibility of appeal, ask the National Ombudsman.
The ombudsman wants to forward the complaint to Foreign Affairs if you wish and I have agreed.