Lost in Translation: The Quirks of Thai MFA’s Editing Requests

If you’ve ever needed a legalized translation from the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), you might assume the process is straightforward—translate the document, submit it, get approval. Simple, right? Not quite. At Sawadee Translations, we’ve navigated this bureaucratic maze countless times, and if there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s this: the MFA’s editing requests can be as unpredictable as a Bangkok traffic jam.

When Grammar Meets Bureaucracy

One of the most common quirks we encounter is the MFA’s obsession with hyper-specific wording choices. Sometimes, a perfectly valid translation gets flagged simply because an official prefers a different word—even when both options are equally correct.

For instance, we recently had a document where the applicant’s occupation in the original English document was clearly stated as “freelancer”. Naturally, we translated this as “อาชีพอิสระ”—a widely accepted Thai term for freelance or independent work. However, the MFA insisted that it be changed to “ธุรกิจส่วนตัว” (private business/own business). While both terms imply some level of self-employment, they are not exactly the same. A freelancer might not own a business, and a business owner might have a legal entity rather than working independently. Yet, the change was required—not because the original was incorrect, but simply because that was the preference of the reviewing officer.

This kind of nitpicking happens regularly. A document might be rejected for any number of unnecessary reasons or simply because a particular phrasing doesn’t match the reviewing officer’s personal preference—even if it’s grammatically flawless. In some cases, we even encounter phantom mistakes—edits that don’t actually improve accuracy but must be made anyway.

The Invisible Checklist

It often feels like there’s an invisible checklist somewhere within the MFA that determines whether a translation will be approved or sent back for edits. The problem? This checklist isn’t published anywhere, and the rules seem to change depending on who is reviewing the document.

A great example is the word “Statement”. We initially translated this as “คำแถลง”, which accurately conveys the meaning of a formal declaration. However, the MFA required it to be changed to “คำให้การ”, a term more commonly associated with legal testimony or statements given in court. The original translation was not wrong—just not the preferred word according to that particular official.

This inconsistency is what keeps us guessing. Two identical translations can receive completely different responses depending on the reviewing officer. We’ve even had cases where a document was rejected for a specific reason, resubmitted with the requested changes, and then rejected again by a different officer for undoing those same changes!