Alan
You raise an interesting point about how the passport machine will read many
a Goan surname.
In my own case my birth certificate spells my surname, unusually, as
DaCosta. I was intrigued by this spelling, later in life, as my dad always
used D'Costa. I then discovered that the scribe providing the birth
certificate in my case in Mombasa, Kenya, was a Scot called McDonald! He
could not envisage names spelt other than the Scottish way! However, I
have been told by Portuguese experts, that DaCosta is feminine! But it
could easily have been the masculine DeCosta! My maculinity however is not
in question!
Although I have been consistent with DaCosta on all documentation, I get
tired of my surname being spelt incorrectly and changeably as da Costa, de
Costa, D'Costa etc. but do accept DACOSTA as many a machine has no provision
for a little 'a' for DaCosta. I suppose that many of us can't win with
careless people recording surnames and first names incorrectly or for some
obscure convention, and that, the new machine readable schema, will cause
the kind of headaches described by you.
Cornel
PS I am also a minimalist and have a preference, like you, for just the
Christian name on Goanet despite the expressed ire of a certain Mario
Goveia!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan Dias" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, May 07, 2006 3:36 AM
Subject: [Goanet] Re: Indian Embassy introduces machine-readable passports
These machine readable passport from Indian Embassy do not support the
hypen
character and the apostorphe.
If your surname is D'Souza or Costa-Souza the passport is printed as D
Souza
and Costa Souza. Effectively this means that your name differs in the
birth
certificate and passport.
These were introduced in Goa early this year. Attempts to correct ones
name
(if you have a - or ') at the passport office is futile.
Those who apply for student visas later or jobs abroad for work permits
will
certainly have issues.
Alan
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