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306 points jameshh | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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pbhjpbhj ◴[] No.44411453[source]
I too have enjoyed a game of *Passport Application* by proxy.

One of the interesting rules the OP doesn't appear to mention is the 'mutable history' rule. Herein, the facts contained in a single document can alter over even short periods of time requiring that a document, already scanned into the Examiners system of fact recording, can be required to be returned for subsequent scans. Verifying documents have not altered in their facts is, some say, tacit acknowledgement by the Examiner breed that a multiverse exists.

The communication channel between the "NPC" telephone agents and the Examiners appears to be somewhat akin to prayer, only vague inferences can truly be received.

Aside, I suspect the OP maybe be a Mornington Crescent aficianado; a game seemingly similar in rule-topology to the aforementioned Passport Application.

replies(1): >>44411711 #
tanh ◴[] No.44411711[source]
Yes and in the British system names can be fluid, changed at will with no declarations being made. That’s how my mother was able to register my birth with the surname of her mother’s third (!) marriage. Birth certificates are also immutable in certain ways but not entirely everything on it is immutable.

Not to mention the passport office has forgotten previous decisions for my own passport where this sort of surname discrepancy has been explained away. (Including one passport where I am listed on a page of her passport!)

The NPCs are infuriating. I called, emailed and received a different answer every time. It was like a poor LLM.

After applying I had to explain to my mother that within the same batch of applications, one daughter required additional UK documents but the other one didn’t (the passport came), purely because one was born in the UK and the other one wasn’t. She rightly flipped out, raised it with an MP and it was resolved within a day.

replies(1): >>44412613 #
1. pbhjpbhj ◴[] No.44412613[source]
Similarly for us, siblings each required different treatment. Even when part of the same application. All born in the same UK hospital to the same parents and having the same home address. Fun.

It was interesting to speculate what exactly the one child whose passport came months later had done that warranted the Examiner's extra scrutiny. Something to do with reincarnation I expect.

replies(1): >>44414011 #
2. tanh ◴[] No.44414011[source]
That's absurd! I hope it's all sorted out now. Personally hoping my kids won't have trouble when they turn 18 and have to interview.