Adopting Children In Thailand

[Crow Boy]

My wife is Thai and we are married by legal title. She has a son who I want to adopt. There is no fathers name on his birth certificate.

Has anyone gone through the process of adopting their partner's child and can give me the process of doing it properly?

thanks

[kiwi fishing bangkok]

I would also like to know more about this, as it worries me what position I could be in with kids if anything happened to my wife.

any information would be good, who deals with this, what departments? I understand you go to the lawyer, but some information from people who have been there and done it would be great!

[newcomer01]

Best thing is to contact the Child adoption centre in person with your personal details and get all the correct forms. In Thailand it is best to get the latest info and forms.

Their address is:

Child adoption Centre

Rajcharithi Home for Girls

Rajcharithi Rd

Bkk 10400

Thailand

tel: 02-2468651 02-2475084 Note this is an old number, I think there is an extra digit now

Email: [email protected]

They are located near the monument BTS station. (not walking distance, get a taxi).

Expect a long wait there, they are normally quite busy.

Don't expect it to be done quickly, there are a lot of things to do just for the application - references. , financial status - assets, medicals, Embassy letter, Thai paperwork, home visits after the appplication. Remain calm.

If you are not living in Bangkok I believe there are offices in all the major towns.

Check this website http://travel.state.gov/family/adoption/co...ountry_337.html although is is for bringing & children to the US the forms & requirements are basically the same for all Farangs even if you are living in Thailand and married to a Thai. Also http://www.thai-consulate.org.hk/worddoc/guidelines.doc , http://www.thai-la.net/etc/adopting1.htm.

I see that you are in Chiangmai so if you find a adoption office in Chiangmai let us know.

Good luck

Edited January 13, 2007 by newcomer01

[Crow Boy]

Best thing is to contact the Child adoption centre in person with your personal details and get all the correct forms. In Thailand it is best to get the latest info and forms.

Their address is:

Child adoption Centre

Rajcharithi Home for Girls

Rajcharithi Rd

Bkk 10400

Thailand

Thanks for the reply but we are talking slightly at cross purposes. The information you provided is for people who want to adopt a child from outside their family unit.

The situation I have is that my wife has a child and I want to become the adoptive parent. This is significantly different.

The reasons for wanting to do this are many and varied but I want to ensure that legally he is my son. Some time ago a friend's wife was killed in a motor accident. She had two children by a previous partner and he lost both of them because despite him wanting to keep them and them wanting to stay with their father (him) he had no legal tie to keep them. He lost his wife and then his children as a result, despite being their father for more than six years.

[kiwi fishing bangkok]

I am looking for the same thing, it worries me that if I lost my wife I could loose my kids to, so any information on the topic would be great.

[newcomer01]

I can understand you wanting to safeguard your children security(wife's).

I cannot offer correct legal advice but as you said there are 2 scenarios:

ADOPT

I do know that if you wish to adopt the children (even if they are your wifes) you have to go through the process as if were you are adopting as a couple.

You also have to go through the process as if you were living overseas because the view is that at some point in the future you may wish to take the children away from the country.

Legal Guardian ( I assume this would be the correct term).

In this situation I suggest that you contact the Child Adoption service or a Lawyer. Perhaps in a will ???

As a sidenote previously adoptive children cannot be used as part of the extension visa applications. (long stay - Spouse - dependent , Retirement). This may have changed.

Once again good luck and keep us posted.

Edited January 16, 2007 by newcomer01

[frankthetank]

Best thing is to contact the Child adoption centre in person with your personal details and get all the correct forms. In Thailand it is best to get the latest info and forms.

Their address is:

Child adoption Centre

Rajcharithi Home for Girls

Rajcharithi Rd

Bkk 10400

Thailand

Thanks for the reply but we are talking slightly at cross purposes. The information you provided is for people who want to adopt a child from outside their family unit.

The situation I have is that my wife has a child and I want to become the adoptive parent. This is significantly different.

The reasons for wanting to do this are many and varied but I want to ensure that legally he is my son. Some time ago a friend's wife was killed in a motor accident. She had two children by a previous partner and he lost both of them because despite him wanting to keep them and them wanting to stay with their father (him) he had no legal tie to keep them. He lost his wife and then his children as a result, despite being their father for more than six years.

hi crow boy, do not know about thailand, but i adopted my wifes daughter here in the u.k.. we (my wife and I) had to apply to adopt her, as the action of adoption is to remove parental responsibility from the natural parents and bestow it upon the new adoptive parents. thus removing any future claim on the child by the natural parents.

also had to have extended criminal records check.

numerous interviews with social services, on my own, with the wife and with the wife and daughter. they had individual interviews also.

whether this is the way the thai agencies would go about this, i cannot say, but after 8 months, the wait was worth it to me.

please accept my wish of good luck and smooth passage thru this wonderfully fulfilling event.

regards, frank

[Thai-Aust]

Since the father is not on the child's birth certificate, it is easy to adopt the child. If you're married to the mother, simply let the mother do her bit. Go to amphor, have the mother consent you as an adoptive father. Before you go, ring them up and ask what documents needed so that you won't waste your time.

Good Luck.

[boonbohmee]

I'm in quite the similar situation. My wife had a child when I met her. He was less than a year old so knows only me as father. She left the real father when she was only a few months pregnant, but for some reason put his name on the birth certificate.

We tried to change his name over to mine, as would be done quite easily at the local jungwat if I were a Thai man. Instead we were directed to the provincial hall and were given a huge list of paperwork which would need to be delivered in Bangkok.

It took about a month to get our huge stack together and and were quite excited when we travelled to the big stink. I was surprised to find out that we had to go through adoption. They took about a third of our paperwork and gave us some more lists of paperwork and hurdles.

That was a few years ago.

We were frustrated and gave up.

It just seems so stupid for a mother and her husband to have to go through an adoption process.

We've talked lately about my wife tracking down the boy's father and getting him to sign off.

Please post if you have any success changing your child's name over to yours.

[think_too_mut]

I'm in quite the similar situation. My wife had a child when I met her. He was less than a year old so knows only me as father. She left the real father when she was only a few months pregnant, but for some reason put his name on the birth certificate.

We tried to change his name over to mine, as would be done quite easily at the local jungwat if I were a Thai man. Instead we were directed to the provincial hall and were given a huge list of paperwork which would need to be delivered in Bangkok.

Are you for real?

[boonbohmee]

Yep,

Been married for seven years now and have added two more children to the roster.

Expect someday to have problems because my eldest son has a name different than the rest of us.

[bkk_mike]

It's ridiculous, but adopting a stepchild is the same paperwork, references, etc. as adopting a child that's not a stepchild.

It means there's a LOT of paperwork involved, and rules that you invariably run into because you're not Thai. (i.e. After some problems with traficking a few years ago, they introduced restrictions on non-Thais adopting Thai children. - Which means even adopting step-children is a long drawn-out process.)