Hope someone can help or advise.  I'm married to a Thai who lives with me in the UK, her Thai son died not so long ago and the birth mother cannot take care of their baby son now, and is willing for us to become his legal guardians.  My wife is currently looking after him. Ultimately we want to adopt him. 

Can someone point me in the right direction where I can start this process and who to contact in the UK. I think that's covered the basics.

Regards. D.

If the childs mother is willing then she can go to the amphur and sign the letter of consent for the child to go and live with his grandmother. That is no problem at all but you do realise that because the child is not a direct descendant of yours that he will need to get a visa to enter the UK. I am not sure what type of visa that you could go for....whether you need a travel visa and change it later or whether there is an appropriate visa for your circumstances. You would have to find out from the UK government.

Once the child is over there and in your care then you can start looking into adopting him. Hope this helps a bit.

HL

 

With respect, happylarry's advice is meaningless. I won't sugar coat my own advice, and don't take my advice as 100% gospel. You cannot just get a "letter of consent" and take a child to another country.  There is no provision in the UK Immigration Rules for taking a relative to the UK, other than those relatives that are covered by the rules - spouse/partner/children/aged relatives. A statement such as "the birth mother cannot take care of their baby son now" is not a reason to take a child to another country either.  The OP and his wife have a couple of choices. They can try to adopt the child legally in Thailand. Any such adoption would have to a court adoption under the Hague Convention. Thailand has signed the Convention, but most countries will still not recognise adoptions from Thailand as genuine.  Or they can consider a "de facto" adoption, which means that they will have to live with child, outside of the UK, for 12 -18 months. After that, the UKVI might issue an adoption visa. Or they can make a compassionate visa application outside of the immigration rules with very compelling circumstances why the child should be allowed to go to live in the UK with grandmother. That would be a very difficult application, especially as the child's mother, and possibly other relatives too, is still alive.  The Immigration Rules are designed to stop people just taking relatives, friends or children to the UK in order to have a better life, and the OP and his wife would have to prove that this is not the case. 

best of luck with that one mate in about 10 or 12 years time.

4 hours ago, Tony M said:

With respect, happylarry's advice is meaningless. I won't sugar coat my own advice, and don't take my advice as 100% gospel. You cannot just get a "letter of consent" and take a child to another country.  There is no provision in the UK Immigration Rules for taking a relative to the UK, other than those relatives that are covered by the rules - spouse/partner/children/aged relatives. A statement such as "the birth mother cannot take care of their baby son now" is not a reason to take a child to another country either.  The OP and his wife have a couple of choices. They can try to adopt the child legally in Thailand. Any such adoption would have to a court adoption under the Hague Convention. Thailand has signed the Convention, but most countries will still not recognise adoptions from Thailand as genuine.  Or they can consider a "de facto" adoption, which means that they will have to live with child, outside of the UK, for 12 -18 months. After that, the UKVI might issue an adoption visa. Or they can make a compassionate visa application outside of the immigration rules with very compelling circumstances why the child should be allowed to go to live in the UK with grandmother. That would be a very difficult application, especially as the child's mother, and possibly other relatives too, is still alive.  The Immigration Rules are designed to stop people just taking relatives, friends or children to the UK in order to have a better life, and the OP and his wife would have to prove that this is not the case. 

Tony, it is just a simple matter of going to the amphur and getting an official letter so that the child can leave Thailand with the mothers consent. However as I said in my post the child will then need a UK visa which I do not know any details about and said so. Therefore you could say the rest of my post was meaningless but the reason I posted was to inform the op about the amphur letter, or maybe you dont agree with that either.