Hi, am looking for some guidance please if anyone can help? 

My current situation is as follows :
 

1) I am British, living in UK with my Thai wife, our son (British) and daughter (Thai) from my wife’s previous relationship, now 13 (raised by me since 2 years old). 
2) My wife and step daughter have lived in UK for 11 years, we were married in UK, and we have simply been renewing their FLR visas, mainly due to finances. 
3) My wife and daughter still have Thai passports in their maiden names. 
 

We now wish to make the visas permanent and eventually obtain British citizenship/passports for them too. I also wish to formally adopt my daughter so she has our family name. 
 

When we have spoken to the adoption place in UK, they say we need to change the family information in Thailand first. However the Amphur in Thailand say we have to get marriage certificate translated and then adopt via a Bangkok office first. But no one seem too sure. 
 

I just wondered if anyone else had been through a similar situation and could provide some advice. We will be in Hua Hin later this week so hoping to translate any docs there if might be possible. 
 

Many thanks in advance. 
 

John 

Hi John, a few years back now but I don't see any change, I took my Thai wife and two step kids to live in the Uk and like you thought to adopt them but it turned out to be a load of hassle involving visits from welfare officers and much much more and talk about a two year period before completion, so one of the welfare ladies suggested I do a simple change of surname, which my solicitor did for me, took a few days only. Now they have my British surname same as their mother.As  an after bonus we divorced three years later and she tried to claim child support from me for them  but failed, where if I had adopted them she would  have been entitled to .

you want to hear a crazy story...

(not mine)

 

something like that ... real son of husband and daughter of new wife ended up ... marry each other after 15 years of living as brother & sister

 

lol

 

regarding Thailand adoptions and documents required, check the below website

https://www.dcy.go.th/webnew/main/index.php

 

good luck, be patient as it will take some (long) time

I adopted my Wife’s Thai daughter last year in the UK but she kept her Thai surname. The adopted daughter automatically becomes British but if she has a Thai passport then a British passport can only be issued in the same name. We didn’t get involved with Thailand at all apart from the court here writing to the natural father to see if he objected. He did but didn’t pursue that. It does take over a year to get it all sorted but well worth it and of course saves money as no ILR for the child. Hope this helps.