A Will for your child but not Thai citizenship

[AMichigan]

Hi,

I wonder anyone has experience put a will for your child. I'm a Thai citizenship lives in US. I own a land, house in Thailand inherits from my parents. Can I set up a will and give those assets to my son. He is 7 years old US citizenship. I don't want him to have two citizenships at the moment. Just because more works related to the issue when he is 17 years old. I want to prepare for the future and reduce messiness could relate to the financial. Thank you for any information you suggest.

 

AJ

[Swiss1960]

Few points, as I have made wills for both me and wife, involving children:

• you should think about setting up two wills, one for all US assets and one for all Thai assets. The Thai will should be in Thai and English, set up and notarized in Thailand through a lawyer. With only a US will mentioning the Thai assets, this will would have to be translated and verified and put in front of a Thai court to be accepted under Thai laws. This will be a considerable work for the executor of the will. Having a Thai will has the additional advantage that once your death is established in front of a Thai court of law, any Thai relatives will have no chance to grab the land off your son while a US will goes through all the legal hoops.
• you will of course be aware that your son - being non-Thai - can inherit your house and land BUT will have to dispose of it, normally within a year (that would be the case for me and the land I would inherit from my Thai wife). If he would now have the Thai citizenship, he could keep the land and house and later do with it what he wants. Withholding it from him only makes this particular matter much more complicated.
• your will will need to specify both guardianship and executor of the will. The executor (normally a Thai person with the help of a lawyer) will go through all the legal proceedings enabling change of names on the chanote, bank accounts etc. The Guardian would then need to either dispose of house of land on behalf of your son or keep the assets together until your son is of age to take them over himself. Guardian and Executor can be the same, but given that you live in the US, I assume that you would have a US guardian and a separate Thai executor.

Good thing that you want to prepare for such an event, will pray for you that you will not need it.

[Kwasaki]

If your son gets Thai citizenship like it or not,  job done unless there's other family that has a claim on what you say you own. 

[Preacher]

If you were married to the mother when the child was born your son has Thai nationality, period. Only the Thai government doesn't know he is Thai as long as his birth is not registered with the Thai embassy.

[MikeyIdea]

On 2/1/2021 at 9:15 AM, Swiss1960 said:

The Guardian would then need to either dispose of house of land on behalf of your son or keep the assets together until your son is of age to take them over himself. Guardian and Executor can be the same, but given that you live in the US, I assume that you would have a US guardian and a separate Thai executor.

Dispose of asset owned by a minor: Yes by law that needs to be done but you must normally have a court order to dispose of assets owned by a minor. Is it in the best interest of the child? I doubt that a juvenile court would order if it can be proven that the child is Thai by descent, regardless of if citizenship is registered or not. Can an executor really do it without a court order in this special case?  Interesting case ????

Quite a few countries in the world has made it impossible for descendants to get citizenship after the parent has died, is it really worth the hassle and possibly risk?

[Dogmatix]

A foreigner can inherit land in Thailand which can be held in the name of the estate, which is considered a Thai legal entity, for 12 months.  The estate needs to or transfer the land in that time and the proceeds can go to the foreign heirs.  

 

You son is Thai anyway.  If he lives overseas and is unlikely to live in Thailand before he is 30, the best way may be to get him a Thai birth certificate and passport at the Thai embassy or consulate but not register him on a tabian baan or try to get an ID card in Thailand.  After the age of 30 he is no longer eligible for the draft and can go to Thailand and get on a relative's tabian baan and get an ID which would allow land to be transferred to his name.  Of course that can be done at any age and the issue of military service is unlikely to be a problem unless he resides in Thaialnd and needs an ID card before 30.  If he were to visit Thailand on holiday and use his US passport, no one would know he was Thai anyway.  They are not proactive about rounding up people who have missed the draft.  They only catch people who need an ID card or need military exemption papers to get a job and then they only want money to fix it. Deserters are a different matter but there is even a statute of limiation on that.