It’s definitely not a hard and fast procedure that is followed. Again though, the passports were not with the kids and had expired. Perhaps many years expired. If parents are both travelling with their Thai kids, my understanding is that a consent to travel document is not required. Both parents are present and can give consent on the spot. If one parent is missing, technically, the missing parent should give a consent to travel letter, authorized by the Amphur. The Amphur has a template, the parent who is not travelling signs it and the Amphur stamps it with their red seal. I say technically for two reasons. Firstly it seems that a foreign father doesn’t count for much, so a Thai mother would routinely be able to travel without her child, without a consent letter from the father. Secondly, it’s hit and miss whether a child travelling with a foreign father will be asked to produce a consent letter signed by the mother and stamped at the Amphur. I have been asked for it when travelling with my daughter, but also I have not been asked for it. The children may or may not have been born in China or Thailand. The issue is, what nationality are they now. If I read the story correctly, they had passports proving Chinese citizenship (valid Chinese passports) but not a single valid document proving Thai citizenship. No ID card, no valid passport, no consent to travel document. A birth certificate doesn’t prove current citizenship, so whilst evidence of possible Thai citizenship, not conclusive proof. The point here is that when you and I travel with our children, they have current passports for both Thailand and UK. They must exit Thailand on their Thai passports and can enter the UK or other countries on their British passports. How did these kids exit Thailand without Thai passports? You can’t exit Thailand on a foreign passport, unless you entered Thailand on that foreign passport. I know about this because when my daughter was about 8, we were due to fly to Spain. Her Thai passport had expired by just a few weeks and I mistakenly thought she could just fly on her UK passport, which was current. We were refused at the check in counter because she was living in Thailand as a Thai person, so had to exit using a Thai passport. Even though I had the recently expired passport with me, it was not accepted I mean, we don’t have all the facts so it’s hard to be conclusive and also there is an element of subjective judgement by immigration, but all I am saying is that there are red flags that bear consideration. There is no conclusive proof that the kids currently have Thai nationality.
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