I will be having my first child any day now and I have a question about the birth certificate and a non-im "o" visa. After reading the non "O" required documents I saw that it said your child's birth certificate with your name on it, and that you name must be the same as in your passport.

This is in contradiction to the information the hospital gave us which said that I need to get my name translated into Thai and then have it authenticated and bring it to the hospital so that my name can be written in Thai on the Birth certificate.

So what should I do? Should my name be in Thai or in English and if it needs to be in Thai then will I have any issues with visas or residency because the name on the birth certificate is not the same as the name on my passport?

It is true that everything on the birth certificate, including a foreign parent’s name, is written in Thai. If you already have some official document – marriage certificate, driving license, work permit – with your name in Thai, use that name. Otherwise, get it translated and, if the hospital wants it, certified.

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Maestro

My daughter was born in July and the hospital sent my passport details as well as my wife's ID to the local government who issued the birth certificate. I stated how we wanted her name to be spelt as it is an English name and my wife confirmed their interpretation of this in Thai.

My name and our daughter's are are in Thai. Nothing "certified" was required.

As long as the official translation back into English comes out as her and my right names then we will be ok. If not, they will have to translate it again until it does equal what we want.

Ok, sounds good. So just bring our marraige certificate.

Thanks

Believe the hospital has probably had problems in the past. A birth certificate can not be changed once issued - only additional amendments documents can be issued; so they are trying to get it right the first time.

And the problem can happen to Thai also. Our granddaughter had her first name transposed (two Thai names together) and amended. Had extreme problems getting on a return flight from Chiang Mai because of name not matching ticket (they failed to read down to the amendment page of birth certificate and even after doing so had to get higher approval to allow 3 year old to fly. You want to get it right.