Can anyone advise the Thai visa requirements for expat (British/Australian) children in Thailand ? I have been told that I have to leave the country to get my new born son a visa as I have a work permit and they need to put him on the work permit.

However, a friend of mine has informed me that he has a owrk permit and has 3 children, but because they are younger than the age of 7 he has never had to have a visa for them and brings them in on 30 day tourist visa. He tells me the authorities have never fined him at passport control when leaving the country again (way beyond the 30 days) as they are children and it is understood that they do not have to leave every 30 days.

Does anyone else have experience of this and can verify one way or another ?

Cheers

Ian

Hi Ian,

My born-in-Thailand expat son does not need to leave the country to apply for a visa.

When I inquired with the immigration officer at the airport he said that children will 'follow either parent's visa' until 7 years of age (someone told me 6, some said 12, but since you mentioned it, 7 years old seems to be the 'limit').

Hence if I have a valid visa, work permit, etc. it is not necessary for the child to apply for a separate visa.

Whenever we leave the country we are directed to the immigration office within the airport to check out .

The immigration officer wrote some Thai words in my son's passport next to the exit stamp, indicating that he is 'not overstaying'.

Moved to the Thai visas and residency sub-forum.

Scouse.

Another option is to get an extension of stay because of a Thai parent.

1,900 Baht per year.

CC.

Everyone requires a visa. To "follow" requires a starting visa and then extensions of stay. But children will not be fined for overstay (although there passports are marked) so most people do not worry about it. In your case it sounds as if they will add the child to your yearly extensions of stay if you get a visa for him so I would do that. If you are not on a one year extension of stay and it is really about the work permit don't have any idea why a child would need to be on a work permit.

Can anyone advise the Thai visa requirements for expat (British/Australian) children in Thailand ? I have been told that I have to leave the country to get my new born son a visa as I have a work permit and they need to put him on the work permit.

However, a friend of mine has informed me that he has a owrk permit and has 3 children, but because they are younger than the age of 7 he has never had to have a visa for them and brings them in on 30 day tourist visa. He tells me the authorities have never fined him at passport control when leaving the country again (way beyond the 30 days) as they are children and it is understood that they do not have to leave every 30 days.

Does anyone else have experience of this and can verify one way or another ?

Cheers

Ian

what everyone here says is true, and what you have heard is also true - both are valud options, so you have two options from which to choose.

The firm I used to work for definetly encouraged the expat staff to get their newborns onto their parents visas whenever the first opportunity arose. This essentially meant that the first time bubs left the country, one of the stops would be the Thai embassy or consulate in that country where a non-immigrant 'O' visa would be issued. The child would re-enter Thailand on that visa and it would be officially extended on the basis of one of the parents work permit. With the company paying for and organising everything, it wasn't so much of a hassel.

As others have said though, it is common to exempt overstays till they are much older.

If they go to school here, get them an education visa.

My daughter was born in Bangkok and has travelled regularly to Australia since she was 3 months old, and everytime there has been questions re: daughters visa and delays (walk to overstay counter for stamp) at airport immigration and even though they've said that she doesn't need a visa until she is 7 (or 14 depending on the immigration officer) - the fact that they consider her as having "overstayed" always made me feel uncomfortable, especially with all the visa rule changes. So during my last visit to Australia to renew my visa, I applied for an education visa for my daughter (had letter from her school, her thai birth certificate, my marriage certificate as I have kept my maiden name while my daughter has her fathers) and was granted one without any hassles. I was then granted a non-imm O based on the fact that I'm her mother, without needing additional documents (bank, house papers, proof of income, etc).

All I can say is when we had a different experience when we arrived back here on our new visa's - just a quick glance up to make sure we were the proper passport holders, stamp and sent through in less than a minute

Poster question appears to be about in Thailand working and on one year extensions of stay - there is no reason to use ED as visa class and have to have 500k in a bank account. At age zero it might be difficult also. Dependent child receives matching extensions of stay.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=113621

The 90 in 180 day rule applies to kids. And realize that your kids need legit visas....sure they don charge overstay now(except at some border crossings,like Sadao) for children, but what would prevent them from changing it tomorrow. Realize the law doesn't make a distinction on age, the distinction on age is a immigration rule and rules can be changed on a whim. Do you want your children's life in Thailand to be based on the whim of a thai official