My Thai wife and I (Australian) live in Australia and we have returned to Thailand for 2 months for a little business and family visit. We have an 8 month old little girl (born in Australia) and thought while we are here we would get her a Thai Passport. We contacted the Thai consulate in Australia before coming and were told all we needed was her birth certificate, Aussie Passport, and our passports and marriage certificates.

We went to the office in Songkhla today with more documents than required (just to be sure as it is Thailand!) and were told we didn't have enough. .....hehehe....as if it could be so simple!

They said that before applying for the passport they wanted a translated birth certificate which needed to be sent to Bangkok for authenticity of translation, her (my daughters) name needed to be added to my wifes family book (the little blue book), and other stuff that I couldn't quite get my head around.

Is this correct? I'm confused because we can actually get my daughter a Thai passport in Australia with only her birth certificate and Aussie passport. We just thought we'd do it here to save a couple of dollars and it was convenient while we were here. I explained this to the people at the office and they said the Thai passport that would be issued from Australia isn't a "Proper/true" passport and would have a limited time frame (3 months - 1 year).

Can anyone give me some solid info?

Regards

Dave Had a gut full of the red tape and completely illogical systems sometimes used in Thailand

You should do this on Oz. You obtain a Thai birth certificate (using what you have from Oz) at the Thai Embassy and they can then obtain a passport. It is almost impossible to do from Thailand. The passport issued in Oz is the same passport issued in Thailand as far as I know.

aaarrr....the "Thai" birth certificate sounds like the key to getting a passport....hence the translation required. Should have known it couldn't be so simple. Think we'll go the Aussie option to cut the run around. Thanks Lop!