Gold Card For Newborn

[BuddhistDruid]

My wife and I have been trying to have children for over 10 years. After exhausting every conceivable avenue we finally succeeded using her sister in law as a gestational surrogate (my wife and I are the genetic mother and father).

The surrogate is pregnant with twins, and due to the high risk nature of the pregnancy, we have elected to bring her down to Bangkok to attend a government hospital here that has an appropriate NICU. We have little confidence the hospital upcountry can deal with any issues. They even expressed concern that they were ill equipped to handle complications from the pregnancy. They may not be legally allowed to say this, but everyone, including the staff at the upcountry hospital, would feel better if the final stages occurred in Bangkok. My question is, what happens in the event of premature delivery?

I am not a wealthy man and my wife and I have exhausted our savings for the IVF procedures. I can not afford to pay for an extended stay in the NICU in the event of a premature birth, even in a government hospital. My wife is Thai and the surrogate is Thai. The children will receive their Thai nationality based on the surrogate, as Thailand does not allow prebirth orders listing the genetic mother as the actual mother of the child. The surrogate is not legally married, but has only had the village ceremony to my brother in law. I will be listed as the father.

Currently, we are forced to pay all medical expenses for the surrogate out of pocket, as she can only receive free coverage via the gold card scheme in her home town upcountry. What happens when the twins are born?

My questions are:

1) Who will be eligible to apply for a gold card for them? It will take me a minimum of 2 months to legalise my parental rights through the court, and the surrogate will sign over 100% custody to me. My wife must legally adopt the children, which will take upwards of 1 year. At the moment of birth, only the surrogate will have any legal standing with regards to the children.

2) Can they be added to our house papers here in Bangkok immediately after the birth, or must they appear on the surrogate's papers? What if we add the surrogate to our house paper here in Bangkok before the birth?

3) If they are listed on the surrogate's house papers upcountry, will the hospital here in Bangkok still take care of them under the regulations that allow for emergency services to be provided anywhere in the country? Moving a patient, especially a newborn, in intensive care is generally considered a life threatening event.

4) How long does it usually take to apply for a gold card, and what will the hospital do in the mean time if the mother is currently admitted on a cash basis?

Any advice is appreciated on the best way to handle this problem. The twins are due August 1. They have just reached the stage where they are technically viable if born early, and I am obviously concerned about how to proceed in that event. Statistics say they are unlikely to make it to full term. If they are born before 32 weeks, the cost can be substantial.

Mods: I am not sure if these questions are better asked in the Insurance or Health section. Please move if you feel they are more appropriate elsewhere.

[torrenova]

First things, you personally must be the one to register the birth. Not the hospital, not the taxi driver, you personally. At that point, your name will appear on the birth certificate in two places, both at the top where you will be listed as the father and at the bottom where you will be listed as the person registering the birth. This is crucially important in Thai law because as you and the birth mother are not married, you will have no rights unless you either marry later or you go to court. If you register the birth yourself, then you bypass all this rubbish and you are legitimately recognised as the father in law with equal rights as the mother. Beware of any hospital offers of assistance to help you. Do not give them your passport or your wife's ID card as what they may do as a kindness can cost you millions of baht and years of your life to rectify. You should prepare the name for your children and agree the spelling. My daughter has an English name and her mother had to agree the Thai translation. Do this as soon as you can but do not get the hospital involved as they may screw things up big time.

The children will have dual nationality from birth through you.

I am sorry but I cannot help on the house papers. I know it is possible to be on more than 1 house paper so why not add her to your house paper unless specifically advised not to ? I do not know about the insurance either I am afraid.

To add some practicality, though not quite "legal", if your sister in law were to use your wife's ID (even if she had to have a new one made with a new photo which "fitted the purpose") then your wife could "technically" give birth to your children and the only people who would know would be you three. It obviously depends upon the sister in law being able to remember which name she was using for the few days but I doubt this would be the first time such a thing happened, particularly as you would be registering the birth etc. Sometimes I find sisters quite difficult to tell apart and you know how the wrong names can sometimes be put in the right boxes on these complicated forms.

[TerryLH]

"I know it is possible to be on more than 1 house paper so why not add her to your house paper unless specifically advised not to ?"

Are you sure about that? I think that when they put their name in a house book they have to be taken off the old one.

[torrenova]

"I know it is possible to be on more than 1 house paper so why not add her to your house paper unless specifically advised not to ?"

Are you sure about that? I think that when they put their name in a house book they have to be taken off the old one.

Nope, my missus is on more than one. What do you think happens if a Thai owns more than one house ? nobody on house book ?