What'S Best To Do?

[Dunnyira]

Here's one for you:

We arrived in Thailand on holiday 4 weeks ago. My son (aged 8) has two passports, UK and Thailand. We found out too late that his Thai pasport expired in Nov 2009. When we arrived at Suvarnabhumi, the Immigration supervisor let him in and stamped his Thai passport with a note that we must renew it while we're here. She didn't stamp his UK passport, and our doesn't have a visa in it (we are staying for 35 days).

After many hours of bureaucratic tail chasing, we have eventually found out that the passport office will not renew his passport here as he does not have a Thai address registered at a local amphur office, and our family's local amphur office will not register him at the family home as he was born in the UK and does not live in Thailand.

So he is now in Thailand with an expired Thai passport which has his entry stamp in it and a valid UK passport without a visa stamp. We are leaving Thailand next saturday, and I'm not sure whether to go to Sathorn Immigration office beforehand to try and clear things up, or wait until we go to the airport next week.

Any thoughts/suggestions here would be much appreciated.

Thanks

[SunbeltAsiaExpert]

You are required to go to the Immigration Office's Chaengwattana Road Location in Bangkok with your wife and son and have them put a valid stamp on his UK Passport asap. The stamp placed on an expired Thai passport should be with you during the meeting with the Immigration officers. We suggest bringing an Immigration attorney with you to this meeting. Proper attire is also important when dealing with Immigration officials. There is a possibility that Immigration will only consider your son to be a Thai Citizen, as he holds a Thai Passport (albeit an expired one), and they may refuse to transfer the stamp to his UK passport. In that case, you must get him a new Thai Passport at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (this ministry is located in the same building).

While there are avenues you may later try to pursue if this is unsuccessful including meeting with the British consulate office to liaise with Thai officials but it is best to try to expedite this in a non-confrontational way.

If you would like us to assist you please feel free to contact us:

You can contact Sunbelt Asia at (66)2-642-0213 or email us here. Please visit our website for more information on doing business, working, investing, traveling, owning real estate, or starting your own business in Thailand at www.sunbeltasiagroup.com. We are located at 1 Ratchadaphisek Rd., Floor 26, Bangkok, Thailand 10400 and can easily be reached by public transportation at the Rama 9 subway stop, with the office located in the CP Tower II inside the Fortune Town complex.

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