Child Without Proper Paperwork

[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, adding a note that we must renew it while we're here. She didn't stamp his UK passport, and it 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

[lopburi3]

Immigration office is now at Soi 7, Chiang Watanna in the south-east corner of the new government building at the end of the soi. It will not open until next Wednesday but probably would be the best place to change entry as they often have to correct airport stamps. In this case airport was trying to help as by rules child could not enter using UK passport without outbound travel within 30 days so not sure how long it may take to get resolved on departure. Expect Chiang Watanna can take care of it easier without hurt feelings if you explain the situation that passport can not be renewed. If they say to take care of it at airport I would check in a bit early so plenty of time to explain.

[luangtom]

Is this particular problem not what the resident longtime members of this forum have talked about when using two passports? I was told that my wife should enter Thailand on her Thai passport and depart using her foreign (US) passport. So, why would this gent need to do anything extra at the airport? Arrive on Thai passport and depart on

foreign passport.

[lopburi3]

No this issue has never come up before and you never arrive on one passport and leave on another - totally forbidden.

The general rule is you use Thai passport for entry/exit of Thailand but foreign passport for entry/exit of foreign country.

In this case it would have been correct except they did not have a valid passport. But airport immigration was not aware they would not be able to obtain a replacement so tried to accommodate them (as a Thai can enter Thailand on an expired passport). The big problem now is there is no entry in the foreign passport and that is carefully checked on exit.

[Thanyaburi Mac]

No this issue has never come up before and you never arrive on one passport and leave on another - totally forbidden.

The general rule is you use Thai passport for entry/exit of Thailand but foreign passport for entry/exit of foreign country.

In this case it would have been correct except they did not have a valid passport. But airport immigration was not aware they would not be able to obtain a replacement so tried to accommodate them (as a Thai can enter Thailand on an expired passport). The big problem now is there is no entry in the foreign passport and that is carefully checked on exit.

Lop3

What do you think of the possibility of Immigration at Chang Wattana stamping the kid in to Thailand on the UK passport, sort of a "transfer" of the entry stamp, and Arrival/Departure Card details, from Immigration's computer to the UK passport details.

Might be worth asking about anyway.

Mac

[lopburi3]

That was why I recommended a visit there. Believe it should be possible but there will also be overstay involved if no extension for 7 days is issued. But normally immigration avoids this step as no fine for child but several decisions are going to have to be made, and expect at a commissioned officer level.

[samran]

Believe the OP has been given slightly muddled information by the Ampur.

The child CAN be registered, as of course, though you will have to tell a small white lie that he is now living in Thailand.

What he will need to get registered (but what he probably doesn't have on him) is his Thai birth certificate.

With the birth certificate and his thai passport showing the date of entry into the country, he can easily get on the house book. Once on the house book, he is 'in the system' and a Thai passport is very easy to procure.

[Dunnyira]

Great, thanks for all the comments. We usually do enter/exit Thailand on the kids' Thai passports but of course this time it wouldn't be a straightforward exit. I think we will visit the Thai Immigration office and thanks for letting me know they've moved from Suan plu.

Before that, we might just try putting him on a house book at a different family member's Amphur and see if we can get his passport renewed which would solve the problem. We do have his UK birth cert and translation with us.

I will let you know how it all works out. Cheers

[lopburi3]

Believe you need a Thai birth report from the Royal Thai Embassy in the UK. If that is what you have should be able to register. If just a translation of UK birth certificate do not believe it will fly.

[samran]

Believe you need a Thai birth report from the Royal Thai Embassy in the UK. If that is what you have should be able to register. If just a translation of UK birth certificate do not believe it will fly.

Thats right, I should have been clearer, a Thai birth certificate would have been issued by the Thai embassy in the UK before he was issued a passport.

[Mario2008]

A Thai can enter Thailand on a expired passport,the question now is if a Thai can leave Thailand on an expired passport. As said, In Thailand no passport can be issued, unless a person is registered on a household registration. As the issue is with the passport, I suggest contacting the consular service of the Thai Foreign ministry and present the case there. (They are the ones issuing Thai passports) They might be able to give him an emergency travel document, allowing him to leave Thailand.

[Mario2008]

<LI>Documents required for applicants under the age of 15 (for a passport)

• Birth Certificate or a certified copy from the applicant’s district office
• House Registration
• Parents or legal guardian’s Citizenship I.D. Card or the other identification card which complies to the rules of the Ministry of Interior
• A parental consent letter and a certified copy of the parent’s Citizenship I.D. Card of non-appearing parent
• Other relevant documents such as
  • Change of Name or Surname Certificate
  • Adoption/Legal Guardianship Certificate
  • Divorce Certificate
  • Divorce’s memorandum certifying sole custody of the appearing parent
  • Death Certificate of non-appearing parent
  • Judicial declaration of incompetence of non-appearing parent
  • Alien Certificate of the applicant’s parents

http://www.mfa.go.th/web/473.php?id=3167

So a copy of the Birth registration might be acquired in Thailand. That leaves the household registration.

Website of consular affairs department:

http://www.consular.go.th/ (in Thai)

[Dunnyira]

Hello, thank you all for the helpful comments and advice. We are now back home and the outcome was as follows: We were unable to renew my son's passport while in Thailand because we did not have the house registration. A bemused supervisor at the Department of Consular Affairs said there was no good reason for my family's local amphur office not to register my son at that address; we did have his Certificate of Thai birth from London with us and they should have registered him which would have saved us a lot of grief. As we were out of time, we didnt bother going back to that or any other Amphur office.

The new Immigration office in Chiang Wattana would not amend or transfer his entry stamp, but contacted the Immigration Officer who originally stamped him in and we had to go see her at Suvarnabhumi where she kindly stamped his UK passport with the original entry date, gave him 30 days, and with no overstay fines for children we left Thailand unmolested on 1st August as planned (35 days after arriving).

We will now renew his Thai passport through the Embassy in London and make sure not to make the same mistake again in future.

Thanks again to all here for your help

[lopburi3]

Thanks for the feedback. It is helpful for others to see how it was handled.