Dual National Children Thai-Us And Thai-French

[thaisail]

I have been living in Thailand for 7 years and I am born a US citizen and got French citizenship 17 years ago through marriage to my first wife who was born in France. My daughter who is now 4 years old was born in Phuket and has been in and out of Thailand at least 10 times on trips to Malaysia on our sail boat and to the US, Guam and Saipan. Since my daughter was 3 weeks old she has had a US passport and a Thai passport. Each time we sail our boat to Malaysia, my daughter travels on her Thai passport leaving Thailand and entering Malaysia and same for the return. She does not use her US passport at all for travel to Malaysia. However when my daughter travels to the states, she leaves Thailand with her Thai passport. She gets a white card stapled into her Thai passport and that passport is no longer used until returning to Thailand. She enters the US with her US passport as required by US law. When she leaves the US, she departs the US with her Thai passport (only by presenting her passport to the airlines), there is usually no immigration control leaving the US like there is in Thailand. When entering Thailand, we simply fill out the white card and when she enters Thailand, the immigration officers removes the white card and she gets her Thai passport stamped to enter Thailand. No problems with this method over the past 4 years of travel with at least 3 trips to the US and Guam.

Now, I have a French friend who lives in Thailand with his Thai wife and dual national daughter Thai-French. His daughter however is born in France and is also 4 years old. He told me that having dual nationality in Thailand is illegal. Is this true? My friend told me that his daughter is getting a visa in her Thai passport to go to France for a holiday even though she has a valid French passport. If I did the same, this would be illegal for my daughter to enter the US with a Thai passport and subject to a $100 fine if she is caught. The US immigration law forbids US citizens from entering the US with a foreign passport. This prevents US citizens from traveling to and from the US without paying the cost of a US passport.

Now I have to go to France in June 2013 for my 24 year old son's wedding and I want to bring my wife and daughter with me. I am also a dual national with a US and French passport. So when I travel to France, I enter France with my French passport which I thought was required since I am a dual citizen. But now, I am having difficulty getting a tourist visa for my Thai wife because she is married to a French citizen, me! So, I am now working on the documents to get my wife and I a "family book" for France and through that to get a French passport for my Thai daughter which will make her a citizen of three countries! My daughter however does not need a visa to go to France she is holding a US passport which will entitle her to enter France under the visa waiver program which is not available to my Thai wife who has only Thai citizenship. I have one year to get my papers in order so that I can get a French visa for my wife in time for the wedding. My wife has a 10 year multiple entry visa for the US but that will not help her to be able to enter Thailand.

Now, in order to get the French government to recognize our Thai marriage, I have to translate the divorce documents from English to French and send them to France so that the divorce between me and my French ex wife can be made legal. My first marriage to my French wife was in 1984 in Los Angeles and my divorce was in Saipan in 2006. Saipan falls under the US law even though it is Commonwealth of the US and not a state or territory, kind of like Puerto Rico. I am having a night mare to get all these English and Thai documents translated and supplied to the French consulate in Bangkok. As you may have heard from other Thai Visa people the French are not making this task easy and they have already made me drive two times from Phuket to Bangkok to work on documents. It was bad enough to do for the US government in order to make all the paperwork legal for the US which took 6 months to complete. But now it is looking like it will take one year to complete jumping through all the hoops that the French consulate have prepared for me.

Finally, my question is: Does my Thai daughter, born in Thailand have to travel to France with her Thai passport and in this case get a visa for France in order to avoid problems when she returns to Thailand. My French friend told me that that the French consulate advised him not to allow his daughter to travel to France with her French passport because there is a risk that when returning to Thailand, the immigration officer may want to see her departure stamp from France before putting her Thai entry stamp into her Thai passport. In the US, there is no departure stamp put in the US passport when leaving the US and also no entry stamp is put in the US passport when entering the US with a US passport. I am not sure what the policy of France will be for entering France with a French passport.

All of the immigration officers that I deal with when making my twice annual trips to Langkawi with my US flag boat know that my daughter has a US and a Thai passport and no one seems to be concerned about this. I need to know if there are other Thai Visa people who are out there who might have some knowledge about this subject and give me the right advice on how to enter France with my daughter and if French nationality will be required to make her first visit to France.

[7by7]

I think you are asking if Thais are allowed dual nationality; don't worry; they are.

This question comes up from time to time. As I understand it the Thai law saying a dual national child (Thai and another) had to choose which they wanted at the age of 21 was abolished in the early 1990s.

My wife and daughter both hold dual Thai and British nationality, and have done for over 9 years. They always use their British passports to leave and enter the UK and their Thai passports to leave and enter Thailand without any problems, and both are over 21.

Whether France allows dual nationality, I don't know; but from your situation as described it seems that they do.

[Chaam local]

My friend told me that his daughter is getting a visa in her Thai passport to go to France for a holiday even though she has a valid French passport.

My kids have both a French and Thai passports, and they don't need a visa to go to France. We do exactly like you do when going to the US with your daughter: they leave Thailand with their Thai passport, enter and leave France with the French one, then enter Thailand again with the Thai passport.

My French friend told me that that the French consulate advised him not to allow his daughter to travel to France with her French passport

I think that's nonsense. Your daughter is French and she can enter France on a French passport.

Good luck for getting your marriage certified by the embassy.

[samran]

There is a passage in the Thai law which gives the option for dual national children to give up their Thai citizenship between ages 20 and 21. However, there is no complusion to, nor is there any penalty if one doesn't.

This is often mis-interpreted as a compulsory requirement, which it isn't.