how to stop a child dissapearing from thailand

[chrisinthailand]

I have a bitter ex thai girlfriend who has ny daughter, we have joint custody. she has a thai and British passport but the British passport has been lost and cancelled. I worry so much she will take her out the country for good, she has already done this once even though the child has my family name, There must be a way i can stop this? Am very concerned as i do not wish to loose my daughter

[marko kok prong]

Feel for you mate,maybe you should go on ask the lawyer forum,best of luck.

[benalibina]

If you have the details of the thai passport just write letters to the relevant embassies of where your ex gf might take her daughter to.

[evadgib]

You may find these useful, particularly if your child enters a country that is party to the appropriate convention.

http://www.hcch.net/index_en.php?act=text.display&tid=21

https://www.gov.uk/international-child-abduction

http://www.fnf.org.uk

HTH

Edited May 6, 2014 by evadgib

[chrisinthailand]

many thanks for the advice

[somchaismith]

She's probably equally as worried as you. I know of more than one foreigner who's secretly shot through with his child, leaving his partner in the lurch.

[Mario2008]

A Thai court can order the child to remain in Thailand. Further more, for the Thai passport both parents need to give permission on application.

[socksy01]

Bitter ex-girlfriend and 'lost' passport? Mmmm!

[BobHG46]

As far as I understand, the parent wishing to take the child out of the country is supposed to present a letter from the other parent giving permission for the child to be taken out of the country to Immigration at the point of exit. I don't know what verification of the permission letter is required.

[Krataiboy]

I am an Englishman resident in Thailand and married to a Thai national. When I wished to take our daughter for a holiday to my own country without being accompanied by her mother, I was told I would need to produce a letter signed by my wife giving me permission to travel alone with our daughter - even though the girl has a British passport in addition to her Thai passport. .

As I am the biological and legal father of our child and we are legally married, I assume this works both ways in our case and that my wife would not be able to enter another country with our child without a similar letter from me, though I have no checked this with a lawyer (Hopefully, I will never have cause to!).

However, this probably does not apply to your situation as Thai law states that an unmarried mother has sole legal responsibility for her child. In other words, you have no rights, or responsibilities for that matter, in respect of your child and would need the written consent of the mother to take her out of the country..

Do check this with the free legal advice service offered by ThaiVisa via Siam Law. You need to know exactly where you stand in this distressing situation. I feel for you and wish you a happy outcome.

Good luck.

[chatette]

The child can travel out of the country on a valid passport with one or another parent without any letter of consent from the other being presented at immigration.

You can apply to a Thai court to bar her exit from Thailand and to the Foreign Ministry to cancel her Thai passport.

If she has already left Thailand, then it's too late and you will have to find other means to retrieve your custodial rights.

[Boo]

You don't state which country you all live?

[Forethat]

The child can travel out of the country on a valid passport with one or another parent without any letter of consent from the other being presented at immigration.

This is incorrect. Thai immigration rules may require parents or those travelling with children to carry documentary evidence to prove their relationship with the child or permission from parents or guardians to take the child out of the country.

Please check your facts before posting incorrect information.

[Mario2008]

The child can travel out of the country on a valid passport with one or another parent without any letter of consent from the other being presented at immigration.

This is incorrect. Thai immigration rules may require parents or those travelling with children to carry documentary evidence to prove their relationship with the child or permission from parents or guardians to take the child out of the country.

Please check your facts before posting incorrect information.

There might be internal immigration directives ordering immigration officials to check, but there is no legal frame work to deny a parent leaving the country with his/her child without the approval of the other parent.

There is no parental abduction law in Thailand and only a court can order a child to remain in Thailand if both parents have parental rights. That means that immigation lacks the authorithy to deny leaving the country.

In practise most checks are made to see if the child is not being trafficked.

[millwall_fan]

Thai immigration can and do check if the Farang parent takes their child out of Thailand. Letters are required and on one occasion they phoned my mate's partner to check that she was happy for him to take their son on holiday to UK. Of course I've never heard of immigration asking the Thai partner if they have the Farang parents permission......

[Forethat]

The child can travel out of the country on a valid passport with one or another parent without any letter of consent from the other being presented at immigration.

This is incorrect. Thai immigration rules may require parents or those travelling with children to carry documentary evidence to prove their relationship with the child or permission from parents or guardians to take the child out of the country.

Please check your facts before posting incorrect information.

There might be internal immigration directives ordering immigration officials to check, but there is no legal frame work to deny a parent leaving the country with his/her child without the approval of the other parent.

There is no parental abduction law in Thailand and only a court can order a child to remain in Thailand if both parents have parental rights. That means that immigation lacks the authorithy to deny leaving the country.

In practise most checks are made to see if the child is not being trafficked.

Thai law stipulates that any parent with custody of a child can bring the child out of the country without the other parents consent. However, and this is what most people dont know; the law also gives Thai authorities the right to stop anyone travelling with a child from leaving Thailand in case there is reason to believe that the parental rights are subject to legal proceedings. Practically speaking, this means they can stop anyone from travelling with a child, and they are.

I have been through this so many times I now make sure I don't use Thai passports when entering Thailand with a child.

[Mario2008]

Thai law doesn't stipulates that any parent with custody of a child can bring the child out of the country without the other parents consent. It simply has no rule that disallows it. The law simply states something like that the parents have the right to determine the place of residency of a child, but does no give any rules for when parents disagree.

Either there is a court order or not.

Using another passport does not change a thing. Especially when a child also has Thai nationality, as than it is more difficult to get suppport from your own embassy as they Thai authorities can consider someone a Thai and not a foreigner.

[Forethat]

Thai law doesn't stipulates that any parent with custody of a child can bring the child out of the country without the other parents consent.

Yes it does. It is part of the definition of the custodial rights. Granted there is no legal requirement to prove parental consent in case of removing a child from Thailand.

Either there is a court order or not.

The law gives Thai authorities the right to prevent children from leaving the Kingdom if there is reason to believe there are legal parental proceedings in place. As I pointed out, this pretty much gives them the right to apprehend anyone. This is comparable to the UK law where the police doesn't have the right to search your car unless they have "probable cause", which pretty much means they can search your car whenever they like because there's no definition of "probable".

Using another passport does not change a thing. Especially when a child also has Thai nationality, as than it is more difficult to get suppport from your own embassy as they Thai authorities can consider someone a Thai and not a foreigner.

Yes it does. Out of experience I know exactly how this work. If your child enters and exits Thailand on a Thai passport, Thai authorities exercise their legal rights at a maximum. Whereas if you enter and leave using a western passport they behave as if they had no authority. For this reason I never use my children's Thai passports when travelling alone with them.

As others have pointed out, when a Thai national parent travels alone with children; no questions are asked when entering or leaving Thailand.

[chrisinthailand]

many thanks, think i need to get expert legal advice. I am british and exgf is thai. we all live in thailand. my daughter has a thai passport and did have a british passport but that had to be cancelled when it went missing.

[Sawan Chan 7]

The child can travel out of the country on a valid passport with one or another parent without any letter of consent from the other being presented at immigration.

This is incorrect. Thai immigration rules may require parents or those travelling with children to carry documentary evidence to prove their relationship with the child or permission from parents or guardians to take the child out of the country.

Please check your facts before posting incorrect information.

There might be internal immigration directives ordering immigration officials to check, but there is no legal frame work to deny a parent leaving the country with his/her child without the approval of the other parent.

There is no parental abduction law in Thailand and only a court can order a child to remain in Thailand if both parents have parental rights. That means that immigation lacks the authorithy to deny leaving the country.

In practise most checks are made to see if the child is not being trafficked.

Thanks for this. So I don't need any letter from my wife when i go to London with my 13 year old daughter soon. She has my surname on her British and Thai passports.

[Sawan Chan 7]

The child can travel out of the country on a valid passport with one or another parent without any letter of consent from the other being presented at immigration.

This is incorrect. Thai immigration rules may require parents or those travelling with children to carry documentary evidence to prove their relationship with the child or permission from parents or guardians to take the child out of the country.

Please check your facts before posting incorrect information.

There might be internal immigration directives ordering immigration officials to check, but there is no legal frame work to deny a parent leaving the country with his/her child without the approval of the other parent.

There is no parental abduction law in Thailand and only a court can order a child to remain in Thailand if both parents have parental rights. That means that immigation lacks the authorithy to deny leaving the country.

In practise most checks are made to see if the child is not being trafficked.

Thai law stipulates that any parent with custody of a child can bring the child out of the country without the other parents consent. However, and this is what most people dont know; the law also gives Thai authorities the right to stop anyone travelling with a child from leaving Thailand in case there is reason to believe that the parental rights are subject to legal proceedings. Practically speaking, this means they can stop anyone from travelling with a child, and they are.

I have been through this so many times I now make sure I don't use Thai passports when entering Thailand with a child.

So then you child would need a visa?