How To Bring My Gf's Child To Oz For Holiday

[mav]

hi

thanks to all of your help my girlfriend now has a 12 month multiple entry holiday visa to oz.

She has already been here for 3months, returned to thailand for 4 weeks & is now back with me again.

Prior to applying for a spouse visa next year I would like my gf to be able to bring her 4 year old daughter for 3 months the next time she comes back here as she misses her too much and she relies on her parents to look after her - but they are busy working etc and its not a good situation.

I realise that I would need the child's fathers permission by way of a letter (certified by amphur) and passport etc

I am not sure of the Oz embassy's policy on this

Also what do I need to fill out - a holiday visa application for the child?

Hope you can help

[Old Croc]

Did she declare she had a child in her visitor application?

[mav]

Did she declare she had a child in her visitor application?

yes the child was declared in the application but not listed as requiring a visa

[gburns57au]

hi

thanks to all of your help my girlfriend now has a 12 month multiple entry holiday visa to oz.

She has already been here for 3months, returned to thailand for 4 weeks & is now back with me again.

Prior to applying for a spouse visa next year I would like my gf to be able to bring her 4 year old daughter for 3 months the next time she comes back here as she misses her too much and she relies on her parents to look after her - but they are busy working etc and its not a good situation.

I realise that I would need the child's fathers permission by way of a letter (certified by amphur) and passport etc

I am not sure of the Oz embassy's policy on this

Also what do I need to fill out - a holiday visa application for the child?

Hope you can help

You will need a letter from the biological father giving permission for the child to be taken out of the country OR a letter from the courts declaring that your GF has sole custody rights.

You only need to make a tourist visa application for the child, same as you did for the GF with a Stat Dec or letter showing that you will support the child financially while she is here, show proof of income, supply photos of you and the child with the mother etc....

hope that assists

Edited July 1, 2006 by gburns57au

[mav]

hi

thanks to all of your help my girlfriend now has a 12 month multiple entry holiday visa to oz.

She has already been here for 3months, returned to thailand for 4 weeks & is now back with me again.

Prior to applying for a spouse visa next year I would like my gf to be able to bring her 4 year old daughter for 3 months the next time she comes back here as she misses her too much and she relies on her parents to look after her - but they are busy working etc and its not a good situation.

I realise that I would need the child's fathers permission by way of a letter (certified by amphur) and passport etc

I am not sure of the Oz embassy's policy on this

Also what do I need to fill out - a holiday visa application for the child?

Hope you can help

You will need a letter from the biological father giving permission for the child to be taken out of the country OR a letter from the courts declaring that your GF has sole custody rights.

You only need to make a tourist visa application for the child, same as you did for the GF with a Stat Dec or letter showing that you will support the child financially while she is here, show proof of income, supply photos of you and the child with the mother etc....

hope that assists

Hi

just providing an update on what is required in case someone else is in the same situation

You will need to complete both a 48R THA and a 1229 form

The 1229 is required to give consent for children under 18 years old and is to be signed by both the travelling and the non-travelling parent

Note - both parents must come and sign this at the visa application centre so it can be witnessed by them, alternatively both parents can go to their local amphur office and obtain a statement giving permission from both parents for the child to travel to Australia

Also we found that our initial application could not be submitted until the child signed the application form - a bit difficult or a 3 year old

We have now submitted the visa application and are expecting an answer this week

Regards Michael

[gburns57au]

Hi

just providing an update on what is required in case someone else is in the same situation

You will need to complete both a 48R THA and a 1229 form

The 1229 is required to give consent for children under 18 years old and is to be signed by both the travelling and the non-travelling parent

Note - both parents must come and sign this at the visa application centre so it can be witnessed by them, alternatively both parents can go to their local amphur office and obtain a statement giving permission from both parents for the child to travel to Australia

Also we found that our initial application could not be submitted until the child signed the application form - a bit difficult or a 3 year old

We have now submitted the visa application and are expecting an answer this week

Regards Michael

Thanks for the info on the 1229 form....

Just to clarify a couple of points.....If one parent is deceased or whereabouts unknown, then a court document giving the remaining parent custodial rights will still be required.

Statutory Declarations or the equivalent from other custodial parties will be required rather than a plain written statement. The Stat decs and the application can be witnessed by anyone qualified to act as an official witness. However I can see the convenience in getting it done at the One Stop Visa Shop

How did you get around the 3 year olds signature ? ...I believe that there is an alternative for that situation...I would need to go back and look at the forms again

[mav]

Hi

From what my girfriend tried to explain to me I think that she did the equivalent of putting ink on her daughters finger and placing this on the form - ie. a fingerprint

There probably is another way round this but this seems to make sense

Edited September 19, 2006 by mav

[gburns57au]

Hi

From what my girfriend tried to explain to me I think that she did the equivalent of putting ink on her daughters finger and placing this on the form - ie. a fingerprint

There probably is another way round this but this seems to make sense

That sounds about right.....I think a toeprint for smaller children is also another way...

Thanks for that.

I am looking at bringing my ladies son (11yo) over for a few weeks while she is here on a 12 month visa so this has raised a few things for me that I hadnt gone into...so I do thank you for raising this topic, it has been beneficial for me.

[xerostar]

We recently obtained immigration visas for my wife's 2 boys.

We went to the local Amphur about the custody problem.

We managed to get the father to turn up at the Amphur, hoping he would sign a paper

allowing us to take the children to Oz. But he spacked it, made a big scene and walked out!

So the Amphur officers were happy to help us.

We had 3 witnesses - My wife's mother, grandfather and my wife's sister.

They testified in writing that the biological father had not contributed anything to the

children's upbringing.

It took several hours for the officers to organise the paperwork.

My wife was declared the sole custodian and she was given a special certificate by the Amphur.

We had that translated to English before the application was made.

Get 2 copies (one for the application and one to keep)

It may be required later during travel to prove the children can be taken out of Thailand

(and into any other country) without raising questions.

It was lucky that we did have that paper.

The boy's surname is different to their mother.

The Oz embassy made a typo in the boy's visa.

Thai airways were reluctant to allow us to travel because of that mistake.

We produced the Amphur certificate which was accepted and we were allowed to go.

Immigration in Australia soon picked up the mistake too, but of course it was no big deal

- just a mistake by a co-worker in Bangkok embassy ...

We still have to go into Immigration in Oz to have the visa re-issued.

Hope this info helps

[mav]

Hi

From what my girfriend tried to explain to me I think that she did the equivalent of putting ink on her daughters finger and placing this on the form - ie. a fingerprint

There probably is another way round this but this seems to make sense

That sounds about right.....I think a toeprint for smaller children is also another way...

Thanks for that.

I am looking at bringing my ladies son (11yo) over for a few weeks while she is here on a 12 month visa so this has raised a few things for me that I hadnt gone into...so I do thank you for raising this topic, it has been beneficial for me.

Graham

Just to let you know that we got a 3 month visa for my girlfriend's daughter

I was starting to worry as it took a bit longer than the usual 1 week

They actually advised that the passport was ready to pick up after 1 week but when she went in (a 3 hour bus trip from Nahkon Sawan) it was not there. Finally after 2 weeks it was ready.

Looking forward to my girlfriend and daughter's arrival in Sydney in 3 weeks

[gburns57au]

Hi

From what my girfriend tried to explain to me I think that she did the equivalent of putting ink on her daughters finger and placing this on the form - ie. a fingerprint

There probably is another way round this but this seems to make sense

That sounds about right.....I think a toeprint for smaller children is also another way...

Thanks for that.

I am looking at bringing my ladies son (11yo) over for a few weeks while she is here on a 12 month visa so this has raised a few things for me that I hadnt gone into...so I do thank you for raising this topic, it has been beneficial for me.

Graham

Just to let you know that we got a 3 month visa for my girlfriend's daughter

I was starting to worry as it took a bit longer than the usual 1 week

They actually advised that the passport was ready to pick up after 1 week but when she went in (a 3 hour bus trip from Nahkon Sawan) it was not there. Finally after 2 weeks it was ready.

Looking forward to my girlfriend and daughter's arrival in Sydney in 3 weeks

Good one Mav....hope they have fun here....I will start sorting out things for my fiances son when she gets here in 2 weeks time.

[jackspratt]

We recently obtained immigration visas for my wife's 2 boys.

We went to the local Amphur about the custody problem.

We managed to get the father to turn up at the Amphur, hoping he would sign a paper

allowing us to take the children to Oz. But he spacked it, made a big scene and walked out!

So the Amphur officers were happy to help us.

We had 3 witnesses - My wife's mother, grandfather and my wife's sister.

They testified in writing that the biological father had not contributed anything to the

children's upbringing.

It took several hours for the officers to organise the paperwork.

My wife was declared the sole custodian and she was given a special certificate by the Amphur.

I have a similar situation with my girlfriend's son, and would welcome any advice based on experience.

She is currently in Oz for her second visit on a 12 month multi entry visa obtained last April. She would like to bring her 7yo son to Oz for a short visit next next year, before her visa runs out. This will require her to get him a passport and separate visa.

The (Thai) father is in parts unknown. He has not been seen or heard from for several years, and has made no financial contribution to the son's upbringing pretty much since he was born. My girlfriend is not even sure she could track him down, let alone get him to come to her town to sign the Form 1229.

Gburns (the Eagles did it!) commented that a court document would be required, declaring sole custody rights to the mother.

However xerostar talks above about a document/certificate from the Amphur, which I imagine would be far easier to obtain than having to go through the court system. There would be no problems with obtaining any number of family witnesses to attest to the father's invisibility.

Look forward to your responses, and my thanks.

jack

[xerostar]

The formality was completed at my wife's local Amphur.

After getting the witnesses to sign their statements, the lady clerk spent quite a long time writing up the complete submission which was then taken upstairs.

The document was returned after an hour or two and some corrrections were made.

The document was sent upstairs again and about an hour later the lady clerk presented my wife with the completed "letter of certification".

It was signed by the acting District Chief.

Since my original post, we had the document translated to English.

I didn't get to read the translation because my wife gave the original to the embassy with our application,

and I've only recently obtained a copy.

It basically says my wife was not married to the father of the children and she was the sole contributor to the boy's upbringing.

It does not say anything about sole custody.

It does say that she is now married to me.

It mentions that the reason for the document was to enable the issue of passports to the children to travel abroad.

The father's name wasn't even mentioned on the form, even though one of the boy's has his surname on the birth certificate. The other has his mother's surname.

I hope this helps