Baby Dual Nationality Questions

[tomcreeduk]

Ladies and Gentleman

I hope some one can direct me to the correct website or has experience on my question. My thai national wife and I live in England. My wife has been here 2 1/2 years and has ILR. We have a son who is 8 1/2 months old. He was born in the UK and we have registered his birth and have just submitted his UK passport application.

We have an appointment at the Thai embassy in London on the 30th December with the intentions of registering his birth with the Thai embassy and also applying for his Thai / Dual passport.

My wife concern and this is the advise I require is

1. Do we have to register him at a address in Thailand ?

2. If so what evidence do we need of the address ?

3. If so does he go into a Thai blue book (My wife mum's home town address) ?

4. My wife seems to think he can get called up into the army at the age of 20 due to being dual nationality ?

5. Also at 20 he has to make a decision if he is Thai or English and has one passport revoked based on the decision he makes ?

If he does hold both passports can he then fly to Thailand (out of London) on his UK passport then at Bangkok enter Thailand on his Thai passport and stay in the country for 2-4 months at a time on holiday. If that is the case what passport does he produce at Bangkok to fly back say 3 months after arrival. If I'm correct he won't have a Thai immigration stamp in his English passport as he entered on a This passport ?

Help please

Any guidance will be much appreciated.

Thanks Tom

[cmsally]

Hi, Sorry I don't know about the registering in UK, but your son can keep 2 passports for life. He will fly out of UK on UK passport and into Bangkok on Thai passport. Then out of BKK Thai passport and into UK with UK passport. He can stay as long as he likes in either place.

Yes he could be called up for the army but he would have to be residing in Thailand. I'm not sure what would happen if he was in UK at the time of conscription and then came back later. Maybe someone has info on that.

[7by7]

For what is required to register his birth at the RTE see

Register a Birth (Thai Birth Certificate) (English version)

or, for your wife,

การจดทะเบียนเกิดบุตร (ขอสูติบัตร) (Thai version)

As he will have Thai nationality he could be called up, but only if he is living in Thailand.

Both Thailand and the UK allow dual nationality for adults as well as children; he can keep both for life if he wishes. Indeed he will automatically do so unless he takes the necessary action to revoke one of them.

He should enter and leave Thailand on his Thai passport. If he uses his British passport to do so he will be treated as British for immigration purposes and so subject to the same controls and restrictions as all other British citizens there.

Likewise he should use his British passport to enter and leave the UK.

That his British passport wont have Thai entry and exit stamps in it will be of no concern to UK immigration; all they are concerned about is whether he can legally enter the UK.

Ditto for Thai immigration and the lack of UK entry stamps (the UK doesn't currently stamp passports on exit) in his Thai passport.

[Arkady]

The accepted drill for dual national Thai boys living abroad is to register their births at the Thai embassy and get them Thai passports but don't put them on a house registration book or apply for an ID card, which can now be done at 7 years old but can only be done in Thailand and requires a house registration book. If you get him on a house book, he will be called up for the conscription ballot at the age of 20 but won't be, if he is not on one. Assuming he continues to be permanently resident overseas and maybe only visits Thailand for short trips and doesn't want to own land, he will OK using his Thai passport (or even his British one) to enter Thailand and won't have trouble from the draft board because they only source draftees from the house registration list. Then when he is 30 he will be too old for the draft and can get on a house book, apply for an ID card. If he needs to work in Thailand, he would have to apply for military exemption papers on the basis that he was leaving permanently overseas until he was 30, as you need these as a Thai male to get a job and apply for a passport in Thailand (I think) but not at Thai embassies, if you're living overseas.

If he decides to go and live in Thailand before he is 30, he might have to get on a house book and get an ID card, depending on what he does. To work without a work permit, buy land, own a majority stake in a company, use a government hospital free, go to a government school etc would require an ID card but studying at a private university wouldn't and some Thais have actually worked in Thailand on a foreign passport with a work permit. It is not illegal for Thais to enter the country on a foreign passport and Immigration actually issues them 1 year extensions of their foreign passports, if they can prove they are Thai.

For girls it is much simpler, as they can get on a tabien baan and apply for an ID card from the age of 7, if desired, given no draft for women.

The Thai Nationality Act has a provision that gives dual national kids the option but not the obligation to renounce Thai nationality at the age of 20, if they want to hold only their other nationality. The first version of this law introduced in 1992 did provide for automatic revocation of due nationals who didn't renounce their other nationality between the ages of 20 and 21 but it was amended only 3 weeks later to what it is today, probably due to accommodate influential people with dual national kids. So now this provision is effectively redundant, as Thais have the right to renounce Thai nationality at any age, if they have another nationality. Dual national Thai kids in places like Singapore that ban dual nationality after 21 might want to use this provision to satisfy the Singaporean authorities but, in practice, they just never let on that they have Thai nationality. They can get Thai ID cards and own land etc in Thailand, as long as they only use their foreign passports to enter Thailand to avoid creating a paper trail or gaps for the Singaporean or other government that prohibits dual nationality to follow. The UK explicitly allows dual and multiple nationality. Anyway no need to worry about retaining dual nationality beyond the age of 21 in your son's case.

The rule about passports is always leave Thailand on the same passport you enter on. If you try to leave on another one, you will set off alarm bells at Immigration on the way out and adult Thais could be fined for overstaying on a foreign passports, if that's what they entered the Kingdom on. Thais can enter and leave on a foreign passport but it makes more sense to keep the Thai passport up-to-date and always enter and leave on that. When checking in to fly back to the UK, just show airline the British passport, so they know he can enter the UK without getting them fined. Checking in to fly to Thailand, you might need to show the Thai passport to the airline too but they usually only need to check if the passenger doesn't have a return ticket.