Adopting A Child In Thailand

[STARGASA]

Hi All,

My Thai wife cannot have children, so when we relocate to Thailand early next year we want to explore the possibility of adoption.

Has anyone on this forum gone through this process ? if so i would be glad of any info available.

Thanks.

[johna]

Foreign nationals must begin the adoption process in their home country. Your wife can become the legal guardian of a Thai child relatively easily, but you will have no legal rights over the child.

Edited October 20, 2015 by johna

[STARGASA]

Thanks Johna

[kevc]

If your resident in Thailand you can go through the process here, the office is just up from Victory Monument. It's a long winded thing but not too difficult.

[STARGASA]

Thanks Kev

[SantiSuk]

If your resident in Thailand you can go through the process here, the office is just up from Victory Monument. It's a long winded thing but not too difficult.

Addressing the OP but to add further and possibly better particulars to kevc's posting:

When I looked into the possibilities of my Thai wife and I adopting my wife's Thai cousin to live here in Thailand along with our natural daughter I was told by my (British) embassy that I had to get a legal opinion from a UK qualified lawyer practicing in Thailand that I was not "habitually resident" in the UK. I think that later changed to a requirement that I should be certified as "non-domiciled" in the UK. Either requirement is significantly more difficult to attain than simple "residence" (in Thailand) (whatever that may mean - the only residence requirement I know of in Thailand is the simple tax one of more than 180 days in a year which is a pretty low hurdle).

That was in 2011 and I knew back then that I was insufficiently disconnected from the UK to qualify as not habitually resident there. Since then I have obtained non-resident status in the UK (for tax purposes) which is the first step towards getting non-domicile status. I can probably get non-dom status now as I have no significant family or social ties in the UK now, but I may have to slim down my banking and investing connections with the UK. Our (perforce for the past 5 years) unofficially adopted daughter is now 18 and there is less impetus for us and her to proceed with the adoption, so I am not able to update you any further than this and my info may well be out of date.

I suspect you will not quickly obtain non-dom status for your own country if you are still living in your home country - obtaining that status could be several years away, or even not possible if you have continuing close family connections. Generally losing your domicile of origin is quite a tricky thing to achieve

You should aslo note that you may find that the form of adoption you get if it is done through the Thai process will not get your adopted daughter the right to reside at some later stage in your home country - that was certainly the case with the UK when I was looking. She would have had to apply for settlement like any other Thai person.

You might get the right for the adoptee to reside in your home country if you proceed with an adoption process from within your own country. Since you are both currently located outside Thailand you could consider using your country's own adoption procedures for your own adoptor position (and your wife would apply in Thailand). 5 years ago I was advised that this was a permissible process (an "inter-country adoption within the UK" process). I looked into that with my UK adoption agency - the local government council where I had a place of residence in the UK - I lived mainly in Thailand, but also maintained a residence in the UK at the time. However, my local council said they were not prepared to go through the hassle of this, given that I spent time in both countries. My UK adoption lawyer advised me that the council's approach was illegal and gave me the relevant law extracts that would force the council's adoption people to put me into the train of the process. I advised the local council of this and they said "we don't care what your clever London lawyers say - we are not doing it! "OK - we will write them a strong legal letter" said my lawyers" Oh yes said I - and how well do you think I will come out of this discretionary process with a truculent council that has been forced by "clever London lawyers" to comply?" "Good point" said the lawyer! End of attempting that route.

You need to do your own research with:

* adoption agencies in your home country

* your home country's embassy in Thailand

* the Thai government adoption agency (we visited their Bangkok office but have lost the details - it was west of Victory monument by a couple of km I recall, rather than "up from", which implies North - but it may of course have since moved ). Google it!

Only the official agencies/government bodies can give you authoritative and up to date information. My posting is just to give you some ideas. Good luck.

[STARGASA]

Thank you Santisuk

[kevc]

I got a non resident certificate from a Thai lawyer that was recommended by the Embassy, they glanced at my passport cost 7,000 baht took that to the Embassy and paid them 2,500 baht for the non resident in the UK letter. Absolutely ridiclous