travel with Thai nephew and niece under 18

[ETatBKK]

hi there

soon will travel alone with my Thai nephew-in-law and niece-in-law, age 17 and 16 and they leave the country for the first time with brand new passports; their parents not going. some said their parents must prepare an authorisation letter at the local district office, some said they can go through the airport formality with nothing special ?

I think my presence making the situation complicated, isn't it ?

please advise if you have a similar experience, or you have any official procedure !

cheers

[williewolf]

We took our niece(who lives with us) to Hong Kong for a holiday, had some right grief at departure immigration because we had no written permission from her parents. They managed to contact her parents by phone and after some great debate they decided to let us travel but made a note in her passport about this. We plan to take her again on holiday soon so we went to the local amphur with her mother and obtained a consent letter from them. We then had this translated into english.

The letter was free but we had to pay for the translation. Would strongly advise getting the letter as it can be very stressful at the airport not knowing if you can travel or not.

P.s. we had both our names put on the consent letter so make sure you take your passports with you.

[SantiSuk]

Visas have a high standard of requirement to document authority to travel.

We found that the attached 'informal translation' (done by my wife and checked by a friend of hers who has a good education) worked fine. Certainly no need to get a professionally certified translation and worth getting the legal parent to sign off the English version even though they do so on the basis of trust that your other Thai half has explained it is an English version of what they see in Thai.

On the reverse side of the authority you should copy the legal parent's Thai national ID card and get them to sign and date that too. Get them to write their mobile number if they have one. For a visa application we also copied the legal parent's housebook, but I think that was an abundance of caution thing rather than required.

[obviously you would need to vary the text to meet the specifics of your travel and the reason why you are taking someone else's kids - "to aid their education and development?"]

Father confirmation for Kat's visit 26feb12.docx

[ETatBKK]

thanks williewolf and santisuk

great information !! this is exactly the same route that we go to Hong Kong for a 4-day holiday.

I understand the consent letter in Thai for the Thai immigration at departure, but why we need an English letter ( or translation ) as well ? would there be any similar requirement at the Hong Kong immigration ?

just summarise the required information in the consent letter :

- juvenile's name and passport info

- juvenile's parents name, ID, and contact numbers

- accompanied traveller's name and passport info

- travel destination and date information

perhaps it may help adding contact info during travel ( hotel, and mobile number )

cheers

[williewolf]

thanks williewolf and santisuk

great information !! this is exactly the same route that we go to Hong Kong for a 4-day holiday.

I understand the consent letter in Thai for the Thai immigration at departure, but why we need an English letter ( or translation ) as well ? would there be any similar requirement at the Hong Kong immigration ?

just summarise the required information in the consent letter :

- juvenile's name and passport info

- juvenile's parents name, ID, and contact numbers

- accompanied traveller's name and passport info

- travel destination and date information

perhaps it may help adding contact info during travel ( hotel, and mobile number )

cheers

The reason we got ours translated was because we plan to go to the uk. When we went to hong kong no questions were asked at that end although thai immigration did say we may be questioned. I would think you would be ok with a certified letter in Thai

[ETatBKK]

The reason we got ours translated was because we plan to go to the uk. When we went to hong kong no questions were asked at that end although thai immigration did say we may be questioned. I would think you would be ok with a certified letter in Thai

I already asked my wife putting all necessary information in the consent letter in both Thai and English, then just find a day to amphur office and secure it with stamps. I feel alright at the Hong Kong immigration, yet never game with any airport formality.

thanks and cheers