Leaving to Australia With Son (Thai National) Without Mother. Anyone else been through this?

[wisemonkey]

Hi, I am leaving for Austalia on Wednesday with my son (Thai national, his mum is thai), I went to the immigration at the airport to see what we need as my son will be travelling with me solo, they said a copy of birth certificate with a note from his mother saying she approves him leaving with me. I have done that, shes in bkk and im in chiang mai, so if there is any problems shes not going to be able to come to airport to sort it out. Has anyone gone through this before? I dont want to have any headaches of needing more permits or something which I am not aware of.

He has two passports both australian and thai. Im the father on the birth certificate, which i have a translated copy too. Anyone else went through this before? Do I have what is necessary

[omegaman]

NO you will be fine. As long as he has a valid passport, a letter of permission from the other parent to exit his normal country of residence.

Returning to Thailand with him is not an issue.

All these safeguards are to protect against child smuggling, the evidence you carry with you establishes that your legitimate, dont worry.

[F4UCorsair]

Couldn't the letter of authority be from anyone? Even the father could write and sign a letter and unless the mother is summoned, to check the validity, no one would know.

There must be a safeguard against that happening, surely.

[JoeW]

They might call the mother when at immigration to double check.

However, hasn't happened to me in the past.

[machans88]

I was told by immigration I would

need a letter from the amphur to say the mother has given permission,

otherwise it would be too easy to fake a letter.

I was stopped last august at thai immigration and they wanted to see childrens birth certificate,

I was travelling with mother of children as well.

this was the new law after the baby gammy saga in oz last year and the stopping of surrogacy

[bark]

It is all done for the safety of the kid.

I wish you good luck, and safe travels with your son.

Hope your family spoils him in OZ.

[Dumbastheycome]

If the child exits on the Australian passport where would there be need to question?

[Jaggg88]

If the child exits on the Australian passport where would there be need to question?

I'm all for child protection but I was wondering exactly the same - seems the system is full of flaws. The letter giving permission could be written by anybody so surely it needs some sort of official verification.

[Oceanbat]

I flew in and out of Perth no issues. Had birth certificate etc but they didn't even question me. Think you will be fine. Same last name as you?

OB

[cabanlit]

I presume he's in Thailand under his Thai passport, as a Thai person.

You'll only need, therefore, the Thai passport to get out, but "act dumb" and hand BOTH passports to the Immi Officer. That, at least, will show him that the boy is a 'farang' too, so will make the officer less worried about a farang leaving with a Thai kid.

On another point of detail, my daughter is also a dual national. However, she always enters Thailand on her UK passport, and never as a Thai. That's due to our Travel Insurance. It will cover UK citizens on our travels, but, if she 'changed citizenship' on arrival in Thailand, we'd be screwed for a claim should anything happen.

[wisemonkey]

Some great info here. Just for the record for anyone in the future whos googling this and wanted to find out what happened, got through fine, no questions even asked even though I did have the letter and birth certificate ready.

I dont use the Australian passport to exit as Ive been in thailand for 18 months, if I gave them the Austrlian passport for him to exit on they would be asking a hell of a lot of questions as to where his visa is, entry stamp, etc, Always enter and Leave on Thai passport for him, might change the entry though with that good piece of info from cabanlit above.

Thanks all,
Cheers