How to adopt 10 month old Thai from Thai Wife's sister.

[stuck]

I am American and my wife is Thai. We have a 9-year-old son who holds US and Thai citizenships. We are legally married for almost 10 years at the Ampur.

My wife's younger sister and boyfriend were arrested and convicted for selling Yaba. They got 6 years. They are not married. When she was sent to prison, she was pregnant. Fast forward to today and the baby girl is now almost 11 months old and was born in prison. The prison told her to get the baby out of prison and now we have her.

We plan on raising her but my wife agrees with me, that we should have 100 percent parental rights. I do not see giving the girl back to her mother at 6 years old after we have had her for 5 years. I want to get insurance and do things right. I see adoption as the proper way to do this.

The parents did not get married. I'm fairly sure that the mother never took the girl to the Ampur to get a proper birth certificate and no one knows where the original hospital birth documents are located.

It's safe to say, the father who is Laotian not Thai, is list as the father.

What's the proper way to go about getting parental rights from the imprisoned mother, and then adopt her as our own? I do not anticipate resistance from my wife's younger sister who is now in prison.

[mihalis]

Get a family lawyer, do it right.

[SantiSuk]

The DIY route will likely involve a visit to the Thai Government adoption agency in Bangkok and a visit to your US Embassy. Doing it right will only be possible if you have genuinely given up residing in the US. Plenty of info around or leads thereto if you search ThaiV and other sites using Google.

No doubt an experienced reliable local to where you live family lawyer would cut through a lot of groundwork but how many of us live in a town with one of those!

[SantiSuk]

It's unlikely BTW that the adopted child would get the same automatic settlement rights in the US as are (I assume) granted to your own progeny.

[SantiSuk]

Use "Santisuk adoption thaivisa.com " as a search way into TV prior threads then expand searches using other members names.

Sorry for multiple postings. Have never figured how to edit from my mobile!

[thailand49]

I am also a American with a Thai wife and did a adoption a number of years ago. Before you go to a lawyer or the US Embassy you need to find this place as poster #3 noted! In the beginning I hired a Lawyer and found out from the Government Agency very few Lawyers actually understand the process.

You need to find this office, all I remember it was just off the Monument Road, this road is loaded with Government offices it is about a mile or so up on the right the building is a red brick type. The personnel has some of the best English speaking. You need to basically made appointment first thereafter you should be able to get all the details as to what you need if you can actually do it in your situation. After a number of conversation with the agency they told my wife we should get rid of the lawyer, which we did, since he was basically holding us back and the Agency does it all for FREE!

As I remember some of the stuff....but this is all jumping the gun as noted find the agency first! The first and foremost requirement is you need to have lived in Thailand for six month straight and this is going to be your home. I remember going to the US Embassy for some kind of Citizen verification? I needed a criminal check from the U.S., I also had to go to the HQ Thai Royal Police to get a criminal check, show documents for income and funds, a health checkup, I had a number of pre-interviews with Agency staff, a visit to my home in Chon Buri, and a final interview with a panel at the Bangkok Agency.

In the end, the process took close to a year, the length was mainly due to the lawyer once we fired him the process took off.

Good luck..

[wmlc]

Our law firm specializes in adoption. Feel free to semd me a PM and we can set up a meeting. Our service is reliable and affordable. We are located on soi Thonglor in Bangkok.

Edited May 19, 2016 by wmlc

[realenglish1]

You are doing a noble thing adopting Good luck with the process Hope it is fast

[DrTuner]

http://www.adoption.dsdw.go.th/ehome.html

Visit or call them to get started. Thailand uses the Hague rules for international adoption, use google. Expect around one year to get things done, probably more. Good luck.

[Bantex]

We enquirer recently at the adoption agency and were told that a lawyer was not required, process could take between one to two years and they did not charge any fees. A lawyer will not speed things up as adoption agency selection panel only meets at certain times during the year.

[jeab1980]

Good luck to you. One thing I see if child born whilst mother in prison birth documents should be known by prison enquire to them. Also does birth mother know route you are planing for her child.

[wmlc]

We enquirer recently at the adoption agency and were told that a lawyer was not required, process could take between one to two years and they did not charge any fees. A lawyer will not speed things up as adoption agency selection panel only meets at certain times during the year.

.

The point of using a lawyer is not to speed things up. A lawyer will do the mountain of paperwork properly, contact and retrieve all the relevant documents from the different Thai and foreign authorities, notarize, translate and many more things. The adoption process is not easy .

[thailand49]

We enquirer recently at the adoption agency and were told that a lawyer was not required, process could take between one to two years and they did not charge any fees. A lawyer will not speed things up as adoption agency selection panel only meets at certain times during the year.

.

The point of using a lawyer is not to speed things up. A lawyer will do the mountain of paperwork properly, contact and retrieve all the relevant documents from the different Thai and foreign authorities, notarize, translate and many more things. The adoption process is not easy .

In many cases yes. But as I noted in my earlier post I hired a lawyer in the beginning for my adoption. What I found was the lawyer basically had to clear everything with the agency first. For example, the Agency contacted the lawyer needed a item, so Lawyer contacted me and I got the item, return it to the lawyer and the lawyer delivered to the agency. This went on and on.... Then one of the agency representative came to our house and I was surprise of her English skills it was like talking to another American. This is when the topic of why we hired a Lawyer and explained what was going on with the Lawyer and all this back and forth stuff with a middle man. I and my wife felt very comfortable with her and she outline exactly what I would need to provide the agency and where to get it. And the adoption process was FREE! This allow me to fly back to the States on my own schedule to obtain the background check from my hometown. I was given a Fax Number, to forward all my documents. In the end, once the Lawyer was out of the way the flow of information was much better since we heard everything first hand! I did not need to pay a Lawyer to babysit me to the Embassy nor to the Thai Police to get a criminal check. Before that we had to constantly call the Lawyer to ask where we stood and what else was needed? it was not until we call him that we were ask to do something. So it does not speed up the process but in my own case the process took about a year?

Edited May 19, 2016 by thailand49

[SteveB2]

Clearly there 2 potentially complex administrative processes to go through here.

· Obtaining the official birth certificate for the child

· Formal adoption of the infant

Birth certificate:-

Obtaining the adoption certificate for the child should be relatively straight forward. Even without any hospital paperwork, The local ampheur office should be able to liaise with the prison admin department directly to confirm the birth of the infant, the biological parents details and issue the birth certificate accordingly. Someone will need to sign to take responsibility that the details are correct, but again, that should be a formality.

Adoption:-

In the past, formal child adoption by Thai's was handled at the local ampheur office with minimal paperwork. However, recently the complex rules and regulations regarding the adoption of Thai children by a foreigner have changed enormously. This all happened following several high profile cases where Thailand was shown to be in a bad light by failing to adequately check prospective adoptive parents resulting in instances of human trafficking. Thus much advice currently on the web (especially that referring to foreigners involved in the adoptive process of Thai children) is now hopelessly out of date.

The net result of this administrative 'knee-jerk' reaction are that the new requirements where one or more of the parents are foreign is now hopelessly complex. The child adoption center in Bangkok is now a virtual ghost town - so much so that the lights are switched off in most areas as piles of admin paperwork sit around on dusty cardboard box mountains and former child/parent meeting rooms once filled with the laughter and tears of children and their new parents to be are cobweb strewn haunts.

You first step though is to visit the Department of Social Development & Welfare 'Child Adoption web site page' (English version) here http://www.adoption.dsdw.go.th/Inter-country.html

(See the relevant ministry's logo below 'Ministry for Social development and Human Security)

Here is an extract of the first of 20 pre-conditions that must now be satisfied (see the above link for the full list)

[ START QUOTE ]
1. It is necessary for the applicants to make adoption application through the competent social welfare authority in their country i.e. the governmental organization which is responsible for Social Welfare (Competent Authority) or the non–governmental Child Welfare Organization which is licensed by their Government to handle the matter of Inter-Country adoption

2. Under the Child Adoption Act of 1979 of Thailand, all Inter-Country adoption application have to be proceeded through the Department of Social Development and Welfare (DSDW : Competent Authority) or the non–governmental child welfare agencies (Authorized Agencies) which are particularly authorized by DSDW, in cooperation with the Competent Authority and under the direction of the Child Adoption Board of Thailand. The Board members comprise the representatives of various concerned authorities and qualified person. The Director General of DSDW is designated as the chairman of the Board while the Director of the Child Adoption Center, Department of Social Development and Welfare, functions as the secretary of the Board. Private Adoption is not allowed.

3. Preliminary qualification of applicants for adoption are as follows :
•Be at least 25 years of age and be at least fifteen years older than the child to be adopted.
•Be eligible to adopt a foreign child under the concerned law of country of domicile.
•Have legitimate spouse in case of applying as a family.

[ END QUOTE ]

As you can see, the admin requirements(together with obtaining the necessary social welfare approvals in your own country) are a massive undertaking - and impossible for most long term stayers here in Thailand.

There is one light at the end of the tunnel... PR

It is simply this. With a legal married Thai wife and yourself holding 'Thai Permanent Residency', then the application process defaults to that for Thai Citizens wanting to adopt a Thai child - which is incredibly easy.

i hope this information helps.

Good luck to the pair of you in adopting this child.

Edited May 19, 2016 by SteveB2

[thailand49]

As noted above post.. if you plan to adopt and take the child overseas to live etc.. as noted the application process is a long road. But if you plan to adopt and live and raise the child in Thailand it is pretty easy as I noted!

[SteveB2]

As noted above post.. if you plan to adopt and take the child overseas to live etc.. as noted the application process is a long road. But if you plan to adopt and live and raise the child in Thailand it is pretty easy as I noted!

I should emphasize that only Thai or PR holders get the easy route.

All non-PR foreign visitors (those who hold normal visas, such as tourist, non-imm B, retirement, non-imm O, marriage, and extensions to any of these) have to go through the complete 20 section rigmarole.

Be aware that the changes that require this are very new - inquiries at various government and Changwat offices during the last year revealed that the Changwat offices believed they still had the authority to issue adoption paperwork where a foreigner was involved(They don't) all adoption formalities involving a non-PR holding foreigner now have to go through the ministry in Bangkok.

Edited May 20, 2016 by SteveB2

[thailand49]

As noted above post.. if you plan to adopt and take the child overseas to live etc.. as noted the application process is a long road. But if you plan to adopt and live and raise the child in Thailand it is pretty easy as I noted!

I should emphasize that only Thai or PR holders get the easy route.

All non-PR foreign visitors (those who hold normal visas, such as tourist, non-imm B, retirement, non-imm O, marriage, and extensions to any of these) have to go through the complete 20 section rigmarole.

Be aware that the changes that require this are very new - inquiries at various government and Changwat offices during the last year revealed that the Changwat offices believed they still had the authority to issue adoption paperwork where a foreigner was involved(They don't) all adoption formalities involving a non-PR holding foreigner now have to go through the ministry in Bangkok.

I started the process in late 2007, I had been on a Retirement since 2006, not sure whether I went through the 20 section rigmarole but when the Agency took over completely it went smoothly as I noted. But October of 2008, everything was done and I was to appear with everyone for the final panel interview in Bangkok which took around 30 minutes. In January of 2009, we were sent the official documents of approval.

[featography]

There are 2 right ways to do this. Everyone is covering one way, adopting together, but that will take the process up to 5 yrs to complete. It is a slow hair pulling process when it involves any foreigner. The easiest, which takes about 1 year, is for your wife to apply for the adoption alone. That can be done locally. All you will be required to do is sign a paper stating that you are aware of her intent to adopt and youre ok with it. Once she has adoption finalized, you can if you choose to, apply to adopt your wifes (new) daughter, which means you deal with the ''Foundation'' in Bangkok, the only agency in Thailand that deals with foreigner adoptions. The point here is you get the insurance for her much sooner and she gets full responsibility for the child sooner than if you both apply at the same time for adoption. The wife and I are 5 yrs into the process of adopting together and we aren.t done yet.

[SteveB2]

There are 2 right ways to do this. Everyone is covering one way, adopting together, but that will take the process up to 5 yrs to complete. It is a slow hair pulling process when it involves any foreigner. The easiest, which takes about 1 year, is for your wife to apply for the adoption alone. That can be done locally. All you will be required to do is sign a paper stating that you are aware of her intent to adopt and youre ok with it. Once she has adoption finalized, you can if you choose to, apply to adopt your wifes (new) daughter, which means you deal with the ''Foundation'' in Bangkok, the only agency in Thailand that deals with foreigner adoptions. The point here is you get the insurance for her much sooner and she gets full responsibility for the child sooner than if you both apply at the same time for adoption. The wife and I are 5 yrs into the process of adopting together and we aren.t done yet.

What a great compromise - it secures a loving home for the child with at least one legal adoptive parent at the earliest opportunity.

The long haul process with 'The Foundation' to make her your jointly adopted child can then be pursued at your leisure.

[stuck]

It's unlikely BTW that the adopted child would get the same automatic settlement rights in the US as are (I assume) granted to your own progeny.

Looks like she can in 2 years.

The child resides legally in the U.S. in the legal and physical custody of the U.S. citizen parent and meets the following conditions after February 27, 2001 but before his or her 18th birthday:

or

The adoptive parent adopted the child before his or her 16th birthday (or, in some cases, 18th birthday) and had legal custody of the child and resided with the child for at least two years;

https://travel.state.gov/content/adoptionsabroad/en/us-visa-for-your-child/acquiring-us-citizenship-for-your-child.html

[stuck]

Our law firm specializes in adoption. Feel free to semd me a PM and we can set up a meeting. Our service is reliable and affordable. We are located on soi Thonglor in Bangkok.

"Always choose the harder RIGHT instead of the easier WRONG."

It's not noble, it's the RIGHT thing to do.

My wife has her, she isn't going anywhere and there isn't anywhere for her to go. Seems straightforward to me.

I haven't met her yet except for Skype, I'm in America with our boy until August and the baby showed up a month ago.

[DrTuner]

There are 2 right ways to do this. Everyone is covering one way, adopting together, but that will take the process up to 5 yrs to complete. It is a slow hair pulling process when it involves any foreigner. The easiest, which takes about 1 year, is for your wife to apply for the adoption alone. That can be done locally. All you will be required to do is sign a paper stating that you are aware of her intent to adopt and youre ok with it. Once she has adoption finalized, you can if you choose to, apply to adopt your wifes (new) daughter, which means you deal with the ''Foundation'' in Bangkok, the only agency in Thailand that deals with foreigner adoptions. The point here is you get the insurance for her much sooner and she gets full responsibility for the child sooner than if you both apply at the same time for adoption. The wife and I are 5 yrs into the process of adopting together and we aren.t done yet.

What a great compromise - it secures a loving home for the child with at least one legal adoptive parent at the earliest opportunity.

The long haul process with 'The Foundation' to make her your jointly adopted child can then be pursued at your leisure.

Note that when a foreigner adopts a stepchild, the custody is transferred to him/her alone. I was a bit surprised about my wife having to sign the release of custody to me.

[stuck]

Note that when a foreigner adopts a stepchild, the custody is transferred to him/her alone. I was a bit surprised about my wife having to sign the release of custody to me.

Is this true? Why would this be? It doesn't matter. I will let my wife adopt her with the consent of the mother and father. We have the birth certificate, and it does list the father.

Update: Both father and mother are in jail for same sentence - another 5 years.

If my adopting her gives me sole custody then so be it, it's the only way to get her a USA passport and citizenship.

That's worth it.

[DrTuner]

If my adopting her gives me sole custody then so be it, it's the only way to get her a USA passport and citizenship.

That's worth it.

My thoughts too. The info is first hand, did that a few months ago. It's just legal stuff, I suppose the custody can be restored to joint after all the hub-blah with the citizenship & passports is done.

[Franky Bear]

Is this true? Why would this be? It doesn't matter. I will let my wife adopt her with the consent of the mother and father. We have the birth certificate, and it does list the father.

Update: Both father and mother are in jail for same sentence - another 5 years.

If my adopting her gives me sole custody then so be it, it's the only way to get her a USA passport and citizenship.

That's worth it.

I have zero to add other than you are a good person. Best of luck to you and your family

[stuck]

If my adopting her gives me sole custody then so be it, it's the only way to get her a USA passport and citizenship.

That's worth it.

My thoughts too. The info is first hand, did that a few months ago. It's just legal stuff, I suppose the custody can be restored to joint after all the hub-blah with the citizenship & passports is done.

Please don't misunderstand, I don't want to give her a USA passport just so she can go live in America, I want her to have it because it opens doors that the Thai Passport does not. I think the USA is falling rapidly, but having a Blue Passport opens doors.