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A Guide to Status (Nationality & Citizenship) for Children Born in Thailand

Most people don't relocate or travel to Thailand expecting to have a baby. But hey, life happens.

  • Perhaps you relocated as an expat looking forward to retirement in the sun, but ended up finding romance, marriage and eventually a child.
  • Perhaps you flew to Thailand for holiday and didn't realise that your baby would be arriving prematurely.
  • Perhaps you sowed your oats on holiday and, nine months later, have found out that those oats became a baby.

Whatever your situation, you might be wondering about the status of your child.

There are a number of scenarios to cover, including a baby born to foreign nationals in Thailand, a baby born to one foreign national and one Thai national, and a baby born to foreign nationals with permanent residency.

And then there's babies born to Thai nationals living overseas, which also isn't quite as straight forward as one might think.

So let's look at these different scenarios and determine what status your child will inherit as a result of being born in Thailand, or to a Thai parent(s) outside of Thailand.

baby-born-thailand-nationality

A Child Born to Foreign Nationals

Unlike some countries in the world, if you are both foreign nationals and your child is born in Thailand, your child will not gain Thai citizenship, residence, or any other rights given to a Thai national.

It doesn't matter if you both have work permits, business visas or any other type of official document, your child will not gain Thai citizenship or related rights.

This is because Thailand follows a nationality doctrine called “jus sanguinis”, which roughly translated means ‘right of blood'.

When the baby is born in a Thai hospital, there will be some notation on the birth certificate that stipulates the status of the child and the fact that the child is not of Thai nationality/citizenship.

There is, however, one exception to this rule…

A Child Born to Foreign Nationals with Permanent Residency

If a foreign national couple, both with permanent residency, have a biological child, the child will be granted Thai citizenship.

Permanent residency is quite difficult to obtain, and therefore there are probably very few Western foreign couples who would fall into this category. If you do fall into this category, it will be interesting to hear from you and your experience with this process.

A Stateless Child (Born to Foreigners)

There is one other circumstance where a child born of foreign parents in Thailand may be able to gain Thai citizenship. And that is if a child is born stateless.

By stateless we mean not belonging to a state/country, so having no official citizenship. In this situation, the parents would need to seek legal advice and go through a number of hoops to obtain this for the child.

Indeed, if we look to the Hill Tribes of Thailand we see a case in point. Many of these communities have gone through and are still going through this process of registering stateless children.

Many of the Hill Tribe peoples can trace their bloodline to outside of Thailand. However, their ancestors settled in Thailand due to displacement or territorial change over the years.

Many of these people do not have official documentation such as birth certificates or passports. This makes it extremely problematic to obtain Thai citizenship for a child, because not only is the child stateless but so too are they. They may not be able to prove their origin either.

You may remember last year when 13 children from the Wild Boars football team got stuck in a cave in Chiang Rai province (northern Thailand). Many of these children were children of Hill Tribe families. After their ordeal, those without permanent status were awarded Thai citizenship.

A Child Born to a Foreign National & Thai National

In the case of a child born to a Foreign national and a Thai national in Thailand, the child automatically gains Thai nationality. This status will be stipulated on the birth certificate provided by the hospital. The parents can then go forward and obtain the child a Thai passport.

For more information on obtaining a passport for your Thai child, please read this post here. 

In the case that a Thai national is married to a foreign national and living overseas, the child will be granted Thai nationality due to the nationality of the Thai parent. However, this doesn't happen automatically by descent. To be registered as a Thai national, the child will need to obtain a Thai birth certificate from the Thai embassy in that country.

Without a Thai birth certificate, the child cannot be registered on a Thai House Registration document (Tabien Baan – ทะเบียนบ้าน), or get a Thai passport (หนังสือเดินทาง) or ID card (บัตรประชาชน) issued. Note that Thai children aged 7 years and above are required to have identification cards, so no need to worry about that until a number of years down the line.

A Child Born to Thai Nationals

Of course, it goes without saying that a child born to Thai nationals – even if those Thai nationals are living abroad, or if one is living in Thailand and the other is living abroad – will be eligible for Thai nationality.

However, even if both parents are Thai nationals, they must still go to the embassy in that foreign country and obtain the Thai birth certificate for their child. Only then will their child officially gain their Thai nationality.

—

I think I've pretty much covered all the common scenarios. But if you're circumstances are not covered in this post and you have a question about a child's status, leave your question below and I'll get to it as soon as I can.

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  1. Janine says

    My daughter was born in Thailand - to two foreigners. There was talk once of children born to foreigners in Thailand who largely grew up there potentially having some special rights or exceptions to be able to work in Thailand under certain conditions. I guess this never eventuated, but if you know anything please let me know. My daughter is 21 now and she would love to live in Thailand.
    Reply

  2. niko says

    I'm a digital nomad (and as such have been living and traveling in Asia for years) and I'm considering having a baby in Thailand while over on a tourist visa. My question is; will I need to apply for a visa for the child or register it somewhere after it is born or will it automatically get some kind of exemption (I'm from a visa-exempt country) after birth? Getting a passport for the child from my embassy will take roughly 2 months so I'm concerned about if the child will be staying in Thailand illegally or something during that time. The father won't be present and either way, he's not Thai so I know the child will get its citizenship from me.
    Reply

    • Kevin says

      No not as the law stands, one parent must be Thai. If however he has a yellow book he can get a Pink Farang Photo ID card issued by his local Amphur office.
      He will still be classed as Cambodian even if he was born in Thailand. The only way would be if your friend had a Thai birth certificate issued by the local Amphur.
      He will be subject to the 90 day reporting.

      He could always write to the King ?? It’s been known before.
      Reply

      • TheThailandLife says

        If he is stateless then he may be able to apply. If he was born, raised and educated in Thailand then he has a very good chance, but he will need help from both his parents. Please see the section in the post regarding a stateless child born to foreigners. Are the parents still living in Thailand? What is his current status? Does he have an ID card?
        Reply

          • Kevin says

            Mohamud, The Government ID card issued to non Thai nationals is available from your local Amphur office. Assuming you are living in Thailand you will need your Yellow residence book, your partner will need to produce their blue book which will also have the child’s name on. However, I’m not sure the pink ID card gives you access to a school/college or university.

            You will need an Education Visa to study in Thailand.

            The first thing to keep in mind is that in order to apply for a Non-Immigrant ED Visa, you must have been accepted into a full-time educational course, training programme, or internship in Thailand.

            When applying for a Non-Immigrant ED Visa, you will need to provide a copy of your passport or travel document valid for at least 6 months from the scheduled arrival date in Thailand, a finalized visa application form, 2 passport-sized photographs (4 x 6 cm) and a completed TM 87 Thai Visa Application form.

            The following documents must be sent by the school or institute where you will be studying as proof of enrolment (receipts of tuition fee payments), course summary and school registration papers.

            You must also have an official letter from Thailand’s Ministry of Education or other relevant sub-authorities approving of foreign student enrollment as well as a copy of the academic foundation’s registration certificate when applying to a private educational institution. If you are already enrolled in a class, you must have a copy of your college record as well as your Student ID.
            Reply

  4. Derek says

    I know two Thai nationals (man and wife) who are currently living in Canada. They both have permanent residency cards. Have been here for many years. They have two kids born in Canada, 1 seven-year-old daughter and 1 seven months old newborn. They recently visited Thailand to see their family (who are farmers) and stayed the 30 days before heading back to Canada. The mother told me she left her 7 months old daughter with family in Thailand because she feels Thailand is safer than Canada because of the Covid 19 situation. Is this legal to do? Just leave a foreign national baby in Thailand??
    Reply

    • TheThailandLife says

      The daughter is a Thai national by birth so on the Thai side there wouldn't be an issue. As for Canada, I don't know the law, but I presume social services would be very concerned about a Canadian national being taken on holiday and left there at such a vulnerable age. In the UK you need court permission for this. Their reasoning seems very strange to me. COVID-19 poses no proven risk to children and the evidence that children transmit the virus is statistically insignificant. So what are they worried about?
      Reply

  5. Boonmar Davis says

    I was born in Thailand in 1972 to a US father and Thai mother. We moved to the States when I was 12. I do not have a Thai passport, only US passport. However, I do have a copy of Thai birth certificate. I am looking to move back to Thailand in couple of years when I turn 50. Will I qualify for a Thai passport so that I do not have to deal with getting a retirement visa?
    Reply

      • Daniel Finnegan says

        I was born in Thailand and adopted at 16 months old by UK parents. I lived in Thailand until i was 5 and went to the uk.i do have a very old Thai passport but I want to have a new one as well as holding a full UK.passport.How do I arrange this despite knowing no thai
        Reply

        • TheThailandLife says

          You can get a passport but one of the requirements is a Thai ID card. You don't have one because you left Thailand before you came of age to be issued one. I'm not sure how the embassy would handle this so you will need to give them a call. They aren't issuing passports until July due to a COVID backlog, but give them a call anyway. https://london.thaiembassy.org/en/page/82038-thai-passport?menu=5d6636ce15e39c3bd0007340It may be the case that you need to go to Thailand first and get an ID card, and then apply for a passport, which you could also do while you're there. I'm not sure about that though. In your situation they may issue a passport based on birth certificate and adoption papers. It's just a case of contacting them.
          Reply

          • dreamcatcher says

            Daniel, My Thai adopted son, like you, had a Thai passport and no ID card. The Thai Embassy in the US issued him a new passport after reviewing the original Thai adoption documents. It may be, if your passport is very old, the embassy may ask for more documentation.
            Years later, at age 24, he travelled to Thailand and decided to work there. The staff of the Adoption Center at the Department of Welfare in Bangkok helped him get an ID card with the appropriate house registration details. Their concern was that he might be called up for military service but this never happened nor was it ever an issue.
            Reply

    • James E says

      Your kid, just for being your kid, will automatically have citizenship. If you report the birth to the embassy then it's a done deal. I'm sure you're aware of some of the downsides to US citizenship at the moment those would also accrue to your daughter. If you wait for her to decide later I'm sure there will be more hoops to jump through but still doable. If it were me, I'd report the birth and then wait to let her decide about an SSN and passport later.
      Reply

    • TheThailandLife says

      Not if you plan on living in Thailand.As I understand it, the children would need to have settled status in the UK. And only you would be able to claim for them, not your wife, since she would have no recourse to public funds until she gained permanent residency. You would need to prove that you are responsible for the children. The first step would be to move back to the UK. To do that you would need to get a settlement visa for your wife and the children. That is not going to be easy.There is probably more to it than this and I'm just reading the information on the .Gov website. I'd speak with the Citizens Advice Bureau for accurate information.
      Reply

  10. gordon taylor says

    my sister in law is thai her husband is british ,,he now lives in uk. my sister in law wants to get her 3 year old daughter a thai passport . does her husband have to be here present to get her one ,,or can he give power of attorney to me to be able to get the child a thai passport here in thailand her mother has all the legal documents
    Reply

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