British passport for child in Thailand?

[thaigirl]

I’m sorry, I’m posting here for traffic. My friend in Thailand has been married to a British man for a few years. He worked in the UK but would go to Thailand every winter for three months and spend it with her. She had their first baby 8 months ago.

When the child was a month old it emerged that he’d met someone else in the UK and he asked my friend for a divorce. He arrived in Thailand with divorce papers and when my friend refused to sign he hit her.

He’s now back in the UK with his new girlfriend and is refusing to help his wife get their child a British passport. Does anyone have any advice I can relay to her? How does she get her child’s dual citizenship without his consent? I’m stumped and can’t find the answer online, whilst she’s grieving the end of her marriage, coming to terms with being a single mother in Thailand and being blanked by him whenever she raises the passport issue.

What’s the purpose of getting a British passport? Is the father named on birth certificate (or Thai equivalent?). Has she been to the GB consulate to seek advice - I’d have thought that’s the best bet to get proper details of what is required in these circumstances

I’m not sure. I think the dual citizenship is important to my friend as it’s her daughter’s birth right.
The father is named on the birth certificate, yes.

Is ex on the baby's birth certificate?

Yes he is.

hate to say it, but the husband always had a girlfriend/wife back home in the UK, and your friend was his bit on the side and 100% doesnt not want her and child coming to UK.

Your friend should get in touch with the UK embassy, but imagine they will want a lot proof/documentation, which without his help would struggle to get.

https://www.gov.uk/apply-citizenship-british-parent/born-on-or-after-1-july-2006

If they father was born in the uk then it's quite straightforward.
A British passport for the child won't allow your friend to get a visa to the uk if that is what she is hoping. In fact it will make it easier for the father to take the child to the uk and refuse to return him as a British citizen. This has recently happened to a lady in SE Asia and she is now stuck there while her child is in the uk and she can't even get a visit visa as her ex won't have anything to do with her.

He's not going to try and kidnap her child he's trying to hide the child's existence from his UK girlfriend.

She deserves child support as much as any other parent and she should look into that as well as passport.

He's on the birth certificate, DNA testing is fast, cheap and easy these days, they presumably have hundreds of messages regarding the child. It should be pretty easy to prove the kid is his!

Does she know details about his parents? To get a first British passport for a child born overseas (i.e. a British citizen by descent) she'll need to submit evidence including a copy of child's birth certificate, copy of British father's birth certificate and copies of British grandparents' birth certificates.

Anyone can apply for copies of birth certificates online and it's not complicated if you have details like full name, date/place of birth. You don't need anyone's consent to get a copy of their birth certificate - they won't even know you've done it.

It could be very tricky indeed, though, if she doesn't have these details and he won't supply them.

She’s not hoping to come here. She came one winter and absolutely hated it here, too cold for her.
She’s got a good job in Bangkok and a home that I know she wouldn’t want to leave.

If I’m honest, I’m not sure what the significance of the passport is but she’s determined that she will get it and he’s refusing to help at every turn.

Also, I know him fairly well. It’s rumoured that he cheated on his wife when here in the UK previously. The new girlfriend is definitely new on the scene, but I’m not sure why that matters? He married my friend….probably because he fancied living in Thailand permanently at some point, and fathered a child with her.

is she actually married?

Being married is not relevant to the child's British citizenship (it used to be that British fathers couldn't pass on citizenship to children born overseas if they were unmarried but that's no longer the case). If he's named as the father on the birth certificate then paternity is established and the child is a British citizen by descent. It wouldn't hurt to supply a copy of the marriage certificate as well, though.

But OP's friend needs to prove that the father is a) a British citizen and b) has the right to pass on British citizenship to his children born overseas.

This means she'll need to prove that he was born in the UK and that at least one of his parents was also a British citizen at the time of his birth. It's easier to submit grandmother's birth certificate as then you don't need to mess around with marriage certificates too, but you can go overkill on the evidence if you think it will help things go more smoothly.

I assume she knows these things to be true - that he was born in the UK to at least one British parent. It's then just a matter of proving it!

She’s been told that she needs father’s original passport to apply for her child’s British passport. I don’t think that is true, right? He’s blocked her on all platforms at the moment so she isn’t able to make contact, but he’s certainly refuse.

It would be helpful to have it but I don't believe it's required if you can get all the birth certificates.

I would advise her not to worry about a UK passport now. If in future her DC wanted one, the DC could apply. Some countries have a time limit on asserting a baby's citizenship (e.g before 6mos old for the US) but I don't think the UK does.

But the process is simpler if you do it before the age of 18.