Having Thai Baby, What are the best visa options for thailand? (Australia Related)

[wisemonkey]

My thai girlfriend is pregant and we are expecting a baby mid Feb next year, I am pretty excited and now trying to work out what is the best way to go about things.

 

I have read that it is going to be beneficial if the child is born in Australia, as then we can claim Family Benefit which would greatly help my thai GF, even if the child was born in Australia and then we went back to thailand, that 8000 would easily be able to support the baby and my GF. Is this benefit only for Australian born citizens, or could I get this for my baby even if the child is born in Thailand?

 

My other question is, since I would be wanting to be around my child as much as possible, and luckily I can work online so can actually live in thailand, what are my visa options for Thailand? Is there any visa for the father of a thai child, so I dont have to leave and do visa runs, etc, etc? Any help would be much appreciated

[stevxpl]

You are going to have a hard time getting your GF a Visa to visit Australia when she is due to have the kid, my ex-wife could only get a restricted Visa that made sure she was out before the kid was due to enter the world and she was married to me yours is just a GF. Best case if you do obtain a Visa, VERY UNLIKELY, for your GF you will need to obtain FULL medical insurance for the trip and unless she has that already lined up with coverage of having a child in a foreign country you are going to pay more than $8,000 for the cover.

 

Once the kid is born you can get him/her citizenship very easy.

 

For the most part foreigners are no longer able to obtain a family Visa based on being the parent of a Thai national, the government a few years ago removed that option stating that too many foreigners were having half Thai kids just so they could stay in Thailand. It does makes sense though as when you think about it the cost of raising a kid for 18+ years is far less than doing a Visa run to Singapore every 3 months to get a 90 day Tourist Visa.

 

Best to have the kid in Thailand where the mother has the support of her family at hand, something she won't have in Australia and will struggle with even without a new born to look after. I think there are also citizenship issue on the Thai side when born outside of Thailand when only the mother is Thai... just remember something one of my Thai teachers was telling me 12 years ago that his kids couldn't get full citizenship because only mum was Thai and they were both born outside of Thailand but that was 12 years ago and rules may have changes.

[wisemonkey]

thats interesting steve, why wouldnt they give your wife a visa? thats crazy, I would of thought that the wife of a citizen was pretty much a citizen!

 

Apparently it is easy to get citizenship for the kid even if born in thailand, reading that with the right documents submitted to the Aussie embassy in BKK, the baby can have aussie citizenship within 2 weeks. I wonder if it would still then be eligible for the baby bonus?

 

Thats annoying with not getting any visa with being the Father to a Thai national, going to be annoying doing the three month visa runs...

[wisemonkey]

Seems like it will be still eligible for the Baby Bonus got this from http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/centrelink/baby-bonus?utm_id=10:

 

 

 

Baby Bonus residency requirements

 

To be eligible for Baby Bonus, you must be an Australian resident.

This means that you have been living in Australia on a permanent basis and are either:

• an Australian citizen or
  
• the holder of a permanent resident visa or
  
• the holder of a special category visa (that is, you arrived on a New Zealand passport) or
  
• the holder of a particular temporary visa—either a “partner provisional”, “interdependency”, or “temporary protection” visa.
  

Your child must also meet the above requirements and must be living with you.

Note: If you have recently arrived in Australia or are temporarily residing overseas, you may need to provide evidence to support your intention to live in Australia permanently.

[Scumbag]

Seems like it will be still eligible for the Baby Bonus got this from http://www.humanserv...bonus?utm_id=10:

 

 

 

Baby Bonus residency requirements

 

 

To be eligible for Baby Bonus, you must be an Australian resident.

This means that you have been living in Australia on a permanent basis and are either:

• an Australian citizen or
  
• the holder of a permanent resident visa or
  
• the holder of a special category visa (that is, you arrived on a New Zealand passport) or
  
• the holder of a particular temporary visa—either a “partner provisional”, “interdependency”, or “temporary protection” visa.
  

Your child must also meet the above requirements and must be living with you.

Note: If you have recently arrived in Australia or are temporarily residing overseas, you may need to provide evidence to support your intention to live in Australia permanently.

That would depend on their definition of 'you'. If it is the mother (or includes her) then it may be a non-starter. I think this bonus is to encourage people to have children in Australia and raise them in Australia for the benefit of the country. I see on that page that if you do not intend on living in Australia permanently you can not claim it (they require evidence for this).

 

Unless you have been living with her for 12 months I think you only have two options to get her living in Australia. Both options involves marrying her. You can just marry her and then apply for a partner visa. The second option is applying for a de facto which would give you 9 months to get married.

 

Once you are married you have the option to apply for a non-immigrant type-o visa. You will still need to do border runs every 90 days.

[wisemonkey]

If a apply for a yeary education visa, do I still have to do the visa runs?

[Scumbag]

If a apply for a yeary education visa, do I still have to do the visa runs?

I believe you only need to report every 90 days to immigration in Jomtien.