In Thailand, child custody decisions can be made by either the parents or the courts. If the parents are able to negotiate or agree without the court’s intervention, they will have more power over current and future choices on behalf of the child. Both parents can discuss about the child’s living circumstances, visiting rights, daily financial responsibilities, educational goals, and other essential needs.
Couples going through an uncontested divorce in Thailand can enter into an agreement specifying how they will share custody. For unmarried couples, the mother has sole custody of the child unless the father certifies the child as legitimate. This procedure for legitimizing the child is required before a father may enter into a custody arrangement with the mother.
Even if your name is on the birth certificate as the biological father, you are not recognized as the legal father under Thai law. In Thailand, a child born out-of-wedlock is the legitimate child of the birth mother. The law does not consider the biological father to be the legitimate father. Therefore, he shall have no legal rights over the child.
According to the Civil and Commercial Code Section 1547, you can legitimize a father’s rights to a child by any of the following:
According to the Civil and Commercial Code Section 1555, you may enter an action for legitimation ONLY in the following cases:
The continuous common repute of being a legitimate child results from facts showing the relationship between father and child. This is proven by the child’s connection with the family to which he claims to belong. It includes the father’s provision for the child’s education or maintenance, or allowing the child to use his family name, or other facts.
Once you register the legitimation, you cannot revoke it. However, any interested person may, within 3 months from the notification date of such registration, apply to the court for cancellation of the registration. This is on the ground that the person who insisted on the legitimation registration is not the father of the child; in any case, you may only take such action after ten years from the date of registration.
If the applicant has brought an action to the Court for an order effecting him as the child’s father, the child or the mother may apply to the Court in the same case for an order effecting that the applicant is not a suitable person for exercising the parental power in part or whole, even if he is the real father of the child.
Marriage does not grant the spouse any rights over the children of their new Husband or Wife. The previous partner exercises the parental power over such child.
A person exercising parental power has the rights as follows:
