If you or your wife just delivered your baby in Thailand, the hospital staff may have helped you with your baby’s Thai birth certificate and accompanying paperwork, but you’ll have to take a few extra steps to get your son or daughter recognized as a US citizen.
To do that, you have to apply for a Consular Report of Birth Abroad certificate, US passport, and US social security number and card.
I cover how to apply for US social security numbers and cards in another post, so in this article I’ll focus on applying for your child’s US passport and Consular Report of Birth Abroad certificate.
You’ll need the latter to apply for your son or daughter’s US social security number and card anyway, so it’s best to start here.
For convenience, please note that I’ll be using the acronym CRBA to refer to Consular Report of Birth Abroad throughout this post.
Required Documents
When you apply for your son or daughter’s US citizenship and passport, you’ll have four options to choose from, and each of these options requires different documents.
- One parent is a US citizen and married
- One parent is a US citizen but not married
- Both parents are US citizens and married
- Both parents are US citizens but not married
Because each of these cases are unique, it’s best to refer to the CRBA checklist to determine which documents you need to present.
However, you’ll find the standard list of documents below to get you started. I’ve linked to the US Embassy’s PDF forms for each document.
- CRBA checklist
- DS-2029 Application(*)(**)
- DS-11 Application for a US Passport
- One 2in. x 2in. passport-style photo (white background, taken in the last 6 months, no glasses)
- One copy of each of the required documents listed on the CRBA checklist
- Signed CRBA checklist stating two preferred dates
- Bank draft (sample here)
- Both parent’s passports (even if one of you aren’t a US citizen)
- Son or daughter’s registered birth certificate, translated into English if necessary
- Marriage certificate, translated into English if necessary
- Family photos
- Evidence of parents’ physical presence in the US (in the past)
*If one parent can’t make it to the appointment, he or she must fill out and sign form DS-3053.
**If one parent isn’t willing to help with the process, you must fill out form DS-5525 on his or her behalf.
Parents’ US Evidence
On the CRBA checklist you’ll find that either both or one of the parents (depending on your case) have to prove that he or she lived in the US for five cumulative years.
Cumulative years doesn’t mean consecutive years. You just have to have lived in the US for a total of five years, which could’ve been spread over time.
This can be a bit tricky to prove if you didn’t bring any original documents to Thailand with you, documents like school transcripts, prior years’ taxes, or medical records.
If you don’t have these original documents in Thailand, your child’s application may be denied.
So it’s important to get original documents proving you lived in the US for five cumulative years before you apply for your child’s CRBA.
Cost and Paying
The CRBA and passport application process costs 6665 baht. For this price, your child gets his or her CRBA certificate and a passport book.
You could pay more to include a passport card. Likewise, you could pay less if you just want the CRBA but no passport.
In either case, you have to send a bank draft along with your application, and the bank draft can only come from one of the following banks:
- SCB
- Kasikorn Bank
- Bangkok Bank
Application Process
If you send everything on the CRBA checklist, you shouldn’t have any trouble getting an appointment, so be sure you’ve triple checked that list before mailing the application and documents.
Mail Your Application and Supporting Documents
After you fill out your application, get your bank draft, and gather all your supporting documents, put them in an envelope and send them to either of the addresses below.
If you live near Bangkok, send your application and supporting documents to:
Attn: Mail-in CRBA Application
American Citizen Services, Consular Section
95 Wireless Road
Bangkok 10330, Thailand
If you’re closer to Chiang Mai, send your application and supporting documents to:
Attn:Mail-in CRBA Application
American Citizen Services, Consular Section
387 Wichayanond Rd., T. Chang Moi
A. Muang, Chiang Mai 50300, Thailand
Wait for Email Confirmation
Once the US Embassy gets your application, they’ll email you a link so that you can schedule your appointment.
Most likely, you’ll have quite a few options as opposed to the two preferred dates and times you entered on your application.
Select the date and time that best suits you, and then print out the appointment confirmation—you’ll need it to get into the embassy.
Show up Prepared
On appointment day, your child and both parents have to be there unless you already filled out the form stating one parent couldn’t make it.
Bring all your original documents from your CRBA checklist. US Embassy staff will check them and give them back to you before you leave.
If you apply in Bangkok, bring an extra 100 baht because you’ll have to buy a prepaid envelope at the US Embassy so that they can mail your child’s CRBA and passport to you.
If you apply in Chiang Mai, go to the Mae Ping Post Office before your appointment and buy a Courier Passback Service envelope and then give that to the ES Embassy staff.
With that said, you child should have their CRBA certificate and US passport within two weeks.
What’s Next?
Once you get your child’s CRBA certificate, you can then apply for his or her US social security number through mail at the Manila US Social Security Office, which we cover in this post.
You’ll want to do this as soon as possible, especially if you want to reap the tax benefits that come along with having kids.
Deutsch:
Français:
Español: