I am a UK citizen and am planning to retire to Thailand in a few years, my Thai wife has a daughter aged 10 who would like to come and live in the UK to study for a few years. My wife has sole custody of the child. How do I go about adopting her so she can come here to study?

You need signed consent from the father - you probably need consent from the father to live in the UK. You are depriving the father from visiting his child.

Or is this some other situation?

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Originally Posted by JudyKayTee

You need signed consent from the father - you probably need consent from the father to live in the UK. You are depriving the father from visiting his child.

Or is this some other situation?

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The father has never had any interest in the children and already has given written consent. I am only trying to improve the education of the girl and anyway the move is only for a couple of years . She is an extremely intelligent girl and it is her idea to come to the UK. Her mother [who is an English teacher] and I only want to give her the best chance for a full and well rounded education. Her brother aged 13 goes to a very good school in Thailand and does not wish to do the same.

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Originally Posted by duffield

The father has never had any interest in the children and already has given written consent. I am only trying to improve the education of the girl and anyway the move is only for a couple of years . She is an extremely intelligent girl and it is her idea to come to the UK. Her mother [who is an English teacher] and I only want to give her the best chance for a full and well rounded education. Her brother aged 13 goes to a very good school in Thailand and does not wish to do the same.

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I'm not criticizing your motives - I was asking questions which are necessary in order to advise you on Family Law matters. Whether the father has any interest does not matter; the fact that he has given written consent for you to adopt the child(ren) and move the child(ren) to another Country does.

Who is the 13 year old going to live with while you, the mother and sister reside in the UK? The Court - if you need to have a Court proceeding - is going to ask about that.

You need an Attorney in Thailand to handle the adoption, followed by an Attorney who specializes in immigration.

The mother is not moving to the UK, she has a career and family in Thailand. I am only asking for advice on Thai procedure, before I go to feather the nest of an attorney. I can see from your point of view that money matters to the legal profession most of all. I notice you spell attorney with a capital A, and I know how important they are in the worlds most litigious society,but I would like to do some recearch first

I'm part of the adoption triad (the birthparent) and everything I read about adoption, and every case I've come in touch with, tells me that you just do NOT do an adoption without an attorney---ESPECIALLY an international adoption.

You can set a bone without a doctor--but I wouldn't recommend that either.

If you have all willing parties, a stepparent adoption shouldn't cost all that much.