DNA Paternity Tests for Governments, Embassies, and Immigration

This section is only for people who need a DNA paternity test for government purposes. If you do not need this, and just want a DNA paternity test for your private, personal knowledge, then you do not need to worry about the requirements of the pages in this section.

Also, be aware that many embassies do not require a DNA paternity test for many cases of citizenship or immigration. Some do, some don't. It may depend upon circumstances. It might be good to have a DNA test report handy, when and where you might be asked whether or not you've had a DNA test. Some people have been asked for a DNA test but did not have time to organize one quickly in your itinerary. Having a test report handy "just in case" might be a good idea. However, you should check with your government about any particular requirements. We are happy to discuss this with you based on our experience over the years with various governments, and we are also willing to discuss things directly with your government.

If paternity fraud and being the biological father of your child are important issues to you, and if you are not sure that you are the biological father, then you may want to consider any potential legal and financial obligations if you obtain citizenship for your child in your country as the legal father but later find out that you are not actually the biological father, so that it may be better to find out for sure in advance whether or not you are the biological father before even applying for citizenship of the child at your embassy, as discussed near the end of this page (and from experience in our DNA testing).

On the other hand, if you are already the "social father" of a child of your wife or girlfriend, it might not matter to you whether or not you are the biological father, as you may love and take care of the child the same. This is common. However, your embassy might have a different attitude ... depending upon your nationality and the circumstances.

When a government does require a DNA paternity test, then please be aware that different governments (and their embassies) have varying requirements for DNA paternity testing. On this page, we discuss various issues of using a Bangkok based DNA testing facility with governments, which we recommend you read, but if you want to just shortcut to your own government, then you can just click on one of these links:

Thai government

Australian Embassy

US Embassy in Bangkok

Other embassies

Yes, we have successfully helped people with foreign embassy required DNA testing to get a passport and for immigration.

Yes, we have successfully helped people with Thailand government matters, e.g., getting the foreign biological father onto a Thai birth certificate, and also for getting Thai citizenship for a child born to a foreign (e.g., Lao or Myanmar) mother and an alleged Thai father, as well as the Thai court.

No, we do not oversell by saying that we can definitely give you a solution for every nation's embassy or with every Thai government official, only that we have helped successfully with Thai government offices and foreign embassies, and might be able to help you.

No Bangkok entity should say nor imply they can help you successfully with every embassy or Thai government need, especially the U.S. Embassy (for example, see our section on the US Embassy below). Different embassies and their domestic immigration offices have different requirements and rules. Some Thai government officials are difficult. We first need to know your country and situation. We are willing to discuss this with you, and to advise you at no charge, without pushing you. We are willing to help out. We try to give objective advice, without bias and especially without overselling.

Some Thai government offices, such as in Chonburi (where fakes are common, e.g., Pattaya ...) will not accept a private lab and require you go through an official process with the police or other approved Thai government facility.

You should also question anybody who says that they provide, for example, notarized results that are accepted in Thailand and abroad. Such a statement does not necessarily mean they are always accepted in Thailand and in all countries abroad. Indeed, Thailand has no notary public system, unlike the US. Many other countries also have no requirement for "notarized" documents. Of course, if one entity in Thailand accepted a notarized result (whether or not they cared it was notarized) and an entity in, say, Cambodia, also accepted the same, I guess that could qualify as saying that their notarized results are accepted in Thailand and abroad, as regards their choice of language, but that is not the same as a guarantee that your test will be accepted in Thailand, Cambodia, or somewhere else.

Just because a laboratory's reports have been accepted by many embassies in the world, that does not mean that a walk-in hand-held report based on DNA collections by a Bangkok office will be accepted. It depends on your embassy and your particular family's situation. Even if a Bangkok office has successfully helped in some other cases, that doesn't guarantee it will work in your case.

It is important to first check with the particular government officers about what is required, not just the DNA testing company which may be happy to take your money.

We try to not be overly promotional, but it is frustrating to us when we see competitors who word things which could possibly mislead some people. While this is common practice in many kinds of business advertising for purely selfish reasons in our current society, making money is not the most important thing in life. Having a good conscience, good ethics, being a good person in society are priceless. We will choose moral class anytime, even if it means less financial class.

We understand many government systems in Thailand, and some overseas, from years of experience and getting things done. Our company Director worked for the US government before in Washington, D.C., and has been an expat in Thailand since 1994. We have dealt with the Thai government many times in general, going back to the 1990s.

It may be said by a laboratory that it has "international" certifications and accreditations, but that does not mean its reports are accepted by all international entities, governmental or private. For example, our laboratory, the DDC, has accreditation by the AABB in America, NATA in Australia, the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), and the UK Ministry of Justice, so it has "international" credentials. Also, the AABB now has members in many countries, so it could be called "international", though having a member in a country may not mean all that country's official entities accept the report. Since the DDC has AABB accreditation, could somebody claim it has "international" accreditation? This "international" accreditation may not mean it will be accepted everywhere internationally.

The DDC has an exceptionally good list of certifications and accreditations which are widely respected in its field, so it may normally be accepted by a large number of government authorities. However, we should discuss these things with authorities on a case by case basis, and not oversell our service to customers, because individual government officials have the power to accept or decline anything, especially if it's not explained well. As we have experience with governments, we have developed standard documentation to provide in addition from our company and Director in Thailand.

I have seen some confusing things on the internet about authentication and certification, and services offered to do these things at a fee. Let me try to clarify some things.

The Thai government can authenticate original Thai government documents.

Your own country's embassy in Thailand can authenticate original documents from your own government.

Nobody, including either government, should "authenticate" a private DNA laboratory report.

Nobody should "authenticate" a private laboratory report except the laboratory itself, and the same applies to any documents from a private company or agency except their authorized signatory authorities. This is why we sometimes get direct phone calls from government officials, or are asked to show up in person, or are asked to send things by registered mail.

Some people may need a translation of their government documents certified correct by the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A partner company of ours has operated a Thai-English translation business since 2002, www.ThaiEnglish.com , under Export Quality Services Co., Ltd., which was originally co-founded by our Managing Director in order to create quality, accurate translations. We have run our translations to the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs many times before for certified correct and bound documents.

However, a certified correct translation is not an authentication. It is only a language translation.

(The two may be bound together, but it's two different things, i.e., you can get an authenticated document and do a certified translation.)

We can normally do translations to the level of certification required, and we can advise and guide people about what may be required (and not required) by their government. If you bring in your documents and government guidelines in English or Thai (our native languages), then we can normally figure out what is needed and help guide you. We have been through government processes many times.

We authenticate our own documents. We prepare documentation, including a copy of our company registration, signed affidavits, and other things as required. We are an officially registered Thailand limited corporation. Officials can call us at our official land line company phone number. We have a standard multi-page format of report for governments.

In any case, I can't imagine how any other private entity in Thailand could do better than us. We've had compliments from government officials about our reports. This website is not just about the experience with embassies worldwide by our laboratory in the United States of America, this is also about our particular office in Bangkok and its embassy and Thai government experience, and occasionally our experience in a neighboring country.

We just don't want to oversell our services or mislead people. There are exceptions ...

When somebody comes to us with a particular need, we first discuss the details and process, based on our experience and knowledge. Many people get confused because some government officers are not willing to spend much time with them to explain things clearly, or something they have read may not be clear to them (such as having lots of legal jargon or unnecessary material), or maybe they don't know where to go for good help, or maybe they just want short, customized answers for their own particular needs ... instead of dealing with a lot of government literature and paperwork themselves which is provided by a government to cover every different kind of case which comes to them, not short guidance for just your particular situation. We are willing to give you time to help out in answering questions customized to your needs, helping you to understand the process and requirements, trying to find the best solution, and as experts talking with the government officer(s) directly in many cases.

Simple discussion, advice, and answering some questions is free to you. We are not going to push you to do anything or pay for something in a misleading way. We don't try to sell something to every customer. We would rather help somebody and not take their money, than take their money and mislead them. As experts, we would like to help you deal with officialdom. Usually, we can find the best solution for you. We like helping good people. Different people in different locations and in different situations may have different official requirements in the paperwork and process, so first we need to understand your situation before we can advise you.

If you're not really sure you're the father

Some men first just want to find out for sure whether or not they are truly the father before they go to their embassy and start a registration of a birth or a passport application. It can be an embarrassment at the embassy, as well as a waste of money, time, and paperwork effort, if they go through the whole embassy process only to find out in the end that they're not the biological father.

If we first find out that they are the biological father, then they may go to the embassy not only confident, but also with our paperwork, and find out whether or not the embassy will accept it (yes, our Bangkok office's DNA report has been accepted before, but we can't guarantee it), or whether the embassy will require another test by the embassy's guidelines (perhaps also with us, but possibly in a different way such as a legal chain of custody test). It depends on your country.

What about men who get foreign citizenship for a child, and who are legally the father, but find out later that they are not the biological father? This has happened to men who believed they were the father at the time of birth, and for whom the embassy did not require a DNA test. If you are happy to still be the legal and social father, that is fine, but there are men who wish to not be legally liable to support a child which is not theirs due to paternity fraud. Sometimes, the mother tries to take advantage of the legal father financially or otherwise.

Yes, we've had men come to us for a DNA test, who believed they were the biological father at the time and already got citizenship for their child, but came to us later to do a DNA paternity test because they started to question whether or not they are the biological father, and found out from our test that they are actually not the biological father after all.

If you get foreign citizenship for a child, and later find out that you are not the biological father, and wish to avoid any potential legal obligations for the child, then you have another very expensive, time consuming, and tedious process to deal with that. Once a child is in national citizen databases, it is not as simple as just "deleting" their records everywhere. They are a citizen of your country, and you are their father, if that is what you originally got from your embassy.

For example, government officialdom has said that while they empathize with the legal father, they cannot reverse a citizenship unless it can be shown that the paperwork was fraudulent in the original filing. If the man filed it all without a DNA test, and it was all approved, based on other legitimate documents, then it was not fraudulent. A later DNA test does not invalidate it.

In these cases, it would have been much better if the man had known he is not the biological father before he went to the embassy to apply for citizenship for the child and become the legal father in his own country.

In some countries and states, once you have filed official parentage paperwork, and/or lived with and taken care of a child for a certain time period, then you may be the legal father whether or not you are the biological father. You should check the particular laws within your own country and local jurisdiction.

Many of our customers in Thailand have refused to put their name onto a birth certificate and sign for it until after they have done a paternity test. You can wait a little while in Thailand, but should process this quickly. Even if you pay a small fine for being late to add a father's name to a birth certificate, that may be trivial compared to getting it wrong. It is relatively easy to add a father's name to a birth certificate with no father named. However, it is very difficult, time consuming, and can be expensive to remove a father's name from a birth certificate.

If you're not sure what to do, and you would like to discuss it with somebody, then you can just call us on the phone, at the phone number at the top of this page. Native English: 080-062-4243 . Thai: 02-255-0620 (and this latter office number is also OK for English, they just hand me the phone). Or, you can send us a message by our contact form, and a native English speaker (American) can understand it. For the Thai people in your family, one of our Thai staff can answer them in Thai. You're welcome to visit us at our office, but over the phone is also fine. Either way, discussion and advice is free and with no obligation nor pressure.

Additional, children pages of this current parent page:

Governments, Embassies :
  Thai government
  Australian Embassy
  US Embassy
  Other embassies

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