Thanet

Hi - a lawyer would perhaps only know the answer, but sometimes personal experience is more useful, hence my question here.

My question - what happens when somebody dies intestate without leaving a will? What is the processs, and to which family members is the estate usually transferred to? How long does it take?

Special Branch told me that the debate about whether dual nationality is allowed or not under the Nationality Act and whether the Act should be amended to specifically prohibit it has been raging at the Interior Ministry for as long as anyone can remember. Their view, as stated by Jamesthailand, is that it is not specifically prohibited. However, as Mario says, the pro-xenophobia camp seems currently to be getting the upper hand at the ministry and is trying to impose its own interpretation on the naturalisation process. This seems an unfortunate retrogressive move when many countries are moving in the other direction, e.g. Vietnam has recently moved to allow dual nationality even for naturalised Vietnamese. I suspect it is a backlash caused by resentment at the provision in the 2008 Nationality Act that allowed foreign men married to Thai women to apply for nationality without having PR first that was clearly added to avoid conflicts with the constitutional provisions against gender discrimination.

Many people who got Thai nationality as result of being born in Thailand to alien parents have involuntarily lost their Thai nationality for "making use" of their father's nationality. However, nearly all of these people were also cited as being guilty of being not domiciled in Thailand for over 5 years (another reason for revocation), in addition to "making use" of their father's nationality. Normally no specific evidence was cited of the use of the other nationality but I presume this wasn't necessary due to the combined use of the 5 year for which evidence would have been readily available from Immigration. There has been one specific case of revocation of Thai nationality specifically on the grounds of making use of another nationality alone. In this 2004 case a British man provided the evidence himself by entering and leaving Thailand on his British passport. Clearly that constituted "use" of another nationality. There are no cases known to me of naturalised Thais involuntarily losing Thai nationality, although there are several of women who got it through marrying Thai men. What may be a concern to some, particularly with the possible advent of e-borders involving airlines automatically notifying citizenship to immigration services, is whether leaving Thailand to go on a short trip to a farang country without a visa for that country could in future be interpreted as "use" of former nationality.

Three years seems rather a long time between application and interview, given the small numbers who apply and rapid processing of them by Special Branch and the other government agencies responsible for vetting applicants before they are passed to the ministry, which only takes about two months. I am not sure why the minister needs several more years to consider and sign the applications already approved by the committee at the ministry. Males being naturalised are announced in large groups, which presumably require only one ministerial signature per group.

Hi Arkady - on this 5-year non-domicile rule, is there a process that reports those who spend more than 5 years living abroad, or is it let to the immigration officer to spot it and make a report to the Interior Ministry? Are there any cases of naturalised Thais living away for more than 5 years losing nationality? What about those who stay on a Tabien Bahn in Thailand while living abroad? Are they classed as non-domiciled even though they have a Thai reidential address?

Very confusing.