GabbaGabbaHey

36 minutes ago, tangdio said:

Is there a minimun required salary that needs to be shown?

thanks guys!

Yes, it's currently 40,000 baht per month for those with Thai wives and 80,000 baht per month for those without Thai wives.

2 hours ago, new101 said:

Not sure if my post was missed? Thanks:

Looking for a bit of advise.

Me - Married and working in Thailand for 5 years, have WP paid taxes and Non O extended BASED ON THAI CHILD living with me - had the same extension for 4 years. No marriage extension even though I am married.

Wife - Working abroad coming back in 6 months full time.

Can I apply based on marriage when shes back?

I'm not an expert, just an applicant being in the process of naturalization based on marriage at the moment. What I can say from your description is that I don't see something that would prevent it. Of course there are other factors you don't mention that could block you, but I assume you meet the minimum salary income (min 40,000 baht per month if you're married I think), your level and knowledge of Thai language and culture (for the points calculation), having several charity donation receipts for the past years, your education level and other stuff. The best is probably to look at the points system to have an idea if you can meet the required 50/100 points. This can also help you identify any blocking aspect.

12 hours ago, Neeranam said:

Thanks for the tips.

I've never been asked to write such a letter.

Which is not a problem. If you read the whole topic you'll notice each applicant has a different experience and got some ad hoc request for things not part of the initial requirement (additions, amendments to documents...). From my point of view this is part of the psychological process so until I'm done I'm ok to provide anything they ask me.

7 hours ago, Neeranam said:

I'm a bit confused as to the purpose of the NIA interview. They asked for yet another, "bai rap rong been duan" or letter from my work stating my salary. Also a few other documents like work permit and passport. Don't they get the files from SB? I did have to hand in 5 copies of them all.

Anyways, it is what it is, and another trip to Bangkok.

Any tips would be welcome as to how many people will interview us, the questions asked, and what would be appropriate you wear. I assume this is not as important as the interview with the MOI.

Is this the one that used to take place at the McDonald's at Ploenjit?

There were two interviewers at my NIA interview, and something like four to six tables with different applicants being interviewed simultaneously (all had two interviewers as far as I remember) at the food court of the Ministry of Education. I got one question on my salary and there were happy to see the copy of the company letter. Which points that applicants should keep a copy of anything they hand to SB, especially company documents and any documents that are certified, translated or legalized.

My interview lasted around 30 minutes. It started from scratch (name, birth date, place of birth... yes, true, as if they had got no document from SB at all). It was more a verification of original documents (PR, work permit, passport, tabian baan...) checking dates and facts, than a personality interview, they were filling a form with my figures. To answer details such as dates when me and my wife met, I took the letter of presentation that SB asked me to write during the process, and gave them a copy since everything they could possibly ask was detailed inside. They seemed happy with that.

Eventually this was an informal interview without stress. Just bring your documents and show which they will ask to see, and answer basic questions on your background.

For the dress code, I'd say that being yourself in the best presentation you want to give of yourself will make it. Anything clean and polite should be fine. I don't think a business suit is required, unless someone feels more comfortable wearing it. I did wear an office shirt with neck tie, office pants. 

5 hours ago, sathuluv said:

Since, the MoI interview in Lumluka last year was waiting for an update.
Yesterday received a message from SB police officer mentioning that my application is approved by PM. Next week Thursday need to go to SB office for the oath.
I guess there are still few steps to go but hoping by 2018 will have this completed.

Contratulations! So how long was it between the MOI interview and the approval?

1 hour ago, Neeranam said:

I've been asked to go to the ministry of education for an interview.

Probably because I'm a teacher.

Has anyone heard of this before?

Perhaps this is the NIA interview. Mine, in Sept 2017, took place in a food court at the Ministry of Education.

56 minutes ago, Arkady said:

How long was the gap between the date of your employment letter and your second application form?  In my case the gap was 3 months because I was sent on a wild documents goose chase after getting the employment letter.  I remember the SB officer saying that the 3 month gap was "mai suay" but would probably do (and so it did).

7 months for this one. All my documents are now 6-9 months old.

1 hour ago, Arkady said:

By interview day do you mean interview at SB or the MoI?  If you passed the interview with the MoI (i.e. heard nothing in the  following weeks it means you were passed and forwarded to the big committee which is rubber stamp required by the Act which normally passes everything passed by the little "interview" committee). If you haven't passed that stage yet, you still might have a risk of being knocked back to SB to verify your qualifications again (as I was) or being rejected completely by the little committee and having to start again.

 

Assuming it was SB that called you back to sign another application form, they must have been trying to cover you, either through their own initiative or on request by the MoI. However, an official knock back to SB to re-verify qualifications involves most importantly a new employment letter, although I did not have to get new confirmations of docs from Immigration, the amphur and Labour Ministry.  I can't remember if I had to do a new bank statement or not but I think it was just a new employment letter, new tax receipts and another interview and singing session with the director.  I am not sure how a new application form could be accepted without redoing everything but, if the MoI wants to do a fix like that, the other agencies on the committee are unlikely to object and you should be OK.  Actually they seem to spend most of their time checking their phones during the interviews.  The main thing for is that they can't be blamed for letting anyone through who is not qualified. Hopefully your updated application form serves as bum covering for someone to  proof you had 5 years' PR at the time of application. 

 

The best way to clarify would be a New Year visit to your officer at SB with New Year sticky cakes in hand after calling ahead to make sure they will be in the office. Then you can enquire about the circumstances surrounding your second application form.  In addition, you can a regular progress check call to the MoI without referring to the second application form. In this case the officer is supposed to look out your file.  If they really bother to do this and find something wrong that SB has not told you, they will let you know.  But probably SB will be best source of information on this.

 

Thanks for your advice, I will consider.

My interview was the SB one and my application hasn't been sent to MOI yet. I think my timeline follows a normal path, but I just feel my situation is not clear since my points, requirements and document collection were made on a less than 5 years PR and my application final document will have a post 5 years PR date. I don't mind to have to sing at MOI -I did it at SR for the points actually- I was just trying to save a year by applying earlier based on marriage but now I'm confused on which requirement they will consider myself and I'm afraid this could fall into the 'technical issues' you mentioned in earlier posts if any involuntarily mix has been made in my set of documents. The explanation for coming to sign the application form again (after I had passed the 5 years of PR) was that things were not complete on the first time. I will probably never know if this is to help me, but I do hope so. It could be possible that someone thinks applying at 4.x years of PR and not waiting for 5 years would be seen as a not so nice move, and this was made to increase my chances? Anyway, I should normally see what happens in the coming months when my file is sent to MOI.

Very useful information as usual, Arkady. I hope I won't face the same as you did but honestly today I feel I have a risk because the early steps of my application were all done before I reached the 5 years of PR (including the interview day and signature of the application). However for some unclear reason I had to come back to sign a newer application form after my 5 years of PR were complete. Knowing the level of details in the process, and what you just explained, I hope both sets of requirements will not have been scrambled in my application.

28 minutes ago, Arkady said:

[...] and take your chances on getting knocked back by the MoI before or after the MoI interview.  Getting knocked back for incomplete qualifications [...]

I thought the role of SB was to give the green light by ensuring an application was passed and complete, but from what you're saying I understand MOI will also go though an inspection of all documents, am I correct?

3 hours ago, new101 said:

[...] I pay tax on 62k a month so should get maximum points for salary being married?

[...] On a side note the points for age seem in my opinion to be quite backwards with younger people being penalised? 5 points for 30-40 whereas 10 points for 40 to 50.

[...] Lastly what does: "Has evidence of civil registration showing domicile in Thailand for at least 5 years but no Certificate of Residence or Alien Registration Certificate – 5 points" Mean?

Being registered in a yellow book??

- Yes

- It's actually 4 points for 31-40. (Less than 30=>2,  31-40=>4, 41-50=>10, 51-60=>8, More than 60=>4)

- Yes, 5 points can be obtained from 5 years under yellow book.

2 hours ago, choonsan said:

Was informed by the officer at SB that they will be holding an official presentation ceremony to all the 55 successful new Thais at the SB office on Christmas day Dec. 25th.

I could not attend it as will be away until after the new year holidays.

I received the official letter from MOI on Dec. 20th. with instructions to contact SB and then get my Thai IC issued within 60 days from the date of the RG.

Are you also on the RG list dated Nov. 21st?

Congratulations choonsan and red horse!

To help current applicants in the pipe have an idea of what to expect, may I ask how many months you waited 1) between SB interview and MOI interview, 2) between MOI interview and the RG annoucement?

10 hours ago, Neeranam said:

Was it the British embassy?

No

10 hours ago, Neeranam said:

Sorry for all the questions, but did you write the intention by yourself, or did they have a template?

I did prepare a draft based on earlier post recommendations in this long forum, but this was useless at the end. When I brought the letters, my embassy just reused as a template the letter they gave to the previous applicant.

1 hour ago, Neeranam said:

Ok, thanks. I wonder what I'll put as the reason for making the the appointment.

If I were you I'd wait to get the letters at SB, at that time ask to capture a screenshot before they seal the envelopes, and based on the content call the embassy first to explain the situation.

10 hours ago, Neeranam said:

I reserved a name which took longer that I had thought.

So the letters to the embassy have to be translated?

The SB officer was great asked suggested they had Thai staff to read them.however,I think they'd have to be translated.

 

No, letters don't have to be translated, it's the result of the request (the letter of intention that is issued by your embassy) that will have to be translated to Thai.

7 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

I can't find previous posts about what the other 4 letters are, do they involve being in Bangkok?

- 2 letters to PR section and alien registration section in CW (for those you hold PR, I guess)
- 1 letter to the district of marriage registration
- 1 letter to the district of house registration asking to reserve a Thai name
- 2 letters to the embassy asking for blank criminal record, certifying your passport and a letter of intention to renounce your current citizenship

7 hours ago, Neeranam said:

I've been summoned along with my wife and Thai references to attend this week for the application and test. I think I'll manage to answer these questions. I only plan to be in bkk for the day, so would appreciate anyone can suggest if I should get anything ready like perhaps book an appointment for the British embassy to take the letter of being willing to give up British citizenship etc.

On my application day I received 6 letters, two of them were for the embassy including the one related to the current citizenship renunciation. The accompanying document says you have 30 days to process the letters and get the result, which gives you some time, but for sure the best is to start as soon as you can (some offices will actually send the result to SB by themselves). You can read more details in some of my earlier posts.

7 hours ago, Neeranam said:

Pretty excited as it's all going faster than I thought, but no doubt many more trips to bkk, and running around different places.

I felt the same at the beginning. Now don't dream too much, I haven't read any recent successful applicant in this forum to get it in less than 3 years.

2 hours ago, GarryP said:

You would need written evidence from the hospital. I was interviewed twice by MOI and my wife did not attend either interview. At the time of the first interview she was in hospital and by the time of the second interview she had already died. 

I'm sorry to hear that. I guess you were applying based on marriage, did this extreme situation eventually have consequences on your application?

21 minutes ago, THAIJAMES said:

Only if you are married.  Single persons must wait 5 years.

So it's usually best for married persons to apply directly for citizenship than go the PR route as it adds no value to your citizenship application unless you are willing to wait the additional  5 years for 10 points.

Thanks for this precision, I forgot that.

47 minutes ago, Jujus said:

Wait, does that mean that once you are a PR, you can apply anytime but just lose some points for not waiting 5 years after receiving your PR? Could someone please tell me where to find the official points system for naturalization? Thanks!

Correct. This was my draft table few months ago:

- Security of Profession 25pts (Married with more than 60K/month => 25. Others: I haven't checked)

- Educational Level 15pts (Bachelor degree=>5 Master degree=>10, PHD=>15)
- Age 10pts (41-50=>10, 51-60=>8, 31-40 or more than 60=>4, less than 30=>2)
- Residence in Thailand 20 pts (5years of PR=>10, 7years of PR=>15, 10years of PR=>20, 5 years on yellow tabian bann =>5)

- Knowledge of Thai Language 15pts (Speak/understand=>8, Sing anthems=>2, Read=>2, Write=>3)
- General Knowledge about Thailand 10pts
- Personality 5 pts

Total: 100 pts

38 minutes ago, yankee99 said:

Thought it is pass or fail so once you have 50 points they dont need to keep counting. 

I agree this is the general understanding in this thread, and mine too. For this specific reason I decided to not wait for my 5-year of PR and applied earlier at 4+ years PR, losing 10 points but starting almost one year earlier. There was also a mistake in the translation of my degree which said bachelor instead of master degree (to be precise: my actual original degree is the equivalent of master without saying it), and I was sad about losing 5 more points and wanted to have it translated again: SB officers told me to not worry on that, since I already passed the 50 points, they clearly emphasized it wouldn't make any difference in my application trying to get more points.

21 minutes ago, KevT said:

I mean if someone were to have 95/100 of the possible points (PhD, 200K/month salary, fluent in Thai, Thai wife and kids) and 53/100 (no Thai wife and kids, 80K/month salary, no bachelor's degree, etc.) equal?

 

They both qualify, but the first (Thai wife and kids, salary, education) would normally have a better chance of getting citizenship, no? Or are both of them only worth 1 tick box each and are viewed exactly the same?

 

@GarryP

I think your question can be rephrased to ‘is there some competition between applicants?’ This would be the case if there was somethink like quotas and a ranking of people, but I haven't read there is for naturalization, at least officially. Now the truth is that people who apply at the same time won’t necessarily obtain citizenship at the same time, and this means each application has its own pace.

57 minutes ago, VIBE said:

Sorry, a more pressing issue, is what am I expected to wear for the interview at the NIA?  A suit?  Or a button shirt with jeans?  Black jeans perhaps?  Wife is saying trousers, but I honestly don't know what those are.

I'd say that being yourself dressed in the best presentation you want to give of yourself will make it. Anything clean and polite should be fine. I don't think a business suit is required, unless someone feels more comfortable wearing it. I did wear an office shirt with neck tie, office pants. My NIA interview took place in the middle of a non-air conditioned food court.

5 hours ago, Big Guns said:

You only need to worry about singing if you are applying as a single person. In my case the NIA interview was a chat about our situation. As I speak very little Thai my wife did much of the talking.

Not quite exact. Any applicant applying to naturalization on the basis of PR (either man, woman, single or married to Thai national or other nationality) will need to sing at MOI. Beside this, anyone who needs extra points to reach the 50 points to qualify can opt to sing at SB.