French Ambassy Update

[francois]

hi'

I went to BKK to apply for a passport for my daughter in the French ambassy.

they "offered me to register as living here as an expat aand so having some facilities for all

kind of official purpose, birth, ID card, passport and so on ... the list is a bit long.

then I went to the French consulate to apply for a visa for my wife(non-officialy married),

the man I met there has been more than helpful, he asked me if I had a consular card (the one they just gave me in the ambassy), and gave us a 4 years visa for my wife and daughter, and here is the real news :

many countries recognize dual-nationality but not Thailand !

take it as it is, official source from an european consulate and ambassy.

so, my daughter has a "circulation" visa valid 4 years on her Thai passport, she has to leave the kingdom with it and come back with it, the french one will be used in France only. rules are not what people say ...

think : you go out with your kid, Thai passport, enter europe with a european passport,

no-stamp, what could happen when back here ...

where the kid is coming from, is he/she Thai? european? if so, need a visa, if Thai should have had a visa to go ... a vicious circle, can be done, no doubt, but what if one day, a scrupulous officer checks it out a bit deeper than usual ... problems ahead!

so, this is it ...

we are leaving ...

cheers

francois

ps; to the french readers :

la carte d'immatriculation peut-etre donne des le sixieme mois de residence.

pas besoin de preuve de quoi que ce soit, votre passeport et deux photos.

pas besoin de permis de travail ni de rien d'autre, une adresse est quand meme demande

elle est gratuite, et quoique ce soit qu'il vous advienne, les formalites sont plus simples.

elle "pourrait" etre la voie qui ouvre le marriage a l'ambassade ... service du aux residents.

[bkk_mike]

http://phuketgazette.com/issuesanswers/details.asp?id=694

As far as I understand Thailand does NOT officially recognise dual nationality, except for minors. BUT once you have Thai Nationality (i.e. your name in a house book as a Thai national, Thai ID card, etc.), no government department actually has the ability to revoke your Thai nationality unless you choose to do it yourself because it would contravene the Thai constitution.

i.e. This is Thailand. Dual nationality is not allowed (at least no law specifically states that it's allowed), but no government department can revoke Thai nationality, and neither can they revoke your foreign nationality, so you are, in effect, left with "de facto" dual nationality.

Because the rules are so vague, different government departments seem to implement them differently. i.e. From the above link, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is effectively saying Thailand recognises dual nationality. But I don't think anyone in immigration would say that it's recognised except for minors.

I console myself with the fact that there are a significant number of high-ranking Thais with children with dual nationality (for instance, some of the King's granchildren were born in the US). So, if the rules are ever officially clarified, it will be to allow proper dual nationality, with rules enforcing use of a Thai passport to enter/exit the kingdom.

[mouse]

Has anything changed? I have three children that are born in Thailand of a Thai Mother and are in the family House book. They go to private school here and enjoy all benefits of being Thai. They also hold U.S. Passports and obviously the citizenship of both nations.

Now I am getting this story for the local drinking hole, that at age eighteen my children must deceide which citizenship they want and that they will have to loose the other one.

I have been through the Constitituion, the Thai Nationality Act and numerous outher sites and can find nothing of substance.

I know that the U.S. recognizes both citizenships and will not act to revoke unless that particlular citizenship is used to defraud or break federal criminal laws.

Could someone please shed some light on this with some reference to official things that can be downloaded or obtained through the web?