Story Of My Thai Citizenship Application

[cmsally]

On 8/11/2019 at 7:13 PM, Neeranam said:

I don't care what day its on, as long as it is soon. It's now 19 months since my  NIA interview.

Same for me - 19 months. I was told, that 3-4 months ago the last female ahead of me in the process (in CM) was successful and announced (I think she was Filipino).

Estimation: as she was one year ahead of me , mine would appear either end of this year or beginning of next.

[Neeranam]

58 minutes ago, cmsally said:

Same for me - 19 months. I was told, that 3-4 months ago the last female ahead of me in the process (in CM) was successful and announced (I think she was Filipino).

Estimation: as she was one year ahead of me , mine would appear either end of this year or beginning of next.

Strange, that seems slow. I thought it was faster for women.

[Neeranam]

On 8/11/2019 at 8:08 PM, yankee99 said:

might be worth calling to see if theres a issue. My wife called and they said my interview would be this year 

Yes, might be a good idea as I remember your documents were sent to MOI after mine, although I didn't get a cover letter.

[cmsally]

1 hour ago, Neeranam said:

Strange, that seems slow. I thought it was faster for women.

Maybe in BKK but in the provinces it seems not.

[danielcondo]

Got a technical question, after the oath are you considered Thai ? technically you have sworn allegiance to His Majesty the King and to Thailand, you are congratulated after taking your oath by the officers as well, the reason i asked was what if someone has taken their oath and suddenly the Immigration guys pop up at their place demanding a fine for the TM-30 nonsense, would you have a strong case to tell them off if you have the paper work stating your application has been approved by his Majesty the King and you've done your Oath? 

[Neeranam]

47 minutes ago, danielcondo said:

Got a technical question, after the oath are you considered Thai ? technically you have sworn allegiance to His Majesty the King and to Thailand, you are congratulated after taking your oath by the officers as well, the reason i asked was what if someone has taken their oath and suddenly the Immigration guys pop up at their place demanding a fine for the TM-30 nonsense, would you have a strong case to tell them off if you have the paper work stating your application has been approved by his Majesty the King and you've done your Oath? 

I'd say it doesn't matter as you're not Thai yet. You'd have to cancel your visa extension first.

[echrist]

my understanding is that it is official when your name is published in the RG. At that point, you could refer any immigration officers to the RG as proof of citizenship. 

[roamer]

This topic has been running for 12 years. The amount of changes during that time must have been many. For anyone new coming to the topic it must be immensely confusing and time consuming where to start. I would have thought that there must have been more than one or two posters willing to post their updated journey, possibly with the assistance of mods so that newbies didn't have to start from the beginning or another random page reading information that was no longer relevant. Or not?

[GabbaGabbaHey]

20 hours ago, echrist said:

my understanding is that it is official when your name is published in the RG. At that point, you could refer any immigration officers to the RG as proof of citizenship. 

It doesn't seem so. The RG announcements I've seen end with "ผู้ที่กล่าวชื่อมาแล้วนั้นได้รับการอนุญาตให้แปลงสัญชาติ" which doesn't say that you're Thai citizen but rather that you're entitled to change your citizenship. To me, proof of citizenship comes later when you complete the process (likely close to when you get the ID card). Just my view.

 

[echrist]

Loads of names published in the RG today and I am one them! Exactly 3 months to the day since taking the oath ????

[GabbaGabbaHey]

38 minutes ago, echrist said:

Loads of names published in the RG today and I am one them! Exactly 3 months to the day since taking the oath ????

Congratulations!

[onthemoon]

1 hour ago, echrist said:

Loads of names published in the RG today and I am one them! Exactly 3 months to the day since taking the oath ????

Congratulations!

[Neeranam]

3 hours ago, echrist said:

Loads of names published in the RG today and I am one them! Exactly 3 months to the day since taking the oath ????

Congratulations! Seems they are speeding up the process.

How long did you have to wait from NIA to MOI?

[echrist]

1 hour ago, Neeranam said:

Congratulations! Seems they are speeding up the process.

How long did you have to wait from NIA to MOI?

thank you. I think it was around 18 to 20 months. I wasn't really keeping track back then. Figured it was going to take a while so I applied and sort of settled in for the long haul. Application to MOI was about 23 months. 

[david143]

12 hours ago, echrist said:

Loads of names published in the RG today and I am one them! Exactly 3 months to the day since taking the oath ????

EChrist congratulations brother. Keep up the good work.

 

 

[david143]

One question brother.

After interview done with MOI , how long have to wait for oath ceremony @ SB.

I mean duration of wait after interview done with MOI and how SB contact for Oath.

Thanks in advance

EChrist congratulations brother. Keep up the good work.

 

 

 

Sent from my SM-N910C using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

 

 

 

[echrist]

1 hour ago, david143 said:

One question brother.

After interview done with MOI , how long have to wait for oath ceremony @ SB.

I mean duration of wait after interview done with MOI and how SB contact for Oath.

Thanks in advance

 

 

Sent from my SM-N910C using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

 

 

 

It was about 11 months from MOI to oath. They called me by phone to come in for the oath. 

[david143]

It was about 11 months from MOI to oath. They called me by phone to come in for the oath. 

Thank you

Sent from my SM-N910C using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Neeranam]

On 8/16/2019 at 8:23 PM, echrist said:

It was about 11 months from MOI to oath. They called me by phone to come in for the oath. 

Wow, did they say why it was so long? I thought out as 6 months max.

[onthemoon]

Excuse my ignorance, but why is everybody so impatient? If you are here for good, why does it matter whether the process takes a few months or a year longer? - My PR took 6 years from application to finally getting it, so the citizenship application process appears to be a lot faster anyway.

[GabbaGabbaHey]

Everything is processed in batches (interviewed people approved by the committee, files sent to the Prime Minister, files sent to the Palace, people approved back to SB) and I believe they are grouped by 3-4 months each. Assuming SB does the same for the oath, it’s easy to see that for some the fluctuation is already several months longer or shorter depending when you stand. Also, since each case is unique and it’s not a first-in first-out process, every time you miss a batch in any of these steps is adding extra months to your timeline.


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[GarryP]

2 hours ago, onthemoon said:

Excuse my ignorance, but why is everybody so impatient? If you are here for good, why does it matter whether the process takes a few months or a year longer? - My PR took 6 years from application to finally getting it, so the citizenship application process appears to be a lot faster anyway.

If for reasons beyond your control you lose your job and do not have a new job to which you can move immediately so there is little or no break between jobs, i.e you maintain a work permit, you may cease to qualify and all that waiting is meaningless.  You are supposed to maintain a work permit through the whole process. 

[Neeranam]

4 hours ago, onthemoon said:

Excuse my ignorance, but why is everybody so impatient? If you are here for good, why does it matter whether the process takes a few months or a year longer? - My PR took 6 years from application to finally getting it, so the citizenship application process appears to be a lot faster anyway.

In my situation, I'm in a job that I totally hate, every day is a nightmare, partially brought on by them telling me I'd receive a cut in salary if I become Thai. I'd like to keep it until the MOI interview, as it is looks better working for a long time in a government university.

I don't need the money and the faster I can take the better. 

If I were a bit younger, and in a job I liked,  I wouldn't care about the time are all, but working for people who despise/envy you is not nice.

[onthemoon]

5 hours ago, GarryP said:

If for reasons beyond your control you lose your job and do not have a new job to which you can move immediately so there is little or no break between jobs, i.e you maintain a work permit, you may cease to qualify and all that waiting is meaningless.  You are supposed to maintain a work permit through the whole process. 

 

2 hours ago, Neeranam said:

In my situation, I'm in a job that I totally hate, every day is a nightmare, partially brought on by them telling me I'd receive a cut in salary if I become Thai. I'd like to keep it until the MOI interview, as it is looks better working for a long time in a government university.

I don't need the money and the faster I can take the better. 

If I were a bit younger, and in a job I liked,  I wouldn't care about the time are all, but working for people who despise/envy you is not nice.

I see. I have PR, so I don't worry about staying here, but I was not aware that you have to actually maintain the same work permit from application until completion. I thought you really only need it at time of application (which was the case with the PR). Then it makes sense to want to get it completed as quickly as possible, thanks for the replies.

 

I am lucky though as the company I work for is my own, so I am not worried about losing the job.

[thequietman]

3 hours ago, Neeranam said:

In my situation, I'm in a job that I totally hate, every day is a nightmare, partially brought on by them telling me I'd receive a cut in salary if I become Thai. I'd like to keep it until the MOI interview, as it is looks better working for a long time in a government university.

I don't need the money and the faster I can take the better. 

If I were a bit younger, and in a job I liked,  I wouldn't care about the time are all, but working for people who despise/envy you is not nice.

Can I assume you meet the minimum salary requirement of 40,000 baht per month?? thanks.

[echrist]

20 hours ago, Neeranam said:

Wow, did they say why it was so long? I thought out as 6 months max.

I was under the impression that 6 - 12 months was pretty standard. At the MOI, we were told not to even call to inquire about the status of our applications until 6 months had passed after MOI. At 6 months I was told my application had been signed off on and that I just needed to wait for the call for the oath.

 

 Good news is SB said that I'd probably have the documents to get my ID by this week. So, I'm not complaining. Around 3 years from application to RG and having lived here for just under 7 years. Although I understand some people what to get citizenship as soon as possible, my advice is to apply and forget about it. However, I did start getting a bit antsy about 6 months after MOI and the wait from oath to RG was been the hardest ????

[Big Guns]

Nèeranam I feel for you as I had a good job I loved at an International school before I became Thai. They tried to change the terms & conditions& they cant. Under labour law fiems can't change terms, pay or not renew contracts. If they do they owe severance. I forced a British International school to pay severance for 10 years employment after they change terms when I became Thai. Don't worry

[Neeranam]

6 hours ago, thequietman said:

Can I assume you meet the minimum salary requirement of 40,000 baht per month?? thanks.

Yes.

[bkk_bwana]

I took the oath last week.  It was seven months after the MOI interview.  They congratulated me, told me and us that having taken the oath I was now a Thai citizen. He said that the naturalization certificate would take about three months to be signed off, that I would have to go back and pick it up and then visit the Khet for my ID card, and then go to the local police and Chaengwattana to cancel all other documents.

 

Total time, four years, eight months; it will probably be five by the time I get the certificate back.

Note that he said you don't have to wait for your ID card or the announcement in the Royal Gazette to be Thai.  You are Thai when you have taken the oath.  However, we all know that it is the documentation that you need.

 

 

[Neeranam]

Congratulations!