Story Of My Thai Citizenship Application

[Neeranam]

1 minute ago, Dogmatix said:

I think that the lower salary hurdles are only for minorities born in the Thailand. I don't think children of migrant workers are eligible and I am pretty sure the migrant workers born in their home countries are not. 

15 years ago, I was working at a local university earning 30k a month and therefore couldn't apply for citizenship, whereas my neighbour, who was born in Myanmar and sold rotis managed. 

[Arkady]

17 minutes ago, david143 said:

I had to Cancel my Visa and WP.
My office Lawyer told me to do it once ID issued.

thanks for your time Brother

I still have my uncancelled WP as a souvenir.  I saw absolutely no point in cancelling it as WPs simply expire, if not renewed, and there is no way it can cause you any hassle, if you just leave it. But if the lawyer wants to do it and the company doesn't mind paying him, no problem. For someone who would have to go along and do it themselves, I would definitely recommend saving the trouble.

 

For those who in the process of applying for citizenship or planning to, it is worth knowing that, if you are changing jobs and getting a new WP, you are entitled to ask to retain the cancelled WP for your records.  I did this and it saved me a trip to the Labour Ministry to get a notarised copy of the expired WP for my application, as I was able to show SB and the MoI, who asked for it, the original.

[Neeranam]

50 minutes ago, david143 said:

I had to Cancel my Visa and WP.
My office Lawyer told me to do it once ID issued.

thanks for your time Brother

Quote

Btw, today I went to immigration and tried to cancel my visa. They said I never had to as my visa had expired. I questioned them and the boss finally wrote something in a page of my UK passport along the lines of this guy showed his royal gazette publication from the MOI on date and is now a Thai citizen.

David, If immigration don't write anything in your former passport, I recommend you ask them to. 

[Dogmatix]

13 minutes ago, Dogmatix said:

I think that the lower salary hurdles are only for minorities born in the Thailand. I don't think children of migrant workers are eligible and I am pretty sure the migrant workers born in their home countries are not. 

The points system allows for minorities (ชนกลุ่มน้อย) to qualify with a minimum salary of 20,000 a month. My understanding is that ชนกลุ่มน้อย have to be born in Thailand. If not, all foreign born foreigners could be regarded as ชนกลุ่มน้อย.  I guess it would be unusual for a Burmese born roti seller coming through the SB naturalisation window. I would think it would be hard to get a WP as retail is reserved for Thai citizens and the special exemptions given to migrants to do labouring jobs under the MOUs doesn't apply to retail jobs. I think restaurants that hire migrants apply for them to be labourers or domestic servants. Are you sure he applied via SB and didn't somehow apply as local born minority through a distict office with a bit of baksheesh?

[yankee99]

On 8/26/2021 at 7:05 PM, david143 said:

I have Received a letter from MOI to my home address in Bangkok , and its mentioned that pleas contact SB fees 500THB , 
i straight call to my Case officer he will call me next week to collect my Citizenship certificate, in case if no one receive yet, nothing to worry they are start going to call next week.

 

I didn't receive a letter but thats good news that things are moving along 

[GabbaGabbaHey]

2 hours ago, Arkady said:

I still have my uncancelled WP as a souvenir.  I saw absolutely no point in cancelling it as WPs simply expire, if not renewed, and there is no way it can cause you any hassle, if you just leave it.

I had funny experience when I my company lawyer requested all documents to renew my WP last year, to which I answered that was no longer needed since I got Thai nationality, I imagine they were not happy I did the citizenship process on my own and the company would not have to pay them fees anymore, consequently they replied a kind of scary negative letter (for the company) saying that I should have cancelled my WP on the day I got my Thai ID card and by not doing that me and the company were exposed to kind of fine and unnamed problems in the future. Of course we  know all you could face is a fine of a couple thousand bahts in the case your WP was not cancelled and you would apply for a new one while this one was not expired. But in my case, having Thai ID and since I was one month before expiry of my WP it means this was totally irrelevant and just the answer of some unhappy lawer that would no longer get money handling me as foreigner.

The only justification I find rather ok for cancelling WP (although not really important) is that, as I understood, they will clear your name as foreigner from the WP database. 

 

2 hours ago, Arkady said:

(...) if you are changing jobs and getting a new WP, you are entitled to ask to retain the cancelled WP for your records. (...)

Keep in mind there is no more physical booklet, it is currently e-WP in your mobile phone app. I did print screenshots of my WP and provided them with signature whenever I was asked for it, which made officers happy. It's also good to capture screenshots for memory and just in case, you know what I mean.

 

[Neeranam]

1 hour ago, Dogmatix said:

  I guess it would be unusual for a Burmese born roti seller coming through the SB naturalisation window. I would think it would be hard to get a WP as retail is reserved for Thai citizens and the special exemptions given to migrants to do labouring jobs under the MOUs doesn't apply to retail jobs. I think restaurants that hire migrants apply for them to be labourers or domestic servants. Are you sure he applied via SB and didn't somehow apply as local born minority through a distict office with a bit of baksheesh?

He never went through SB. Tbh, I can't remember how he got it, it was something to do with all his remaining family being here. 

[Neeranam]

The last time I never returned a WP, it was 1500 baht fine, but if you have become Thai, you'll never have to do this. 

One could argue that the visa/extension doesn't have to be cancelled too, as they can't charge you for overstay when leaving the country as a Thai, can they? @ubonjoe@Arkady

For peace of mind, I did cancel, and for the gratification of saying "Goodbye"! 

[Neeranam]

10 minutes ago, GabbaGabbaHey said:

Keep in mind there is no more physical booklet, it is currently e-WP in your mobile phone app.

My last WP was Oct 2020, and the blue book. When did they start the e-thing?

 

[GabbaGabbaHey]

22 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

My last WP was Oct 2020, and the blue book. When did they start the e-thing?

 

I had an e-WP since 2017 I think, and I though this was general. Or would it be only for BKK area or for BOI companies?

[david143]

2 hours ago, Neeranam said:

David, If immigration don't write anything in your former passport, I recommend you ask them to. 

noted i will see and you know brother

[Arkady]

58 minutes ago, GabbaGabbaHey said:

Keep in mind there is no more physical booklet, it is currently e-WP in your mobile phone app. I did print screenshots of my WP and provided them with signature whenever I was asked for it, which made officers happy. It's also good to capture screenshots for memory and just in case, you know what I mean.

 

OMG!  I had no idea they had introduced digital WPs. 

 

The blue WPs were actually not that bad but what is really bad are the two totally redundant PR books. A single smart card would do the job and there are already piink ID cards. But they must have printed several million copies of the red books with the brittle glue in the spines when the first Immigration Act came in in 1927, so they will want to keep on issuing them till the end of the century. The red books also provide police with a redundant position in every Bkk cop shop and some upcountry.  They have full time alien registration officers who do about an hours work each a month.

[david143]

2 hours ago, yankee99 said:

I didn't receive a letter but thats good news that things are moving along 

You can contact your Officer straight

[Arkady]

57 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

The last time I never returned a WP, it was 1500 baht fine, but if you have become Thai, you'll never have to do this. 

One could argue that the visa/extension doesn't have to be cancelled too, as they can't charge you for overstay when leaving the country as a Thai, can they? @ubonjoe@Arkady

For peace of mind, I did cancel, and for the gratification of saying "Goodbye"! 

I assume you got fined for not cancelling the WP because you wanted another one.

 

Theoretically they can and they do fine people of Thai parentage who arrive on foreign passports, claim their Thai citizenship, overstay and leave on a Thai passport. They can argue the case and might win, if they don't mind giving up their flights and staying to fight in the Admin Court.  But these people have no excuse for their behaviour because in the eyes of Immigration, even though there is no mechanism for cancelling their visas, they should have arrived on Thai passports or left on the foreign passport without overstaying, or applied for free one year extensions on the basis of their Thai nationality and then left on the foreign passport. There is no risk to using a foreign passport for those who are Thai by birth.  I think that naturalised Thais have a perfect excuse to say they had to give up the foreign passport and didn't think they needed to cancel the visa after being naturalised and, as I said, many people have done this without ill effects.  But, if you want to play safe, given that there is always a first time, make the effort to cancel your visa. 

[onthemoon]

1 hour ago, GabbaGabbaHey said:

I had an e-WP since 2017 I think, and I though this was general. Or would it be only for BKK area or for BOI companies?

Don't know about BOI, but my WP was renewed in BKK a month ago and still is a blue book.

[DrJoy]

1 hour ago, Arkady said:

OMG!  I had no idea they had introduced digital WPs. 

 

The blue WPs were actually not that bad but what is really bad are the two totally redundant PR books. A single smart card would do the job and there are already piink ID cards. But they must have printed several million copies of the red books with the brittle glue in the spines when the first Immigration Act came in in 1927, so they will want to keep on issuing them till the end of the century. The red books also provide police with a redundant position in every Bkk cop shop and some upcountry.  They have full time alien registration officers who do about an hours work each a month.

Digital WPs have been there for quite some time now. Its an app which you can download from the App store and print in case hard copies are required. Its only for BOI companies.

Here’s the link - 

https://apps.apple.com/th/app/thailand-digital-work-permit/id1286605356

 

[heiri007]

5 hours ago, GabbaGabbaHey said:

Keep in mind there is no more physical booklet, it is currently e-WP in your mobile phone app. I did print screenshots of my WP and provided them with signature whenever I was asked for it, which made officers happy. It's also good to capture screenshots for memory and just in case, you know what I mean.

 

That's funny, when I last renewed in March they still issue the blue booklet @Chamchuri 

[david143]

FYI
My Case officer already called me few moments ago and News is SB already Received Confirmation letter today morning for issue Citizenship Certificates, SB staff has finished meeting with in-charge officer and they will start calling from Monday on wards.

 

 

 

[heiri007]

1 minute ago, david143 said:

FYI
My Case officer already called me few moments ago and News is SB already Received Confirmation letter today morning for issue Citizenship Certificates, SB staff has finished meeting with in-charge officer and they will start calling from Monday on wards.

 

 

 

Any clue if both recent RG batches?

[david143]

oh I didn't asked this, but i think it suppose both Batch 4-5 August 

[kst]

Wifey got a call from SB officer saying can collect cert from tomorrow onwards and just to give him a heads up before going.  

 

Can I head to district office directly after collecting? 

[GarryP]

Just now, kst said:

Wifey got a call from SB officer saying can collect cert from tomorrow onwards and just to give him a heads up before going.  

 

Can I head to district office directly after collecting? 

In my case the district office got in touch with me via SB when I picked up my papers from SB. They had already set an appointment date without first checking my availability, which was quite strange. In your case, I would go straight to the District Office. Perhaps they may not be able to do anything that day, but you should at least be given a formal appointment date and time. 

[kst]

16 minutes ago, GarryP said:

In my case the district office got in touch with me via SB when I picked up my papers from SB. They had already set an appointment date without first checking my availability, which was quite strange. In your case, I would go straight to the District Office. Perhaps they may not be able to do anything that day, but you should at least be given a formal appointment date and time. 

Thank you for your advise! Will just do that if time permits.. 

[yankee99]

30 minutes ago, kst said:

Wifey got a call from SB officer saying can collect cert from tomorrow onwards and just to give him a heads up before going.  

 

Can I head to district office directly after collecting? 

My wife got the same message via line 7pm

[GabbaGabbaHey]

12 hours ago, kst said:

Wifey got a call from SB officer saying can collect cert from tomorrow onwards and just to give him a heads up before going.  

 

Can I head to district office directly after collecting? 

This is what I did last year.

[yankee99]

Just fwiw i received my naturalization certificate already 

[heiri007]

Since there is a deadline of 60 days after RG publication, one month already passed... what if?

[kst]

20 hours ago, kst said:

Thank you for your advise! Will just do that if time permits.. 

Update 01 Sept - Collected cert today at SB then headed direct to district office. Given the "run-around" there until someone took up our case. Interviewed us and said will call us to come back again once he finished the paperwork (already 4pm after he verified docs etc). He says the next time will move to blue tabien baan and get blue ID same day. 

 

He said it would not take long, exchanged contact numbers and we were along our way. Keeping fingers crossed that not much more red tape to cut.. will update on progress along the way. 

[david143]

today i  have Received a my Certificate .
 

[yankee99]

Took my certificate to the tesabaan (where our blue books are issued) and both employees were out working from home. Got a phone number sent the docs by line to be honest i don't think she had a clue.