Story Of My Thai Citizenship Application

[GarryP]

The names of 74 women who have gained Thai citizenship based on marriage to Thai nationals were announced in the Royal Gazette (Notification of the Interior Ministry) dated 27 August 2558 (2015) on page 14. All applicants are indicated as being married to Thai men. From a quick review most were from the region, China, India, Cambodia, Vietnam but there was also a Brit and a Finn among others.

When are they going to get round to us gentlemen?

Edited August 27, 2015 by GarryP

[nontabury]

The names of 74 women who have gained Thai citizenship based on marriage to Thai nationals were announced in the Royal Gazette (Notification of the Interior Ministry) dated 27 August 2558 (2015) on page 14. All applicants are indicated as being married to Thai men. From a quick review most were from the region, China, India, Cambodia, Vietnam but there was also a Brit and a Finn among others.

When are they going to get round to us gentlemen?

Out of 74,only two farangs,one Brit and one Finn. Is this for one year?

[GarryP]

The names of 74 women who have gained Thai citizenship based on marriage to Thai nationals were announced in the Royal Gazette (Notification of the Interior Ministry) dated 27 August 2558 (2015) on page 14. All applicants are indicated as being married to Thai men. From a quick review most were from the region, China, India, Cambodia, Vietnam but there was also a Brit and a Finn among others.

When are they going to get round to us gentlemen?

Out of 74,only two farangs,one Brit and one Finn. Is this for one year?

No. It is the second lot announced this month. See my earlier post.

[Oasis]

The names of 74 women who have gained Thai citizenship based on marriage to Thai nationals were announced in the Royal Gazette (Notification of the Interior Ministry) dated 27 August 2558 (2015) on page 14. All applicants are indicated as being married to Thai men. From a quick review most were from the region, China, India, Cambodia, Vietnam but there was also a Brit and a Finn among others.

When are they going to get round to us gentlemen?

Very soon Garry, they will be thinking of Gentlemennn. We can only hope that they will treat us on par with women lawfully.

[sas_cars]

A big big thanks to Samran for sending me the RG annoucement. My sister was in the queue and has been approved and in the list. Now what are the next steps for her to follow and get her ID card and passport? If someone knows, please let me know. Big Thanks !

[Arkady]

A big big thanks to Samran for sending me the RG annoucement. My sister was in the queue and has been approved and in the list. Now what are the next steps for her to follow and get her ID card and passport? If someone knows, please let me know. Big Thanks !

Congratulations to your sister.

It takes about a month or so for the paperwork to get from the Interior Ministry to Special Branch. They should contact her when they have got it to make an appointment. If she hears nothing a month after the announcement, she should call them. They will produce a naturalisation certificate (or whatever they call it because they don't consideration applications under Section 9 as naturalisation) for her and give her some notarised copies of the announcement in the RG. With a large batch like this, she might have to make an appointment at her district office after that, if it is in Bangkok and they have several other people from the batch,. She can call them to do this or just go along on spec. She needs to take the originals of the certificate and the notarised announcement along with her passport and tabien baan to the district office. Hubby should go too with all his docs, as they will want to verify everything. She should prepare two signed copies of everything.

At the district office she goes first to the tabien baan section to apply to be entered on a blue tabien baan (presumably hubby's) as a Thai citizen. When that is done, she will go to the ID card section to apply for her ID card. Both sections will interview her at length asking copious questions about seemingly irrelevant details such as the names and addresses of siblings, where educated (figure out Thai spellings in advance). In my case, it took nearly all day starting at 9.00am. She may need a witness who is a Thai national and has known her for some time in addition to hubby. The process is quite tedious but but you feel elated at the end of it, leaving the DO with a spanking new ID card and tabien baan.

To get a passport, she just shows up at any of the passport offices with her ID card, tabien baan and foreign passport. No need for photos as they will take those. Pay the B1,000 fee and B60 for EMS and you are out of there within half an hour. The passport arrives by EMS two days later. That's the simplest part of the whole process.

[sas_cars]

Thanks a lot Arkady for such a great explanation of the process

[Oasis]

The batch of applicants, interviewed in November 2013 at Moi have been signed by HMK and MOI is preparing the letter to SB for taking the Oath, hope to take the Oath soon.

Oasis

Edited September 8, 2015 by Oasis

[brastgreek]

The batch of applicants, interviewed in November 2013 at Moi have been signed by HMK and MOI is preparing the letter to SB for taking the Oath, hope to take the Oath soon.

Oasis

Any news of the applicants that were interviewed in March 2015?

[GarryP]

Wouldn't Wyn Ellis' use of his British passport at immigration at Suvarnaphumi Airport constitute one of the few reasons for revocation of his Thai citizenship?

[NewlyMintedThai]

Would've saved him a lot of trouble if he'd waited until his lost Thai passport had been replaced before coming back. Thai citizens can't be barred from entry.

[jamesthailand]

I wonder why he couldn't use his Thai ID card to prove his Thai nationality, and use that to gain entry rather than his British passport.

[NewlyMintedThai]

Is it possible to enter on an ID card without a passport?

[Arkady]

Is it possible to enter on an ID card without a passport?

AFAIK there is nothing in the Immigration Act that says that Thais need a passport to enter the Kingdom, only foreigners. They let Thais cross the land borders with only ID cards every day. People have reported in TV being admitted on an expired Thai passport. I think at the end of the day they would have had to admit him, if he could prove he was a Thai citizen but he might still have been detained while they investigated. One obvious question would have been how did you board the plane in Oslo with no passport. Unless he said his Thai passport fell down the crapper in the plane, then they would know he had another passport and would probably suggest he use that one to enter on a 30 day transit visa and get a new passport sorted during that time. Maybe that's in fact what happened and then they found they couldn't admit him on the British passport due to the blacklisting.

Personally, if I lost my Thai passport overseas, I would get an emergency one from a Thai consulate, rather than do this, however much trouble and expense it meant. In his case, it has now been plastered over the news that he is Thai and entered the Kingdom on a foreign passport, which could be construed as a violation of 19.2.

One thing this case throws up is that the head of a pipsqueak government academic agency that has nothing to do with security can have a foreigner blacklisted for life, just on a whim, without going through any due process or even notifying the foreigner.

[NewlyMintedThai]

Yes, agreed.

[RAZZELL]

Can anyone post recent links to the rules and regulations for PR and citizenship.

Many thanks

RAZZ

[brastgreek]

Any news of the status of applicants that were interviewed in March 2015?

[NewlyMintedThai]

Just five months ago? You've got a couple years to wait.

[GarryP]

Just five months ago? You've got a couple years to wait.

Actually that is not strictly true. To give you an idea of how things have speeded up, those who applied based on PR or marriage to a Thai woman and were interviewed on 30 January 15, their applications were then passed on to the big committee meeting which sat in March. Those who were approved by the committee have already been endorsed by the Interior Ministry. Their applications are now awaiting or have very recently received (in the past few days or so) endorsement by the King.

Those interviewed in November or December 2014 will very soon, if they haven't already, be called to swear their oath of allegiance, or whatever it is called, at police headquarters.

[sas_cars]

Just five months ago? You've got a couple years to wait.

Actually that is not strictly true. To give you an idea of how things have speeded up, those who applied based on PR or marriage to a Thai woman and were interviewed on 30 January 15, their applications were then passed on to the big committee meeting which sat in March. Those who were approved by the committee have already been endorsed by the Interior Ministry. Their applications are now awaiting or have very recently received (in the past few days or so) endorsement by the King.

Those interviewed in November or December 2014 will very soon, if they haven't already, be called to swear their oath of allegiance, or whatever it is called, at police headquarters.

Now that's called Speed. I m sure long term residents in thailand will want the current interior ministers to be keeping their jobs forever. lol

[Oasis]

The batch of applicants, interviewed in November 2013 at Moi have been signed by HMK and MOI is preparing the letter to SB for taking the Oath, hope to take the Oath soon.

Oasis

Any news of the applicants that were interviewed in March 2015?

You can call BORA tell your name, they'll tell you the status of your application. Helpful people there.

[GarryP]

The names of 25 women who have gained Thai citizenship based on marriage to Thai nationals were announced in the Royal Gazette (Notification of the Interior Ministry) dated 17 September 2558 (2015) on page 48. Mostly from the region, with China predominating, closely followed by Taiwan. Two French woman too.

Any news on the men's front, based on PR or marriage?

[khongaeng]

As much as I support a democratic republic, I secretly have my fingers crossed that the current government stays in power a little longer until my paperwork is ready to submit. Sadly, after living in Thailand for 4 years now on a marriage visa, I still can't submit the paperwork because I only have one tax return.

[skippybangkok]

Went for an interview a few weeks back.

Generally - registration at 9:30 or before, and I believe getting there early does not help as your name is in a sequence in a list already

Plenty of parking, especially in the Por-Or designated parking lot . ( did it by accident )

Queue seems

1. Thai Male with foreign wife - done by lunch

2. Thai female with foreign husband - around lunch or after

3. Others

Seemed to be a lot of nervous people practicing answers and singing. Could not see what the big deal was, and wondered if I should have prepared better. Turns out they were a little too hyped

If your the chilling type, bring your iPad, will come in handy during the long wait.

A little hap hazard organised ... One guy said " go for lunch ", which we did, only to find out we were called. Anyway, they fast queued us after lunch and the committee was nice. At first a little formal, but as they got deeper into questions, they chilled and without going into specifics, started drifting of interview topics and we're talking about things like the economy. I really enjoyed it.

No difficult questions. I think if your back ground is legit, should be very easy to answer their questions.

Looking around the others who were there, was not hard to be better dressed. Was quite surprised, one guy showed up in old jeans, sneakers and a short sleeve shirt ( without his wife.... And was told to come back another time ). I think people should put a bit of effort to respecting this as an important day in their life, and dress appropriately.

I thanks to all the guys who set up this forum and those who contributed, was really helpful.

[Oasis]

Went for Oath of allegiance to the Country and King. Finger prints to compare the previous one, everything went well, finished within 30 minutes. Hope to published in RG soon.

Oasis

[skippybangkok]

Went for Oath of allegiance to the Country and King. Finger prints to compare the previous one, everything went well, finished within 30 minutes. Hope to published in RG soon.

Oasis

Congrats !

[aidenai]

Went for Oath of allegiance to the Country and King. Finger prints to compare the previous one, everything went well, finished within 30 minutes. Hope to published in RG soon.

Oasis

Congratulations.

[Oasis]

Went for Oath of allegiance to the Country and King. Finger prints to compare the previous one, everything went well, finished within 30 minutes. Hope to published in RG soon.

Oasis

Congrats !

Thanks and Good Luck !

[Oasis]

Went for Oath of allegiance to the Country and King. Finger prints to compare the previous one, everything went well, finished within 30 minutes. Hope to published in RG soon.

Oasis

Congratulations.

Thanks and Good Luck to you too.

[dbrenn]

Does anyone know of a law firm or visa assist company that can help with obtaining citizenship?

Thanks

There probably are, but they'd charge a lot and don't add any value. They might not be up-to-date on the rules either, or simply pretend to know the process, given the relatively few number of applicants for citizenship.

All a law firm does is tell you to do what the Special Branch would tell you to do had you applied directly yourself.

Edited October 3, 2015 by dbrenn