? Dual Citizen, Entry Visa

[Maestro]

So there goes the Thai uncle's theory.

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Maestro

[jetjock]

Jetjock, it happens rarely that the USA has to send in the marines to evacuate US citizens from a foreign country (Grenada, 1983) but this would probably be a situation where your Thai wife could benefit from being in Thailand on her US passport.

What I find particularly interesting is that a Thai immigration officer, her uncle, suggested to her to enter Thailand on her US passport.

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Maestro

Maestro, I agree with you totally that it was stange that her uncle would recommend her to enter Thailand on her US passport and that is exactly the reason that I brought up this subject. It was surprising advice since my wife would be the last person that would possibly encounter any problems when in Thailand as she is a highly educated professonal and comes from a well to do family and is fairly well connected with the government. The only reason I could think of as to why he would recommend her using her US passport is because since he has worked for immigration for a long time and knows the ropes very well so perhaps he does not trust the Thai government as much as we do !! I was not with my wife when she last talked to her uncle so the next time I get back to Thailand, I will talk to him personally and try to get more information as to why he made the recommendation. If I get any info from him that will help better explain his reasoning then I will pass it on.

[JimGant]

On balance of practicalities, entering on the thai passport offers a range of benefits, the main one being that you are not subject to immigration restrictions for the duration of your stay.

Plus, the annual 5700 baht fee (1900 extension fee, plus 3800 multiple re-entry fee) and trip to Immigration. And, the 90-day reporting hassle (the wife originally thought, as a Thai, this was not required. Wrong!)

She switched to using her Thai passport last year -- what a relief.

And, I guess if she worried about US support, she could register with the US Embassy, as they suggest you do. I doubt entering on her Thai passport would queer this situation.

[Arkady]

It seems all quite academic really. There is clearly no point in having a Thai passport and then using another passport to enter Thailand. The US would certainly be unable to render consular assistance to a dual national in trouble with the Thai authorities. Entering the country on another passport doesn't alter the fact that that person is a Thai national (cf many cases of this type in China). On the other hand the US would be able to evacuate that person in emergency, regardless as to whether the US passport was stamped on entering Thailand or not. In this case the US's obligations to its nationals would not be in conflict with Thailand, unless of course the dual national was being detained by the Thai authorities at the time. If the OP's wife feared a situation whereby she could not obtain US consular assistance, if harassed by Thai authorities, the only way to achieve this would be to formally renounce Thai citizenship. Even that might not be effective (again China routinely denies consular assistance to ethnic Chinese foreign nationals they regard as Chinese, even if they have only foreign nationality, and I doubt there is much the US can do for US citizens in this predicament.) The uncle's advice to use the US passport, if he really said that, sounds ridiculous.