Since we are possibly on the eve of ground breaking amendments to the Nationality Act, I thought it might be worth taking a looking back at previous amendments to the current 1965 Nationality Act that have had significant impacts. 1971 Revolutionary Decree 337. Cancelled automatic jus soli. Those born within the Kingdom were no longer automatically Thai regardless of alien parents’ immigration status. Currently, as a result of this decree, both alien parents need to have PR for their Thai born children to get Thai citizenship automatically. A complication of the decree was that, since jus sanguis was only patrilineal, children born in the Kingdom to Thai mothers and foreign fathers, who didn’t have PR were designate as non-Thai in their birth certifictes and could only take their father’s nationality and, failing that, were stateless. Unusually for Thai law, the revolutionary Decree was retroactive, stripping nationality from thousands of Thais and rendering most of them stateless. There was a provision for to allow those stripped of nationality to appeal for reinstatement to the minister at his discretion. Unfortunately many of those affected didn’t know about this or had no idea how to go about it and remained stateless with serious implications for their descendants. Later amendments allowed those born in the Kingdom prior to the Revolutionary Decree and thus designated as Thai on their birth certificates to reclaim Thai nationality, including those fortunate to have another nationality. . 1992 Amendments. Righted some of wrongs of the 1971 Revolutionary Decree. Nationality now passes through Thai mothers as well as fathers. Children born to a Thai and a foreign parent now have the option to renounce Thai nationality in the year following their 20th birthday but there is no obligation to do so, if they wish to retain their foreign nationality. This ostensibly legalizes dual nationality for half Thai children, whereas in other instances, the legality remains somewhat ambiguous. Some half Thais do take the option to renounce nationality but this is usually only in cases where they live in a foreign country that does not allow dual nationality and requires evidence of renunciation of their other nationality. Consequently this type of renunciation is rather rare. 2008 Amendments. These included a highly significant provision to allow foreign husbands of Thai women to apply for citizenship without having PR first and without the need for knowledge of the Thai language. 2012 Amendments. These are significant for stateless minorities born in Thailand after 1971. Previously there were many piece meal cabinet resolutions covering various minority groups separately. The 2012 amendments coalesced many of these provisions and brought them formally into the Act making things a bit easier for the stateless unfortunates to obtain Thai citizenship. However, local district offices still often decide make things difficult for them. 2026 or later. Amendments to implement the provisions of the Marriage Equality Act. Watch this space!
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