Right Of Foreign Man To Same Citizenship Rights As Foreign Woman

[bapak]

Does anyone know the outcome of the following?

“The Constitution Court has asked the government to consider if foreign men should have the right to Thai citizenship if they marry Thai women.

Noppadol Hengcharoen, secretary-general of the Office of the Constitution Court, said the court asked the Foreign Ministry and the National Security Council to consider the matter in light of the fact that foreign women are granted citizenship under the same circumstances.

The Ombudsman asked the court to decide if Article 9 of the 1965 Nationality Act contradicts Article 30 of the Constitution. Article 9 of the Nationality Act allows foreign women to become citizens if they marry Thai men. But it prohibits foreign men from the same privilege. Article 30 of the Constitution guarantees sex equality. No decision on the request has yet been reported. ”

Thursday, September 25, 2003 Report in The Nation, June 18, 2003.

[samran]

shot down in flames as I recall.

Can't remember the exact reasoning, but something along the lines of they already do. Same same, but different.

Though I'm there for true equality all the way, don't think that it is a stroll in the park. While documentation can be straight forward, you have to wait like everyone else. Coming up to two years for my wife...not a peep.

[Arkady]

You can find the detailed answers here in TV or in the original sources but the situation is this. In response to the challenge from the Obudsman the Constitutional Court ruled that the government had a right enact and enforcement whatever legislation it deemed necessary in the interests of national security.

The court didn't consider the special procedures for foreign women married to Thai men to apply for nationality under the Nationality Act as discriminatory against Thai women as the status quo vis a vis foreign male applicants was justifiable on national security grounds which presumably take precedence over gender discrimination in the eyes of the Constitutional Court. The court didn't expand on the specific nature of the national security threat involved here.

The Nationality Act of 2008 removed the necessity for foreign males married to Thai women to have five years' residence in the Kingdom or have knowledge of the Thai language. Theoretically this should remove the need for permanent residence and the language test but as far as I know this new clause in the Act has yet to be implemented. Perhaps it awaits new ministerial regulations from the Interior Ministry, as is often the case in Thailand's ponderous civil law system. The current ministerial regulations still require PR documents and language tests for all male applicants, regardless of marital status. If this new provision in the Nationality Act is ever implemented the only difference in requirements for foreign men married to Thais and foreign women married to Thais would be that the men have to have a job in Thailand with an income of not less than B30k per month and show three years' of Thai income tax receipts. Since this would swamp them with applications from foreign men who can't speak Thai, I suspect the Ministry feels the need for a particulalry cautious approach in changing the ministerial regulations which may take some years. Probably the minimum income levels, which have been in force for nearly 10 years, would be raised significantly at the same time. The price differential alone would make it more attractive to apply for citizenship directly rather than PR. Under the current Nationality Act I think the application fee can only be raised to B10k. It is currently B5k plus B500 for the Certificate of Naturalization, if you are successful.

[RubbaJohnny]

The price differential alone would make it more attractive to apply for citizenship directly rather than PR. Under the current Nationality Act I think the application fee can only be raised to B10k. It is currently B5k plus B500 for the Certificate of Naturalization, if you are successful.

`how where and how would one apply on the basis of equal treatment to mfa. internal affairs.?

Has anyone applied on this basis if so what was the outcome

I libve in an area where itis common knowledge that walthy asian mostly from the big dragon "pay" and get PR sorted and Thai documents

They are buying businesses

I am not talking about Jin Haw or KMT people who arrived in last 2 years!