Citizenship/security For (stateless) Myanmar-born Person Living In Thailand

[bradlycooper]

I have a Thai friend who is 20 years old. She has been trying for years to get her family to give her the paperwork she needs to get her Thai citizenship card. Two years ago she finally managed to get them to help her, but she ended up with a PINK card, not the Thai ID card, and she didn't understand why. Finally, yesterday her sister told her that her mother brought her from Myanmar when she was a baby, about 18 years ago. AFAICT, she has no citizenship in any country.

I am desperately trying to find a way of getting her Thai citizenship. It seems things are difficult because she wasn't born in Thailand and because she and her mother arrived in Thailand after 1984. What options are there? Who can help me with this situation?

My understanding is that her pink ID card lets her live outside of her village, but only as long as she is attending a college or university. I would like to find a college/university within Thailand that would accept her for a serious education (e.g. Chiang Mai University, or the English-language school in Chiang Rai, or better). She is incredibly bright, but she's attended some kind of alternative high school, part-time, while she worked (I guess illegally) full time as a kid in Chiang Mai. So I think she needs some educational help first. Any suggestions?

Alternatively, I would like to find a way for her to come to the US to live with my family and study in college in the US and/or Japan. Is there a way of getting her some kind of visa even without Thai citizenship? To be honest, I doubt I have the financial resources to do this, though.

I do not have any kind of romantic relationship with her. In fact, I'm in a committed relationship with somebody else. So, marriage-based solutions are not really practical.

Thank you very much for your help!

(P.S. I searched the forum, but I didn't see anything that looked promising. If you know of other threads on this topic, please post the links too.)

[rfukata]

This situation is uncommon for Thailand. Remember the stateless Myanmar boy who won the national paper airplane flying

tournament in Thailand who was going to represent Thailand to participate in the major tournament in Japan?

If you followed this story, he was first rejected (to obtain Thai passport due to stateless) by the Thai government but was eventually over-ruled and issued a temporary Passport by the Prime Minister due to public outrage..

It seems you have to Petition with 20,000+ signatures to the Prime Ministers office to get anything rolling if lucky.

[Mario2008]

Best advice is to contaqct a NGO that helpes refugees and steless people. There are several in Thailand. You could start with the Burmese Border Consortium. Google them for an email.

[InterestedObserver]

There are many posts on ThaiVisa Forum (TV) concerning people of Myanmar (Burmese) origin living in Thailand without citizenship to either country. Most of the posts center around how to marry such an individual, but the underlying information is relevant to the OPs situation. The bottom line is that given the information provided and past TV postings, the obstacles are insurmountable for her to get a Thai ID card (citizenship) or passport anytime soon.

[Gaccha]

I cannot tell you much as this is a big secret, but some of the top academics in Thailand are getting together to make a new University on the border zone (probably around Mae Sot) so stateless individuals can obtain a University education.

Should be a news splash soon on this.

I really wish them well.

[bradlycooper]

There are many posts on ThaiVisa Forum (TV) concerning people of Myanmar (Burmese) origin living in Thailand without citizenship to either country. Most of the posts center around how to marry such an individual, but the underlying information is relevant to the OPs situation. The bottom line is that given the information provided and past TV postings, the obstacles are insurmountable for her to get a Thai ID card (citizenship) or passport anytime soon.

OK, so what if we take off the qualifier "soon?" I am willing to help her go through a process that would take years, if I just knew what process would work.

I will contact some (more) NGOs. Thanks, Mario2008, for pointing out the Burmese Border Consortium. That is one that I didn't know about.

[InterestedObserver]

Your friends pink ID card identifies her as an alien without Thai nationality. The 13-digit identification number on the card is coded to indicate her legal status and which ethnic group she is classified under. The Thai government bureaucracy is in no rush to grant citizenship to the multitudes of Burmese refugees sitting in the various camps along its borders, but it is working on the problem. You need to make inquiries where her pink ID card was issued about her legal status in Thailand. Take a translator with you.

Some info here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/20999732/Birth-R...hip-in-Thailand

[InterestedObserver]

Your friends pink ID card identifies her as an alien without Thai nationality. The 13-digit identification number on the card is coded to indicate her legal status and which ethnic group she is classified under. The Thai government bureaucracy is in no rush to grant citizenship to the multitudes of Burmese refugees sitting in the various camps along its borders, but it is working on the problem. You need to make inquiries where her pink ID card was issued about her legal status in Thailand. Take a translator with you.

Some info here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/20999732/Birth-R...hip-in-Thailand

Is your friend's name entered into a household registration book, Ta Bien Bahn (Thor Ror 13 or Thor Ror 14), which would at least indicated that she is listed in the national household registration database.

[bradlycooper]

Is your friend's name entered into a household registration book, Ta Bien Bahn (Thor Ror 13 or Thor Ror 14), which would at least indicated that she is listed in the national household registration database.

I don't think she's registered. She doesn't seem to even understand what the household registration book is for. She just thinks it is something to do with the telephone company. I asked her to find more information about it. She does have the pink ID card; I've now seen a picture of it. And, that was good enough for her to register at a community college in Chiang Mai; I've seen a picture of her college ID card too.

1. Now, she needs to change her room gain. How exactly does a such a person legally rent a room (in Chiang Mai, if that matters). It seems like previously, she had various people (her old boss, etc.) help her. Is it possible for her to do this on her own?

2. She has a motorbike. But, she doesn't have a license for it. Is it possible for someone with her status to get a license? How?

[DegenFarang]

Aren't all people born in Burma automatically Burmese citizens? If so, claiming her Burmese citizenship, possibly from their embassy in Thailand, could help solve the stateless issue. Or is your primary concern getting her Thai citizenship?

[bradlycooper]

Aren't all people born in Burma automatically Burmese citizens? If so, claiming her Burmese citizenship, possibly from their embassy in Thailand, could help solve the stateless issue. Or is your primary concern getting her Thai citizenship?

I'm not sure that would help. If she got a Burmese passport then she could presumably travel to the USA to study on it. But, as soon as she leaves Thailand, she can never return. So, if something bad happened in the USA, she'd have the horrible choice between being illegal in the USA, legal in Burma, or sneaking back into Thailand and being totally illegal there.

Ironically, it seems the college part is fairly straightforward, compared to basic things like the motorbike license and renting a room.

[Arkady]

The 2008 Nationality Act made it easier for people born in Thailand to alien parents before 1992 (mainly hill tribe people and other stateless people from neighbouring countries) to acquire Thai nationality but it is still not easy, even with complete documentation. For those not born in Thailand the only route I know of is through naturalization or through marriage to a Thai national (for a foreign woman) but I doubt these two routes are effectively open to stateless people living in Thailand under special dispensation. There are many stateless people who were born in Thailand before 1992 without birth certificates. I think it is theoretically possible for them to obtain ID cards after extensive investigation of their claims to have been born in Thailand but this would not apply, if she was really born in Burma. Much would depend on what documents her parents have and, if a realistic claim can be made that she was born in Thailand, assuming the sister is wrong about her birth place. You need to find out what documents her parents and siblings have and really get to the bottom of her family situation. If the parents have Alien Registration Books, things may be easier. As suggested above, NGOs should have more detailed information about possible alternatives but can't help much without detailed information. Unfortunately the Thai government's approach to stateless people from neighbouring countries who were not born in Thailand is that they can either live with a pink ID card in their village or go back to their country of origin to claim their citizenship there.

[mojaco]

I have experience trying to get a citizenship card for a Lahu "Hill Tribe" stateless person in the Chiang Rai area. What it takes is $$ and a village headman who will push the application through. However in this particular case, once the village headman had approval using my friend's data, he sold the right to the citizenship to the highest bidder! We have given up since someone else has stolen his identity.

$$$ and connections are the only hope for your friend I'm afraid.