I am sure this has been discussed before and maybe somebody can direct me to some answers. Apologies if in the wrong forum.

If a Thai lady passes the Life in the UK test and becomes a UK citizen, can she still own land back in Thailand?

Thanks

Shug

I thinks it's Ok so long as she retains Thai citizenship i.e. becomes a dual UK/Thai citizen.

Yes.

Yes, providing she has not renounced her Thai Citizenship. However, if she is married to a foreigner, then according to the law in the Thai Civil and Commercial Code (TCCC) which is practiced at the land office, she may only own land if the money for such is hers and has not come from her husband after marriage. The land office will request the foreign husband to sign a form declaring that the funds are "Sinsod" (hers before marriage), which also means that he thereby has no claim whatsoever to such funds or property.

This aspect of the law in the Thai Civil and Commercial Code is sexist and "unconstitutional" in respect of the overriding law in the more recent "Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand", so in this respect the land office should change their policy in my opinion. It may, however, take a test case to be dragged through court and set a legal precedent in order to get them to change their unconstitutional policy.

Yup, the above is correct

Moving to the Housing forum.

I thinks it's Ok so long as she retains Thai citizenship i.e. becomes a dual UK/Thai citizen.

But this website says :-

DUAL CITIZENSHIP: NOT RECOGNIZED. Exceptions: Child born abroad to Thai parents, who obtains the citizenship of the foreign country of birth, may retain dual citizenship until reaching the age of majority (18). At this point, person must choose which citizenship to retain.

A Thai woman who marries a foreign national and acquires her husband's citizenship has technically lost her Thai citizenship. Should the marriage end in death or divorce, the Thai national woman could regain her Thai citizenship. This is an unofficial dual citizenship designed to protect female Thai nationals.

http://www.multiplecitizenship.com/wscl/ws_THAILAND.html

So while the lady is married this says she loses her Thai citizenship ?

Above information is at least partly incorrect. But the law is a bit unclear on the point of acquiring another nationality out of ones own free will and if that will make one lose Thai nationality. (This must be distinguished from the situation that someone has dual nationality by way of law, because of parents with two different nationality for example).

One of the persons who know a lot about Thai nationality questions is member Samran. He is of the opinion that the you can keep Thai nationality.

Above information is at least partly incorrect. But the law is a bit unclear on the point of acquiring another nationality out of ones own free will and if that will make one lose Thai nationality. (This must be distinguished from the situation that someone has dual nationality by way of law, because of parents with two different nationality for example).

One of the persons who know a lot about Thai nationality questions is member Samran. He is of the opinion that the you can keep Thai nationality.

Ok guys, thanks for the input.

I think a visit to a Thai lawyer is required next time we are over. This is now 2 topics I have posted about Thai law and marriages Thai/farang, and both seem to have brought up issues. Howver, again, thanks for the replies.

Shug

I wouldn't bother with the laywers on this one. Thousand of Thai's married to foreigners and own land without any issues.

In my opinion the Thai law, like many other countries law, is just not written to clearly say dual citizenship is allowe or not allowed. So it is not specified as legal but also it is not specified to be illegal or against the law.

In any case i do not see it ever happening that Thai government will kick out all the ladies married to foreigners and take their land and nationality. And if it gets all bad you can always divorce and your lady will get Thai citizenship back providing she is born to thai parents.