Bangkok Lawyer Providing Easy Citizenship

[surayu]

I found a funny advertisement while navigating on a local social network website that caught my eye, the agency seems to have a real office in Bangkok and are advertising for a quick and easy visa, including citizenship, i am curious to hear from anyone that dealt with them, the website is called thailandvisanow.com.

[zaphodbeeblebrox]

Not sure how any law firm can offer "citizenship." There hasn't been a permanent residency application approved in three years.

[thedivezone]

So what does citizenship have to do with permanent residency ?

[Samuian]

So what does citizenship have to do with permanent residency ?

Well I have difficulties to fathom why someone, specially Caucasian, would want to Thai attain citizenship... permanent residence is a whole different world..but then "in 3 years not one being granted" it's such an exclusive club here... in fact way too exclusive for me, I certainly don't want to be a member of it.

[p_brownstone]

So what does citizenship have to do with permanent residency ?

You have to qualify for Permanent Residence status in Thailand before you can apply for Thai citizenship.

There is no way any "Lawyer can circumvent or speed up this step, and as already Posted no applications have been approved for several years now.

Patrick

[robblok]

So what does citizenship have to do with permanent residency ?

Well I have difficulties to fathom why someone, specially Caucasian, would want to Thai attain citizenship... permanent residence is a whole different world..but then "in 3 years not one being granted" it's such an exclusive club here... in fact way too exclusive for me, I certainly don't want to be a member of it.

Thai citizinship would be ok for me, as long as i can keep my original passport too.

[Forethat]

Not sure how any law firm can offer "citizenship." There hasn't been a permanent residency application approved in three years.

I'm not questioning authenticity of this statement, but can you refer to the source of information?

[zaphodbeeblebrox]

Not sure how any law firm can offer "citizenship." There hasn't been a permanent residency application approved in three years.

I'm not questioning authenticity of this statement, but can you refer to the source of information?

1. Read responses above.

2. Refer to Camerata's pinned thread on the permanent residency process (the last applications granted were for ex-pats who applied in 2007, no 2008 applications have been granted yet)

TV Camerata thread

[PattayaParent]

Not sure how any law firm can offer "citizenship." There hasn't been a permanent residency application approved in three years.

Perhaps they're offering to process "citizenship" to those people who already have permanent residency?

[zaphodbeeblebrox]

Not sure how any law firm can offer "citizenship." There hasn't been a permanent residency application approved in three years.

Perhaps they're offering to process "citizenship" to those people who already have permanent residency?

Good point, but the OP said the law firm was "advertising for a quick and easy visa, including citizenship". Someone with permanent residency wouldn't need a visa.

[chickenslegs]

This is a quote from their website ...

"At ThailandVisaNow.com we have a special relationship with the Thai Immigration Office"

Don't they all?

[samran]

dodgy...

[Samuian]

Is the incentive from BOI that if anyone invests over 20 Million get's permanent residency- like say in Montenegro...

[surayu]

Well I have difficulties to fathom why someone, specially Caucasian, would want to Thai attain citizenship...

.....maybe by checking the restrictions a "non thai" citizen is subjected to, might rings a bell or two

[surayu]

This is a quote from their website ...

"At ThailandVisaNow.com we have a special relationship with the Thai Immigration Office"

Don't they all?

yes but they do all have Obama answering to your questions? just have another look at it again

[surayu]

UPDATE:

after i came across another advertisement, selling basically the same identical things but from a different website i started searching around for whom these people are, one of the main reasons is because in both of these 2 different websites i couldn't find a phisical address for an office or any real person name/picture of the staff, so this website came out with all the missing info, does anybody have experiences with them? thanks: www.tilalegal.com

[craigt3365]

I am guessing they are doing the same thing here that they do in the US. You get an education visa. Sign up for Thai lessons, attend most of them, and you get a visa fairly easily. I knew quite a few Japanese doing that when I lived in New York City...they had been doing it for years.

I have seen ads for this around Pattaya also...I am pretty sure it is the same situation....but don't know about the citizenship...that is a different story!

[ilyushin]

Send them a request form and see what they say.

[Arkady]

Is the incentive from BOI that if anyone invests over 20 Million get's permanent residency- like say in Montenegro...

I asked the BOI about this a long time ago when they had a similar scheme for those investing B10m. They told me frankly that a number of people had applied but none could be approved because the regulations then involved investing in special low coupon bonds issued by the Bank of Thailand. However the Bank of Thailand refused to cooperate by issuing the bonds, saying they didn't need the money. The BOI advised me to apply through the traditional route at Immigration which I did. The time limit for that BOI scheme expired and all the poor sods who had spend time and money getting their applications together were rejected. It wasn't possible to apply through both channels at the same time. I don't know if there is a similar Catch 22 in the BOI's current regulations but I wouldn't trust the BOI on this one. The senior officials there probably just cynically add the scheme in to look good on their power point presentations abroad without caring whether they can deliver on their promise or not.

[Arkady]

I have checked out the Thaivisanow website and, while there are some bases of truth, they do seem to be making some exaggerated claims and I would doubt they really know a great deal about the practicalities of applying for Thai citizenship by naturalization. The basis of truth is that, as a result of the Nationality Act of 2008, foreign males married to Thai citizens are now exempt from the requirement to have been resident in Thailand for 5 years. Since Interior Ministry regulations require applicants to show permanent residence documents as evidence of their 5 years' residence, permanent residence was pre-requisite for all male applicants prior to 2008 and still is for those not married to Thais. On the other hand there are absolutely no grounds for the claims of any type of expedited application process and the claim to be able to complete the process in 6-12 months is patently absurd. Special Branch tells applicants to expect to wait at least 3 years and some applicants have acquired citizenship after a wait of over 10 years. The claims of attending all meetings with government officials seem somewhat spurious. It is actually advisable for law firms to keep out of sight of the government officials since they dislike dealing with lawyers and are suspicious of applicants they think might have been coached. A National Intelligence Agency official involved in interviewing and vetting nationality applicants told me he saw no value added role for lawyers in the naturalization process, even though some charge as much as B300k, and disliked them trying to attend interviews with applicants. I haven't been to the Interior Ministry interview yet but I am absolutely sure lawyers are not allowed in. The most glaring anomaly is that Thaivisanow talks about dealing with Immigration which has absolutely nothing to do with applications for Thai nationality. Another basis of truth is that under the Nationality Act of 1992 any one born to a Thai parent is entitled to acquire Thai nationality by registration at a district office. Prior to 1992 only those born to a Thai father had this right.

I have also looked at Tila Legal's site and, while the section on Thai citizenship is briefer and there is less exaggeration in their claims, one of them seems to have copied from the other as the wording is very similar and both have made the same glaring mistake of believing that they would have to deal with the Immigration Bureau, if they were to get any clients for this service.

Those with a serious interest in applying for Thai citizenship should read this thread first and then go to see Special Branch Naturalization Section at Building 24, Police National Head Quarters in Pathumwan, Bangkok, for the latest Interior Ministry regulations which change quite frequently and other information about the process. Once you have done this, you can decide for yourself whether a lawyer can be of help. Maybe they would have a role in translating the regulations for you, if your Thai is no good, or in getting some documents together for you, although you will find you have to go to government agencies and your embassy in person for most of them.