Can I Apply For Thai Citizenship

[Lesley99]

This might sound like a stupid question but can i apply for Thai Citizenship if I'm not living in Thailand at the moment.

I've been married to my husband for 14 years and have 3 children who all have dual nationality (thai and british), we have a house in Thailand but it's in my husbands name at the moment, we live and work in the UK.

I'd like to have citizenship as when the children are grown up we would like to spend more time over there.

Thanks for any advice you have.

Lesley

[nontabury]

Sorry but I think the answer is no,and the answer would be very unlikely even if you had been living all these years in Thailand with you're Thai husband and Thai children.

The Thai government issues less then 10 passport to aliens each year,unlike in Britain where the only requirement after 3 years is that you submit the tops from 10 Kelloge corn flakes

with you're application form.

[RAZZELL]

Sorry but I think the answer is no,and the answer would be very unlikely even if you had been living all these years in Thailand with you're Thai husband and Thai children.

The Thai government issues less then 10 passport to aliens each year,unlike in Britain where the only requirement after 3 years is that you submit the tops from 10 Kelloge corn flakes

with you're application form.

Incorrect. Where do you get this info from?

Lot easier for women. I believe you can apply after 3 years.

RAZZ

Edited December 15, 2010 by RAZZELL

[MAJIC]

We have had this question of Thai Citizenship before on Tv,and apparently its quite a long arduous journey,

taking somewhere in the region of 5 years to complete.

Personally I cant see the remotest attraction!

Edited December 15, 2010 by MAJIC

[samran]

Sorry but I think the answer is no,and the answer would be very unlikely even if you had been living all these years in Thailand with you're Thai husband and Thai children.

The Thai government issues less then 10 passport to aliens each year,unlike in Britain where the only requirement after 3 years is that you submit the tops from 10 Kelloge corn flakes

with you're application form.

can we ban people who give stupid and incorrect responses? Mods?

To the OP:

Check out this post (and generally the entire link) for an outline of the documentation you'll need.

and a couple of posts down from that are the PDF links to the rules as they stood in 2008.

The major issues are that you'll need to be in Thailand to apply and have your name on a yellow tabieen baan.

The other hurdle might be is that your husband will need to show last years tax return to show he earns enough. Now, whether a foreign one is acceptable is an entirely different question.

We applied in May 2008. We are still waiting, but not in any particular rush.

Difficulty in applying varies. You have to apply at your local special branch office. If it BKK then it is straight forward and pretty easy. Ignore what all the morons say about it being difficult to apply.

I understand Chiang Mai is OK for this as well. Other places the diffuclty ratchets up, as while the local office may be responsible for taking the application, most of them wouldn't have a clue.

Getting your name on the yellow tabieen baan also varies in difficuly, espeically the further you go into the boonies.

Edited December 15, 2010 by samran

[lopburi3]

About all we can do is correct false information as often posters just do not know and are saying what they believe to be true. The fact that many 'rules' are in the grey category and exceptions are often allowed makes it very hard to say who is right or wrong. We are likely all wrong at times. The best we can do is provide multiple corrections as this is a forum rather than a 'Dear Abby' column.

[Lesley99]

Thanks for all the advice and for the link.

[nontabury]

Sorry but I think the answer is no,and the answer would be very unlikely even if you had been living all these years in Thailand with you're Thai husband and Thai children.

The Thai government issues less then 10 passport to aliens each year,unlike in Britain where the only requirement after 3 years is that you submit the tops from 10 Kelloge corn flakes

with you're application form.

can we ban people who give stupid and incorrect responses? Mods?

To the OP:

Check out this post (and generally the entire link) for an outline of the documentation you'll need.

http://www.thaivisa....ost__p__1968769

and a couple of posts down from that are the PDF links to the rules as they stood in 2008.

The major issues are that you'll need to be in Thailand to apply and have your name on a yellow tabieen baan.

The other hurdle might be is that your husband will need to show last years tax return to show he earns enough. Now, whether a foreign one is acceptable is an entirely different question.

We applied in May 2008. We are still waiting, but not in any particular rush.

Difficulty in applying varies. You have to apply at your local special branch office. If it BKK then it is straight forward and pretty easy. Ignore what all the morons say about it being difficult to apply.

I understand Chiang Mai is OK for this as well. Other places the diffuclty ratchets up, as while the local office may be responsible for taking the application, most of them wouldn't have a clue.

Getting your name on the yellow tabieen baan also varies in difficuly, espeically the further you go into the boonies.

Yes, it's fairly easy to apply for Thai citizenship,but how many are successfull,the people i know of have either been refused or their application is left in limbo,this is after jumping thro squares and circlle

at the request of the officials.The figure i earlier quoted was from an article i read a few years ago,maybe the No is correct maybe it is not,you seem sure it is incorrect perhaps you can supple us with the official government figures.Also your application backed up with all the correct forms etc,supported by prominent thai citizens,has that now been finally approved?

[Lesley99]

I'll give it go - no harm in trying What you said about Britain's system used to be true and luckily my husband applied at that time but now they have really clamped down and you have to do a life in the uk english test.

Edited December 16, 2010 by Lesley99

[samran]

Yes, it's fairly easy to apply for Thai citizenship,but how many are successfull,the people i know of have either been refused or their application is left in limbo,this is after jumping thro squares and circlle

at the request of the officials.The figure i earlier quoted was from an article i read a few years ago,maybe the No is correct maybe it is not,you seem sure it is incorrect perhaps you can supple us with the official government figures.Also your application backed up with all the correct forms etc,supported by prominent thai citizens,has that now been finally approved?

Arkady recenty posted a thread outlining the number of Thai citizenship approvals in each year. More than you would have thought, not as many as you'd probably want. Do a search on his recent posts.

As for my wife's application? Still in the blackhole that is the Ministry of Interior, but if all goes to plan, perhaps next year we'll get a verdict.

Am I "successful"? Well it depends on your criteria. I hold down a regular job, well paying but not spectacular. My wife is a 'home maker'/former primary school teacher.

The 'correct forms' were not hard to come by, and mostly are the basic bureacratic paperwork that most Thai's have. The trick was to line them up in a row - just as you would any other standard visa application.

Frankly, I've had a more 'difficult' and bureacratic path to obtaining a UK 'greencard' back in 2004 - the HSMP.

In terms of having 'prominent Thai citizens' backing up my application - well I no doubt could have, but was advised by special branch it wasn't needed. As such, I had my mum, cousin, aunt and a friend from work come down to be the 4 Thai witnesses for my wifes application. Hardly the elite of Thai society (though I luv'm all to bits).

The people I know who have gained Thai citizenship (about half a dozen) are mostly professionals to be sure, one is a British acupuncturist who practices alternative medicine - mostly self employed, but hardly high fliers apart from one.

Edited December 17, 2010 by samran

[tombkk]

Kindly allow me to post three rumours, for the single purpose of getting clarified by the experts whether they are two or false:

1. It is easier for foreign women married to Thai men to be successful in the application than for foreign men married to Thai women.

2. You have to have lived in Thailand for a certain period of time before being able to apply for citizenship, even if you are married to a Thai.

3. You have to renounce your original citizenship in order to gain Thai citizenship as an adult.

I am not opening a new thread, as I believe the answers are important for the OP in this thread.

[nontabury]

Sorry but I think the answer is no,and the answer would be very unlikely even if you had been living all these years in Thailand with you're Thai husband and Thai children.

The Thai government issues less then 10 passport to aliens each year,unlike in Britain where the only requirement after 3 years is that you submit the tops from 10 Kelloge corn flakes

with you're application form.

can we ban people who give stupid and incorrect responses? Mods?

In the tread "story of thai citizen application" ARKADY wrote on the 21-11-2010 that after looking thru the Royal Gazette he obtained the following information=

between 2005-2010 the No of successful applications after removing the figures for stateless persons and people wishing to recover their thai nationality etc

496 females with thai husbands

604 naturalizations

of these successful applicates,those with farang sounding names accounted for only 7%.As my original reply was to a farang OP I think my reply was fairly correct.

Also on the same tread Clockworkorange 27/12/2009 mentioned the interior ministry being rather slow to finalize the successful applications,I can remember within the last year

reading(thai visa or bkk post) one applicant was very annoyed because according to him his application had been approved 5 yrs ago,however it was still in the interior ministry's

intray awaiting the final signature.

Finally Samrun I hope your application is approved and not in the too distant future.