Visa For Thai Woman Now British Citizen

[raven0099]

A friend of mine is planning to go back home to Thailand to stay long term, she has been in the UK for 35 years and is now a British Citizen with UK passport, so im trying to find out what the best option is for her to return to Thailand.

Her plan is to stay for 6 months to a year the first time then travel back to the UK to visit family for a couple of months then return back to Thailand. Returning to the UK at least once a year to visit family

So what does she do ?

We know she will have to get ID card and added to the house book where ever she stays

Thanks

Raven0099

[raven0099]

Forgot to add

She was born in Thailand and is a thai national with UK citizenship

[lopburi3]

Does she have a current Thai passport? That should be a priority as she should just use the UK passport outside Thailand and the Thai passport for entry/exit of Thailand. From your mention she will need to get ID card and listed on a home register it sounds as if she did not keep up passport (and perhaps lost citizenship if marriage that long ago - although you say Thai national so perhaps not). No problem getting and then ID card/home register listing and obtaining a new passport but will take some time and paper pushing. If she has some proof of being Thai she should be able to obtain a non immigrant O visa for entry in her UK passport and extend that easily for a year to cover first visit.

There is no legal requirement for her to regain citizenship (if actually lost)/ID card/home register/passport but it will make it easier all around if she does and believe most would want to do this if planning extended time here as will open full Thai facilities.

[Mario2008]

If she didn't renouce her Thai natioanlity, she is still Thai and can apply for a new Thai passport at the Thai embassy. (She can enter Thailand with an expired Thai passport, but not leave on one).

Once in Thailand she can be entered on a household registration and get a Thai ID-card. Withthat she can apply for a new Thai passport in Thailand.

If she did renounce her Thai nationality, she can get a visa and extensions of stay with her Thai birth certificate showing she was born as a Thai national. In addition it will be relatively easy to regain her Thai nationality..

[raven0099]

She doesnt have a Thai passport anymore,

Can she apply for a thai passport from the UK ?

What sort of proof will she need to confirm she is Thai ?

non immigrant O visa , would this be applied for in Thailand or the UK

Thanks for the help

[Mario2008]

See post above.

Does she still has he expired passport? It would make it easier. But she can apply for a Thai passport at the Thai embassy in London.

[raven0099]

Ive just talked with her and she still has her Thai birth certificate , she also has an old Thai passport but the top right corner has been cut , it also has cancelled stamped on the first six pages including the photo page , its a really old passport expiry date of 9th april 1976 , i think this was the first passport she had , can she use this on entry to Thailand ?

Thanks

[Mario2008]

Yes, it shows she is Thai. Of course she can only travel with it in connection with her valid UK passport, otherwise the airline will not let her board. But she can enter Thailand with it in.

The cut of corner is a sign that the passport was invalidated, just as the stamps. That raises the question why that was done and by who.

I would apply for a Thai passport at the Thai embassy before traveling to Thailand to avoid any surprises about her passport.

[raven0099]

Ok , she says that the passport was for two years , and when she applied for a new one they cut the corners on the old passport and stamped it in as cancelled, but for some reason she doesnt seem to have the most recent thai passport she had.

[raven0099]

Is her only option to apply for a Thai passport in London ?

She lives in the northern isles so to travel there will cost quite a bit , plus she would need to have someone with her, if its the only option then perhaps her daughter could take her

So when applying a i imagine she would need

Old Thai passport ?

Current UK passport ?

Birth certificate ?

Confirmation of address in the UK ?

Passport Photos ?

Any thing else

Thanks

Raven

[c2316]

Why the passport was cut ? If she had given up Thai during apply UK passport, she need to recovery Thai nationality for Thai passport. if she still has hold the Thai nationality, she can apply one times passport from Thai embassy in UK .

My son holding an expired Thai passport also apply this one, after back to Thai apply the new one again.

[raven0099]

It was cut because she applied for a new one , they do the same in the UK when you apply for a new passport you send the current passport away with the application form when the new passport is issued then they send it out to you with the old passport with the corner cut, so that passport is no longer useable ,

The problem she has is that she no longer has the most recent Thai passport only the one returned when the latest one was issued ,

It looks like her best option is two take a trip to the embassy in london and apply for a new thai passport , however i noticed that the required supporting docs according to the website asks for thai ID card number but she doesnt have her ID card as the last one was lost many years ago.

Thanks

Raven

[c2316]

Sure she had to go to the embassy in london, but she can make a call to them for before going. I think they can check the ID no. with the old passport with out problem.

[Jay Sata]

I understand the Thai embassy will also renew her ID card.

To be honest I'd advise she leaves the UK on her UK passport and either gets a visa on arrival in Thailand or just present her expired passport.

Once in the kingdom she can sort things out easily.

She has no worries as she is still Thai and entitled to life in Thailand.

[lopburi3]

Actually we do not know that and that she has not lost citizenship (it was normal in those days) and she can not obtain an ID card from Embassy. The laws have changed and she can re-establish citizenship. If she travels on UK passport it is not a big deal but she will need to take all her documentation with her to get established as Thai again. Be very careful and have multi copies of everything and keep a set in UK just in case of loss.

[Mario2008]

A passport has to be applied for in person, but maybe check first with the embassy if she still has Thai nationality and with what documents they can renew her passport if she still has it

Thai embassy website with info about passports: http://www.thaiembassyuk.org.uk/?q=node/6

A Thai ID card cannot be renewed or applied for at an embassy. Although there will start a trail with making that possible at a few Thai embassies later this year.

[Vinny1967]

My other half was in the same boat last year.She had been living in Holland for 23 years and was the holder of a dutch passport.She still had her old thai passport and had a valid ID card.She tried to get a new thai passport in Holland but there was a problem with her ID card (registered in 2 different places) so we decided to sort everything out here.Went to immigration in BKK and they gave her a 1 year visa on her dutch passport,so that would give her plenty of time to get her thai passport in order.

[Arkady]

Actually we do not know that and that she has not lost citizenship (it was normal in those days) and she can not obtain an ID card from Embassy. The laws have changed and she can re-establish citizenship. If she travels on UK passport it is not a big deal but she will need to take all her documentation with her to get established as Thai again. Be very careful and have multi copies of everything and keep a set in UK just in case of loss.

She couldn't have had her Thai citizenship automatically revoked for marrying a foreigner, since the OP says she went to the UK 35 years ago and she was presumably married not long before that. Automatic revocation of Thai nationality was the norm under Thai Nationality Acts prior to the current 1965 Act and many Thai Chinese women lost their Thai nationality in those days for marrying Chinese men in Thailand who had only permanent residence. However the 1965 Act only provides for voluntary renunciation of Thai nationality by those who are born Thai. She can't have been asked to renounce Thai nationality to obtain British nationality, since the UK has freely permitted dual and plural nationality since 1948.

Edited May 19, 2013 by Arkady

[lopburi3]

I stand by my post that many women of that period lost citizenship under the below provision - it was not automatic but suspect many believed it was required and did so from reports I have seen of Vietnam era marriages. Indeed even today many dual nationals have the same option and believe it is a requirement. In the 1970's you did not question the officials.

Chapter 2. Loss of Thai Nationality.

Section 13. A woman of Thai nationality who marries an alien and may acquire the nationality of her husband according to the nationality law of her husband, shall, if she desires to renounce Thai nationality, make a declaration of her intention before the competent official according to the form and in the manner prescribed in the Ministerial Regulations.

[Arkady]

I stand by my post that many women of that period lost citizenship under the below provision - it was not automatic but suspect many believed it was required and did so from reports I have seen of Vietnam era marriages. Indeed even today many dual nationals have the same option and believe it is a requirement. In the 1970's you did not question the officials.

Chapter 2. Loss of Thai Nationality.

Section 13. A woman of Thai nationality who marries an alien and may acquire the nationality of her husband according to the nationality law of her husband, shall, if she desires to renounce Thai nationality, make a declaration of her intention before the competent official according to the form and in the manner prescribed in the Ministerial Regulations.

There is plenty of evidence available for research, rather than relying on hunches. All the instances of renunciation and revocation of Thai citizenship since the first Nationality Act of 1913 are listed in the Royal Gazette. Nearly all of these prior to the 1965 Nationality Act were instances of women whose Thai nationality was revoked for marrying Chinese men. Some very early ones under absolute monarchy were farangs who were renouncing their Siamese nationality because they were retiring to move back home and wanted to reclaim the farang nationality they had had to renounce in those days to obtain Siamese nationality. Since the 1965 Act nearly all of them were cases of women voluntarily renouncing their Thai nationality to obtain the citizenship of husbands whose country strictly prohibits dual nationality in these cases and demands evidence that the wife's former nationality has been dissolved, e.g. Taiwan (accounting the largest number), Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Germany, Austria. The instances of voluntary renunciation of Thai nationality to obtain a nationality like American that has never required evidence of renunciation of former nationality are there but in tiny quantity that could probably be counted on the fingers of a mutilated hand. Even in the 70s these Thai wives were not so dumb as you think.

Edited May 21, 2013 by Arkady

[lopburi3]

But that does not account for these people who believed and were told - that they had lost citizenship. That happened - to a lot of people and there is no way to count them. Even today Thai are often told, wrongly, that they can not hold another citizenship. In the 1970's most believed this and did not question it and if they obtained another citizenship just had no more contact with Thailand except as a tourist on a foreign passport. We continue to see this in forum today..

[Arkady]

But that does not account for these people who believed and were told - that they had lost citizenship. That happened - to a lot of people and there is no way to count them. Even today Thai are often told, wrongly, that they can not hold another citizenship. In the 1970's most believed this and did not question it and if they obtained another citizenship just had no more contact with Thailand except as a tourist on a foreign passport. We continue to see this in forum today..

I see what you mean. Some may have stopped applying for Thai passports or ID cards because they have made a new life for themselves abroad and think there is no point in going to the hassle to maintain Thai documents for a trip home once every few years. Others may, as you say, have been led to believe by some idiot that their Thai nationality had been automatically dissolved without even a formal announcement or letter of notification. It is hard to believe that someone would relinquish such an important right without a shred of credible evidence but no doubt that it happens.