What are the costs of obtaining Thai Nationality under the Nationality Act B.E. 2508

[chelsea]

I am a British subject who is married to a Thai national and a father of a Thai child. We have been married for 9 years and I have been resident in Thailand for 10 years now and have our own house. I am retired and 61 years of age

I am referring to Nationality Act B. E. 2508, Chapter 1, Section 10 and section 11 of the Act

What is the costs involved and the time frame

[Mario2008]

The cost is very low, under 10,000 baht, but you do not qualify as you do not work in Thailand. But if your wife works, and has an income of at least 40,000 a month you might still qualify.

EDIT:

Wrong information crossed out, I believe only for PR can the wife's income be counted not for Thai nationality.

[ubonjoe]

If you were qualified the fee is 8,000 baht.

But you must of been working, have a work permit and paying taxes to show 40K baht income for three years to qualify if married to a Thai lady.

[noise]

I think I read somewhere (and can not find it today) that you have to have permanent residency before applying for citizenship. Extrapolating from that, I would think that if Chelsea qualified for residency, he would quality for citizenship depending, of course, on what ever additional requirements there may be. Investment & job may be required, but I would guess not based on the residency requirements.

FEES: Given the permanent resident application fee (see below), I would expect the citizenship fee would be more than 8,000 baht.

BUT WHAT DO I KNOW?

Here are quotes from the immigration web site about permanent residency which may be completely off subject. If so, moderators and others' comments will be welcomed additions to my limited knowledge. There are other requirements, of course, like length of marriage, police checks, etc.

Categories of application
1. Investment
2. Employment
3. Humanitarian reasons as follows:
3.1 Spouse:To provide patronage or to be under patronage of a Thai national spouse,
3.2 Child: To provide patronage or to be under patronage of a Thai national father or mother,
3.3 Father or mother: To provide patronage or to be under patronage of the applicant’s Thai national child,
3.4 Spouse: To provide patronage or to be under patronage of the applicant’s spouse who was granted with residential permit,
3.5 Child: To provide patronage or to be under patronage of the applicant’s father or mother who was granted with residential permit,
3.6 Father or mother: To provide patronage or to be under patronage of the applicant’s child who was granted with residential permit.
4. Expert,
5. Extra circumstances on a case by case basis

Foreign national applicant must hold a passport that bears a Non-Immigrant Visa and was granted with one-year visa extensions which reveal that up until the date of application submission, the applicant have been staying in the Kingdom for at least 3 consecutive years.

Residence certificate (TM. 16)

• For shared investment or special investment: 191,400.- Baht
• For employment or expert: 191,400.- Baht
• For foreigner married to Thai national: 95,700.- Baht
• For foreign head of family taking care of children of Thai nationality: 95,700.- Baht
• For spouse of foreign resident in the Kingdom: 95,700.- Baht
• For children of foreign resident in the Kingdom or of Thai nationals:
  • Underage: 95,700.- Baht
  • Adult: 191,400.- Baht
• For non-quota immigrants (original resident): 95,700.- Baht

[Mario2008]

OP asked about Thai nationality, for which he does not seem to be eligible. Being married to a Thai means that you do not need to have PR first, you can apply directly for citizenship. (But must be on a household registration book).

OP only qualifies for PR if his wife works and has an official income of at least 30,000 baht a month. PR is discussed here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/74654-cameratas-guide-to-the-permanent-residence-process/unread/

[Spoonman]

I think I read somewhere (and can not find it today) that you have to have permanent residency before applying for citizenship.

I think I read somewhere that if you are married and have been paying income tax for 3 consecutive years you can skip the PR and go straight to citizenship.

[Dave Phuket Sisaket]

Noise,

The one exception to needing PR prior to applying for citizenship is marriage to and/or supporting Thai citizen (birth children).

I am planning to apply this year and the way it has been explained to me by multiple lawyers is that your reason for annual visa extension must match the reason for the citizenship application. What this means in plain terms is you need to have a work permit and have been paying taxes for three years, but during that time you should not have been using the work permit to get your extensions. You need to have three years of marriage extensions since that will be the reason for lodging the citizenship application.

The cost of PR is very high, but direct citizenship isn't.

That is my understanding anyways. I will let you all know how it goes in due course..

[samran]

I think I read somewhere (and can not find it today) that you have to have permanent residency before applying for citizenship. Extrapolating from that, I would think that if Chelsea qualified for residency, he would quality for citizenship depending, of course, on what ever additional requirements there may be. Investment & job may be required, but I would guess not based on the residency requirements.

FEES: Given the permanent resident application fee (see below), I would expect the citizenship fee would be more than 8,000 baht.

BUT WHAT DO I KNOW?

Here are quotes from the immigration web site about permanent residency which may be completely off subject. If so, moderators and others' comments will be welcomed additions to my limited knowledge. There are other requirements, of course, like length of marriage, police checks, etc.

Categories of application

1. Investment

2. Employment

3. Humanitarian reasons as follows:

3.1 Spouse:To provide patronage or to be under patronage of a Thai national spouse,

3.2 Child: To provide patronage or to be under patronage of a Thai national father or mother,

3.3 Father or mother: To provide patronage or to be under patronage of the applicants Thai national child,

3.4 Spouse: To provide patronage or to be under patronage of the applicants spouse who was granted with residential permit,

3.5 Child: To provide patronage or to be under patronage of the applicants father or mother who was granted with residential permit,

3.6 Father or mother: To provide patronage or to be under patronage of the applicants child who was granted with residential permit.

4. Expert,

5. Extra circumstances on a case by case basis

Foreign national applicant must hold a passport that bears a Non-Immigrant Visa and was granted with one-year visa extensions which reveal that up until the date of application submission, the applicant have been staying in the Kingdom for at least 3 consecutive years.

Residence certificate (TM. 16)

• For shared investment or special investment: 191,400.- Baht
• For employment or expert: 191,400.- Baht
• For foreigner married to Thai national: 95,700.- Baht
• For foreign head of family taking care of children of Thai nationality: 95,700.- Baht
• For spouse of foreign resident in the Kingdom: 95,700.- Baht
• For children of foreign resident in the Kingdom or of Thai nationals:
  • Underage: 95,700.- Baht
  • Adult: 191,400.- Baht
• For non-quota immigrants (original resident): 95,700.- Baht

Um, I know having applied for citizenship for my wife. The fee is as per the earlier posts. We paid a 5000 baht fee from memory a few years back as part of the application process.

As others have said, you can skip PR if married. But the long and short of it is, you need to have been working for the proceeding 3 years to be eligible to apply in the case if a foreign male married to a Thai female.

In our case, being the other way around, the income thresholds were lower (and based on my income, not my foreign national wife) and we had children which also allowed an earlier application after one year of marriage. I also had to be clear of any military obligation as well. As others have said though, being married does allow you to skip PR, and the fees there.

[bangkapi]

The expensive and hard part is getting permanent residency. If you get that and have it for 5 years, citizenship is relatively easy.

The problem is that they do not give it to retired people. They want you to be working and paying taxes in order to get the citizenship.

My lawyer advised me against even trying to get Thai citizenship because of my current status holding a retirement visa.

[Spoonman]

What are the Thai language requirements for citizenship ?

[poweratradio]

Oh damn!

[ubonjoe]

The expensive and hard part is getting permanent residency. If you get that and have it for 5 years, citizenship is relatively easy.

The problem is that they do not give it to retired people. They want you to be working and paying taxes in order to get the citizenship.

My lawyer advised me against even trying to get Thai citizenship because of my current status holding a retirement visa.

You cannot get PR or citizenship unless working. Much less on retirement extensions,

There is a clause in the ministerial regulations for PR that says you can get it if retired but they will not even accept your application. There is one also for being married to a Thai that allows for wife's or a combined income of 30k but they will not accept those on that basis either.

[apiwan]

3.2 Child: To provide patronage or to be under patronage of a Thai national father or mother,

3.3 Father or mother: To provide patronage or to be under patronage of the applicant’s Thai national child,

3.4 Spouse: To provide patronage or to be under patronage of the applicant’s spouse who was granted with residential permit,

3.5 Child: To provide patronage or to be under patronage of the applicant’s father or mother who was granted with residential permit,

3.6 Father or mother: To provide patronage or to be under patronage of the applicant’s child who was granted with residential permit.

4. Expert,

5. Extra circumstances on a case by case basis

Foreign national applicant must hold a passport that bears a Non-Immigrant Visa and was granted with one-year visa extensions which reveal that up until the date of application submission, the applicant have been staying in the Kingdom for at least 3 consecutive years.

Residence certificate (TM. 16)

• For shared investment or special investment: 191,400.- Baht
• For employment or expert: 191,400.- Baht
• For foreigner married to Thai national: 95,700.- Baht
• For foreign head of family taking care of children of Thai nationality: 95,700.- Baht
• For spouse of foreign resident in the Kingdom: 95,700.- Baht
• For children of foreign resident in the Kingdom or of Thai nationals:
  • Underage: 95,700.- Baht
  • Adult: 191,400.- Baht
• For non-quota immigrants (original resident): 95,700.- Baht

So where do I stand ?

Have kids here no mother, in my care.

Would I be able to apply for either PR or citizenship ?

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[ubonjoe]

You can qualify for either one if you are the legal father of your children by way of marriage or legitimization and have been on extension of stay for 3 years, have been working and paying taxes.

For PR you would need to meet the 80K baht salary requirement to get it.

For citizenship 40k baht salary minimum,

[Sydebolle]

Why would you want to obtain Thai citizenship? 61 years of age, retirement visa - all OK. For those younger than 50 a PR might be an option but the difference between PR and Thai nationality is:
- ownership of land
- voting right
Both is - in most cases - not required by a PR holder as property is owned within the family (kids etc.) and voting right = well, lets not go there in this forum ..........

[p_brownstone]

Why would you want to obtain Thai citizenship? 61 years of age, retirement visa - all OK. For those younger than 50 a PR might be an option but the difference between PR and Thai nationality is:

- ownership of land

- voting right

Both is - in most cases - not required by a PR holder as property is owned within the family (kids etc.) and voting right = well, lets not go there in this forum ..........

The possible danger of just sticking with a Retirement Visa is that the requirements - money in the Bank, monthly Pension amount etc. - may change at any time and he could find himself no longer qualifying; at only 61 and, presumably, in good health the OP could be around for 20+ more years; lots can happen on that time.

Patrick

[Dork]

You can qualify for either one if you are the legal father of your children by way of marriage or legitimization and have been on extension of stay for 3 years, have been working and paying taxes.

For PR you would need to meet the 80K baht salary requirement to get it.

For citizenship 40k baht salary minimum,

The 80K figure is often quoted here on Thaivisa as the minimum for a PR application. In fact 80K is the minimum for an application under the "Employment" category and even then there are exceptions made.

The PR section of immigration will tell you that the minimum tax paid monthly income for an application under the "Family" category is 50K.

[ubonjoe]

You can qualify for either one if you are the legal father of your children by way of marriage or legitimization and have been on extension of stay for 3 years, have been working and paying taxes.

For PR you would need to meet the 80K baht salary requirement to get it.

For citizenship 40k baht salary minimum,

The 80K figure is often quoted here on Thaivisa as the minimum for a PR application. In fact 80K is the minimum for an application under the "Employment" category and even then there are exceptions made.

The PR section of immigration will tell you that the minimum tax paid monthly income for an application under the "Family" category is 50K.

Whether it would be approved or not would be another story though. I have read reports of immigration telling people that it probably would not be so not to even bother.

[dighambara]

If you were qualified the fee is 8,000 baht.

But you must of been working, have a work permit and paying taxes to show 40K baht income for three years to qualify if married to a Thai lady.

YEP, the 3 to 6 Million retirees here cannot become citizens, even if they bring in money regularly (more than tourists) rather than working and taking jobs from Thais.

Make any sense - NO, but T.I.T.

[samran]

3 to 6 million? A few too many zeros there me thinks.

[Mario2008]

You can qualify for either one if you are the legal father of your children by way of marriage or legitimization and have been on extension of stay for 3 years, have been working and paying taxes.

For PR you would need to meet the 80K baht salary requirement to get it.

For citizenship 40k baht salary minimum,

The 80K figure is often quoted here on Thaivisa as the minimum for a PR application. In fact 80K is the minimum for an application under the "Employment" category and even then there are exceptions made.

The PR section of immigration will tell you that the minimum tax paid monthly income for an application under the "Family" category is 50K.

OI believe the actual mentioned minimum income is 30,000 not 50,000. But 50,000 would be advisable.

[ubonjoe]

The ministerial regulations say 30k but it will not be accepted from posts I have read.

[apiwan]

You can qualify for either one if you are the legal father of your children by way of marriage or legitimization and have been on extension of stay for 3 years, have been working and paying taxes.

For PR you would need to meet the 80K baht salary requirement to get it.

For citizenship 40k baht salary minimum,

So either way I would have to be employed here for 3 years without leaving .

Not in and out and use my salary from the UK.

Has I said just curious for the future.

Thanks Joe for the reply

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[ubonjoe]

You can qualify for either one if you are the legal father of your children by way of marriage or legitimization and have been on extension of stay for 3 years, have been working and paying taxes.

For PR you would need to meet the 80K baht salary requirement to get it.

For citizenship 40k baht salary minimum,

So either way I would have to be employed here for 3 years without leaving .

Not in and out and use my salary from the UK.

Has I said just curious for the future.

Thanks Joe for the reply

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

You can leave with a re-entry permit to keep your extension valid. You just have to have 3 consecutive years on extensions. It cannot be multiple entry visas.

You would have to find a job or start you own company to get a work permit.

[Dork]

You can qualify for either one if you are the legal father of your children by way of marriage or legitimization and have been on extension of stay for 3 years, have been working and paying taxes.

For PR you would need to meet the 80K baht salary requirement to get it.

For citizenship 40k baht salary minimum,

The 80K figure is often quoted here on Thaivisa as the minimum for a PR application. In fact 80K is the minimum for an application under the "Employment" category and even then there are exceptions made.

The PR section of immigration will tell you that the minimum tax paid monthly income for an application under the "Family" category is 50K.

OI believe the actual mentioned minimum income is 30,000 not 50,000. But 50,000 would be advisable.

The figure of 50K is not something that I read on the internet or heard mentioned by someone.

An actual officer at the actual PR section of Immigration told me face to face that they can and they do accept applications under the family category with a monthly income of 50K.

[digitaldivergence]

I think I read somewhere (and can not find it today) that you have to have permanent residency before applying for citizenship. Extrapolating from that, I would think that if Chelsea qualified for residency, he would quality for citizenship depending, of course, on what ever additional requirements there may be. Investment & job may be required, but I would guess not based on the residency requirements.

FEES: Given the permanent resident application fee (see below), I would expect the citizenship fee would be more than 8,000 baht.

BUT WHAT DO I KNOW?

Here are quotes from the immigration web site about permanent residency which may be completely off subject. If so, moderators and others' comments will be welcomed additions to my limited knowledge. There are other requirements, of course, like length of marriage, police checks, etc.

Categories of application

1. Investment

2. Employment

3. Humanitarian reasons as follows:

3.1 Spouse:To provide patronage or to be under patronage of a Thai national spouse,

3.2 Child: To provide patronage or to be under patronage of a Thai national father or mother,

3.3 Father or mother: To provide patronage or to be under patronage of the applicants Thai national child,

3.4 Spouse: To provide patronage or to be under patronage of the applicants spouse who was granted with residential permit,

3.5 Child: To provide patronage or to be under patronage of the applicants father or mother who was granted with residential permit,

3.6 Father or mother: To provide patronage or to be under patronage of the applicants child who was granted with residential permit.

4. Expert,

5. Extra circumstances on a case by case basis

Foreign national applicant must hold a passport that bears a Non-Immigrant Visa and was granted with one-year visa extensions which reveal that up until the date of application submission, the applicant have been staying in the Kingdom for at least 3 consecutive years.

Residence certificate (TM. 16)

• For shared investment or special investment: 191,400.- Baht
• For employment or expert: 191,400.- Baht
• For foreigner married to Thai national: 95,700.- Baht
• For foreign head of family taking care of children of Thai nationality: 95,700.- Baht
• For spouse of foreign resident in the Kingdom: 95,700.- Baht
• For children of foreign resident in the Kingdom or of Thai nationals:
  • Underage: 95,700.- Baht
  • Adult: 191,400.- Baht
• For non-quota immigrants (original resident): 95,700.- Baht

Um, I know having applied for citizenship for my wife. The fee is as per the earlier posts. We paid a 5000 baht fee from memory a few years back as part of the application process.

As others have said, you can skip PR if married. But the long and short of it is, you need to have been working for the proceeding 3 years to be eligible to apply in the case if a foreign male married to a Thai female.

In our case, being the other way around, the income thresholds were lower (and based on my income, not my foreign national wife) and we had children which also allowed an earlier application after one year of marriage. I also had to be clear of any military obligation as well. As others have said though, being married does allow you to skip PR, and the fees there.

I was interested in a number of the comments saying you can skip PR for Citizernship ... what are the implications for keeping ones exisiting nationality - so getting dual nationality in effect ?

The below links are ones that have some information - all started from TVF of course ;-)

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

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/121353-story-of-my-thai-citizenship-application/page-29#entry6219312

http://immigration.go.th/nov2004/doc/residence/quota_detail_en.pdf

I have been working for nearly two years on a work permit - just changed job but no break in the visa or work permit so I am hoping thats not going to cause any issues. My thought was to go for PR next year. But now this thread has got me thinking if thats the right strategy ?

[ubonjoe]

The info on the is page is incorrect they are using outdated info. The latest amendment fo the nationality act is 2012. http://www.multiplec...s_THAILAND.html

It is not from from this forum.

[Arkady]

The expensive and hard part is getting permanent residency. If you get that and have it for 5 years, citizenship is relatively easy.

The problem is that they do not give it to retired people. They want you to be working and paying taxes in order to get the citizenship.

My lawyer advised me against even trying to get Thai citizenship because of my current status holding a retirement visa.

You cannot get PR or citizenship unless working. Much less on retirement extensions,

There is a clause in the ministerial regulations for PR that says you can get it if retired but they will not even accept your application. There is one also for being married to a Thai that allows for wife's or a combined income of 30k but they will not accept those on that basis either.

For PR there is a humanitarian category for those with Thai family dependents or who are dependent on Thai family members. The problem is that the list of documents required includes work permit, tax receipts etc, making it clear they are not interested in applications from those who are unable to support themselves through employment in Thailand. The bottom line seems to be that having Thai family could allow you to apply with a lower income level but you must still have a job and at least 3 years' Thai salary tax receipts. On the other hand they might reject applicants with low salaries on the grounds of suitability. PR now seems to be taking 5-6 years for those without impressive connections (ministerial or higher level). But that could change any time. In the 90s Immigration guaranteed an answer within 12 months and they still seem to work efficiently to process applications. The Interior Ministry is the blockage.

[Arkady]

To answer the OP's query. Sorry that you are not qualified but for those that are: under the 1965 Nationality Act, as amended by the 2008 Act, the fees for naturalisation are a maximum of B10,000 plus B1,000 for your naturalisation certificate. However, as far as I know, the maximum fee is not yet being charged. I believe they are still charging an application fee (non-refundable) of B5,000 but a ministerial regulation could be issued at any time to increase this to B10,000.

If married to a Thai for 3 years (or 1 with a child together) you can apply without PR, if you have an income of B40,000 (B80,000 for those without Thai wives) from employment in Thailand and you need 3 years of salaries tax receipts. You also need to have a yellow tabien baan and receipts from donations to registered Thai charities. Applications from those with salaries at the lower end of the scale are being processed for citizenship. There is one major difference with PR though. For citizenship you must continue in employment and earning at least B40k a month throughout the process to remain qualified under the Act and they may re-check your data at some point. You will certainly have to show you work permit a couple of times during the process. If you are no longer in employment or your income has fallen below B40k, your application could be cancelled. In the case of PR it is just the snapshot at the time of application that counts. There is no problem with applicants who retired at some point during the lengthy process.

See http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/121353-story-of-my-thai-citizenship-application/ for more complete information on applying for citizenship.