Camerata's Guide To The Permanent Residence Process

[saakura]

I am a busy executive myself. The lawyer can't take any time off your schedule, as all they can do is tell you which documents are needed, and it is you who has to provide them.

A lawyer offered me a fee of THB 40,000 for PR appplication, and another THB 60,000 in case of success. Or was it the other way around, I don't remember. If you want to part with THB 100,000, please let me know and I'll be your consultant - rather than a lawyer who is not approved to the Thai Board anyway.,

This tells me a couple of things most importantly you were dealing with the wrong legal firm.No reputable lawyer would charge a success fee for helping with PR.A first class lawyer would not take the case on unless convinced all criteria were met.(Obviously this is in reference to the years before the current hiatus with the Ministry of the Interior).I have already made it clear that using the right lawyer is not a cheap business.Using a good lawyer in any circumstances is not a cheap business.

I have also made it clear that it is perfectly possible to process the PR application oneself.I know people who have successfully done this.I think it is also true that using a lawyer or not using a lawyer makes no difference to the Department of Immigration.I don't think Immigration are impressed or unimpressed by an applicant having a lawyer in tow.(In practice this is hardly ever the lawyer himself but a legal assistant type.)

Where you are wrong is that a lawyer cannot take time off your schedule.A friend of mine who successfully applied for PR told me that the legal firm responsible liaised with his secretarial staff.The amount of paper work and follow up and minor problems should not be underestimated.He saved a huge amount of time and was prepared to pay for it.Call it the business class approach if you like.It's more expensive than travelling cattle class and doesn't really offer that much extra but it gets you to your destination in comfort at some significant extra cost.

The lawyer would not have saved me any time. That's my point. I do fly business class on long-haul flights, because I see a difference. If there is no difference, why would I pay more money?

If course, this applies to my situation, as well as the people I know who have applied. The situation of your friends may be different.

I too used a lawyer for a fee of 100K Baht to file my PR application in 2009. Only work from my side was to provide pictures in the work place and home. Since it was an in-house lawyer, he liased with the HR, accounts, and also with Revenue dept etc to collect and (ultimately) submit a voulmnous application. Tombkk is right. If you are determined to put in a moderate amount of hard work and time, it can be easily done without a lawyer if you are familiar with written and spoken thai. During the height of red shirt riots (19 May 2010?) when most city (govt & private offices) were shut down, i was called for an interview in Chaengwattana. About 50 applicants (mainly Chinese, Westerners and Asians, in that order) attended that day. But no progress since then.......

[jayboy]

Tombkk is right. If you are determined to put in a moderate amount of hard work and time, it can be easily done without a lawyer if you are familiar with written and spoken thai.

But what Tombkk actually said was:

"The lawyer can't take any time off your schedule, as all they can do is tell you which documents are needed, and it is you who has to provide them."

You are saying the opposite, that a lawyer can save you hard work and time.

Anyway we are all I think saying that it is perfectly possible to do it oneself.

[Tagaa]

. The setting of annual quotas is a formality required under the Immigration Act. In practice the minister has always set the quota at the maximum permitted by law which is 100 for each nationality and 50 for stateless persons.

Can Arkady or anyone one else comment on what is a stateless person, as mentioned above?

[lopburi3]

Hill and sea tribe peoples for the most part I would suspect. Thailand has many such people.

[jonas750]

Thanks for infos!

[Arkady]

. The setting of annual quotas is a formality required under the Immigration Act. In practice the minister has always set the quota at the maximum permitted by law which is 100 for each nationality and 50 for stateless persons.

Can Arkady or anyone one else comment on what is a stateless person, as mentioned above?

The Immigration Act doesn't define what is meant by a stateless person in respect of PR quotas. So technically it could be anyone permitted to reside temporarily in Thailand who doesn't have a nationality and this could include some one who has lost their nationality for some reason. The largest group of stateless persons in Thailand are of course hill tribe people. However, I am not sure to what extent it has been possible for them to use this quota to apply for PR. A quota of 50 a year compared to the 250,000 or so stateless persons in Thailand implies that this has never been intended as the main route for them to formalize their status. Perhaps it was intended to reward those who had pleased the government in some way.

Through various cabinet resolutions and ultimately the 2008 Nationality Act, the main thrust in formalizing the status of stateless persons in past two decades has been granting them Thai citizenship, even though this remains a slow and difficult process. Under the 2008 Nationality Act those who can prove birth in Thailand to alien or non PR parents up until 1992 are now eligible for Thai citizenship, although this is still subject to other criteria, such as living most of their lives in Thailand, and approval remains up to the discretion of the Interior Minister without judicial review or right of appeal. There have been several block citizenship approvals of a few hundred at a time to stateless persons on a province by province basis over the last 10 years but the process remains painfully slow even after the 2008 Act consolidated and clarified matters.

Before 1971 anyone born in Thailand, even to illegal immigrant parents, was Thai. In December 1971 the Nationality Act was amended by revolutionary decree to strip Thai nationality retroactively from anyone born in Thailand without either a Thai father or both parents having PR (or a Thai mother and a PR father). While most of the Chinese immigrants' children born in Thailand were able to retain Thai citizenship because their parents had Thai PR, most of the hill tribe immigrants' children born in Thailand were no longer eligible for Thai nationality because their parents had come to Thailand without any citizenship documents and therefore were unable to obtain PR even before the quota system was introduced. Many others never got Thai citizenship just because they were not at home when the Interior Ministry staff visited their villages to perform the first census in the 50s and found themselves permanently excluded.

[Siamfan]

Hi Guys!

NEWS!!!

Phuket Gazette:

Phuket Opinion: Policy on Thai residency should not be secret

Pol Capt Purachai Piemsomboon. Gazette file photo

PHUKET: It's time for the Ministry of Interior (MoI) to set up a special task force to begin fast-tracking the processing of the huge backlog of permanent residency (PR) applications it is now sitting on in silence.

Such a move would have multiple benefits for all parties involved, including, especially, foreign investors (potential and extant) and Thailand’s all-important tourism industry.

For reasons that have apprently never been divulged by the MoI, the stacks of stale PR applications, submitted in good faith and at great expense by law-abiding, long resident "visitors" to Thailand, continue to gather dust at the ministry.

The farce has aged to the extent that any foreigner who technically qualifies for permanent residency status under the Immigration Act would certainly be put off from applying at all, given that the current plethora of applications dates back to at least 2006.

The breakdown in processing these applications reportedly stems from a xenophobic decision put in place almost a decade ago by 'social order' activiist Purachai Piemsomboon, Interior Minister (and foe of Phuket's night entertainment industry) under former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Phuket Gazette readers will know that Police Captain Purachai agreed last week to lead the Pracha Santi Party into the upcoming general elections, and that pollsters see him as a credible contender for the nation's premiership.

Thailand’s current requirements for foreigners to obtain permanent residency are among the most restrictive in the world, at least for male applicants seeking that status on the basis of marriage to a Thai and support of a Thai family.

Current regulations make it far easier for the foreign spouse of a Thai man to obtain residency, a fact which is inherently sexist and completely at odds with the spirit of Thailand's current constitution.

At its heart, qualification for residency status requires male applicants to prove beyond any doubt that their presence in the Kingdom is advantageous to the country. Applicants are also required to prove that they have been in the country for a minimum of three years on consecutively-issued, one-year permits-to-stay, and have paid all of their taxes.

Another stringent requirement put in place during Pol Capt Purachai’s tenure requires male applicants to pass a Thai-language test. Few other countries, with the notable exception of the United Kingdom, impose similar requirements on visa and/or residency applicants – with good reason.

Even the United States puts the primacy of the family unit over language concerns.

Permanent residency applicants, many of them from Phuket, represent the best and brightest of Thailand’s expatriate community. Simply ignoring their applications, submitted in good faith over the past five years, is unacceptable.

If the Government wants to do away with this avenue for immigration, it should amend the Immigration Act to reflect this fact; announce the amendment widely; and stop wasting everybody’s time.

-- Phuket Gazette 2011-03-27

[howzat]

Just the courtesy of an announcement would be nice as government has money from applicants unless of course application fees already gone away under table and another government employee becomes billionaire without ever doing a real days work.

[Mario2008]

Just the courtesy of an announcement would be nice as government has money from applicants unless of course application fees already gone away under table and another government employee becomes billionaire without ever doing a real days work.

Permanent residency is done completely above the table. The fee is clear and official receipts are being issued.

[Arkady]

Just the courtesy of an announcement would be nice as government has money from applicants unless of course application fees already gone away under table and another government employee becomes billionaire without ever doing a real days work.

Permanent residency is done completely above the table. The fee is clear and official receipts are being issued.

Perhaps the fact that the process was largely free of graft for the last couple of decades it operated is the reason why it has been allowed to grind to a halt. It is not worth any one's while to make an effort to free up the log jam that has now spanned the tenures of half a dozen different Interior Ministers without any official explanation.

Compare with processes that are potentially far more hazardous to the Thai public than issuing residencies but are not free from corruption, for example, issuing gun licences. Various powerful politicians, including Sanan and Thaksin have tried to quash completely or severely restrict the rights of Thai citizens to own guns. These ideas are always fiercely resisted by the police, which on the surface seems strange as one would think they would prefer to be only people in town packing legal guns. However, the police central licensing department and provincial police forces openly make a substantial under the table income from the issue of gun licences. Applications from parsimonious ordinary citizens lacking in generosity towards the police and without big shot connections languish in a bottom drawer for a few years before being rejected on some technicality.

The society is so corrupt that graft in dealings with the government is often essential to oil the wheels and keep things moving. Things would be very different for PR applications, if every applicant had to hand over a brown envelope containing B500k to be shared along the Immigration and Ministry of the Interior food chain. There would have been plenty of senior bureaucrats willing to go into bat on behalf of foreign residents at the first hint of a moratorium.

[THAIJAMES]

Just the courtesy of an announcement would be nice as government has money from applicants unless of course application fees already gone away under table and another government employee becomes billionaire without ever doing a real days work.

Permanent residency is done completely above the table. The fee is clear and official receipts are being issued.

Perhaps the fact that the process was largely free of graft for the last couple of decades it operated is the reason why it has been allowed to grind to a halt. It is not worth any one's while to make an effort to free up the log jam that has now spanned the tenures of half a dozen different Interior Ministers without any official explanation.

Compare with processes that are potentially far more hazardous to the Thai public than issuing residencies but are not free from corruption, for example, issuing gun licences. Various powerful politicians, including Sanan and Thaksin have tried to quash completely or severely restrict the rights of Thai citizens to own guns. These ideas are always fiercely resisted by the police, which on the surface seems strange as one would think they would prefer to be only people in town packing legal guns. However, the police central licensing department and provincial police forces openly make a substantial under the table income from the issue of gun licences. Applications from parsimonious ordinary citizens lacking in generosity towards the police and without big shot connections languish in a bottom drawer for a few years before being rejected on some technicality.

The society is so corrupt that graft in dealings with the government is often essential to oil the wheels and keep things moving. Things would be very different for PR applications, if every applicant had to hand over a brown envelope containing B500k to be shared along the Immigration and Ministry of the Interior food chain. There would have been plenty of senior bureaucrats willing to go into bat on behalf of foreign residents at the first hint of a moratorium.

I agree with your assessment. Unlike in other countries where the issue of accountability is enough to ensure action. There is no incentive for officials involved to go forward with the PR process. As a result, any group of persons for example existing elite can put pressure to stop the process.

This is only likely to change when the economic situation changes and Thailand desperately needs to attract foreign investors, which is not the case now.

[Arkady]

ThaiJames, Thailand is like disdainful, beautiful woman that can never foresee a day that she will not be so attractive to suitors any more. It views itself as so attractive and unrivalled that it can always attract foreign investors and tourists, however badly it treats them. I don't think they would be capable of seeing a connection between investment and residence readily attainable for skilled expat workers in the way that, say, Singapore does. Keeping the protectionist Foreign Business Act which now leaves them uncompetitive compared with China, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam reflects a far more deranged attitude to foreign investors than the unexplained trashing of PR applications. If they start to suffer from a shortfall in FDI the response will almost certainly be a series of costly but ineffectual round the world roadshows for large groups of dreary, self important bureaucrats and their families travelling first class on Thai Airways. The only beneficiaries would be Harrods, Tiffany, Louis Vuitton and other luxury stores along the way. One day Burma will awaken from its deep sleep and eat their lunch.

[THAIJAMES]

ThaiJames, Thailand is like disdainful, beautiful woman that can never foresee a day that she will not be so attractive to suitors any more. It views itself as so attractive and unrivalled that it can always attract foreign investors and tourists, however badly it treats them. I don't think they would be capable of seeing a connection between investment and residence readily attainable for skilled expat workers in the way that, say, Singapore does. Keeping the protectionist Foreign Business Act which now leaves them uncompetitive compared with China, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam reflects a far more deranged attitude to foreign investors than the unexplained trashing of PR applications. If they start to suffer from a shortfall in FDI the response will almost certainly be a series of costly but ineffectual round the world roadshows for large groups of dreary, self important bureaucrats and their families travelling first class on Thai Airways. The only beneficiaries would be Harrods, Tiffany, Louis Vuitton and other luxury stores along the way. One day Burma will awaken from its deep sleep and eat their lunch.

Sounds like my girlfriend.

[Siamfan]

Was at the immigration Bkk today, received my 6 months stamp immediately without any probles, staff very very friendly, but no news. Is there really nothing we can do? Does anybody know somebody who can bring some light in the situation? I am ready to pay some money to get a clear answer whats gong on witht the permanent residency since 2006....

Maybe we join and file a complaint to the royal family? Anybody who wants to join ???? PLEASE???

[tombkk]

Was at the immigration Bkk today, received my 6 months stamp immediately without any probles, staff very very friendly, but no news. Is there really nothing we can do? Does anybody know somebody who can bring some light in the situation? I am ready to pay some money to get a clear answer whats gong on witht the permanent residency since 2006....

Maybe we join and file a complaint to the royal family? Anybody who wants to join ???? PLEASE???

Although I know otherwise, you don't sound like someone who has been here long... Bad hair day?

Here is your clear answer: Your application is being processed.

[Haddo]

Was at the immigration Bkk today, received my 6 months stamp immediately without any probles, staff very very friendly, but no news. Is there really nothing we can do? Does anybody know somebody who can bring some light in the situation? I am ready to pay some money to get a clear answer whats gong on witht the permanent residency since 2006....

Maybe we join and file a complaint to the royal family? Anybody who wants to join ???? PLEASE???

Although I know otherwise, you don't sound like someone who has been here long... Bad hair day?

Here is your clear answer: Your application is being processed.

Hi Tombkk

I am in the same situation, having applied in 2006.

I just had an update from my father in law, who is well connected, having worked for the current speaker of the house, and he also knows a number of people inside the immigration dept. at high levels.

His advice is to wait for a change of government, so that there will be a change of Interior Minister, where this current deadlock all stems from. (and more specifically, secretary to the Int. Minister, Saksiam Chidchop - brother of Naywin)

[Arkady]

Was at the immigration Bkk today, received my 6 months stamp immediately without any probles, staff very very friendly, but no news. Is there really nothing we can do? Does anybody know somebody who can bring some light in the situation? I am ready to pay some money to get a clear answer whats gong on witht the permanent residency since 2006....

Maybe we join and file a complaint to the royal family? Anybody who wants to join ???? PLEASE???

Although I know otherwise, you don't sound like someone who has been here long... Bad hair day?

Here is your clear answer: Your application is being processed.

Hi Tombkk

I am in the same situation, having applied in 2006.

I just had an update from my father in law, who is well connected, having worked for the current speaker of the house, and he also knows a number of people inside the immigration dept. at high levels.

His advice is to wait for a change of government, so that there will be a change of Interior Minister, where this current deadlock all stems from. (and more specifically, secretary to the Int. Minister, Saksiam Chidchop - brother of Naywin)

It's your call but I am not sure a petition to the royal family would be appropriate, if you haven't tried to petition the government yet. This relates to the government's routine bureaucratic work and can easily be fixed by the government. I would rather suggest following Zoowatch's advice in his thread about PR and citizenship and send questions to the prime minister via his website (best in Thai since it is a Thai website). It's rather close to the elections to expect much but he might just get to be PM again. If not, hopefully the next PM will have a website that you also post questions on. Another avenue that might be worth investigating would be to file a complaint or query through the administrative court. The court has previously ruled that the Interior Minister was justified in rejecting a PR application based on his discretion but I don't believe it has ever been asked to rule on what is a reasonable amount of time for the minister to spend considering applications.

Perhaps you are right about the current cause of the logjam. However, there seem to have been similar blockages in the three previous administrations at the Interior Ministry. It is unclear why the PR process has been virtually blocked while the citizenship route, which one would think would be far more jealously guarded and is totally controlled by the Interior Ministry, remains open as of 2010, albeit painfully slow. New Interior Ministers have a nasty habit of sending all PR and citizenship applications back to Immigration and Special Branch for re-checking of qualifications and criminal records etc. This serves as a delaying tactic to stall an unremunerative, boring task for busy men in a hurry to refill war chests and also sends out a nuance that the previous incumbent was obviously corrupt and therefore everything pending approval should automatically be regarded as tainted and suspicious.

[SAMCHAROEN]

Was at the immigration Bkk today, received my 6 months stamp immediately without any probles, staff very very friendly, but no news. Is there really nothing we can do? Does anybody know somebody who can bring some light in the situation? I am ready to pay some money to get a clear answer whats gong on witht the permanent residency since 2006....

Maybe we join and file a complaint to the royal family? Anybody who wants to join ???? PLEASE???

Although I know otherwise, you don't sound like someone who has been here long... Bad hair day?

Here is your clear answer: Your application is being processed.

Hi Tombkk

I am in the same situation, having applied in 2006.

I just had an update from my father in law, who is well connected, having worked for the current speaker of the house, and he also knows a number of people inside the immigration dept. at high levels.

His advice is to wait for a change of government, so that there will be a change of Interior Minister, where this current deadlock all stems from. (and more specifically, secretary to the Int. Minister, Saksiam Chidchop - brother of Naywin)

It's your call but I am not sure a petition to the royal family would be appropriate, if you haven't tried to petition the government yet. This relates to the government's routine bureaucratic work and can easily be fixed by the government. I would rather suggest following Zoowatch's advice in his thread about PR and citizenship and send questions to the prime minister via his website (best in Thai since it is a Thai website). It's rather close to the elections to expect much but he might just get to be PM again. If not, hopefully the next PM will have a website that you also post questions on. Another avenue that might be worth investigating would be to file a complaint or query through the administrative court. The court has previously ruled that the Interior Minister was justified in rejecting a PR application based on his discretion but I don't believe it has ever been asked to rule on what is a reasonable amount of time for the minister to spend considering applications.

Perhaps you are right about the current cause of the logjam. However, there seem to have been similar blockages in the three previous administrations at the Interior Ministry. It is unclear why the PR process has been virtually blocked while the citizenship route, which one would think would be far more jealously guarded and is totally controlled by the Interior Ministry, remains open as of 2010, albeit painfully slow. New Interior Ministers have a nasty habit of sending all PR and citizenship applications back to Immigration and Special Branch for re-checking of qualifications and criminal records etc. This serves as a delaying tactic to stall an unremunerative, boring task for busy men in a hurry to refill war chests and also sends out a nuance that the previous incumbent was obviously corrupt and therefore everything pending approval should automatically be regarded as tainted and suspicious.

I don't understand what politics has to do with granting or withholding the PR. The PR applicants are in no way associated with any political party. There is no political gain to be had by withholding the PR for so many years.

In fact, the party in charge of the MOI may be seen as not doing their job.

What the persons responsible for the PR under estimate is that having more people with PR in the country adds to the inteligencia of the population in addition to other benefits. Expats come and go, but a PR is here for the long term.

The more they delay, the more the expats who otherwise might have committed themselves to Thailand for the long term get put off. As time goes by, it becomes widely known to the rest of the world that Thailand is no longer granting PRs. Soon Thailand might be regarded as a country which is out of step with the rest of the world in its policy towards immigration. In short, by not granting PRs, they are doing more harm than good.

They must take a close look at Canada, Singapore, Australia and how these countries have benefited by having a large number of permanent residents in addition to a large and growing expat population.

As regards to the comment that the current minister may want to send out a message that the previous admin's approval was tainted, I beg to disagree. If this had been the case, it would have already been done. Since 2006 the MOI has seen a number of ministers come and go; and although none of the PRs have actually been granted, I don't recall hearing about any having been rejected at a later date either.

[skyaslimit]

I totally agree with Samcharoen and the matter of fact is that there will be no decisions regarding PR's until the new elections and till the new Interior Minister is installed, so all of my class fellows of class 2006 may keep their patience for may be another year or so.

[Arkady]

As regards to the comment that the current minister may want to send out a message that the previous admin's approval was tainted, I beg to disagree. If this had been the case, it would have already been done. Since 2006 the MOI has seen a number of ministers come and go; and although none of the PRs have actually been granted, I don't recall hearing about any having been rejected at a later date either.

How do you know this is not the reason why most of the applications have not been approved? They don't need to be officially rejected. Just shelving them would be enough. Anyway some have been approved. I know one personally who applied in 2007.

Purachai is the man who started this game. Let's hope he doesn't make it back to the Interior Ministry after the elections or everyone can kiss goodbye to any hope of PR or citizenship, even though he's happy with his New Zealand PR and landed property there bought on his Mr Clean civil servant's salary.

[SAMCHAROEN]

As regards to the comment that the current minister may want to send out a message that the previous admin's approval was tainted, I beg to disagree. If this had been the case, it would have already been done. Since 2006 the MOI has seen a number of ministers come and go; and although none of the PRs have actually been granted, I don't recall hearing about any having been rejected at a later date either.

How do you know this is not the reason why most of the applications have not been approved? They don't need to be officially rejected. Just shelving them would be enough. Anyway some have been approved. I know one personally who applied in 2007.

Purachai is the man who started this game. Let's hope he doesn't make it back to the Interior Ministry after the elections or everyone can kiss goodbye to any hope of PR or citizenship, even though he's happy with his New Zealand PR and landed property there bought on his Mr Clean civil servant's salary.

At this point any theory as to why PRs are not being handed out is just a speculation.

Mr. Purachai is not a civil servant any more. Until recently he was a member of the Board of directors of a company listed on the SET. So I would'nt be surprised if he has the money to buy landed property in NZ.

[himachal]

Hi

Hoping for a bit of clarification regarding the current state of play for PR applications, please. (Forgive me if the answers I'm looking for are somewhere in this thread and I've been too lazy to go and find them).

First; because of the processing backlog, are applications no longer being accepted, or can I apply at the end of the year?

Second; would I be better off applying at my local one-horse immig. office in Pathum Thani or should I go to Chaeng Wattana?

Third; if my application is accepted, I have to cough up a serious sum of money.... but how much? have heard different figures.

If someoner can help to answer these questions, I'd be most grateful.

Best of luck to all those waiting.

H

[THAIJAMES]

Hi

Hoping for a bit of clarification regarding the current state of play for PR applications, please. (Forgive me if the answers I'm looking for are somewhere in this thread and I've been too lazy to go and find them).

First; because of the processing backlog, are applications no longer being accepted, or can I apply at the end of the year?

Second; would I be better off applying at my local one-horse immig. office in Pathum Thani or should I go to Chaeng Wattana?

Third; if my application is accepted, I have to cough up a serious sum of money.... but how much? have heard different figures.

If someoner can help to answer these questions, I'd be most grateful.

Best of luck to all those waiting.

H

At this time they are no longer accepting applications. The situation might change towards the end of this year if the Interior ministry give immigration a quota of persons allowed to apply. They did not last year and this is the reason for no new applications.

The only reason to go to Bangkok for your application is if you have difficult or special circumstances. The cost I am also too lazy to look up but it is around 110K for Married applicants and about 220K for single or those that do not include their spouse as part of the application.

Having said this, you best bet is always to go to the local office and start the process anyways.

[GabbaGabbaHey]

No quota for 2011 -unless this is changed-, does it mean no permit can be signed this year from the existing 2006-2009 backlog?

What is your view on this?

[brianinbangkok]

I have a PR and have just been moved to the tabien baan of my relatives in Sisaket.

Can I still go to the PR department on Changwatanna rd for a new re-entry permits or can I now only do this in Sisaket now ?

In an earlier post I asked what would happen if I was not on a tabien baan for a few months and promised to update here on what happened.

The new owner of the house did keep his promise and did not have me removed so it was never a problem as we just transfered me this week.

[Mario2008]

No quota for 2011 -unless this is changed-, does it mean no permit can be signed this year from the existing 2006-2009 backlog?

What is your view on this?

It means you could not apply for PR. For people who have already applied it doesn't matter.

[Arkady]

No quota for 2011 -unless this is changed-, does it mean no permit can be signed this year from the existing 2006-2009 backlog?

What is your view on this?

There was definitely no quota announced in 2010 but it is too early to say there will be no quota for 2011. The quota has traditionally been announced towards the end of the year and we have no idea who will be interior minister by then. Possibly the new minister will decide that his top priority will be clearing up the mess and uncertainty of PR applications and will suddenly clear the 2006-09 backlog as well as announce a quota for 2011 - he he.

For those who are new to this topic the annual quota is a legal formality required by the Immigration Act. The quota is always set at 100 per nationality and 50 stateless persons, the maximum permitted by the Act, but the announcement in the Royal Gazette is required for Immigration to open for applications.

[SAMCHAROEN]

I hope there will be some closure for all those of us who have been waiting and waiting once we have a new minister (or maybe the same) after elections.

[brianinbangkok]

I have a PR and have just been moved to the tabien baan of my relatives in Sisaket.

Can I still go to the PR department on Changwatanna rd for a new re-entry permits or can I now only do this in Sisaket now ?

In an earlier post I asked what would happen if I was not on a tabien baan for a few months and promised to update here on what happened.

The new owner of the house did keep his promise and did not have me removed so it was never a problem as we just transfered me this week.

Went to Chaeng Wattana Immigration and got the re-entry permit and endorsment done, , so to answer my own question above, it's not a problem to get it done there.

Just in case a fellow user here wants to search the forum for my question above

[Arkady]

I hope there will be some closure for all those of us who have been waiting and waiting once we have a new minister (or maybe the same) after elections.

Let's hope the new minister isn't Purachai.