requirement of stay for PR/Citizenship, how much time must be spent here?

[Smurkster]

I am about to start my second one year extension based on marriage. I have read that I need three extensions in order to apply for citizenship, because I am married I can forgo PR. I pay taxes in Thailand and have a work permit. my question is, as being only 28 years old I have been thinking about going back to my country for a few years, while coming to Thai for a visit once a year. If I get another extension before I go back to my country, and have that visa active and in my passport, does it matter how much time I spend here? I wouldn't think you could spend more than 6 months out of thailand without making the visa invalid, but Im not sure..

[Neeranam]

Length of stay is not worth many points but you must have lived here for 5 years before applying and show tax receipts for 3 years.

You get maximum points if you can show a 'house registration book'(yellow) for 20 years.

Points are awarded to applicants for

Age and education – 25 points

Occupation – 35 points

Length of stay - 10 points

Relationship with Thais and Thailand – 10 points

Thai language – 10 points

Personality – 10 points

Edited November 19, 2014 by ubonjoe
Changed to default font

[ubonjoe]

How would you work and maintain a work permit for the required 3 years to apply if you were out of the country.

For citizenship you also must continue working until it is granted.

[ubonjoe]

Length of stay is not worth many points but you must have lived here for 5 years before applying and show tax receipts for 3 years.

There is no 5 year requirement if you are married to a Thai.

It is 3 years or 1 year if you have a child.

[Smurkster]

I find it too good to be true that with a child you can apply for a passport in one year? so you just need a extension one time, show your tax statements and then you can apply for citizenship? if that is the case you would think more people here would have acquired Thai citizenship by that method because I know several who have been here for 3 years, are married, with a child and a job and have not taken advantage of this...if this is the case, if I were to have a kid soon, then I suppose I could be eligible? seems like pretty easy requirements..

[Neeranam]

Length of stay is not worth many points but you must have lived here for 5 years before applying and show tax receipts for 3 years.

There is no 5 year requirement if you are married to a Thai.

It is 3 years or 1 year if you have a child.

Do you mean for PR or citizenship - I am talking about citizenship.

Those are the criteria on my documents that I got 1 year ago.

[Neeranam]

I find it too good to be true that with a child you can apply for a passport in one year? so you just need a extension one time, show your tax statements and then you can apply for citizenship? if that is the case you would think more people here would have acquired Thai citizenship by that method because I know several who have been here for 3 years, are married, with a child and a job and have not taken advantage of this...if this is the case, if I were to have a kid soon, then I suppose I could be eligible? seems like pretty easy requirements..

he requirements are easy -don't believe anyone who says otherwise.

[ubonjoe]

Length of stay is not worth many points but you must have lived here for 5 years before applying and show tax receipts for 3 years.

There is no 5 year requirement if you are married to a Thai.

It is 3 years or 1 year if you have a child.

Do you mean for PR or citizenship - I am talking about citizenship.

Those are the criteria on my documents that I got 1 year ago.

The requirements in the nationality act are not real clear.

The 5 years is intended to be for those on PR. But like many other thing the bureaucrats can twist them around when they make up their requirements.

[Roda07]

How about if the foreigner is woman?.What is the step to get a permanent residence.

I'm a housewife taking care of my 1yr 6 months while my Thai husband is working..I'm currently on my 2nd yr spouse visa.I can speak bit of thai languange,but zero in reading and writing.

Thanks

[Smurkster]

How about if the foreigner is woman?.What is the step to get a permanent residence.

I'm a housewife taking care of my 1yr 6 months while my Thai husband is working..I'm currently on my 2nd yr spouse visa.I can speak bit of thai languange,but zero in reading and writing.

Thanks

I could be wrong on this one, but as far as I know, if you aren't paying taxes then you cannot qualify...maybe a female spouse has different requirements

[ubonjoe]

How about if the foreigner is woman?.What is the step to get a permanent residence.

I'm a housewife taking care of my 1yr 6 months while my Thai husband is working..I'm currently on my 2nd yr spouse visa.I can speak bit of thai languange,but zero in reading and writing.

Thanks

You have no income requirement nor the need to be working and having a work permit.

If I have seen reports that your husband must have an income of 15k baht.

You need to be on an extension. I understand they you need to be on them for 3 years.

There is no test for Thai or singing the anthem.

You fall under a different section of the nationality act than all the others.

[Roda07]

Thanks as always ubonjoe for the input.

So I need to wait for 3 yrs to apply for permanent residence

[Smurkster]

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Thanks as always ubonjoe for the input.

So I need to wait for 3 yrs to apply for permanent residence alt=wai.gif width=20 height=20> alt=clap2.gif>

I thought Ubonjoe cleared up that you must be working and paying taxes for any sort of Citizenship/PR...maybe I read wrong

[ubonjoe]

Thanks as always ubonjoe for the input.

So I need to wait for 3 yrs to apply for permanent residence

What I posted was for citizenship.

There is no special path for you to get permanent residency because citizenship is so easy for you to get.

[Smurkster]

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Thanks as always ubonjoe for the input.

So I need to wait for 3 yrs to apply for permanent residence alt=wai.gif width=20 height=20> alt=clap2.gif>

What I posted was for citizenship.

There is no special path for you to get permanent residency because citizenship is so easy for you to get.

when i first came here, I thought citizenship was next to impossible. Now I see in certain cases, it can actually be a WHOLE lot either than acquiring citizenship for say, UK, Australia, European countries and even the US

[Roda07]

Thank you for clarification @ ubonjoe

[Arkady]

I find it too good to be true that with a child you can apply for a passport in one year? so you just need a extension one time, show your tax statements and then you can apply for citizenship? if that is the case you would think more people here would have acquired Thai citizenship by that method because I know several who have been here for 3 years, are married, with a child and a job and have not taken advantage of this...if this is the case, if I were to have a kid soon, then I suppose I could be eligible? seems like pretty easy requirements..

The requirement to have been legally married to a Thai is reduced from 3 years to 1, if you have a child together but the requirements to have 3 calendar years of notarised tax receipts relating to salary from a job(s) in Thailand, 3 calendar years' of work permits and a letter of employment from a Thai company are not relaxed. Therefore the minimum requirement, if you are married to a Thai and have a child together, is 3 calendar years' legal employment and 1 year of marriage. So the relaxation for those with a kid only helps if you just got married after at least two years of working in Thailand. Nevertheless, I believe this is a help to people who just had a Thai ceremony or lived together and only got around to registering the marriage later.

For other requirements see

http://www.thaivisa.com/acquiring-thai-nationality.html

and

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

[Arkady]

Length of stay is not worth many points but you must have lived here for 5 years before applying and show tax receipts for 3 years.

You get maximum points if you can show a 'house registration book'(yellow) for 20 years.

Points are awarded to applicants for

Age and education – 25 points

Occupation – 35 points

Length of stay - 10 points

Relationship with Thais and Thailand – 10 points

Thai language – 10 points

Personality – 10 points

Your list is out of date and you get 20 points for Length of Stay for 10 years on a blue tabien baan, not 20 years on a yellow one. A revised points allocation was introduced in 2010 as below.

Points Allocation 2010 2 EN.doc

Security of Occupation was cut to 25 points; Length of Stay (holding PR) increased to 20 points; Relationship with Thais was eliminated; Thai Language was increased to 15 points including reading and writing; Personality was reduced to 5 points; a General Knowledge of Thailand test (multiple choice) was introduced for 10 points.

The idea was obviously to make it a bit harder to applicants to qualify if they don't have PR because the maximum points you can get for Length of Stay without PR is 5 points for 5 years' residence with a yellow tabien baan. Relationship with Thais was obviously abolished to remove 10 easy points for just having a Thai wife and kid. The points for Thai language were increase and General Knowledge of Thailand added obviously to compensate for the fact that under the 2008 amendments those with Thai wives also don't have to sing the royal and national anthems. Nevertheless, plenty of people have now qualified without PR but with a Thai wife.

[samran]

Length of stay is not worth many points but you must have lived here for 5 years before applying and show tax receipts for 3 years.

You get maximum points if you can show a 'house registration book'(yellow) for 20 years.

Points are awarded to applicants for

Age and education 25 points

Occupation 35 points

Length of stay - 10 points

Relationship with Thais and Thailand 10 points

Thai language 10 points

Personality 10 points

Your list is out of date and you get 20 points for Length of Stay for 10 years on a blue tabien baan, not 20 years on a yellow one. A revised points allocation was introduced in 2010 as below.

Points Allocation 2010 2 EN.doc

Security of Occupation was cut to 25 points; Length of Stay (holding PR) increased to 20 points; Relationship with Thais was eliminated; Thai Language was increased to 15 points including reading and writing; Personality was reduced to 5 points; a General Knowledge of Thailand test (multiple choice) was introduced for 10 points.

The idea was obviously to make it a bit harder to applicants to qualify if they don't have PR because the maximum points you can get for Length of Stay without PR is 5 points for 5 years' residence with a yellow tabien baan. Relationship with Thais was obviously abolished to remove 10 easy points for just having a Thai wife and kid. The points for Thai language were increase and General Knowledge of Thailand added obviously to compensate for the fact that under the 2008 amendments those with Thai wives also don't have to sing the royal and national anthems. Nevertheless, plenty of people have now qualified without PR but with a Thai wife.

There was a bit of debate about whether foreign makes married to a Thai wife has qualified via that route. I know you are one of the few who go through the approvals lists....so I'm guessing you've seen a few approvals under that category? It makes sense given the rule has been around since 2008 and I've had a friend who didn't have any problems applying this year...

[samran]

How about if the foreigner is woman?.What is the step to get a permanent residence.

I'm a housewife taking care of my 1yr 6 months while my Thai husband is working..I'm currently on my 2nd yr spouse visa.I can speak bit of thai languange,but zero in reading and writing.

Thanks

You are in the same position as my wife was. She applied under the married to a Thai husband route (ie me) and apart from an income requirement for your husband (it was 15k for me) you can apply after one year of marriage if you have a child.

You'll need to have a yellow house registration, and a few other docs such as your husbands conscription papers, his last tax return it is relatively straight forward to apply for in bangkok.

The main issue is the wait. We've been in the queue all up 4 years, having our final interview with the MOI committee this time last year. Just waiting for ministry approval.

So if you are thinking of getting Thai citizenship, you should start now as it will be a few years...

Edited November 19, 2014 by samran