Can foreigners become Thai citizens?

[DaRoadrunner]

Can foreigners become Thai citizens?

Years ago I met an Indian lady who had become a Thai citizen. At the time I never thought to ask her how she acquired this. (No, she had not married a Thai).

Can anyone on TV shed light on this?

 

[jackdd]

 

[RobMuir]

Yes you can.

unfortunately you must be employed here as one of the conditions.

So I wouldn’t bother.

[user343434]

Just to add, if you are getting your Thai passport after a long process you are not permitted to keep your old passport.

I know some have it still but officially you are not allowed. (at least for Germans it counts)

That means you will have to apply every time you want to visit your home country or working abroad for a Visa.

 

Worth it? 

 

[DaRoadrunner]

10 minutes ago, See Will said:

Just to add, if you are getting your Thai passport after a long process you are not permitted to keep your old passport.

I know some have it still but officially you are not allowed. (at least for Germans it counts)

That means you will have to apply every time you want to visit your home country or working abroad for a Visa.

 

Worth it? 

 

I don't know what the Thai position is on this? But the UK passport states that you may hold other nationalities.

[Tayaout]

Germany also but only if it's from birth. 

 

Edit: I looked into getting German citizenship and it was possible to keep my current dual citizenship. 1 from my mother and another because of where I am born. However, I think you need to surrender your German citizenship if you apply for a new one like if you become Thai without being Thai from birth. 

Edited April 15, 2019 by Tayaout

[DaRoadrunner]

45 minutes ago, jackdd said:

 

Thanks for your post and incredible story. So it took over 4 years!

 

Is a Residents Permit required first?

 

Can't help thinking a lawyer and a brown envelope would have saved a lot of trouble.

[jackdd]

5 minutes ago, DaRoadrunner said:

Thanks for your post and incredible story. So it took over 4 years!

 

Is a Residents Permit required first? 

 

Can't help thinking a lawyer and a brown envelope would have saved a lot of trouble.

This thread is from 2007 and 300 pages long, so things might have changed since then, but i don't know further details.

Probably it makes sense to start reading somewhere on the last pages and not on the first.

[JackThompson]

14 hours ago, DaRoadrunner said:

Thanks for your post and incredible story. So it took over 4 years!

 

Is a Residents Permit required first?

"Permanent Residence" is not required first.

 

14 hours ago, DaRoadrunner said:

Can't help thinking a lawyer and a brown envelope would have saved a lot of trouble.

Maybe with some steps - but this is not like dealing with immigration for a mere 1-year permitted-stay.

[scorecard]

16 hours ago, See Will said:

Just to add, if you are getting your Thai passport after a long process you are not permitted to keep your old passport.

I know some have it still but officially you are not allowed. (at least for Germans it counts)

That means you will have to apply every time you want to visit your home country or working abroad for a Visa.

 

Worth it? 

 

Australians can keep their OZ passport.

 

16 hours ago, RobMuir said:

Yes you can.

unfortunately you must be employed here as one of the conditions.

So I wouldn’t bother.

 

Another point - just to be very clear, there is a common misconception / misunderstanding that the main qualifying factor for both PR and Thai citizenship is to have been in Thailand on any visa (any visa) for 10 years then you can apply for both PR and citizenship. This is not true at all, there's no avenue anything like this. 

 

As RobMuir mentioned:

• " Yes you can.

• unfortunately you must be employed here as one of the conditions.
• So I wouldn’t bother."

In other words working with a Thai work permit, and for both categories (PR and Citizenship) it's not meaning hold a WP for six months or say 1 year, it's more. And must have a valid WP at the time of applying (not some time in the past).

 

Plus the applicant must have documentary proof that his/her annual personal Thai tax returns have been submitted and officially cleared for a number of years.

 

 

Edited April 16, 2019 by scorecard

[Dnyy]

15 hours ago, Tayaout said:

Germany also but only if it's from birth. 

 

Edit: I looked into getting German citizenship and it was possible to keep my current dual citizenship. 1 from my mother and another because of where I am born. However, I think you need to surrender your German citizenship if you apply for a new one like if you become Thai without being Thai from birth. 

You can keep your German citizenship if you have a 'Beibehaltungsgenehmigung der deutschen Staatsangehörigkeit' which has to be applied for BEFORE you start the application process for another citizenship. If you have dual citizenship by birth it's no problem.

[Snow Leopard]

Not again.

[henry15]

My Chinese landlady and her Chinese husband from. Hong Kong got het Thai citizenship and ThaiD ID last month. She  had a PR  status before. 15  Years I thinkkl.She still have her UK passport .

[nightfox]

Even if you became a Thai citizen, Why on earth would any sane foreigner would even want a Thai Passport???........Am I missing something....You would need a Visa just to go back to your home country.

[ubonjoe]

5 minutes ago, nightfox said:

Even if you became a Thai citizen, Why on earth would any sane foreigner would even want a Thai Passport???........Am I missing something....You would need a Visa just to go back to your home country.

You might be surprised how many countries Thais can travel to without a visa.

You would still have your home country passport to travel to there unless you are from a country that does not allow dual nationalities.

[OJAS]

54 minutes ago, nightfox said:

Even if you became a Thai citizen, Why on earth would any sane foreigner would even want a Thai Passport???........Am I missing something....You would need a Visa just to go back to your home country.

And, in addition to the points which ubonjoe has made, said foreigners would then be able to demonstrate their sanity through kissing goodbye forever to 90-day reports, TM30 reports each time they stepped outside their front door, annual extensions of stay & related financial requirements, re-entry permits, border runs, etc, etc! ????

[ThomasThBKK]

2 hours ago, Dnyy said:

You can keep your German citizenship if you have a 'Beibehaltungsgenehmigung der deutschen Staatsangehörigkeit' which has to be applied for BEFORE you start the application process for another citizenship. If you have dual citizenship by birth it's no problem.

Yes, this. It basically an application where you ask them for allowance to get a second citizenship. From what i know that is almost always granted as long as you can proof you still have ties to germany like family living there, house, relatives etc.

 

 

 

 

[ThomasThBKK]

39 minutes ago, OJAS said:

And, in addition to the points which ubonjoe has made, said foreigners would then be able to demonstrate their sanity through kissing goodbye forever to 90-day reports, TM30 reports each time they stepped outside their front door, annual extensions of stay & related financial requirements, re-entry permits, border runs, etc, etc! ????

 

And they can do business here without issues, own land, easily get loans/credit cards etc.

[PerkinsCuthbert]

1 hour ago, ThomasThBKK said:

 

And they can do business here without issues, own land, easily get loans/credit cards etc.

I've considered these points over the years, but on balance I would say that, for the vast majority of Westerners, the difficulty, and disadvantages if relinquishing native citizenship if necessary, outweigh the advantages of acquiring Thai citizenship, and therefore I have never pursued the matter. Others may differ.

[John Sutherland]

19 hours ago, DaRoadrunner said:

I don't know what the Thai position is on this? But the UK passport states that you may hold other nationalities.

What happens is Thailand says you can only have 1 nationalities. So when you become Thai they take the UK passport from you. As the passport does not belong to them or you, It belongs to the UK they then hand you passport over to the UK Embassy. You then go to the embassy and collect you passport back from them. Off course you need to let the UK embassy know what you are doing in advance to get the passport back. If you don't they will assume that you have renounced UK citizenship and dispose of your passport. the Thai's will make you sign a document saying this, so you must contact your own embassy first.

[OzMan]

I have three citizenships - British by birth, then Canadian and then Australian. My children inherited my three citizenships plus NZ citizenship from their mother. Inherited all four citizenships because they were born in Sweden.

[2tall]

I maintain 3 passports (all different countries), one is Thai. Keeping all 3 is simple, no issues.

[GarryP]

4 hours ago, nightfox said:

Even if you became a Thai citizen, Why on earth would any sane foreigner would even want a Thai Passport???........Am I missing something....You would need a Visa just to go back to your home country.

I can buy land in my own name. No more visa and work permit extensions. I have been back to the UK twice since I gained Thai citizenship and not needed a visa. I think I am sane, but then I could be mistaken. 

[GarryP]

1 hour ago, John Sutherland said:

What happens is Thailand says you can only have 1 nationalities. So when you become Thai they take the UK passport from you. As the passport does not belong to them or you, It belongs to the UK they then hand you passport over to the UK Embassy. You then go to the embassy and collect you passport back from them. Off course you need to let the UK embassy know what you are doing in advance to get the passport back. If you don't they will assume that you have renounced UK citizenship and dispose of your passport. the Thai's will make you sign a document saying this, so you must contact your own embassy first.

Rubbish. 

[rimmae2]

5 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

You might be surprised how many countries Thais can travel to without a visa.

You would still have your home country passport to travel to there unless you are from a country that does not allow dual nationalities.

Correct - there are countries that my Thai wife can travel to without a visa, whereas I need a visa to travel to these countries. Fortunately I have 2 passports so not an issue.

 

Good to see Experts on citizenship commenting. People who I know who have it applied for it because they knew the benefits and wanted it for other reasons. I judged rightly or wrongly that it may take me too long to obtain it due to changes in government, so went for and obtained PR. I would like citizenship, but now it too late to apply. People should not knock it.

[ericthai]

2 hours ago, John Sutherland said:

What happens is Thailand says you can only have 1 nationalities. So when you become Thai they take the UK passport from you. As the passport does not belong to them or you, It belongs to the UK they then hand you passport over to the UK Embassy. You then go to the embassy and collect you passport back from them. Off course you need to let the UK embassy know what you are doing in advance to get the passport back. If you don't they will assume that you have renounced UK citizenship and dispose of your passport. the Thai's will make you sign a document saying this, so you must contact your own embassy first.

You have no idea what you are talking about.  My good friend just got thai citizenship this year. Still has his us passport, Thailand could care less about two passports.

[ericthai]

1 hour ago, rimmae2 said:

Correct - there are countries that my Thai wife can travel to without a visa, whereas I need a visa to travel to these countries. Fortunately I have 2 passports so not an issue.

 

Good to see Experts on citizenship commenting. People who I know who have it applied for it because they knew the benefits and wanted it for other reasons. I judged rightly or wrongly that it may take me too long to obtain it due to changes in government, so went for and obtained PR. I would like citizenship, but now it too late to apply. People should not knock it.

Why are you saying it's too late to apply?

[jackdd]

26 minutes ago, ericthai said:

Why are you saying it's too late to apply? 

Probably he is retired, and afaik you need to be working to get PR or citizenship.

[rimmae2]

10 minutes ago, jackdd said:

Probably he is retired, and afaik you need to be working to get PR or citizenship.

Noy yet retired....unfortunately. In my case, which I was referring to, it is mainly because of age and because I no longer work in Thailand. I would have met the points and other requirements for citizenship when I applied for PR, but thought that it would take longer and was not sure about my future employment situation. So 18 months approx to obtain PR from date of application and reasonable confidence that I would be successful. In longer period I was not sure if I would have 'meaningul' employment in Thailand, as stated above.

 

Everyone's situation and objectives are different.

[Stevemercer]

4 hours ago, GarryP said:

I can buy land in my own name. No more visa and work permit extensions. I have been back to the UK twice since I gained Thai citizenship and not needed a visa. I think I am sane, but then I could be mistaken. 

 

Just out of interest, do you have to vote in Thai elections?