Thai Marriage Laws

[Ian]

Aussie John - you've got it exactly right.
Oz has tightened up a lot on some of the scams - and opened its' doors further to those, such as genuine students, etc., of good character :
the sort of Thais who are a great credit to their own, and any other country. These sort of people are more than welcome in Oz - and as you point out
these good people are rewarded by being able to buy whatever they legally like with their money.
Farang in Thailand are effectively barred from owning almost anything.
I'm not exactly sure why Thailand does not extend the same generosity to us.
I certainly know it is self-defeating for Thailand.

[Ian]

Colin - I completely agree with you.
And Thailand must have been a great place when you got married to your wife.
But Thailand's missed a lot of its' opportunities - and now countries such as Vietnam, not to mention colossus China, are catching up far faster than anyone expected - and leaving Thailand for dead.

[Ian]

Yes Harry - this is the real reason why SO MANY children of mixed farang-Thai
marriages are abandoned.
It's not that the Westerner is a bad man or woman - though Thais love to endlessly blame / heap guilt on all-too-gullible farangs. Despite billions of development aid pumped into Thailand.
The root cause is Thailand's
thoroughly xenophobic if not downright racist anti-farang laws.

[colin howard]

hi geoff ,i,ve always had the opinion that anyone married to a thai national and keeping in many cases her children from a previous marriage and providing all the other benifits should be exempt from a visa ,a back ground check on his finances should be quite enough along with a police check ,for me nothing much makes sense as far as the visa laws go,but then again T.I.T regards ,colin .

[colin howard]

hi ian ,been reading your posts for quite some time now about the lack of a level playing field as far as owning property and land in our respective countrys ,and the ball is firmly in our countrys park ,surely they must know about the plight of the farang in thailand and should reply in kind ,whether this would make any difference to the thai mindset is quite another problem!!,regards ,colin .

[colin howard]

hi harry ,i seem to have lost your e mail # could you please forward it to me ,cos i wish to speak to you on a more personel level ,regards ,colin .

[harry]

Hi Collin,
I did send a mail to you before I read your question.
anyhow my mail address is above the topic again.

[Aussie John]

Hi Colin. I fully agree with you. If a westerner married to a Thai national has a police check from both his home country as well as in Thailand, what is the reasoning from restricting the Westerners ability to stay in the kingdom under true permanent residency status as we have in the west.
Ian is also correct, it's a xenophobic law that is intent on restricting westerner's sphere of influence in Thailand. The ruling class would eventually loose the monopolies they have carefully created over the undereducated indigenous classes.
.Many Thai call it 'a washing out of culture' as all the propoganda by the elites describe it. This is the ironic facade that exists.
The Thai elites who control the spheres of influence themselves are selling western culture to the majority of Thais. Farungs are unable to control even the sale of their own culture.
Could you imagine farungs controlling 51% of the millions of Thai restaraunts in the West. They would'nt exsist , as resideant Thais would'nt have a bar of it.
Yet Westerners in Thailand continue to exist under these very oppressive laws. WHY??
I do'nt understand why western governments do not question the legitimacy of these laws.
They'll question copy right infringements because of lose of profits. But when it comes to the basic rights of westerners trying to live with their spouses and children freely in the 'LAND OF THE FREE" it seems only the wealthy have that right. This is not FREEDOM.
So many wealthy Thai, especially in my home country of Australia can come and aquire residency and then take full advantage of the very laws that should exsist in the LAND OF THE FREE but unfortunately do'nt. Who do these laws trully serve.? Thats what I'd really like to know.
Long live the poor including those poor farung who have unfortunately fallen in love with a girl from a place that does'nt seem to want them, let alone care.'

[colin howard]

hi john ,bang on with you post ,i think i must agree with ian as well as yourself ,ian says that it should be a level playing field for all ,eg there is no way thaksin should be allowed to buy property in england ,and indeed thais world wide should not be allowed to own land or property ,then and only then the thai,s may come to there sense,s and repeal this highly hypocritical and racist law ,regards ,colin .

[colin howard]

hi geoff ,you have a good point ,its a thing thats always puzzled me why someone who,s retired and may be only keeping himself should have to show twice as much in the bank than a married man who keeps a wife and maybe a couple of kids ,but i,m informed that the law was changed in sept 06 in regards to obtaining a marriage visa and now the money has to come from outside thailand and the 400,000 baht in the bank rule is null and void , a visit to your local immigration office will shed more light on this subject better than i ,regards ,colin .