Winding road to citizenship

[modsquad]

You need to live in Thailand, working and paying taxes (preferably on a high salary) for 3 years before you can apply for residence. The process takes about a year, and costs around 200,000 Baht. You then need residence for 5 years to apply for citizenship. That process then takes about 3 years.

The numbers who apply for citizenship are tiny: about 40 in one recent year when the government released figures.

The number who were successful? 10.

The figures did not show how many of the 10 were females (for which the process is much easier than for males).

So the minimum period one would have to live in Thailand to get citizenship is about 13 years, and then you'd still only have 25% chance of success.

As a final humiliation the 'sucessful' foreigner has to renounce his original citizenship at the time he receives Thai citizenship.

You may as well say it is 'all but impossible' for a foreign male to get Thai citizenship. by naiharn

[joey421]

who would want to be a citizen of Thailand???

[fallup88]

It is hard to get citizenship because the immigration deparment changes the laws every year! Therefore new laws needs to be reapproved again, and application needs to put on hold. Another thing to note is that many of these people approving these applications want some under the table money or else they will fast track other peoples application and push yours back.

I have gone through this whole process and it took me around 10 years (this is from submitting my application to receiving citizenship, this does not include the number of years I lived in thailand before that), and pass through countless officials who asked for $$$. I did not give any money, but I did know people in the immigration department who made sure my application was sent from one department to the next without much delay. If you live in thailand for more than 15 years and make a yearly pilgrimage to the immigration bureau for your extension, you are bound to know one or two of the people signing your papers. But again, you need to chit chat with them and \\ //// up to these people.

The number of people who apply for citizenship is a lot more than 40. If you count Asians alone (Taiwanese being the most, Korean, Japanese) they number in the hundreds each year. You add in the non-asian it will be closer to 1000 applicants per year. Whereas the number of applicants that gets approve are around 400-500 per year.

I have seen a grandpa who was in his 70s at the Royal Police Thai police office getting his citizenship (one across the street from central world, that is where you go for your interview and take your oath).

So if you are lucky, it will take 10-13 years, I don't know about the laws and how fast it would take now. The slow process was mainly due to the changes in the law every year.

I don't think its impossible, its just that you will have to wait and wait and wait. On average, the people who have obtained their citizenship lived for close to or at least 20 years in thailand.

[noster]

I would like to know why the others nationallity need to be "Thai resident", if possible. Almost Thais people I know who worked abord, study, or stayed for moment of time need to be citizen their stayed.

[bew]

(As a final humiliation the 'sucessful' foreigner has to renounce his original citizenship at the time he receives Thai citizenship) =This is a process in many countries that all naturalised citizens need to renounce their original nationalities.
I do agree with all of you here that getting Thai nationality are much more difficult than getting citizenship of the US, the UK, European countries, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and other developped countries. If I want to become naturalised in abovementioned countries, the process is much shorter. As long as every Thai government gives priority to population control, I won't see any chance for Thailand to streamline and facilitate the naturalisation process.

[paulc]

To quell the "other countries do it" let me say that as a Canadian and constant visitor to the U.S. I can tell you without question that there is no comparison between the "journey" to citizenship for a Thai in Canada and U.S. I can't speak for Europe but there are tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Thai, Lao, Cambodian, etc. who were granted citizenship in Canada and the U.S.. The process takes approx. 5 years and is relatively easy. A very, very small percent is rejected on their first application. Every Thai granted citizenship in Canada and the U.S. that I know, and I know dozens, has a Thai ID card, Thai passport and dual citizenship if they want.
Neither county requires that you renounce your Thai citizenship.

[paulc]

You need to live in Thailand, working and paying taxes (preferably on a high salary) for 3 years before you can apply for residence. The process takes about a year, and costs around 200,000 Baht. You then need residence for 5 years to apply for citizenship. That process then takes about 3 years.

The numbers who apply for citizenship are tiny: about 40 in one recent year when the government released figures.

The number who were successful? 10.

The figures did not show how many of the 10 were females (for which the process is much easier than for males).

So the minimum period one would have to live in Thailand to get citizenship is about 13 years, and then you'd still only have 25% chance of success.

As a final humiliation the 'sucessful' foreigner has to renounce his original citizenship at the time he receives Thai citizenship.

You may as well say it is 'all but impossible' for a foreign male to get Thai citizenship. by naiharn

I wouldn't say it was impossible but I think you have a better chances of being struck by lightning or hitting the Canadian Lotto Max lottery.

[bangbang]

Firstly, why would someone want to be a citizen of Thailand? Are there advantages to being a Thai citizen? And second, if all that is required to be a citizen of a country, I wouldn't go through it.