Jump to content

Thai National becoming U.S. Citizen


Recommended Posts

It's never too late to say thank you. :up:

 

the swearing of alligence thing confuses me.

my cousin(16,USA born,English father and American mother)has had dual nationality since he was a few months old.

his dad made sure he was also classed as a UK citizen and he has passpoets from both countries.

he entered the UK recently on his American passport and exited on his British one,which i thought was the wrong way round and he did have problems getting in and out the UK.

his passports have been renewed whenever required by his parents and he has never had to take any oath to satisfy either nations satisfaction.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

My thai wife has been in the U.S. since October, 2008 and is eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship. I'd like her to become a citizen before her son's 18th birthday (July 22, 2012), as he and his younger sister would automatically get citizneship (after they turn 18, the children are on their own). She was taking English lessons for a year and a half, before going back to Thailand for 5 months last year with our 4 year old son. Her English teachers, when she enrolled again said she had regressed in her English skills, so she hasn't taken any lessons for over a year. At home, she speaks Thai to her children and had thai friends that she speaks thai to. She calls her mother and sisters in Thailand just about every day. She watches thai soap operas on You tube. And them she is pissed that I can't get her a job in the U.S. I know I can coach her through the 100 citizenship questions but think she has little to no chance to pass the English portion of the test. For those of yu that have thai wives that have taken the citizenship test, how hard is the English portion of the test? Is it basically a conversation between the examiner and the thai? Would any of the programs offered online help? I think we will eventually ove back to Chiang Mai but having citizenship would make life here a lot easier, mainly by allowing her mother to visit here (and possibly her sister). I don't think I wil ever convinse her to speak English at home, even for limited time periods. At least the 4 year old is picking up the thai language.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thailand allows dual citizenship now. Don't let her give that up, since it is extremely useful for things like buying property. Same with the kids, hang onto both nationalities.

 

As to the citizenship test, I have no idea. I know some US citizen Thais, but their English is very fluent from long residence in the States.

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

if you have dual citizenship USA/Thai, don't you have to pay tax in both countries when you live in Thailand? or is there a double tax treaty?

 

 

Thailand only taxes income made in Thailand, unlike the US which taxes worldwide income. A green card holder or US citizen is required to file income tax return even if no tax is due. You only need to file Thai income tax return if you paid or owe tax.

 

For the US, you get a 90k+ foreign income exclusion as well as foreign tax credits on income above the exclusion, so since the Thai income tax rate is higher than the US, there is little chance you will actually owe any US tax on Thai income.

 

I think the OP is mistaken that he believes his wife getting US citizenship will make it automatic that her family can get tourists visas to come visit. If anything, it will make it harder as the Consulate will assume they are coming to stay with his wife and they will need to do a very good job of proving connections to Thailand and they will return and do not intend to stay with US citizen relative.

TH

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I doubt if the sister would come, at least not while her kids are in school. The mother would be the prime person coming over. I never said her coming over would be automatic but I still believe that if my wife had U.S. citizenship, it would make the process and possible tourist card a lot easier. But that isn't the only reason, or even the main reason. I want the wife and kids to have the financial assistance provided by government to its citizens. Right now, all that falls on me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I doubt if the sister would come, at least not while her kids are in school. The mother would be the prime person coming over. I never said her coming over would be automatic but I still believe that if my wife had U.S. citizenship, it would make the process and possible tourist card a lot easier. But that isn't the only reason, or even the main reason. I want the wife and kids to have the financial assistance provided by government to its citizens. Right now, all that falls on me.

 

My wife who has been here for the last eight years speaks pretty good English. She can carry on a decent conversation with just about anyone who is a native English speaker. Her conversations with the local Thais are generally in English. That's a surprise.

 

Her citizenship test should be in about two months if the USCIS office in New Orleans speeds up a bit. The one hundred civics questions, which most Americans couldn't pass, she has in the bag. No problems with that past of the test. The study guide for naturalization has the words used for the written and conversational test and they're fairly simple. Candidates have to write a sentence in English and speak a sentence in English on the sample words given in the study guide.

 

As far as returning to Thailand to live, she says never. Prefers the opportunities she has in the US. She says she'll go back and visit her mother once a year, but will never live there again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At least once a day, my wife or I misunderstand each other, which occasionally causes a heated reaction by one of us. My four year old starts kindergarten a year from this fall. I would like my wife to work part time, as she reminds me, she is bored living in the U.S. She can do thai massages but it would have to be underground in the U.S. She is a decent cook and could do catering or work at a thai restaurant. But with her limited English skills, I don't know what else she could do. On top of that, this year for the first time, she comes down with the worst case of pollen allergies that I have ever seen. She never had allergies while living in Thailand or at our last residence (we moved last June). As I type this, we are having a discussion about when I will fully retire, so we can move back to LOS. Our 4 year old will start college when I'm 73, and that would be an appropriate time to go back, in 14 years. I would even be willing to go back once or twice for a year while the kid is in grade school, so he can stay acquainted with Thailand and practice his reading and writing thai. That hasn't gone over very well. My guess is that she will spend several months a year going back (we still have a house in Chiang Mai), hopefully during pollen season, and our son will stay here once he starts school. After his five month stay there lst year, he has no desire to go back. I'll be glad when her youngest starts college in 3 years, so I have only one kid to raise. As my wife doesn't speak English very well, she leaves the parent-teacher conferences to me. She will drive some but not on the interstate highways, so I drive my oldest step kid to college 3 times a week, to work 4 times a week (the 22 year old doesn't want to drive period). The kids in high school take a bus each way but twice a week, I drive my 4 year old to pre-school at 9 and pick him up at 11;30. This all has to be done while I'm working from 8-5. Other than that, family life is great and I would extol all of you without kids to find a thai woman with 3-4 and get married.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

My thai wife has been in the U.S. since October, 2008 and is eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship. I'd like her to become a citizen before her son's 18th birthday (July 22, 2012), as he and his younger sister would automatically get citizneship (after they turn 18, the children are on their own). She was taking English lessons for a year and a half, before going back to Thailand for 5 months last year with our 4 year old son. Her English teachers, when she enrolled again said she had regressed in her English skills, so she hasn't taken any lessons for over a year. At home, she speaks Thai to her children and had thai friends that she speaks thai to. She calls her mother and sisters in Thailand just about every day. She watches thai soap operas on You tube. And them she is pissed that I can't get her a job in the U.S. I know I can coach her through the 100 citizenship questions but think she has little to no chance to pass the English portion of the test. For those of yu that have thai wives that have taken the citizenship test, how hard is the English portion of the test? Is it basically a conversation between the examiner and the thai? Would any of the programs offered online help? I think we will eventually ove back to Chiang Mai but having citizenship would make life here a lot easier, mainly by allowing her mother to visit here (and possibly her sister). I don't think I wil ever convinse her to speak English at home, even for limited time periods. At least the 4 year old is picking up the thai language.

 

My wife goes to the local college and they are

helping her to get a GED. Hopefully this

year she should be able to take the citizenship test.

 

I gave her the civic questions. She knew the

answers for the first few questions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Since the 4 year old's birthday is December 5, he won't be starting Kindergarten until a year from this fall. I don't think my wife could take any classes toward a GED until he is going to school from 8-3. If she has her GED, she could probably get a decent job. From what I understand about Social Security, if my wife has 40 quarters toward paying into SS, she would be entitled to either her SS or mine, whichever is greater (probably mine). I may take our son to LOS for a year or two while he is in grade school but will stay in the U.S. for his high school years, so my wife will be here for around 12-14 years to get her 40 quarters in SS. With her new found allergies this spring, I know where she would rather be now (particularly during Songkran week). To top it off, the 22 year old step daughter had severe stomach pains Monday morning. Without health insurance, the last place I wanted to take her was the emergency room, which I did. Turns out, she had kidney stones. Anyone know what a 2.5 hour stay in the emergency room costs these days in the U.S.(with a blood work up, a scan to find the kidney stone and a saline drip and two five minute visits by the Doctor) ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...