property rights and marriage

[Guest]

A friend of mine [farang] and his thai wife [girlfriend - property rights laws] have 3 kids. When they go stateside, they enter on the US passport. When they go back to LOS, they enter on Thai passports to as not to have the visa hassles. FYI.

[Brink15]

Hmmm,

Thanks guys. Food for thought.

3,000 Baht, ouch. Well, I'll have to wait and see what happens.

[ThaiHome]

I don't recall getting an exit stamp when leaving the US. HAven't been back in over a year, but remember looking for immagration before getting on plane to Singapore. Have a friend whose wife is Thai and also holds UK passport. She travels on UK passport and only uses Thai when returning and leaving Thailand.

[Guest]

quote:

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I seem to remember that every time I've re-entered the US, they've made a point of checking to see where I was coming from. I can immagine the hell you'd get if you you didn't have any stamp showing where you'd been.

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Not all countries are consistent with stamping your passport when you leave. I have never been hassled because I didn't have an exit stamp.

An earlier poster was right that the status of dual citizenship vis a vis the U.S. is somewhat ambiguous for people who become citizens from another country. The citizenship ceremony includes "renoucing citizenship in all other countries." In practise the U.S. does not require a person to give up the passport of the original country and doesn't seem to object if it is used. However, if you used your X passport to enter the U.S. while you are a naturalized citizen that could be construed by INS as you giving up your U.S. citizenship.

[Flashermac]

The problem is that the laws on foreigners owner land change fairly often. A dozen or more years ago, even the wife of a foreigner lost the right to own property (which really ticked of my wife. She asked, "Have I lost my citizenship?"). Nowadays, foreigners with Thai spouses can own enough land for aan ordinary home. In a few yers time, who knows which waya it will go.

 

p[.s. Condos are different, because you don't actually own the land.)

[Guest]

"Nowadays, foreigners with Thai spouses can own enough land for aan ordinary home."

Can the foreigner own this land or just his thai spouse?

[gene1944]

quote:

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Originally posted by Brink15:

Gene + Phiketpete,

Great info. Two questions:

a) How likely is it that Thailand could ever find out about the other nationality? -

What to do with the two passports? - Could the stamps be scrutinized? . What problems, if any, might arise?

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I have never been questioned by any immigration people in Thailand regarding my two passports but I never mention it either. They seem to just accept and stamp the passport or visa.

US doesn't seem to question stamps or lack thereof when returning to the US. They do always ask which countries I visited and usually ask what my job in US is. It seems that most countries in Europe will rarely stamp passports these days unless you specifically request a stamp. Asian countries seems to stamp frequently. For some reason when I visited Malaysia at the border town near Had Yai, I ended up getting 3 different stamps all with the same day in my passport. I never did figure out why and my Thai freind who was with me could not explain. I remember having to fill out the entrance form each time. Perhaps due to the fact we were in a private car and had to go thru several checkpoints into/out of Malaysia and back to Thailand.

[frogpatrol]

For those who are interested, there was an interesting article in the Bangkok Post the other day (June 10 or 11) regarding the ever changing property rights issues. Although the situation is somewhat complex, it appears that a Thai woman will NOT lose her rights to property anymore if she marries a foreign man. Good news there.

froggo

[Guest]

A few quick comments.

Both the US and Thailand permit dual citizenship. Neither encourage it and there are a number of restrictions. A Thai holding dual citizenship does not lose the right to own property in Thailand.

A Thai women marrying a farang should not lose the right to own property under the new constitution. In practice, however, some of the district offices up country can make title registration difficult if they know that a Thai women is married to a farang. This is a ploy to extract grease payments; it is not a matter of Thai law. If she is married to a farang, she must have money.

Aliens cannot own land, subject to a few exceptions, such as a factory on an industrial estate. The Thai Land Act of 1954 bars alien ownership of land (subject to a few exceptions), unless there is a specific treaty providing otherwise. All such treaties lapsed in the early 1970's.

Aliens can acquire and own condos, subject to certain restrictions. You need to be careful when buying a condo here, however, for a variety of reasons.

In practice, if a company acquires land, the land department will conduct an "investigation" if an alien owns more than 40% of the capital before registering title. This investigation will not end in any of our lifetimes; in other words, it is a polite Thai way of blocking the transaction without accusing anyone of doing anything untoward.

If an alien owns 39%, and Thais hold the other 61%, and they are holding the land as an accomodation for the alien (which may be presumed if they have reduced voting rights), criminal penalties potentially apply. A two tier structure can work, but it is tricky, and the rules are constantly changing.

Land can leased for a max of 30 years. Make sure, however, the lease is registered, since an unregistered lease provides little or no protection against a new owner of the land, like, perhaps, the owner's brother.

Finally, there is no title insurance in Thailand (anyone looking for a business to start??) so consult a reliable and honest professional before investing serious money. Good luck.

[Guest]

My Understanding (limited ) is that if a farang invest a certain amount of money in Gov Bonds for a number of years---I don't know how many-. You are allowed to buy some ( Small ) Plot land to build a house. I think the ammount was about 2 mill & the interest Rate was quite low, But then so is it every where else at the moment, maybe this is worth looking at again....... any one know the in's & out's of this ??

[ June 22, 2001: Message edited by: sleepy2000 ]