about moving to Thailand & living in Thailand

David went on to explain that the process for getting a Thai I. D. Card is not automatic

David B - A certificate of citizenship is all well and good, and looks very impressive printed on high quality thick card with various rubber stamps and a Police General's signature. However, the certificate itself is useless without the ID card that it entitles you to. It's the ID card that actually allows you to do things.

Surely, I thought, all I have to do now is go to my local Ampher (district office), present this flashy certificate, and I will be welcomed with open arms and given an ID card in 5 minutes as a matter of formality. Well, I did get the ID card, but, as usual in Thailand, the process was entertainingly complex, to say the least.

In my enthusiasm, I was forgetting that anything that I have ever done at an Ampher takes at least two attempts- the first to see exactly what this particular set of officials wants according to their own interpretation of the rather ambiguous laws; and the second attempt to provide them with the documentation in the way that they want it ...

First Attempt

• Went to my Ampher with every conceivable document along with the certificate of citizenship, and presented it to one of the officials in the Tabien section
• Sat there for a while and waited patiently. He looked totally confused and was frowning as he shuffled through all the papers. He got out the rule book and read it for a while. Then, he told me to go away and make photocopies of my citizenship certificate, all the other papers that accompanied it, including my certificate of residence, my alien registration certificate, my Tabien Bahn, my work permit
• I made all the copies and went back to the same official. He made me sign all the copies, then he went away and spoke to a couple of his higher ups. After a while, he came back and told me that they have never done this before, and that they would need time to "study" the rules. He told me that I would need an interview with the boss of the Ampher. According to his interpretation of the rules, even though I had received the permission of both the King and the Interior Minister, changing my citizenship to Thai was a matter of great sensitivity and could not be done without exhaustive checking of all my documents. He gave me a telephone number to call the following day, once he and his colleagues had taken a closer look
• Needless to say, even my legendary patience in situations like these was starting to wear a little thin, but of course I kept smiling and didn't show displeasure. Looking at the dozen people in my local Ampher, who seemed to have no grasp of the rules, I called the official in the Police Department who handled my application to ask for advice. I was told to go to a different Ampher, one that is more adept at handling such applications and whose officials knew the process. This came as a surprise to me, as I thought that such a procedure could only be done at my local Ampher, but I am no expert and so I followed this advice.

• Went to the recommended Ampher, whereupon I was initially was told to go back to my own Ampher. Upon gentle insistence that I had been sent there, I befriended one of the officials and told him that his Ampher was specifically recommended. Now, at last, the process could begin in earnest
• I was told to go away and make copies of every conceivable document (again)
• I was temporarily "moved" to a Tabien Bahn within the catchments area of this new Ampher
• I was told to go away and come back with four photos
• I signed a whole mass of forms
• My photo was stuck in a big book, and the official manually wrote a page-long commentary of my application
• I was told to produce a Thai witness (apparently all first ID cards need a witness)
• My witness (one of my friends who worked nearby) kindly arrived and filled out various forms
• Lunch time - I was told to come back in an hour
• Had all my forms approved by the boss of the Tabien section
• The nationality line on my (new) Tabien Bahn was amended from my old nationality to "Thai"
• Went to the ID card issuing section - signed more forms. Commentary of my application was written manually into another book, register style, similar to the first but a different colour. I Was asked to go away and come back with some more photocopies of sundry personal documents that were apparently missing from the first set 12) Had my photo taken against a measure to show my height. Had my thumb prints electronically read 13) Paid 25 Baht 14) Got my ID card - at last. In answer to a previous question, my citizen ID begins with the number 8