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Does Thailand Allow Citizenship by Investment?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are going to be talking about citizenship by investment, specifically here in Thailand.

So the question posed "Does Thailand have citizenship by investment?" the short answer is "no!" Thailand does not allow citizenship by investment. I know there are few countries around the world that do allow certain types of naturalization to their citizenship by investment; Thailand is not one of them. That being said, Thailand does have a program called the Elite Program which does allow members to have up to 20 years of lawful status in the Kingdom associated with obtaining membership in said program. There are various different categories of said program which provide various different lengths of lawful status as associated with the membership so I urge you to check out some information that we have posted on this channel with respect to Elite Membership because although Thailand does not have citizenship by investment specifically, they do have a scheme by which someone can remain in Thailand for a very significant period of time and there is sort of an investment, it is not really an investment, there is a membership fee associated with that, that can allow somebody to remain here for a substantial period of time. So the thing to take away from this video is, "no there is not citizenship by investment here in the Kingdom of Thailand". In fact we have done a specific video on naturalization to Thai citizenship.

The naturalization process is quite cumbersome, it is very time-consuming, the requirements are, there is a high threshold associated with becoming a Thai citizen. One has to show a certain proficiency in the Thai language, aspects of understanding the Thai culture, have remained in the Kingdom for a substantial period of time in unbroken visa status and working, paying taxes etc. and basically it is a tough hill to climb. It can be done, but that being said there is no investment option to sort of overcome these issues. So the thing again to take away from this is there is no specific citizenship by investment program here in the Kingdom. There are certain aspects of the so-called Smart Visa program which have an investment component associated with them, I urge those viewers of this video to check out the videos on this channel associated with the Smart Visa, specifically the investment category of the Smart Visa. There may be long-term visa benefits associated with living in Thailand where one can derive those benefits associated with investing. Furthermore, especially on the Smart Visa, it may be possible at one point become a lawful permanent resident or or even possibly a citizen of the Kingdom sort of down the road but not directly associated with the investment but just having met the qualifications later on down the road for either residence or citizenship. So finally, the thing to take away, “there is not citizenship by investment in Thailand but there are avenues where one can stay in Thailand for substantial period of time associated with membership or investment in the Kingdom”.