Legal Services & Resources
Up to date legal information pertaining to Thai, American, & International Law.
Contact us: +66 2-266 3698
Can Thai Permanent Residence Be Revoked?
Transcript of the above video:
As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Permanent Residence, posing the question "can it be revoked? The short answer, without any nuance is “yes, it can; it is an Immigration benefit and it can be revoked. Now that stated, not unlike Lawful Permanent Residence in the United States of America or so-called Green Card status, Lawful Permanent Residence here in Thailand does have certain rights and benefits associated with it if you will, most notably with regard to PR it's a very different matter than having non-immigrant Visa status.
So when you have PR in Thailand you are presumptively resident; you have no Visa in the sense of an expiring travel document. It is simply a Resident status; yes, you are a foreigner under Thai law but you are covered under a different segment of the Immigration Act of 1979 then are those who maintain non-immigrant status here in the Kingdom and notably those in non-immigrant status have to renew their Non-Immigrant status in certain intervals, Permanent Residents do not. So a big difference between the two is as we have discussed in prior videos discussing the so-called 'beach bully' case where the Interior Minister said "no, no further Visas, so no further extension of Visa status would be granted under his watch basically is what we reported in a prior video. That's not the same thing with PR. PR, you would have to revoke PR to take away one's status here in Thailand. In Non-Immigrant status, Thai Immigration can just choose not to issue a new Visa or a new extension, that is a big difference.
Now the question posed again can it be revoked? Yes it can but you would have to be put through proceedings not unlike a deportation proceeding in the United States there are certain rights associated with that. You have an ability to basically defend yourself with respect to those proceedings. That said, at the end of the day, yes it is an Immigration benefit and yes it can be revoked.