Thailand’s government has ordered a review of its citizenship application system alongside an intensified crackdown on Thai nationals acting as “nominees” for foreigners in property and business ownership. Deputy government spokesperson Ploythalay Laksamisaengchan said on September 17 that Prime Minister and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s administration ordered the review after enforcement operations against nominee networks uncovered several cases of foreign nationals who had already obtained Thai citizenship. A special Interior Ministry task force will re-examine the entire citizenship process — application procedures, eligibility criteria and past approvals — with findings feeding proposed amendments to the Nationality Act B.E. 2508 (1965).
The review runs alongside a separate, already-active crackdown on nominee arrangements used to hold land and condominiums on foreigners’ behalf. Thailand’s Department of Business Development (DBD) said on September 8 it is screening ownership records covering 125,622 companies, including 36,277 with foreign investment holding more than 305,838 land plots totalling 1,064,265.38 rai. Foreigners who have set up Thai-nominee shareholding structures to hold land, condominium units, or an accommodation-rental business are the arrangements now under heightened scrutiny; officials are also checking foreign-linked short-term rental listings for unlicensed hotel operation.
Thai law bars most foreign nationals from owning land outright, so nominee shareholding companies — majority Thai-owned on paper — have long served as a common, legally contested route for foreigners to control land or set up an otherwise restricted business. The current push traces to a September 4 Commerce Ministry meeting where the DBD, Department of Provincial Administration and Department of Lands agreed to share data and tighten land-ownership checks, and a September 15 meeting of the Interior Ministry’s Special Task Force on Social Order, which ordered a one-year retrospective audit of citizenship records after nominee-misuse cases were traced to Sakon Nakhon and Nakhon Phanom provinces.
DBD director-general Poonpong Naiyanapakorn said the department will keep pursuing nominee cases in major economic and tourism provinces and will coordinate legal action with the Interior Ministry, the Royal Thai Police, the Department of Special Investigation, the Anti-Money Laundering Office and the Board of Investment, among other agencies, with the aim of “a transparent and fair business environment.” Ploythalay said the citizenship review is meant to close legal loopholes and protect the rights of Thai citizens.
References
Thaiger – Thailand reviews citizenship rules amid foreign nominee concerns / The Pattaya News – Thailand Task Force Orders Overhaul of Thai Citizenship System / The Nation Thailand – Thailand screens 125,622 firms in property nominee crackdown
