Help Stateless children achieve Thai citizenship

Since June, the government changed the way citizenship was processed, giving the local offices the power to assign ID numbers and give out the ID cards. This cuts out about 5 steps that we previously had to go through to get someone their human rights! Sine this new protocol was enacted, things have moving much faster for our clients. Updates on some of our longest and most complicated cases:

Ying: (been working on this case for 12 years) Finished her background check and submitted her paperwork to be assigned a Thai ID number. This process takes about 6 months. 

Naleh (been working on this case for 5 years, and her family for much longer): Finally got her place of birth corrected to say Thailand instead of Burma, submitted her application for citizenship and did her fingerprints to do a background check. Her daughter now needs to get her witnesses to do her birth certificate and she will get her citizenship automatically since her mom was born in Thailand. 

Ploy (she has been working on her case for 10 years): Submitted for her citizeship but they sent it back and said her dad has to either claim his citizenship or relinquish his rights so she can get her Thai citizenship. He is living in Burma, so we scheduled for him to come talk to the government officers in April. 

Tip and Fah both finally got their ID cards, after a combined total of over 20 years pursuing their rights! 

Ann: she finally was able to convince one office to do her birth certificate! Her witnesses all took the bus down from the mountains to give testimony that she was indeed more in a Thai village and only a week later, she got her official birth certificate! This was so much faster than usual. Monday, we will take her dad to Fang, a few hours away from Chiang Mai, to get his paperwork updated, and then Wednesady she will file her application for citizenship and finally be a full member of Thai society after decades of pursuing this!

Exciting new updates: new laws have come into place just since June. These laws allow a new group of people to be eligible for citizenship if they submit their paperwork now and work in Thailand for the next 5 years. We are so happy this new law has come into place, it will allow many of the college students we support to be able to get their Thai citizenship just a few years after they graduate from university. 

The new laws also shift the power to approve citizenship applications from the prime minister in Bangkok to the local county offices. This will make the process much quicker for many cases since we won't have to wait for the paperwork to make its way up the chain. We have heard from several counties that our clients will be getting their ID cards this year! 

In June, we were excited to celebrate with Yamee who got her Thai ID card just before she turned 18. We are very thankful to the local authorities who made an exception in her case and didn't require her to pass a Thai exam to get her card due to her being raised by English speaking Americans and home schooling her instead of registering her in Thai school. We were very worried they would not allow her to get her ID card due to these issues but since she was not eligible for any other country citizenship, they bent the rules a bit. 

Fah is a case we have been working on for about 7 years and her paperwork finally made it through the process! While the county office scheduled her to come get her ID printed last week, upon arrival they said the new office chief wanted her to do an updated criminal background check first since the one on file was about 5 years old now. The results from that take 1-2 weeks so hopefully by mid-August she will finally be a Thai citizen. Despite both her parents being born in Thailand this case had many complications. She went to school to be a Nursing Assistant but has not been able to work due to not having her ID card yet, so this will allow her to pursue her chosen career! 

We are just starting on Ann's case and in the process of collecting paperwork from her educational background and witnesses to her birth so the government can create a birth certificate for her and allow her to apply for citizenship. She is very entrepreneurial and has many ideas of businesses she would like to start but is hindered by her lack of an ID card. 

These are just the most recent cases we have worked on in June and July, but by the time of our next update, we are hopeful we will have several more cases nearing completion. Thank you so much for your faithful support!