Naturalisation and citizenship in Laos

BY NATURALIZATION: Laotian citizenship may be acquired upon fulfillment of the following conditions: Person must be 18 years or older, be able to speak, read, and write Lao, have established permanent residency, understand the customs of the country, have no criminal record, renounce previous citizenship, and receive final permission from the National Assembly.


DUAL CITIZENSHIP: NOT RECOGNIZED.

The comments above are correct, though there are ways and means....

Hello I plan to come next year and marry Lao citizen and we plan to stay in Lao .. But I have a criminal record there must be a way I can still become Lao citizen please help thanks for reading

Impossible for you to become a Lao citizen. You need to speak, read and write lao fluently. You have to give up your present citizenship. The criminal record will go against you too.
Read post #2 on this thread.

But I'm going to be married to Location.. Who going to teach me to speak and write Lao .. And I'm pretty sure I just need the right Lao Lawyer for the job ..

It makes no difference if you get married in Laos. I have been married for 20 years to a Lao woman, have kids, houses and have no thought of going through the process of getting Lao citizenship. Too time consuming and costly with no guarantee and no wish to give up my present citizenship of Australia and New Zealand.

Good luck with finding a Lao lawyer to get you through the process which takes at least 5 years of you living full time in Laos, learning to read write and speak Lao, have no criminal record, renounce your present citizenship, then another 3 years of paperwork which does not guarantee you getting Lao citizenship if the National Assembly turn you down.

You need to do some serious online research of the requirements.

Cereal wrote:

BY NATURALIZATION: Laotian citizenship may be acquired upon fulfillment of the following conditions: Person must be 18 years or older, be able to speak, read, and write Lao, have established permanent residency, understand the customs of the country, have no criminal record, renounce previous citizenship, and receive final permission from the National Assembly.


DUAL CITIZENSHIP: NOT RECOGNIZED.

Will one lose his/her permanent residency by being absent from Laos for a certain period of time?

If you have your Lao citizenship(and Lao passport) you can stay out of the country indefinitely as long as you have the correct visas and permits for the country you are residing in and your Lao passport have not expired.

You do run the risk of losing residency is staying out of Laos for too long