258 Soakhamnuan Before the head of the local Thai District Office in Mae Sai would review my case, we had to gather all of the paperwork that identified who I am, where I came from and how long I lived in Thailand. I think my school paperwork was one of the most powerful things that proved I had grown up in Thailand. To obtain Thai citizenship, I needed witnesses too. My witnesses provided testimony to the District Office that I grew up in Thailand, that they saw me when I was little and that I lived in my village for a long time. My witnesses included my mother, my step-father, the old woman that my mother stayed with the first time she came to Thailand, a couple of neighbors, the village leader from when I was growing up and my village’s new leader. My village’s new leader was not very willing to help. During the process, he asked many times for bribe money and often would not show up to the District Office for arranged appointment times. Half of my witnesses were stateless. In the beginning, the stateless witnesses were scared to go to the government office. They were afraid that if they said something or if something went wrong, it could affect their paperwork too, but I told them that it would be okay – just go and say what you have seen and what you know. I went to the District Office everyday to make sure that my case was moving forward, but the officers wouldn’t work on my case; they kept delaying. Finally, in 2010, the staff gave the head of the District Office my documents to review. I had a two-minute meeting with him. He didn’t even look at my papers. He just said that I had to improve my case and that he needed more witnesses and more evidence. 12 The Final Push In 2011, Joseph, Susan and I agreed that it would be the last time that we would work on obtaining my Thai citizenship together. We had all of the documents and witnesses that we could gather to prove that I grew up in Thailand, but the District Office still wouldn’t look at my case. Things weren’t moving forward, but the main problem was that the process was making me depressed. I don’t know how many times I went back home and cried. I always thought, ‘Where do I actually belong? Where is my place in this world?’ We got help from an aid worker in Bangkok that wrote a letter that explained the law; the District Office needed to look at my case and respond to me within 30 days. I was nervous. Someone had told me that there was a new head of the District Office. We made an appointment to meet with him. I knew that things were different already because we never could get an appointment with the old head of the district office. tilburg law review 19 (2014) 248-260