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What is a Thai House Registration Book (Tabien Baan)?

Transcript of the above video:

This video today will discuss the “Tabien Baan” which is the house registration book; it's called a “Tabien Baan” in Thai.

The “Tabien Baan” is essentially, it’s a root identity document in Thailand and it's somewhat, for people coming from a western perspective, it's kind of a unique type of a document, unlike anything we really would see in the United States or Canada, throughout most of the Commonwealth, maybe in certain civil jurisdictions on the continent in Europe, you might have something similar to this but for the most part it's a bit foreign to those coming from the sort of common law background. What is the “Tabien Baan”? A “Tabien Baan” is a house registration book; it's basically exactly what it says. It's a booklet that registers information on a given household.  I have one here; it looks like this. There's various information regarding the address and location of the given house and there's going to be various information, there's none in this one, this one’s blank, there's going to be various information about the individuals:  a) the head of the house also known as the “Chao Baan” and then various information on the various people living in that particular household. The “Tabien Baan” is, again as I said, it's sort of a root document.  It's generally issued to or an individual in Thailand or specifically a Thai National, a Thai permanent resident child born in Thailand. People go ahead and very quickly register their children on to a house registration book because as I said it's sort of the foundation document for basically all later identity documentation that's going to be issued here in Thailand including and most importantly for any Thai, a Thai National ID card. Why it's important from the standpoint of just various business issues here in Thailand is 1) if you're going to co-sign a loan, or buy a car, any of these things, they're going to want to see a “Tabien Baan” so a foreigner in Thailand may have a problem if they do not have a “Tabien Baan”. There is a solution for this?  The Thai government does have a sort of remedy for foreigners who live here in Thailand; it’s called a foreign “Tabien Baan”. The foreign “Tabien Baan” looks exactly like the Thai “Tabien Baan” except the foreign “Tabien Baan” has a foreigner  and it's a different color and it's a different type of book, again same sort of information, only this time it's got a foreigner issued in it. Actually once issued, you're going to be issued with two of these; you're going to have the “Tabien Baan” the true “Tabien Baan” and this is sort of issued, it's something akin to an addendum, as part of the “Tabien Baan”.

Where this will come up with most foreigners here in Thailand is where they buy their own condo. For information on condominiums I strongly recommend clicking on this channel, another video on this channel, which talks about Condominiums specifically, but for purposes of this quick blurb we're talking about these “Tabien Baans”. Again generally in U.S. Immigration matters we are going to go ahead and send in a copy of  a“Tabien Baan” they may want to see the original “Tabien Baan” at the time of interview for U.S. immigration matters. Again co-signing loans, mortgages, credit cards, these kind of things they are generally going to want to see a “Tabien Baan . Also, if you're going to get a Thai ID card for the first time or a Thai loses their Thai ID card they're going to want to see the “Tabien Baan” to go ahead and do that. One of the things that's a real benefit to a foreign “Tabien Baan”  for a foreign in certain cases like let's say a Thai driver's license, there's another video about a Thai driver's license on this channel; I strongly recommend the information on that, but as far as the Thai driver's license if you are a foreign National in Thailand you may need to get an affidavit from the embassy that stipulates various addresses and sort of information regarding the individual seeking a Thai driver's license. You have to go to the Embassy to get this affidavit before they'll issue the Thai driver's license. If you have one of these you don't need to do that because it's basically already in here; all that information is already in your “Tabien Baan”. The other nice thing about a “Tabien Baan” is it, again your information is already in the system, so for purposes of dealing with the bureaucracy over here it can make things a lot more straightforward. The other nice thing about it is when applying for permanent residence or Thai nationality, and there's a blurb on here about Thai permanent residence, having a “Tabien Baan” is just one more document in the stack of documents that they tend to like to see and having one of these can be a benefit. It's not the easiest thing in the world to obtain, it takes a significant amount of time to go through all the paperwork, and all of the bureaucracy to get one of these and it can be easier if it's done simultaneously with buying a condo so I recommend anybody that's interested in getting one of these it's probably best to contact professionals, somebody like us who can sort of walk you through the steps of getting one of these documents.

Again, if you're interested in doing it, it's a very good idea if you're buying a condo to sort of do it simultaneously because that can actually, a lot of the steps are sort of “killing two birds with one stone”; rather than making it redundant later you have to go back and do essentially some of the same things you did that occurred during the conveyancing of a condo you can do it sort of all at once. It's an interesting document to have. Aside from just sort of a general ID document it doesn't grant a great deal of benefit to a given foreign national but it does provide certain expediting of certain processes when you're dealing with the bureaucracy over here so for those looking to live in Thailand long term, a “Tabien Baan” would not be a bad idea. Another thing to think about is bi-national children born in Thailand so let's say an American citizen is married to a Thai National they have a child here, that child is born with dual nationality; that child will as a Thai National, will be eligible to go into a “Tabien Baan” so immediately after the birth you get the birth certificate down to the local “Amphur” or “Khet” Office,  that's also known as the Civil registrar office you need to go ahead and get that down there to get it into the “Tabien Baan”  system. This is important and as many Thai Nationals who have been born abroad and have not gone through the proper steps to get their nationality locked-in, sort of for lack of a better term legalized or sort of ratified; a Thai national say born in the United States, the “Tabien Baan” is the root document to get the Thai ID card which ultimately gets the Thai passport. It's the main document for proving ones Thai Nationality, Thai identity. So foreign nationals born abroad, or Thai nationals born abroad, one of the most significant factors, for lack of a better term, reacquiring Thai nationality is getting into the “Tabien Baan” system, so it's an important document. So for foreigners living here it's sort of an ancillary document and to an extent it's something, it's just sort of tertiary, but it does have some significant benefits as I said when dealing with administrative issues of bureaucracy over here. So for those who want to live in Thailand full time and are thinking of buying a condo looking into issues involved with specifically “Tabien Baan” the foreign “Tabien Baan” the yellow “Tabien Baan”, looking into that would probably not be a bad idea.