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Thailand Residence Certificates

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thailand Residence Certificates. Sometimes these are called Thailand Residency Certificates or a Thailand Residence Certificate, Residency Certificate, whatever; all the same topic. 

I want to be clear at the outset; we are not talking about Thai Permanent Residence necessarily. We are talking about a certificate that certifies one's address here in the Kingdom for purposes of doing some sort of business here in Thailand or obtaining some sort of documentation in Thailand. Things like opening bank accounts, purchasing cars; I have some bullet points here, obtaining a driver's license etc. oftentimes will require some sort of document which certifies one's residence. 

Now in the past we generally saw these types of documents being issued by Embassies here in Thailand and then having that documentation translated and legalized for usage with Thai Authorities; that function has been phased out with certain Embassies that I am aware of. It is my understanding the Australian Embassy for example no longer does this; in fact, I am certain of that whereas the Americans I believe are still doing it. I am not certain with respect to the British but other countries here may do it or may not do it. I believe for example certain continental countries Germany for example, they don't necessarily issue this type of documentation that can then be legalized for usage here in the Kingdom but instead those Nationals need to go ahead and get this type of document from Thai Immigration. Basically it is simply a document which stipulates one's residence, again let me check my bullet points. It basically states you live in Thailand, current home address, and it can actually be hotels, guest houses, apartments, owned homes etc., any of these will satisfy with respect to where that address is but the document itself is oftentimes necessary to get certain other documentation. As many may find by being an expat here in Thailand, getting one document oftentimes requires getting another document in order to get the new document issued. Sometimes you can get stuck in these kind of catch-22 situations. For example really where I see this sought a lot is in the context of a driving license. Getting Residence Certificate in the context of a driving license seems to be a major issue.

So the thing to take away from this video is, yes there are Residency Certificates. You can apply for them with Thai Immigration. There are certain documentation requirements associated with them and once one has this, it may be easier to go ahead and for example to buy a car, get a driving license or get a bank account and be able to operate a little bit more easily here in the Kingdom of Thailand.