Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Yellow Books in the context of Thai Visas. 

So I thought of making this video after there was a comment on our channel and the question was, “don't you have to have a certain visa to get the Yellow Book!" Okay so to get into sort of a deep dive here, the Yellow Book was actually created in an amendment to the Civil Registration Act of 1991, and you need to understand that that's one Act here in Thailand, it's not the same thing as the Immigration Act of 1979. 

So as we have discussed in other videos, having a Yellow Book does not have a direct impact on one’s for example duty to file a TM30 in Thailand or one's duty to do things like address reporting or 90-day reporting just by dint of being in a Yellow Book. This was actually a misconception I came upon my first roughly 2 years here; my first year here I was on a Multi-entry Visa so I had to do Border Runs, but my second year it was also back when they didn't really enforce 90-day reporting, you didn't really have to do it. In about my third year, they started doing that. Around that time I was getting my Yellow Book and I remember assuming or presuming, however you want to look at it, that you didn't need to do 90-day reporting if you had a Yellow Book, and I was dissuaded of that notion; I was corrected of that and I found out that no, that is not the case because it is governed by two sets of law. The Immigration Act has the TM30 duties, it has the 90-day reporting duties noted in that Act. Meanwhile, the Civil Registration Act just pertains to civil registration documents in Thailand including house registration books. So the way to look at it is these things are sort of on two different tracks. It's sort of as if they are stove-pipped if you will and ne'er the twain shall meet. So having a Yellow House book does not necessarily mean that it has any impact on Immigration or duties associated with Immigration. 

Quick aside here. I want to do a quick plug for our long-form news content. I am doing long-form content on our paid news service. For those who are interested in that, please email us at [email protected], and you can get information about how to get in to our long-form content. We currently have three episodes up. For those who are interested, I was meaning to do a brand new one but with all the stuff that's going on in Thailand, I may delay that a minute until we have a firmer view of what is happening. I want to do a long video on the political scene over here and everything. So that will also be in the paid content, probably in the next 3 - 4 days, actually I should say 2 - 3 days. Also, another quick plug, Pancake Palace, that is a new place my better half and I have just opened here in Bangkok. We have pancakes, we have American diner food, all day breakfast. We have Buffalo Wings, we have chilli, we have cheeseburgers, we have grilled cheese. We have all the best sort of American food that you can ask for and frankly we are in downtown Bangkok, we are in Anuman Rachadhon Road; there is a link in the description below for that, Pancake Palace here. 

Now going back to the analysis in this video, again so ne'er the twain shall meet with regard to the Yellow House book and Immigration duties, but the question asked is, "do you need a specific visa to get into the Yellow Book?" Well for the same reasons as Yellow Books don't impact your need to do a TM30, in theory your Visa status really shouldn't have an impact on your ability to get a Yellow House Book. And in theory you can buy for example a condo here in Thailand and get a Yellow House book based on that. Now as a practical matter, it has been our experience here at the firm, you are going to need a Non-immigrant visa to get into a Yellow House Book. Again, not necessarily a requirement, but generally speaking the Yellow House Book is meant for people who are effectively, although not “permanently” here, as Permanent Residence is its own term of art pertaining to a specific legal status, you do need to show some type of long-term Visa, so non-immigrant status visa for example an O Retirement Visa, O-A Retirement Visa, B Business Visa, something of this nature. It's our understanding at least as of the time of this video, it is not possible to get into a Yellow House book on like a Visa Exemption stamp, Tourist Visa or even something like the DTV Visa. Some of the newer visas like the LTR Visa, it's a little bit more nebulous, a little bit more of a mixed bag. 

That said, for those who are interested in the Yellow House Book, it may not be a terrible idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.