Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video would suggest, we are discussing the Pink ID card again. I did not think I would be making a video on this anytime soon. I did a couple of videos on Pink IDs and Yellow House Books. For those who are unaware, I have done a number of videos on those but to sort of summarize it is possible for a foreign national to get what is called a Yellow Tabien Baan here in Thailand.

A Tabien Baan is like a house book; it is a piece of identification documentation. It is primarily used by Thai nationals but back in '91 they amended the Civil Registration Act to allow foreign nationals to get a Yellow Tabien Baan. Stemming from that, it is possible to get what is called a Pink Thai ID card, again the title of this video. That Pink Thai ID card in one very real sense it is similar to a Thai ID card, a Blue Thai ID card which all Thai nationals have. In another sense it is not quite frankly. I got into this and maybe I sort of injected a little bit more of my own opinion into these videos than maybe I otherwise should and I will get into that in a minute, but I didn't realize, I apparently caused a little bit of a furor in the comment section in the video I recently did. I will go ahead and read some of these comments. Quoting directly: "Stop telling people that a Pink ID is not worth having. It is definitely worth having. In fact, when I got my jab, my Pink ID was all they wanted to see because it has a number on it that goes in the place of where Thai people's ID numbers go. Both the yellow Tabien Baan House Book and Pink ID card are worth having. I can renew my driver's license extend my Visa without having to go to the local head for a certificate of residence again and again. For people who want to avoid dual pricing in national parks a Pink ID is helpful. Stop bad-mouthing the pink ID Ben Hart. You are a Thai citizen so you don't know it is useful." Okay, fair enough. Yeah, I am Thai and I am not dealing with the same thing non- immigrants are dealing with on a day-to-day. I do concede that, no problem but I have been a Non-Immigrant before and I have been a Non-Immigrant when I could have had a Thai ID, that Pink ID. I opted for the driving license. I just didn't see the benefits. A Thai ID does provide ID documentation benefits and yes it can stand in especially with respect to address documentation as noted by this commenter, so fair point there. That is true but a point, and to get into my point on this before I get into a couple of other comments, I was more talking about the Pink ID because I think people conflate it and the Yellow House Book with Immigration benefits. That is where I have seen people get confused. I didn't really wish to come across as bad-mouthing so to speak the Yellow House Book or the Pink ID but I have seen a lot of people who think it conveys Immigration benefits in the sense that okay you don't have to do a TM30 if you have it; you don't have to do 90-day reporting, which none of that is correct. As we analyzed in other videos on this channel, the Civil Registration Act doesn't have anything to do with the Immigration Act in the sense, ne'er the twain shall meet. One is an ID and it doesn't impact whether or not you still have to check in with Immigration for purposes set forth in the Immigration Act. That was more my point and if I seem like I was bad-mouthing it, sorry about that but the reason I do kind of drive this home is I see a lot of people making errors or I have in the past more, making errors regarding the Yellow House Book in the Pink ID because they think they don't have to do certain Immigration things that they need to do regardless of the fact that they have that ID. 

Going back to the comments though, one reply to that was and quoting the prior commenter, it said quote: "And for people who want to avoid duel pricing in National Parks, the Pink ID is helpful", then this commenter commented back: "I tried that, didn't work." Yeah, I have seen this before too. In some instances, having an ID I have seen it happen with Work Permits, when I was here my first year, I used my Work Permit to go to a couple of different places and I didn't pay Thai prices. I have seen pink IDs work; I have seen them not work under certain circumstances. That has just been my experience. Again, it is just what it is. It doesn't convey a benefit it is just an ID card and yes some places it has worked as noted by that commenter and in some places it didn't. 

And then this was something else. This third comment brings up something about the Pink ID and the Yellow House Book for that matter that I don't think a lot of folks especially farang, foreigners, here in Thailand; Caucasian western foreigners if you will maybe not Caucasian but Western foreigners in Thailand don't really think about. Quoting directly: "It is written clearly on the back of the Pink ID card that it only has validity as an ID in the district where you have been registered and another form ID will be required when not in this District. So, if you are outside this District, you will still need to show a Passport or Thai driver's license." and that is a good point insofar as it simply is what it is.

A piece of history about Pink IDs and this sort of documentation is: a lot of this stuff was created initially for folks who live in the Border areas of Thailand, the hill tribes up in the north primarily who are not documented as Thai citizens. This documentation provides some level of localized documentation that they use. I always find it interesting, there is this kind of ongoing dichotomy within Immigration policy because in Thailand there are a number of different foreigners but different nationalities for example Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar they have almost a different Immigration regime than really almost any other nationality. Then there are the other ASEAN members which may not be as close geographically to Thailand who kind of have their own regime that they deal with and then there is the rest of the world and there is kind of the West, Europe and the old commonwealth countries and the United States, the Anglophone countries, they sort of get treated a little bit differently and then other East Asians kind of have their own system that they kind of deal with. So long story short, not to get into parsing this down too far, the Pink ID kind of has its roots more as a document for folks who are undocumented otherwise here in the Kingdom of Thailand. But the point I am trying to make is I didn't really mean for this to become kind of a point of argument. The reason if I seem to be bad-mouthing it, it was more to drive the point home that the Pink ID does not confer any benefit directly with respect to Immigration rights or obligations here in the Kingdom of Thailand.