hi esteemed forumers,

i understand if i want to buy a vehicle on a tourist visa, i need to go to my embassy to get a proof of residence in thailand. Is a rental apartment considered a proof of residence? many thanks.

I don't believe you can put a car in your name if you have a tourist visa. You are a tourist, right, so why do you need to buy a car? This is how the authorities think. You need at a minimum any of the Non-immigrant catagory visas.

from Expat motors.

To register a car in your name we need to take copies of the photograph page and current visa page of your passport. We also need copies of all the pages in your work permit.

For people who don't have a work permit a car can be registered in your name with a non-immigrant "O" visa, and a document from your embassy that acts as a house registration document that Thais use. This document varies in price from embassy to embassy but is generally 1,000 Baht. Alternatively you can visit you local immigration office and they will give you a similar document for a lower price.

We will provide you with some additional documents that you need to sign to complete the transfer. In certain cases the car may have to go to the department of transport to be inspected, but usually you can legally drive your car straight away.

In the case of people with tourist visas, you will need to arrange for a non-immigrant visa, you can still buy a car in the meantime and hold onto all registration documents, once you have the correct visa and embassy documents we can then transfer the car into your name. As long as the car is taxed at the time of you driving it you are perfectly legal.

To answer your original question, my guess is that a rental appartment must be acceptable.

Falangs cannot own property here so we must rent.

You might have to show a rental agreement.