Camerata's Guide To The Permanent Residence Process

[Misty]

For the PR application, a "copy of the applicant's educational certificate must be officially certified by the national embassy located in Thailand, translated into Thai, and certified by the Official of Department of Consular Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kingdom of Thailand."

 

Does anyone have any insight into this requirement? Is this a transcript from a university?  What about other post-graduate certifications or licenses?

 

To avoid fakes and frauds, normally my university would sent official transcripts directly to a requestor, either digitally or paper copy. It would not pass through my hands. But not sure how that would work in this case. 

 

I've tried to get more information from my embassy, but apparently they only are working on an emergency appointment basis now so they don't answer phone calls and I've only received form emails responses.

[scorecard]

24 minutes ago, Misty said:

For the PR application, a "copy of the applicant's educational certificate must be officially certified by the national embassy located in Thailand, translated into Thai, and certified by the Official of Department of Consular Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kingdom of Thailand."

 

Does anyone have any insight into this requirement? Is this a transcript from a university?  What about other post-graduate certifications or licenses?

 

To avoid fakes and frauds, normally my university would sent official transcripts directly to a requestor, either digitally or paper copy. It would not pass through my hands. But not sure how that would work in this case. 

 

I've tried to get more information from my embassy, but apparently they only are working on an emergency appointment basis now so they don't answer phone calls and I've only received form emails responses.

 

"To avoid fakes and frauds, normally my university would sent official transcripts directly to a requestor, either digitally or paper copy. It would not pass through my hands. But not sure how that would work in this case. "

 

I'm aware that this is the process when the Thai Ed. ministry checks degree / award certificates etc., with local and unis abroad, so wouldn't be surprised if other ministries use the same process.

[Dogmatix]

5 hours ago, Misty said:

For the PR application, a "copy of the applicant's educational certificate must be officially certified by the national embassy located in Thailand, translated into Thai, and certified by the Official of Department of Consular Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kingdom of Thailand."

 

Does anyone have any insight into this requirement? Is this a transcript from a university?  What about other post-graduate certifications or licenses?

 

To avoid fakes and frauds, normally my university would sent official transcripts directly to a requestor, either digitally or paper copy. It would not pass through my hands. But not sure how that would work in this case. 

 

I've tried to get more information from my embassy, but apparently they only are working on an emergency appointment basis now so they don't answer phone calls and I've only received form emails responses.

 

The US embassy posted some advice a few years ago to the effect that they would not legalize educational certificates any more because they had no way to verify them.  The only way they said was to get notarised copies from the issuing institutions which would then have to be notarised by a Thai embassy or consulate in the issuing country and then translated and further notarized by the MoFA.  Some people tried to go down this path which proved difficult, if not impossible, particularly dealing with Thai embassies and consulates from afar. Then others found that the US embassy would still verify that they had "seen" the certificates (without verifying or legalizing them) and this was perfectly acceptable for PR - anything is usually good for Thai officials as long as it has official looking stamps and signatures on it.   Then the MoFA will verify the signature of the embassy official at the same time as notarising the translation.  I think this is way to try to go, once the embassy is offering normal service again.  Theoretically the other route is possible, if the issuing institution sends the certificate to the Thai embassy or consulate but it is more than likely the Thai embassy or consulate would just bin it. 

 

As far as I know they only need the certificates or diplomas, not transcripts. I don't have any transcripts as they are not issued by British unis and no one ever asked for that. High school is not requested, just college or university. Any post-grad certifications or licenses you include in your resume should be supported by the certificates, if at all possible. If you have any local qualification or licenses, it should be relatively easy to get them notarised by the issuing institution and I think that should suffice.

 

In my day we were allowed to submit all certificates in English and self-certify them.  They only wanted translations, if they were in a language other than English or Thai. Another example of how they make things progressively more difficult.  In more recent years the PR section at CW asked me for a translation of the details page of my passport, the first and only time I have ever been asked for that in Thailand. Fortunately the officer said she was able to do the translation and certify it herself for 500 baht. I had known this officer for years and we had a good rapport.  believe this was a genuinely new requirement at the and that she was being helpful to save me going downstairs to a translation agency as well as making a little pocket money, but I may have been wrong.

 

[Misty]

1 hour ago, Dogmatix said:

 

The US embassy posted some advice a few years ago to the effect that they would not legalize educational certificates any more because they had no way to verify them.  The only way they said was to get notarised copies from the issuing institutions which would then have to be notarised by a Thai embassy or consulate in the issuing country and then translated and further notarized by the MoFA.  Some people tried to go down this path which proved difficult, if not impossible, particularly dealing with Thai embassies and consulates from afar. Then others found that the US embassy would still verify that they had "seen" the certificates (without verifying or legalizing them) and this was perfectly acceptable for PR - anything is usually good for Thai officials as long as it has official looking stamps and signatures on it.   Then the MoFA will verify the signature of the embassy official at the same time as notarising the translation.  I think this is way to try to go, once the embassy is offering normal service again.  Theoretically the other route is possible, if the issuing institution sends the certificate to the Thai embassy or consulate but it is more than likely the Thai embassy or consulate would just bin it. 

 

As far as I know they only need the certificates or diplomas, not transcripts. I don't have any transcripts as they are not issued by British unis and no one ever asked for that. High school is not requested, just college or university. Any post-grad certifications or licenses you include in your resume should be supported by the certificates, if at all possible. If you have any local qualification or licenses, it should be relatively easy to get them notarised by the issuing institution and I think that should suffice.

 

In my day we were allowed to submit all certificates in English and self-certify them.  They only wanted translations, if they were in a language other than English or Thai. Another example of how they make things progressively more difficult.  In more recent years the PR section at CW asked me for a translation of the details page of my passport, the first and only time I have ever been asked for that in Thailand. Fortunately the officer said she was able to do the translation and certify it herself for 500 baht. I had known this officer for years and we had a good rapport.  believe this was a genuinely new requirement at the and that she was being helpful to save me going downstairs to a translation agency as well as making a little pocket money, but I may have been wrong.

 

Many thanks for this.  Eventually we did receive something more than just a form letter email response from the US embassy.  Apparently notary services are now available by appointment only.  As you say the US embassy won't notarize the actual document and they don't care to see the original nor require any proof.  Our university diplomas are outsized behemoths, so I'll have to round up copies of transcripts and make the appointment.

 

Should be able to get certifications from international professional organizations, but hadn't thought about including local licenses in this.  From your experience, would that be of help?  We have corporate license documentation, but I haven't seen anything for individual securities licenses and would have to check what's available in that case.

 

It's interesting to know that translations of your passport was required.  Also useful to know that there are translation services downstairs at CW. I haven't wandered around enough there it seems.

[Dogmatix]

4 hours ago, Misty said:

Many thanks for this.  Eventually we did receive something more than just a form letter email response from the US embassy.  Apparently notary services are now available by appointment only.  As you say the US embassy won't notarize the actual document and they don't care to see the original nor require any proof.  Our university diplomas are outsized behemoths, so I'll have to round up copies of transcripts and make the appointment.

 

Should be able to get certifications from international professional organizations, but hadn't thought about including local licenses in this.  From your experience, would that be of help?  We have corporate license documentation, but I haven't seen anything for individual securities licenses and would have to check what's available in that case.

 

It's interesting to know that translations of your passport was required.  Also useful to know that there are translation services downstairs at CW. I haven't wandered around enough there it seems.

If your company is in a sector that requires a license like insurance etc, they may actually require a copy of the license which is required for WPs, as far as I know, and is definitely required for citizenship. For the latter I was asked for a copy even though I am not sure it was on the boilerplate list of documents.  That can happen, i.e. after reviewing the documents you submit they are entitled to ask for more.  If you have a local personal license or other local qualification I would definitely submit it. I had a Thai language certificate from the ministry of education and they were pleased to have it, even though they had no idea what it was. 

 

It is usually good to submit any documents that seem relevant, even if not specifically requested. 

 

I don't remember seeing the translation service in the CW basement either but I took the lady senior sergeant major's word for it that there was one.  There are certainly loads of them down the road at MoFA consular section where you go for the the notarized translations. There is a certain advantage in using them as they can instantly correct anything that the staff upstairs decide is an error. The thing they love to catch you out on there is the Thai spelling of the names of foreign consular staff, or even the Thai staff that sign the notarization documents.  The Thai translation agencies never bother to check the Thai spellings of the names and just take a stab at it without caring whether it's right or not.  They can easily get it wrong with Thai name signed in English too.  After being caught out like this once I always insisted on getting name cards with their names in Thai on them from the people who signed at the embassy.  I had one translation that had about half a dozen errors in it but the only one MoFA picked up on was that the Thai spelling of the farang vice-consul's name was different from the version they had on file.  That's an easy point they can score without having to read the text carefully, rather like the auditor's classic no lock on the storeroom door.  

Edited August 13, 2020 by Dogmatix

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

5 hours ago, Dogmatix said:

  In more recent years the PR section at CW asked me for a translation of the details page of my passport, the first and only time I have ever been asked for that in Thailand.

 

My only experience with the PR section at CW has been to get new re-entry visas for my passport and endorsements for my residence certificate. I've never been asked for a translation of my passport details and the lady at the PR desk actually assists me in completing the application forms. Was the request for the translation related to something else? I'm just curious and not trying to dispute your statement.

[Dogmatix]

57 minutes ago, Etaoin Shrdlu said:

My only experience with the PR section at CW has been to get new re-entry visas for my passport and endorsements for my residence certificate. I've never been asked for a translation of my passport details and the lady at the PR desk actually assists me in completing the application forms. Was the request for the translation related to something else? I'm just curious and not trying to dispute your statement.

Yes, the request for the translation was for something else. I had to change some details in my alien book which gave rise to a complete rigmarole including a 1.5 hour interview to double check all details and then a 3 week wait for the file to arrive by internal police mail at my local police station for them to endorse the amendments made at CW.

[thedemon]

20 hours ago, Misty said:

For the PR application, a "copy of the applicant's educational certificate must be officially certified by the national embassy located in Thailand, translated into Thai, and certified by the Official of Department of Consular Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kingdom of Thailand."

 

Does anyone have any insight into this requirement? Is this a transcript from a university?  What about other post-graduate certifications or licenses?

 

To avoid fakes and frauds, normally my university would sent official transcripts directly to a requestor, either digitally or paper copy. It would not pass through my hands. But not sure how that would work in this case. 

 

I've tried to get more information from my embassy, but apparently they only are working on an emergency appointment basis now so they don't answer phone calls and I've only received form emails responses.

I applied 14 years ago so my recollection isn't perfect and things may have changed since then too. But I do clearly recall that because I don't have any tertiary degrees and assuming that is what the PR dept wanted, I didn't submit any documents relating to education. After accepting my application, the officer in charge queried me about that to which I replied that though I had passed final year high school and university entrance examinations, I hadn't actually attended university. The officer urged me to submit those certificates anyway because they would give some points even if not a full score. The internal scoring system used by Immigration isn't transparent so I have no way of knowing whether those documents helped or not but I did eventually get PR.

 

Immigration's requirements for notarisation of documents is pretty rigid but how easy or difficult that is depends on the country you come from and how they handle notarisation so it isn't always a level playing field. My embassy will seemingly endorse any document with a "Seen at ...." stamp without checking the veracity of those documents. Some other embassies won't do that. 

 

Another example is the certificate of no criminal record. Where I come from, minor offences are dropped from your record after a certain number of years. The record itself only contains actual convictions and is not public information. It can only be divulged with the subjects consent. The certificate is easy to apply for online and is then mailed out immediately with no charge. An American friend of mine that needed the same document for his PR application had to physically submit fingerprints for an FBI check which then took quite a long time to process. Many years previously he had been arrested for a minor offence like disturbing the peace for which he was either not charged or the charges were dropped and he was never convicted. However his record from the US still contained details of that arrest and he was left having to vindicate himself to Immigration.

 

I think it is unlikely that Thai Immigration understand the intricacies of how each different country issues official documents or how they handle document notarisation. It seems that so long as you have the appropriate stamps from your embassy (sometimes rendered meaningless by simply saying "seen at...") then you have those officially translated and further stamped by the Thai Ministry of Foreign affairs that is enough to satisfy Immigration.

[Misty]

1 hour ago, thedemon said:

I applied 14 years ago so my recollection isn't perfect and things may have changed since then too. But I do clearly recall that because I don't have any tertiary degrees and assuming that is what the PR dept wanted, I didn't submit any documents relating to education. After accepting my application, the officer in charge queried me about that to which I replied that though I had passed final year high school and university entrance examinations, I hadn't actually attended university. The officer urged me to submit those certificates anyway because they would give some points even if not a full score. The internal scoring system used by Immigration isn't transparent so I have no way of knowing whether those documents helped or not but I did eventually get PR.

 

Immigration's requirements for notarisation of documents is pretty rigid but how easy or difficult that is depends on the country you come from and how they handle notarisation so it isn't always a level playing field. My embassy will seemingly endorse any document with a "Seen at ...." stamp without checking the veracity of those documents. Some other embassies won't do that. 

 

Another example is the certificate of no criminal record. Where I come from, minor offences are dropped from your record after a certain number of years. The record itself only contains actual convictions and is not public information. It can only be divulged with the subjects consent. The certificate is easy to apply for online and is then mailed out immediately with no charge. An American friend of mine that needed the same document for his PR application had to physically submit fingerprints for an FBI check which then took quite a long time to process. Many years previously he had been arrested for a minor offence like disturbing the peace for which he was either not charged or the charges were dropped and he was never convicted. However his record from the US still contained details of that arrest and he was left having to vindicate himself to Immigration.

 

I think it is unlikely that Thai Immigration understand the intricacies of how each different country issues official documents or how they handle document notarisation. It seems that so long as you have the appropriate stamps from your embassy (sometimes rendered meaningless by simply saying "seen at...") then you have those officially translated and further stamped by the Thai Ministry of Foreign affairs that is enough to satisfy Immigration.

Thank you for this, really helpful. Heading to get the fingerprints done for FBI check soon. It looks like there may be an online FBI check now, although I'm not sure yet how that works with fingerprint cards. 

 

For the additional educational documents, did you need to get these notarized at your embassy and then translated as well? 

 

[thedemon]

16 minutes ago, Misty said:

Thank you for this, really helpful. Heading to get the fingerprints done for FBI check soon. It looks like there may be an online FBI check now, although I'm not sure yet how that works with fingerprint cards. 

 

For the additional educational documents, did you need to get these notarized at your embassy and then translated as well? 

 

 

Yes I did have them stamped by the embassy, translated and then notarized by the Thai MFA.

 

I don't recall how I did that but probably my office staff handled it for me. Nowadays there are plenty of translation companies online that will also handle the MFA notarisation for a small fee then EMS the documents back to you.

[scorecard]

1 hour ago, thedemon said:

I applied 14 years ago so my recollection isn't perfect and things may have changed since then too. But I do clearly recall that because I don't have any tertiary degrees and assuming that is what the PR dept wanted, I didn't submit any documents relating to education. After accepting my application, the officer in charge queried me about that to which I replied that though I had passed final year high school and university entrance examinations, I hadn't actually attended university. The officer urged me to submit those certificates anyway because they would give some points even if not a full score. The internal scoring system used by Immigration isn't transparent so I have no way of knowing whether those documents helped or not but I did eventually get PR.

 

Immigration's requirements for notarisation of documents is pretty rigid but how easy or difficult that is depends on the country you come from and how they handle notarisation so it isn't always a level playing field. My embassy will seemingly endorse any document with a "Seen at ...." stamp without checking the veracity of those documents. Some other embassies won't do that. 

 

Another example is the certificate of no criminal record. Where I come from, minor offences are dropped from your record after a certain number of years. The record itself only contains actual convictions and is not public information. It can only be divulged with the subjects consent. The certificate is easy to apply for online and is then mailed out immediately with no charge. An American friend of mine that needed the same document for his PR application had to physically submit fingerprints for an FBI check which then took quite a long time to process. Many years previously he had been arrested for a minor offence like disturbing the peace for which he was either not charged or the charges were dropped and he was never convicted. However his record from the US still contained details of that arrest and he was left having to vindicate himself to Immigration.

 

I think it is unlikely that Thai Immigration understand the intricacies of how each different country issues official documents or how they handle document notarisation. It seems that so long as you have the appropriate stamps from your embassy (sometimes rendered meaningless by simply saying "seen at...") then you have those officially translated and further stamped by the Thai Ministry of Foreign affairs that is enough to satisfy Immigration.

A comment on just the first paragraph above:

 

I have heard a couple of times about applicants were able to well convince the panel that their deep insights into a valuable item through long-term experiences was in fact very valuable to Thailand and was at that time being used in the applicants daily work, and it was readily accepted in lieu of academic qualifications. 

 

 

[Misty]

16 minutes ago, thedemon said:

 

Yes I did have them stamped by the embassy, translated and then notarized by the Thai MFA.

 

I don't recall how I did that but probably my office staff handled it for me. Nowadays there are plenty of translation companies online that will also handle the MFA notarisation for a small fee then EMS the documents back to you.

Many thanks. I'm collecting docs now. Will take them to Immigration to see if what's useful, what's not.  Once I have the final set will plan to bring them to the embassy for notarization all in one go.

 

This discussion is very helpful, I hope I can help others in the future.

[Arkady]

Home country police checks. Another thing I was never asked to do for PR or citizenship. It's as if they are given a quota to add X number of burdensome requirements to the procedures per year. Since I did it in 1997 the process is almost unrecognisable, not that it was a piece of cake then.  lt started in the late 20s as a simple application without quota at the docks where mainly Chinese arrivals had to convince the IO they had a trade or profession (or baksheesh) whereby they would be able to support themselves in the Kingdom.  They introduced the nationality quotas in the early 50s and substantially increased the fees to stem the flow of Chinese immigrants when they feared a communist fifth column after the communist revolution in China. To date the quotas have only really applied to the Chinese which include Taiwanese and Hong Kong citizens in the regulations. Before 1997 Hong Kong people were under the British quota.

 

Taking a leaf out of the citizenship application book where it is a requirement, I would think someone preparing to apply for PR should consider making regular donations to Thai registered charities and show the receipts as partial evidence of contribution to Thai society. It is best to steer clear of including volunteer work in your portfolio as the Labour Ministry representative on the Immigration Committee might seize on the opportunity to show their worth by nailing you for working without a WP. Avoid saccharine statements about loving all Thai people and HMK.  Even if it is true, it is not really a contribution to society and sounds patronising to them.  

 

 

[Michael Hare]

2 hours ago, Arkady said:

Home country police checks. Another thing I was never asked to do for PR or citizenship. It's as if they are given a quota to add X number of burdensome requirements to the procedures per year. Since I did it in 1997 the process is almost unrecognisable, not that it was a piece of cake then.  lt started in the late 20s as a simple application without quota at the docks where mainly Chinese arrivals had to convince the IO they had a trade or profession (or baksheesh) whereby they would be able to support themselves in the Kingdom.  They introduced the nationality quotas in the early 50s and substantially increased the fees to stem the flow of Chinese immigrants when they feared a communist fifth column after the communist revolution in China. To date the quotas have only really applied to the Chinese which include Taiwanese and Hong Kong citizens in the regulations. Before 1997 Hong Kong people were under the British quota.

 

Taking a leaf out of the citizenship application book where it is a requirement, I would think someone preparing to apply for PR should consider making regular donations to Thai registered charities and show the receipts as partial evidence of contribution to Thai society. It is best to steer clear of including volunteer work in your portfolio as the Labour Ministry representative on the Immigration Committee might seize on the opportunity to show their worth by nailing you for working without a WP. Avoid saccharine statements about loving all Thai people and HMK.  Even if it is true, it is not really a contribution to society and sounds patronising to them.  

 

 

I did mine in 2002 and got it in 2004. I agree that now the process is unrecognisable. I did everything myself living here in Ubon. Took four one day trips down to Bangkok to Soi Suan Plu. I got my home country police check through my Embassy in Bangkok. Didn't bother them again. All my documents (from passport, birth certificate, university diplomas etc) were officially translated at Ubon University and stamped. All the people I dealt with at Soi Suan Plu were very helpful. If some document was not quite right, they would ring me up from Bangkok to get me to correct it. 

[Arkady]

19 hours ago, Michael Hare said:

I did mine in 2002 and got it in 2004. I agree that now the process is unrecognisable. I did everything myself living here in Ubon. Took four one day trips down to Bangkok to Soi Suan Plu. I got my home country police check through my Embassy in Bangkok. Didn't bother them again. All my documents (from passport, birth certificate, university diplomas etc) were officially translated at Ubon University and stamped. All the people I dealt with at Soi Suan Plu were very helpful. If some document was not quite right, they would ring me up from Bangkok to get me to correct it. 

So the home country police checks must have been started between 1997 when I applied and 2002 when you applied. I didn't need anything from my embassy at all. Also the requirement to translate English language documents into Thai must have come in at that time. The price went up in the early 2000s too when the Thaksin regime decided to make things more difficult and more expensive.  I paid a B2,000 application fee and B50,000 on success which was picked up by my company.  No tea money was requested or hinted at any stage and it took 12 months which was normal.  In fact there were three batches approved after meetings of the Immigration Commission that year - 6 months, 9 months and 12 months after application which seemed like an age. There was no discount for those with Thai spouses.  Arguably it was cheap enough but I remember the naysayers arguing that it was a ridiculous hassle and expense and they were quite happy with their NON-B visas until they lost their jobs in the financial crisis and suddenly became non-persons as far as Thailand was concerned, unable to even own a mobile phone or motor bike in their own names.

[jayboy]

On 8/14/2020 at 11:06 AM, Arkady said:

Avoid saccharine statements about loving all Thai people and HMK

Good advice though I'm afraid I came pretty close to that state of fawning admiration in my interview and of course instantly regretted not having been able to come up with something less foolish.However the reaction from the interviewing officer was unexpected and very much with a twinkle in his eye asked "Are you quite sure about that?" I replied "Absolutely, no question about it" At that we both had a little laugh together.

[Alex19]

Hello everyone,

 

I will soon move to a new place, I would like to know more about the address change process.

In what order should PR, Red book and Tabien Baan be changed ?

 

Thank you !

[Michael Hare]

Change the Tabian baan first. Most important. As for the others I don't really know. Five years ago, I sold my house and bought a new house in the same district in Ubon Ratchathani. Only 500 metres from my old house. I informed the police station where I do my five year check-in and the local immigration office where from time to time I get a re-entry permit, but they didn't seem interested. I think if you moved to another province or town, then it may be more important.  

[thedemon]

I agree with Michael Hare, it is the Tabien Baan that needs to be changed first. Also agree that the local police probably don't care so long as you are still in the same catchment area. I needed to record a change of address and but waited about a year until the red book was due for 5 yearly renewal and there was no penalty for the delay.

 

Where having all 3 documents up to date does matter is if you need to replace the blue/white residence certificate because you need to submit your Tabien Baan for that whereas for annual re-entry/endorsement only the red book & res cert are required.

[Arkady]

Change tabien baan first. If you are moving to a new district, you have to sign out of the first one and, in my case about 20 years ago, they sent the file over to my new district office. Armed with new tabian baan I went to change red book at local cop shop late and was fined 100 baht. I think you get 30 days to change red book.

[xxxarte]

14 hours ago, Arkady said:

Change tabien baan first. If you are moving to a new district, you have to sign out of the first one and, in my case about 20 years ago, they sent the file over to my new district office. Armed with new tabian baan I went to change red book at local cop shop late and was fined 100 baht. I think you get 30 days to change red book.

You get 15 working days since you register in the new tabien baan the police officer inform me. I just did it this month. I carry my own file with me and mail it was proposed to me at the first police station as an option but can take time. Total operation took 20 minutes at the first station and 30 minutes at the second one. Professional and efficient service. I say Thank you.

[Alex19]

Thank you all for the comments.

I will then go for the Tabien Baan first, then the Police Book.

 

Seems that the change on the PR book is not necessary, right ?

[Arkady]

38 minutes ago, Alex19 said:

Thank you all for the comments.

I will then go for the Tabien Baan first, then the Police Book.

 

Seems that the change on the PR book is not necessary, right ?

I don't remember changing the address in my residence book and I don't think there is any legal requirement to change it, since it is not particular to the district you reside in like the alien book and tabian baan and nobody ever looks at the address in your residence book. They will probably correct it for you in handwriting though and charge a fee, if you go to CW and ask them.

 

I filled up my first blue residence book within two years and changed it for a white one.  The white ones lasted about the same length of time too.  So I guess I had a new white book with my new address in it within about a year of my change of address anyway. 

[Bubbha]

I am about 6 weeks away from my first 5-year renewal for Alien Registration (red book) at the police station where I am registered.

 

I assume I will need my passport, Tabien Bahn, and Residence Book (PR blue book).

 

Will I also need new up-to-date pictures?  What is the fee?

 

Many thanks for your advice.

 

[Arkady]

49 minutes ago, Bubbha said:

I am about 6 weeks away from my first 5-year renewal for Alien Registration (red book) at the police station where I am registered.

 

I assume I will need my passport, Tabien Bahn, and Residence Book (PR blue book).

 

Will I also need new up-to-date pictures?  What is the fee?

 

Many thanks for your advice.

 

 

Take along all those books and WP, if you have one.  I don't think it is required but better to take too much than too little, in case they ask for something on a whim.  Depending on the policeman they might ask for a new photograph and you can ask him to put one in, if he doesn't, but I would say they will probably be happy to change the photographs every 10 years.  I thought the photographs were optional and never took one along but was told to go and get one for a renewal 13 years after the book was first issued.  He said I wasn't very recognisable from the original photograph and I said nobody ever looks at it apart from you every 5 years and the Pol Snr Sgt Maj ladies at CW when I need a new residence book every few years.  I don't think the difference was as much as when I was travelling in Europe as a long-haired student with my first passport that sported a photograph of a 12-year old Arkady.

[Michael Hare]

1 hour ago, Arkady said:

 

Take along all those books and WP, if you have one.  I don't think it is required but better to take too much than too little, in case they ask for something on a whim.  Depending on the policeman they might ask for a new photograph and you can ask him to put one in, if he doesn't, but I would say they will probably be happy to change the photographs every 10 years.  I thought the photographs were optional and never took one along but was told to go and get one for a renewal 13 years after the book was first issued.  He said I wasn't very recognisable from the original photograph and I said nobody ever looks at it apart from you every 5 years and the Pol Snr Sgt Maj ladies at CW when I need a new residence book every few years.  I don't think the difference was as much as when I was travelling in Europe as a long-haired student with my first passport that sported a photograph of a 12-year old Arkady.

In July, I did my 5 year renewal in Ubon Ratchathani. They only needed the red book to write the renewal in. Take along photos just in case, but in Ubon they only put in a new photo every 10 years. However, having said that, one never knows what other police stations may ask for. 

[Arkady]

32 minutes ago, Michael Hare said:

In July, I did my 5 year renewal in Ubon Ratchathani. They only needed the red book to write the renewal in. Take along photos just in case, but in Ubon they only put in a new photo every 10 years. However, having said that, one never knows what other police stations may ask for. 

 

Fee is not much - 500 baht the last time I did it , I think.

[scorecard]

5 minutes ago, Arkady said:

 

Fee is not much - 500 baht the last time I did it , I think.

At Chiang Mai police centre, 800Baht, just recently.

 

I'm outside Thailand right now, my Thai adult son took the RED police book to the station about 2 weeks before the 5 year expiry date, but no photo.

 

He explained the situation to the cop who indicated no problem and he wrote the update date etc., in the book and took the money and issued a receipt. 

 

Then he said to my son, please bring your father with a new photo quickly after he can get home. 

 

My son had printed copies of every page of my passport, Certificate of Residence book, Tabien Baan. He offered the copies to the cop who put up his hand and said 'not needed'.

 

 

[Flocom]

Someone know how to fulfill TM9 exactly?

1. Arrive in Thailand = last time or first time?

2. Passport number first entry or recent one (As I changed passport every year due to business trips)?

3. Address of Work Permit issues or myself?

4. Filling the form in English or Thai (Even if thai is better)?

[marquess]

Can someone who has recently applied for PR post an up today list of all the current documentary requirements? Thanks! I have read about 15 pages in reverse but have not stumble across a full list; and as the thread is quite old, I am not sure that what applied in 2006 still applies in 2020. Thanks in advance.