Take motorcycle from Thailand to Laos

[JimMagee]

I have moved from Thailand to Laos. I have a motorcycle with a green book with no debt on it. I would like to take the motorcycle to Laos permanently. Does anyone have information on how to transfer a motorcycle from Thailand to Laos?

I am aware of the process to get a vehicle passport to take a vehicle into Laos from Thailand.

Any help will be appreciated.

[lovelaos]

I know someone who did this with a car a few years ago. The problem he had was that he had to go back to Thailand with the vehicle every 3 months as it was not possible to transfer permanently. I don't know if that has changed recently. Would it be feasible to sell the bike and buy another in Laos?

[khwaibah]

The Tha vehicle passport is NOT required for a Thai registered motor bike to enter into Lao.

[Jay Sata]

The problem is keeping it there permanently. You will need to go through the process of importing and registering it.

Motorbikes over 250cc are prohibited.

Motorbikes under 50cc are rated at 30% import duty and over 50 cc at 40%.

See http://www.asean.org/communities/asean-economic-community/item/laos-2

If you are only there on a tourist visa that could be also be a problem.

Why not sell it in Thailand and buy another in Vientienne?

Edited October 13, 2014 by Jay Sata

[lovelaos]

The problem is keeping it there permanently. You will need to go through the process of importing and registering it.

Motorbikes over 250cc are prohibited.

Motorbikes under 50cc are rated at 30% import duty and over 50 cc at 40%.

See http://www.asean.org/communities/asean-economic-community/item/laos-2

If you are only there on a tourist visa that could be also be a problem.

Why not sell it in Thailand and buy another in Vientienne?

Thanks for posting that link. Bikes over 250CC are now allowed in Laos though.

[Jay Sata]

Thanks for the update Lovelaous.

I must admit. I am staggered by the transition I have seen during the last 15 years of being a regular visitor to Vientiane.

The sunset ritual around the waterfront and market is wonderful.

High end cars and Hummers etc are such an antidote to the dirt roads and run down city I arrived in during the 90's.

[Tomtomtom69]

Importing a bike should be much easier than importing a car though, mainly because there is no issue with the steering wheel. Officially, Lao does not allow local registration of RHD vehicles in order to prevent smuggling of used vehicles from Thailand (with the exception of foreign embassy vehicles which are allowed to have RHD), though in reality it still seems to be possible, as evidenced by the presence of locally registered RHD vehicles I've seen there, including trucks. Although I haven't seen many local RHD vehicles, around 1% or so of locally registered vehicles are RHD based on my analysis.

But yeah import tax could be a problem.