Thailand Certificate of Residence

Living in Thailand as foreigner requires a lot of paperwork, one of them is a certificate of residence. This certificate is important when you want to work on other papers, especially which is related to government. Without this, they usually will say no. Although some other writings mentioned that work permit is enough to replace this certificate, it is not always true, especially when living in Asia; many rules are interpreted differently depending on which area to live

This is my experience of how to get the certificate of residence in Chiang Mai, Thailand. This is written on 24 July 2020, the same day when I am going to the immigration office. If there is any revision, I will put the remark on it.

To begin with, you need to locate where the office is, a simple googling will help. You will notice the place is across a gas station. It is advised to go in the early morning as there will be fewer people. Avoid going on Monday morning and Friday afternoon because it is the busy hour. Parking space is available but a bit limited in terms of the capacity. Make sure you know which building to go, because there are several buildings, and the first one nearby the motorcycle parking lot is for the Cambodian, Laos, and Myanmar worker (they come in large number so need to have own place).

After successfully identifying which building you should go, there are some volunteers in front of the office. You can ask them about your business there, either to extend the visa, 90 days report, etc. Since you come for the certificate of residence, you only need to go to the 2nd floor, or 3rd floor if you need to have TM 30 form.

There are some copies needed from you. You can use this as a checklist, and it is also shown in the Chiang Mai immigration office. You will need:

1. A copy of  TM.30 receipt (if you don't have, you need to go to the 3rd floor of the building, ask the officer that you need a TM 30 receipt). Normally, all of the visa holders need to have this receipt since the beginning of their arrival, but it is exempted for some types of visa. This cost nothing but the officer will need to have a look at your passport and the address where you are currently staying.

2. Passport personal page, or usually said as the first page of the passport that shows the photograph

3. Copy of last arrival stamp in your passport

4. Copy of visa page in your passport

5. Copy of last extended visa in your passport

6. 1 (one) photograph size 4x6 cm (the only size, they won't accept other sizes)

7. Copy of lease agreement/registration house/land certificate of title deed (choose one only, it is proof that the building exist). For my case, I use the name card of the apartment and they accept it.

What about if you forget to have a photograph or copying some files? There is a small photocopy office on the left side of the building. Walk a bit to the end of the complex and you will notice it easily. I am not sure if they can print a file, but a photocopy cost 1 baht each, and photograph cost 100 baht for 4 pictures.

Once you have all documents, you need to proceed to the 2nd floor. There is a small table outside the office entrance near the stairs. You need to hand the document to the officers.

Making this certificate is free of charge, but if you want to have it quick (within a week), you need to pay THB 500 (this is not written in the announcement). If you are not in a hurry, you can simply request for the free one, but you have to wait for a month (not exactly, less than a month).

The benefits of having a certificate of residence as I know is :

1. Making driving license

2. Change the ownership name, for example when buying a motorcycle

After you give all needed documents, it is done, they will give you a small slip that has the receiving date; you need to come on the date to receive it. Do not lose the slip otherwise, you need to repeat the whole process.