Information on how to get a certificate of residence in Thailand
A certificate of residence is a document obtained from the immigration office to certify where you live and something every foreigner will need at some point during their time living in Thailand.
This document can be used and is needed for a number of things. As foreigners, we needed to get a residence certificate to be able to buy our car in Thailand, it can also be used to get a Thai driving license, apply for work permits and it is also sometimes needed to open a bank account. Generally any time that you need to officially prove where you live in Thailand, a certificate of residence will be required.
To get our certificate of residence we had to go to the Chiang Mai Immigration office which is on the same road as the International airport in Chiang Mai.
You have to go to the immigration office to collect the form needed, which you then have to fill out and return, along with copies of your passport, the visa page, the page with date of entry into Thailand and the arrival card. Also two original documents that can prove your address eg. Lease agreement, household bill. Two passport sized photos are also needed.
You will need to make photocopies of all the documents, which you then need to sign. The original documents also need to be shown.
The fee for the certificate of residence was 500 baht (£10) and it is only valid for 30 days after issue, so for us, we had to make sure the purchase of the car and registering the car in our name was all done before the certificate ran out.
When we registered the car at the DLT they kept the residence certificate. So if you need the certificate for more than one situation, you will then have to go back to immigration and apply for another one and go through the process again.
It took around 2 hours for us to get our residence certificate.
The immigration office is a busy place and usually involves rather a lot of waiting, so be prepared!
Chiang Mai Immigration office is located at:
71 Moo 3, Airport Road, T. Suthep, A. Muang, Chiang Mai
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday, 08:30–16:30
View Where to get certificate of residence Chiang Mai in a larger map
