What the yellowbook gets you.
The yellow book turns you from a stranger at every counter into a household with an address. It is not a visa and it changes nothing about your permission to stay.
Prefer this handled for you?
General information, not advice about your case. Procedures change, so where a detail matters to your application we confirm it with you rather than print a figure here that could be out of date.
An address, on the register
Worth having for some people and not for others, which is a judgement we will make honestly rather than commercially.
Prefer this handled for you?
The house book
Jump to sectionWhat the registration system is, and how the blue and yellow books differ.
At the counter
Jump to sectionWhat it gets you in practice, counter by counter, and what it does not.
Registering
Jump to sectionDocuments, translation, witnesses, and the district office visit.
The pink card
Jump to sectionThe identification card that follows the registration, and why most people finish.
Two books, one register
The system is a household register. The colour of the book records who is in it.
Blue and yellow
Thai households are recorded in a register held as a book. One colour records Thai nationals at the address, the other records foreign residents at the same address. They are the same register, seen from two sides.
What it gets you, counter by counter
An address on the register, a document Thai institutions recognise on sight, and a straightforward answer to the question every counter asks. Where it helps most is at the counters that are used to asking Thai people for a house book and do not have a second question ready.
Who should not bother
For some people it is not worth the paperwork, and we will say so. If you rent short term, move often, or have no errand in front of you that keeps asking for proof of address, the registration is effort spent on a document you will not use.
Prefer this handled for you?
We will tell you honestly whether it is worth the paperwork in your case, and handle it if it is.
Translation, witnesses, and a queue
This is the part people attempt alone and abandon.
What registration involves
Some of the file needs translating, some of it needs witnesses, and the witnesses need to be the right kind of witness. The whole thing happens at the district office rather than at immigration, which has its own hours and its own habits.
The pink card
The identification card that follows the registration. It is convenient rather than essential, and it is the reason most people finish the process.
Where the shopping centre story comes from
There is a persistent local belief that the card gets you a particular set of discounts around town, including at the shopping centre. Some of that is true, some of it is out of date, and the parts that are true vary by counter and by month. We will tell you which is which rather than sell you the story.
What it costs
Translation and any notarisation are paid to other people and shown to you on their receipts. Our fee covers the file, the witnesses and the district office visit.
The page this guide feeds
One service page, and the two guides that sit either side of it.
Yellow book and pink ID card
Read the guideTranslation, witnesses and the district office visit, arranged for you.
Licence conversion
Read the guideThe prerequisites, the test, the day itself, and motorcycles as a separate entitlement.
Your first 90 days
Read the guideEverything a new arrival files, in the order it becomes due.