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How to apply Thai permanent residency

Thai Permanent Residency

Hello, everyone I am Chifumi Maeda,

a Japanese female president living in Bangkok.

Thank you, guys, for visiting this

“True comments from Japanese female presidents living in Thailand” blog

I’d like to share with you how I’ve acquired permanent residency in Thailand

that submitted the application in 2011 and granted with the right in 2015. 

Thai Permanent Residency
This is the permanent permit residency certificate that I’ve acquired in 2015. If I went abroad without carrying the certificate, I will lose my right.

Those of you who are reading this article are probably those who are interested in Thailand

and want to live in the kingdom for a long period.

Or even want to live in the kingdom permanently if possible and therefore,

I’d like to explain how in easy but in details.

Contents

How to apply for the permanent residency permit in the kingdom.

The permit is applying the quarter system and 100 applications are being received per nationality every year.

I am Japanese and I’ve applied for the permit in 2011 together

with 3 other fellow Japanese applicants, i.e. 4 in total. 

Types of permanent residency rights.

There are several categories of permanent residency rights.

The categories are as the following.

Investment

Business (those of you who are working falls into this category)

Parent of Thai national, spouse of, or child of

Parent of person with permanent residency rights, spouse of, or child of

Those having special skill(s)

And I’ve applied as “spouse of person with permanent residency rights”.

My husband (Japanese national) had permanent residential rights

which the fee for acquiring permanent residential right differs from those from business category

and this was the category where I fit into.

(I will talk about the fee later) 

Among above categories, when the male is foreign national

and the spouse as well is foreign national (other than that of Thai national),

they tend to apply under the business category,

and when the spouse is Thai national,

they tend to apply under the spouse category.

Conditions for applying for permanent residency.

First of all, we need to be careful of the conditions that they require.

Requirements are as the following.  

Investment

Must have more than 10 million baht of stock investment.

(Need to have certificate from bank)

Business

[Director’s position]

The company must have registered capital of more than 10 million THB.

Monthly salary must be more than 50,000 THB.

[Employee position]

Must possess work permit for more than 3 years.

Average monthly salary must be more than 80,000 THB.

Family of the Thai national (parent, spouse, child)

When applying under spouse status, the conditions are same as that of “Business” category.

When spouse is director position, the registered capital must be more than 10 million baht

and monthly salary must be more than 50,000 THB.

When the spouse is on employee position, must possess more than 3 years’ work permit and

Monthly salary must be more than 80,000 baht.

Special skill

Must be at least a university graduate and possess skill that can contribute to Thailand.

Among above categories, I haven’t heard that those with special skills applied for permanent residency right

and as the conditions for the application under special skill,

the “skill” that one possesses is not very easy to prove,

I believe that most of them are applying under 3 categories,

i.e. Business, Family of Thai national, Family of person

that has permanent residency rights in Thailand.

Necessary documents for Thai permanent residency rights

Necessary documents are as the following.

And the application is accepted only once in a year.

When I applied in 2011, the submission month was in December and the period was only 5 days.

It is necessary to check the period at the immigration bureau beforehand.

Let me explain on each required documents. 

Health certificate (within 3 months of the application date)

Health certificate must be issued by public hospital and that of private hospitals are not accepted.

I had my checkup at the Police Hospital on Ratchadamri Road.

Check items are the following 6.

Leprosy

Tuberculosis

Drug addiction

Alcohol poisoning

Elephantiasis

Syphilis (Stage 3)

The check items are same as those required for the acquisition of work permit and renewal.

There are blood tests, urine tests and x-rays.

Police certificate (a.k.a. criminal record) 

Requires proof that one has never committed a crime in one’s home country (e.g. Japan in my case).

It will be issued by the diplomatic missions aboard in Thailand.

Required documents are as the following.

1. Application (It is at the Japanese Embassy. Can be downloadable from their homepage)

2. Original passport.

The applicant must visit the diplomatic missions abroad in person.

I had my fingerprint collected at the embassy of Japan in Bangkok in my case.

(To check fingerprints for criminal records)

Family certificate. (Marriage certificate, birth certificate, family register, etc.)

I’ve submitted my family registers in Japan as my status is a spouse.

As the family register is written in Japanese, you cannot submit it as it is.

“Certificate of Family Register Matters (English)” must be issued and translated that into Thai

at the Japanese embassy in Thailand.

And finally, in order to prove that the family register in Thai is correct,

one needs to go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand and have it authenticated.

Alien registration certificate (issued by the police)

Necessary when applying under spouse of Thai permanent residency rights holder.

Those foreign nationals that acquired permanent residency rights,

shall register an alien registration at the police station in the jurisdiction

where the residence registration (Thai: Tabyanbaan) is registered.

Such certificate.

I’ve also registered at the nearest police station

where my residence was registered after obtaining my permanent residency.

Alien registration certificate in Thailand
This is my “Alien registration certificate”

Passport (National ID card in case of spouse of Thai national)

Passport of applicant (me) and my spouse (my husband).

When the spouse is a Thai national, National ID card is required.

Only the passport is required when applying under the Business category.

Housing certificate (Thai: Thabiyanbaan)

Not required for the Business category. (As such do not exist)

It is necessary to submit such when applying under the category of the permanent residency in Thailand

as well as the spouse of Thai national.

In my case I submitted my husband’s Thabiyanbaan.

Education certificate of the applicant

Submission of final education certificate.

Ask your school to issue it in English if possible.

This will also to be certified by the diplomatic mission abroad (I, at the Japanese Embassy),

and then translated into Thai and certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand.

Personal Income Tax and Tax Certificate. (Format: PGD 91, 90)

For business applications, proof of the tax payment.

For spouse application, submit the tax payment certificate of the spouse (in my case, my husband).  

Submit the most recent three years.

The tax payment certificate is a document called Por. Gor. Dor (PGD) 91, 90.

Withholding Income Tax Certificate (Format: PGD 01)

For business applications, proof of the tax payment.

For spouse applications, submit the tax payment certificate of the spouse (in my case, my husband).

Submit the most recent year.

The withholding tax payment certificate is a document called Por. Gor. Dor (PGD) 01.

Corporate Registration Certificate (Ministry of Commerce) or Employment Certificate

In the case of a business application, if one is running one’s own business,

submit a set of company registration documents.

If you are a company employee, ask the company you work for to issue a certificate of employment.

In the case of a spouse application, the spouse’s above documents are required.

In my case, my husband is a company manager,

so I submitted a set of registration documents of my husband’s company.

Submit documents of within 3 months.

Address of one’s current residence, Map of the company

The place of residence must match the residence registration (Thai: Tabiyanbaan).

One do not actually live there, but if it was registered there (or if one wants to register that), draw a map of such.

For the company map, draw a map of the company that you work for and submit.

Curriculum Vitae, Work experience (In Thai language)

Family relationship, abilities, work experience, special abilities, contributions in Thailand, place of work.

Need a photo of where one lives.

I’ve prepared such in A4.

There is a standard format on the website of the Immigration Bureau,

I’ve also filled in the standard format and created by myself and submitted together.

Application form (TM.9)

Submit the specified application (format: TM 9).

Things to keep in mind.

Signature on application forms and materials

Documents related to the applicant and individual must be signed by the applicant.

Corporate documents are signed and stamped by the person

who is authorized to sign by the company.

Police certificate (certificate of non-criminal record)

Apply at a diplomatic mission in Thailand. It takes about a month to receive it.

Count backwards and act once you decide to apply for permanent residency.

Note that you can only use certificates that are less than 3 months old.

Authentication (foreign language documents)

All documents written in foreign languages (other than Thai),

including police certificates (certificates of non-criminal record) (graduation certificates of final educational background, extracts of family registers, etc.)

must be authenticated by diplomatic missions (or consulates) in Thailand.

This procedure is called “certification of seal”.

After receiving the seal certification from the Japanese Embassy (or Consulate) in Thailand,

such shall be translated into Thai.

Finally, all documents must be authenticated by the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Consular Authentication Section).

On receiving the police certificate (certificate of non-criminal record),

I was told at the Embassy of Japan in Thailand not to open it.

However, if you don’t open it, you can’t get a seal certificate,

and you can’t even translate it into Thai.

For the sake of convenience,

“I opened it at the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Authentication Division of the Consular Department),

and I was told that I needed a seal certificate,”

and took the police certificate (certificate of non-criminal record) that

I opened by myself to the Japanese Embassy in Thailand.

If you are unsure, please take the sealed letter to the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Consular Department Authentication Division).

When demanded a bribe

I was not demanded a bribe through the process

but many of the people who applied for the Thai permanent residency rights were sked for bribes.

I was often asked how much they demanded me to give. 

So therefore I did not pay any amount of such

at all.

Most of those people who ask me concerning bribe are

those who are applying for the permanent residence via “agents”.

I don’t think that all of such amount is paid to the officers in charge

but some amount is landing in the pocket of the agent.    

If and when you were demanded for the bribe, I suggest you to ask the followings.

name (full name)

Position (rank)

contact person

Make sure that you ask all these.

And have them put down on a paper the benefit that you will have by paying such amount.

You asking this kind of question will warn them

that you could be a “troublesome person” and such demand may be stopped in most of the cases. 

Permanent residency is reviewed in order of application coming in,

therefore I don’t think there will be a special treatment just because you paid bribe money.

This is just my opinion though.

Fees

The application fee was 7,600 THB in my time.

191,400 THB for Business Application when the permanent residency is granted.

For the Spouse Application, it costs 95,700 THB.

I was thinking whether I should apply for Business or applying for Spouse,

but when I thought about the cost, there was a difference of 100,000 baht,

so I went to apply for the Spouse.

The application for permanent residency in Thailand is also posted in English on the website of the Immigration Bureau.

It is also possible to download formats form there.

(Link to the Thai Immigration Department website)

Today’s topic, how to apply for Thai permanent residency and the necessary documents,

I hope that this article will help those who are looking to apply for permanent residency here in Thailand.

Good Luck!

I do not provide individual answers to specific questions,
so please contact the Thai Immigration Bureau for further details.

TripAdvisor
Thai Permanent Residency

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