If you can ride a bike the test is easy. To be fully legal you need a Thai license or international license but to be honest no license at all is ok if you don’t mind being fined 400b if stopped but this is a rare occasion!

The only thing you need to buy the bike is your passport, the residence letter from immigration and the money. You don’t need a license, Thai or otherwise.

To get the residence certificate as I explained in an earlier post is obtained from the immigration office in Samui. You’ll need, your passport, an address,( yours or a friends) and 500b and possibly a passport pic. It takes an hour.

It sounds complicated and daunting but it’s really simple in practice. Just remember the most important rule ; don’t hand over any cash till your name is in the book 🙂

Oh and while you’re in Samui doing the name change, get yourself a Thai license at the same time.. Ching Ching 100% legal.. plus it’s quite a laugh doing the tests and will make a good story when you go home.. 🙂

Ummm cos he lives in Samui / phangan?? He never mentioned Bangkok in his op??

Yes that’s what you need to do.

The process is ;

1. Find a bike.

2. Agree a price.

3. Go to Samui immigration and get residence certificate with your tourist visa.

4, go to land transport office with the seller, hand in docs and book and pay any outstanding tax plus fines and have bike inspected.

5. When they are happy and have put your name in the book, give the seller the cash.

6. Go celebrate that you now own a bike legally.

A word on taxes and this is IMPORTANT!!! If the taxes haven’t been paid for more than 3 years ( this is stamped in the book every year when they are paid) the bike effectively doesn’t have a green book as the fines and tea money to be paid to bring them up to date will be very high, as in more than the value of the bike. This is why there are so many bikes without a book. If the seller is genuine they will understand that no money changes hands till your name is in the book. Trust me when I say that if you part with your money without your name in the book you may as well throw the book away or just save yourself the hassle and buy a bookless bike. Apparently there are “agents” who can do it all for you but I don’t know where they are but if you’re in phangan you could try the building to the right of big c ( looks like a car weigh station and behind is the cement factory) as I believe they do annual tax for vehicles. But even if an agent does it for you, you don’t hand over cash until your name is in the book.

No problem. 🙂

And once you have the residence certificate, go to the land transport office in Samui with the bike seller, full in the forms, and hand them in. Once they check all the paperwork and check that ALL the taxes are up to date AND your name is in the book, then and ONLY then pay the seller and drive off on your new toy.

Why would you want to use it for somewhere else if you live in Samui? As we all know immigration at each office have their own rules and this is The rules in Samui. I can only comment on this as this is where I live, well, phangan actually.

Yes, you take your passport with tourist visa to Samui immigration and give them an address and about 500b. Takes an hour. And they will give you a residence certificate valid for one month I think. When I did mine last year for a car I just wrote the address on a piece of paper for them. If you have a house contract all well and good but they didn’t want to see mine. Don’t do it if you only have a week or two left on the visa. Best to do it when you have a fresh. Visa.

500b in Samui. Need an address, ( yours or a friend, just write it on a paper),500b, and possibly a photo. Takes an hour.

Told ya! Glad you didn’t have problem.. happy days..