Alex:
1. In your first post you made no mention of residency proof for the seller. That is why I listed it. Depending on the office, it may not be needed - but for the sake of one more copy it would be good for him to have.
2. In your first post, you did state that you needed a work permit or a yellow book to register the bike in your name. Now you do mention the residency form that I listed in my post.
3. Colin just got one last week here in Chiang Mai. He was able to do so with a copy of a yellow book and a passport copy of the yellow book owner. No signed form required. Again, we all know about the variances office to office.
4. I sold a bike earlier this year to someone here on a 30 day stamp. Immigration would not issue the residence form, But he was able to get one at the British Consulate here using a photocopy of a yellow book. Cost was almost 3000 baht.
5. CRFR was "led to believe the plates from another province need to be handed in and some sort of application made in my home province" - not that he wanted to or had to. I have transferred bikes registered in other provinces, and the plate stays with the bike. I know several riders that live here and have registered bikes here that have Bangkok plates. I have never heard of any sale where they confiscate the plate if you register it in a different province. Might be a Surin proceedure - lucky you :-)
I am getting confused...you say no yellow book needed but then your examples talk about forms obtained with yellow book, residence proof obtained with copy of yellow book???
The yellow book is a proof of residence.
We can discuss this at nauseoum but bottom line is that the law is pretty much the same all over Thailand with some little differences from province to province as it is a provincial matter. Many exceptions can be bought...maybe some dude was able to fandangle something with the embassy but it is certainly not the rule and I always avoid mentioning exceptions like these because you end up getting people in trouble. Too many people end up "screwed" because they follow some shady advise of an exception that might have worked for 3,000baht once BUT IS NO LONGER POSSIBLE because nowdays transactions are better monitored and nobody wants to get caught.
Residency forms of the seller are USUALLY not required and in the few exception I have seen so far ONLY if the seller was not Thai. I have also already seen a transaction where the DMV insisted of having the seller present to complete the transfer. I am sure that some irregularity triggered that request, nothing more.
Again, it is best to ask the DMV where the transfer will occur to hand the relevant forms they want to see filled and ask what copies they require, that is the safest bet to have all complete forms and formalities.
As for the form, Yes I added in the form that one can obtain from immigration, which is an equivalent to a yellow book, and yes I had forgotten to mention it...but that form needs to be backed up by a tabian baan form a thai resident. Obtaining a yellow book is quicker and easier and comes with added benefits. I don't know if you were referring to the same form because you cannot just walk into an immigration office and ask for that form, you do need a thai person with his/her tabian baan to sign otherwise you CANNOT get that form.
I only kept the license plate of the original province on one of my bikes...all my other bikes I bought I transferred to the province I was residing at the time I bought them (Phuket, Bangkok, Surin) and everytime I did get a new license plate in my name for the province where I did register the transfer, with a number of my choosing I may add.
BTW nobody ever said anything about confiscated plates and obligation to switch, BUT low and behold, that obligation to transfer to the province of residence might just become a new law in the near future, just to give you some thumbs up on what some of the new transfer rules under discussion are...
Of course one can do the transfer in the same province and leave the "original" plates on the bike (has always been and still is, may change in the future, may not, but for now)...any buyer's choice. nobody ever disputed that. Personally I prefer to reregister and get a local plate like most thai people do, as I said, attracts less attention and comes with benefits.
Furthermore, I have never herd of any DMV transferring a vehicle into a buyers name without the proper 2 forms dated and signed. In your example you mentioned about Colin, the DMV people, as they often do in some cases, filled and filed the forms using the info from the passport and yellow book of the seller, as simple as that.
anyway you indicate that the form you talk about is the same I know about...and btw the swiss embassy, god bless their corrupt hooker souls, would not issue a proof of residence for a Thai address. Tested and tried...maybe the brits are different...we know you are but maybe the embassy has different rules, it seems they will help you stay with a fake proof of address but they wouldn't for the love of god ever help you go back home...
