My own experiences on Marriage Registration and apply Non-O visa in Bangkok

[damen]

Hey guys, just want to share my experiences. 

I read many people wrote lots of bad experience of marriage registration in Thailand (Bangkok) however I found out it is quite easy to do it by yourself and it is not as bad as what other people say. 

1) I went to my embassy morning 8:30 AM to get embassy to obtain an Affirmation of Freedom to marry in Bangkok (my embassy require to get criminal clearance, proof of income from my home country *different country, different requirement). I collected back my freedom of marry paper on the very same day 1 PM. (Paid around 400 baht)

 

2) Went to Cheang Wattana MFA on the very same day 3 PM, found some freelance worker doing translation service at ground level (looks doggy, however, is a police officer station over there recommend us and I guess is still trustable). Gave him my Freedom of marriage cert, passport, photocopy passport with embassy stamp, wife id card, and taben-ban photocopy. He told me that he will translate and give directly to the MFA relevant department. He told us it will take up to 3 days, we collect back those paper from the same guy on Tuesday morning. (The service he charges, Translation per piece 400 baht + help us to send & collect 300 Baht) Total I paid 2,500 baht including admin fees.

3) After collecting MFA certify papers, we went to Suan Luang Amphur (it was the closest Amphur which my wife family stays), however, the Amphur told us due to their limited knowledge on doing farang marriage, the document may take up to 1 week to process. They recommend us to do in bigger Amphur like Bang Rak Amphur. So we called Bang Rak Amphur and told us to come before 7 AM as they will only give out queue number up to 10 couple a day. 

We arrived at Bang Rak Amphur on Wednesday morning 6:30 AM to get our queue (3), apparently, there are people queue up since 5 AM just to make sure they can get their paperwork done. The procedure is easy, they require 2 witnesses and 1 translator. The translator can be one of a relative from my wife, as we only bring 2 family member tag along. I see that most of the farangs hired ''professional law service or agents'' which cost up to 50k which kinda silly.     

The process can be tiring of waiting as each queue will take 90 mins. We waited around 11 AM, a process takes for 90 mins. Mostly doing nothing, just looking at the staff typing the documents. Translation is kind of silly, as there is just a few sentence to translate so if you ask me to pay money for a professional translator, I will tell you that is silly. 

We paid 40 baht for the cert itself, 500 baht for their folder which kept the cert in it (optional) and we are out from Bang Rak Amphur around 1 PM.


to be continue (applying Non-O Visa)  

[recom273]

It’s interesting to hear how complicated the process has become at bang rak.

 

We got married 8 years back, sure, people got there early, 7.00-8.00, hand the papers over at the door reception. sit and waited in a queue.

 

The witness process was, the couple who were sat waiting for the next ceremony and some random office worker walking past that signed your papers, we did it for the guys ahead of us, I hope no one looked closely the guys ahead of us have M. Mouse as one of their witness. 

 

All perfectly acceptable.

 

10 couples a day? What would these people do if they ever got a real job. It’s not like they do any work in the afternoon is it? 

 

 

[prism]

Congrats on your marriage. My experience a few years ago was similar to yours although we were able to pickup the MFA certified papers the next day and they weren't limiting the queue numbers at Bang Rak. The folder they sell you is quite nice and worth buying IMO. I had a friend that registered his marriage about the same time at another Amphur, naturally they found all kinds of issues with their documents. He had to pay 6,000 baht to clear it up. Definitely recommend Amphur Bang Rak if you need to register a marriage.