Register a California Wedding in Thailand

[Hank Gunn]

Can't seem to find any info on this specific case. My scenario is as follows: I brought my (now) wife to California, US in 2007 on a K-1/fiance visa. We got married in Oct. of that year and after first getting her "green-card" residency, she eventually became a naturalized US citizen. We moved here to Thailand approx. 2 yrs ago (May 2017) thinking I'd be on an extension of stay based on marriage. Went to Thai consulate in LA before we got here to give them a copy of our marriage cert., filled out the docs, then got here and found we needed notarized and translated docs. (Basically the trip to the Thai consulate in LA was almost useless.) I could find no real step-by-step process to do this, only "these are the requirements..." statements (i.e. 400k baht in the bank, etc.) So I ended up changing the a stay based on retirement.

 

Jump ahead 2 yrs and we want to register our Calif. marriage here in Thailand, so we can open a joint bank acct. and just to provide us some more options. (I'm okay with keeping 800K in a term dep. att. for the retirement thing so that's not the issue.) My wife's done some research online and it looks like we'll have to get our US marriage cert. (registered in a county of Calif.) notarized and translated to Thai. We'll then have to get it "certified" by the state of Calif. in Sacramento as well as with the US State Dept. Apparently we can then register the docs with the Thai consulate, who will be doing some kind of outreach/visit to the SF Bay area (where we'll be). We're heading to the US in June/July and I'm hoping we'll have enough time to do all of this.

 

Can anyone confirm this process. I'm quite frustrated as various Google searches all come up with the typical "getting married in Thailand" or "registering your Thai marriage in the US" which is exactly the opposite of what we want to do (even with search terms like "registering a Thai/foreign/Calif. wedding in Thailand"). Basically, we want to get our US/Calif. marriage registered here in Thailand.

 

[ubonjoe]

You will not have to send your marriage certificate to California. You can do a self certification of it at the US embassy or the consulate in Chiang Mai that a  Amphoe will accept.

Quote

Affidavits
Oftentimes the Thai government requests the U.S. Embassy or Consulate General Chiang Mai “certify” documents listed under “services we cannot provide.” Please note the Embassy and Consulate CAN notarize an affidavit which may or may not satisfy the Thai requirement for “certification.”

Source: https://th.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/local-resources-of-u-s-citizens/notaries-public/

Then you will need the affidavit and your marriage certificate translated to Thai and have the translation certified by the Department of Consular Affairs of the MFA in Bangkok.

The you would register your foreign marriage at a Amphoe to obtain a Kor Ror 22 marriage registry that immigration requires to apply for the extension based upon marriage.

[Hank Gunn]

Thanks Joe. (Somehow I knew it would be you who answered this post.) Your post has basically made me re-read the US Embassy's web site and it is much clearer with your explanation. I just have a couple more questions (see the 3rd bullet item).

 

So basically I can:

• Go to the US Embassy in Bangkok (I'm in Buriram, so it's closer/easier for me) fill out an affidavit and have it certified there.
• Get my US marriage cert. and the affidavit translated. 
• Not sure about "...and have the translation certified by the Department of Consular Affairs of the MFA in Bangkok." Two questions about this:
  • What actually is "the Dept. of Consular Affairs of the MFA"? Is it located at/in the US Consulate in Bangkok?
  • After I get both the affidavit and marriage cert. translated, I have to get those docs certified by "the Dept. of Consular Affairs of the MFA". Do they (whoever "they" are) just give the docs a "stamp of approval" for me to then take to my local Amphoe?

After I have all the docs, I should be good to go with the local Amphoe. It's just getting the right docs (i.e. in this case the affidavit) and right translated docs.

 

Sorry, one more questions specific to the affidavit. Will it just be something like, "I Joe Blow and Jane Blow, hereby declare that we were indeed married in Santa Clara County, Calif. USA, on the date stated and I hereby declare that the marriage certificate I am presenting, is a true and legal document as presented to me by the county registrar." (Or something of that nature.)

 

Thanks again.

[Sophon]

The "MFA" is the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in Bangkok they are located at the same government complex as Immigration at Chaeng Watthana. The MFA will check the signatures of the U.S. embassy personnel and will attach a stamp to the translation verifying its authenticity.

 

Sophon

[ubonjoe]

25 minutes ago, Hank Gunn said:

• What actually is "the Dept. of Consular Affairs of the MFA"? Is it located at/in the US Consulate in Bangkok?
• After I get both the affidavit and marriage cert. translated, I have to get those docs certified by "the Dept. of Consular Affairs of the MFA". Do they (whoever "they" are) just give the docs a "stamp of approval" for me to then take to my local Amphoe?

The Consular Affairs Department is part of the Thailand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and  is located on Chaeng Wattana road. I was going to give a link to more info but there site is down. Info can be found here in Thai when it is working again. http://www.consular.go.th/

They do a sticker on the document stating they were seen by them which is the certification.

An easy way to get it done since you in Buriram is to have the translation service get the certification done and have it sent to you by EMS.

Here is a list of translation service near the embassy. https://photos.state.gov/libraries/thailand/231771/acs/translators_internet_service_photographers.pdf

Edit: Forgot this.

Quote

Sorry, one more questions specific to the affidavit. Will it just be something like, "I Joe Blow and Jane Blow, hereby declare that we were indeed married in Santa Clara County, Calif. USA, on the date stated and I hereby declare that the marriage certificate I am presenting, is a true and legal document as presented to me by the county registrar." (Or something of that nature.)

That would work. At one time the embassy a fill in blanks affidavit but it is longer shown on the site.

Edited March 6, 2019 by ubonjoe

[Hank Gunn]

Excellent. Thanks for the clarifying info guys (both Sophon and Ubonjoe). So it looks like the steps are:

1. Go to the US Embassy and fill out an affidavit then have it certified there at the embassy.
2. Get my marriage cert. and the affidavit translated from English to Thai.
3. Take the Thai translations of the marriage cert. and affidavit to the Thai Min. of Foreign Affairs and have them stamp/certify those docs.
4. Use those Thai translated and MFA certified docs to register the marriage at the local Amphoe.

Am I correct with that?

It seems pretty straight forward. I think my wife and I might squeeze in a short trip down to Bangkok later this summer. It's a nice chance to do a little shopping for stuff that's cheaper down there or unavailable up here. (I'll show the http://www.consular.go.th/ site to my wife so she can check it out.)

 

Thanks again for all the info.

[PoorSucker]

45 minutes ago, Hank Gunn said:

 

1. Get my marriage cert. and the affidavit translated from English to Thai.
2. Take the Thai translations of the marriage cert. and affidavit to the Thai Min. of Foreign Affairs and have them stamp/certify those docs

Major translation companies can get the MFA stamp for a fee, don't go yourself, I had a four hour wait first time I did this, when my son was born I paid the translation company 1000 baht including the MFA fee. 

[Hank Gunn]

4 hours ago, PoorSucker said:

Major translation companies can get the MFA stamp for a fee, don't go yourself, I had a four hour wait first time I did this, when my son was born I paid the translation company 1000 baht including the MFA fee. 

Wow, this is great information. Thanks so much.

 

I will check out the translation services that Ubonjoe recommended and ask for that service. If no one on that list/web-site offers it, I'll spread the proverbial net a little wider.

 

Geez, this has all been excellent info and extremely helpful. Thanks again to you all, especially the "oracle of Ubon" ubonjoe. 

[Henricus]

i can be much easy, marry again in Thailand

[ubonjoe]

1 minute ago, Henricus said:

i can be much easy, marry again in Thailand

The would be very hard to do since you have to prove you are not married already to get a affirmation of permit to marry from your embassy.

In reality though it is about the same amount of paperwork for both marriage registrations.

[Hank Gunn]

On 3/7/2019 at 8:05 AM, ubonjoe said:

The would be very hard to do since you have to prove you are not married already to get a affirmation of permit to marry from your embassy.

In reality though it is about the same amount of paperwork for both marriage registrations.

Thanks again Joe. I assumed as much. I will follow the steps you outlined above to get my American marriage registered here. It will allow us more options and not just for my extension of stay but for things like joint banking, etc.

 

Thanks again to all who've given great advice on this.

[johnc925]

Hope your case goes well... we did ours a bit backwards... we married in Oct 2018, and she had a VISA from her airline employment, so we also married in Oakland Jan 2019. I am now looking into applying  for her a green card, based on our (2) marriage certificates.  
 

Any advice on process or fast track recommendations would be much appreciated.  We plan on travelling quite a bit and plan to have residence both in Thailand and US.

[ubonjoe]

2 minutes ago, johnc925 said:

Hope your case goes well... we did ours a bit backwards... we married in Oct 2018, and she had a VISA from her airline employment, so we also married in Oakland Jan 2019. I am now looking into applying  for her a green card, based on our (2) marriage certificates.  

Any advice on process or fast track recommendations would be much appreciated.  We plan on travelling quite a bit and plan to have residence both in Thailand and US.

This the incorrect forum to ask questions about applying for US residency.

Post a topic on this forum. Visas and migration to other countries

[johnc925]

10 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

This the incorrect forum to ask questions about applying for US residency.

Post a topic on this forum. Visas and migration to other countries

Excuse me, but this was a fellow Californian, who has gone through the process there... this isn't going to damage your forum, I trust.

[ubonjoe]

25 minutes ago, johnc925 said:

Excuse me, but this was a fellow Californian, who has gone through the process there... this isn't going to damage your forum, I trust.

If you post on the other forum you may get faster answers to your question or find topics done by others that have done it.

You should note the OP did his  K1 visa 12 years ago. Things have changed since then.

[Hank Gunn]

On 6/24/2019 at 7:50 PM, johnc925 said:

Hope your case goes well... we did ours a bit backwards... we married in Oct 2018, and she had a VISA from her airline employment, so we also married in Oakland Jan 2019. I am now looking into applying  for her a green card, based on our (2) marriage certificates.  
 

Any advice on process or fast track recommendations would be much appreciated.  We plan on travelling quite a bit and plan to have residence both in Thailand and US.

Hey John, sorry for the late reply. I'm back in Calif. now (arrived on Mon.) and have been busy with some family business along with some other things. UbonJoe is correct in that some of my data points may not be as relevant today. But I can give a few pieces of advice and let you know what we did.

 

As I originally mentioned, I brought my wife over to the US on a K1/Fiance visa. To do that I used an excellent immigration attorney who I can highly recommend. Her name is Christine Brigagliano of VB Law. She/they were expensive but worth every penny in my book. She also attended my wife's interview (with me as well) at the US Immigration office when we went for my wife's green card/permanent residency. I would recommend hiring an attorney for this step as if it doesn't work, you'll have start the process over.

 

My understanding is, at least for the US green card, is that the Thai wedding may not be all that useful if you have a US marriage certificate. Having said that, a good immigration attorney would know that for sure.

 

No matter what you do, assuming you're able to get a green card for your wife, I'd definitely pursue US citizenship for her. I can't tell you how nice it is for us to travel and for my wife to be able to use her US passport wherever we go, and to then use her Thai passport when we return to Thailand. After two years in Thailand, we're now considering living part time in here in Thailand and part time in the US, although that is probably a few years off and very tentative right now. The point is, that move is made so much easier with my wife's US passport/citizenship.

 

Good luck!