Paperwork adventure (Marriage Authentication) and visa extension

[samuttodd]

Ok,

 

Me and my wife were married in Washington State in 2009.  I've got a Marriage license from Clark Co (Wa) stamped and embossed in their offical seal.

 

We'd like to make known our married status to the Samut Sakhon local office.  In the hopes that we may apply for a marriage extension to my 90 day (current) visa. 

  I filed an affidavit with the US Embassy indicating I was indeed married to my wife, and they made it official.

 

We visited the Consulate in BKK  and they stamped their acknowledgement on the affidavit.

 

We took the affidavit to the Samut Sakhon administrative office, and they indicated that they would only accept documentation stamped by the consulate.   The CONSULATE will not accept anything not stamped  by  the US Embassy.

 

 

Herein lies the rub.   The US Embassy will not authenticate the (US)marriage license.  

 

A.) now what?

 

B.) am I still single here?

 

Before we started down this road and were in country here,  we were supposed to be able to change our visa status (while here in Thailand)  from 90 day o type to a marriage extension of 1 year.

[ubonjoe]

Do you mean the Consular Affairs Department of the MFA located on Chaeng Wattana road in Bangkok when you wrote consulate. 

Did you have your marriage certificate and the affidavit from the embassy translated to Thai and have it certified in at the Consular Affairs Department.

The Amphoe should accept the above to register your foreign marriage to get a Kor Ror 22 that immigration requires to apply for a extension of stay. Other have done it using the same documents.

If you need more time you could apply for a 60 day extension to visit your wife. You US marriage certificate will be accepted for it.

 

B. You are not single but your marriage has not been registered.

[samuttodd]

Yes, Consular Affairs Department of the MFA located on Chaeng Wattana road in Bangkok when i wrote consulate. 

 

The affidavit attesting to my marraige to my thai wife has been translated to thai and stamped by the consulate.  The local Samut Sakhon admin indicated that they needed the actual marriage license issued in Washinton state stamped by the US Embassy (The US Embassy will not stamp it for me.)   They will not authenticate it or emboss it.

 

The Consulate also indicated that she was aware that the Embassy would not authenticate it.

[lopburi3]

Suspect you may have to use the official procedure for state issued documents and have authenticated by Department of State.  

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/travel-legal-considerations/internl-judicial-asst/authentications-and-apostilles/authentication-certificate-requirements.html

[samuttodd]

lopburi3, I am confused why I was told that i could extend my 90 day type o visa based on marriage while here in thailand then?

[ubonjoe]

21 minutes ago, samuttodd said:

The affidavit attesting to my marraige to my thai wife has been translated to thai and stamped by the consulate.  The local Samut Sakhon admin indicated that they needed the actual marriage license issued in Washinton state stamped by the US Embassy (The US Embassy will not stamp it for me.)

Others have been able to do the foreign marriage using the affidavit. It seem you local one is being difficult.

You could try doing it at a different Amphoe.

4 minutes ago, samuttodd said:

I am confused why I was told that i could extend my 90 day type o visa based on marriage while here in thailand then?

You can but you need the Kor Ror 22 to do it.

Perhaps you did not mention where you were married when you were told you could do the extension.

[lopburi3]

You can extend 60 days as said above to visit wife - for the one year extension with financials they now require foreign marriage be registered at a local district office and KR22 be shown.  The issue is the local office/MFA requirements to record marriage require authentication that Embassy can not provide (just as they can not provide for income anymore I suspect).  So expect you need to file with Department of State and hope that is accepted.

[samuttodd]

1 minute ago, ubonjoe said:

Others have been able to do the foreign marriage using the affidavit. It seem you local one is being difficult.

You could try doing it at a different Amphoe.

You can but you need the Kor Ror 22 to do it.

Perhaps you did not mention where you were married when you were told you could do the extension.

We were told by the office in Portland that did my 90 day visa.   We showed her our marriage certificate too.

[thainet]

You have one of those 'catch 22' situations.

But to make a one year extension based on marriage, they require the following.

1)Original marriage certificate from your home country 

2)Translation of that certificate into Thai

(both of the above documents MUST be stamped/certified by your Embassy in Bangkok)

3)The MFA will issue a document certifying 1) and 2) above. (RorKor 22)

 

This is enough to get your first extension.

Starting from your 2nd extension you will need all of the above PLUS the updated RK22 from your local amphur to prove you are still married.

I have had been submitting papers to Immigration for over 35 years, and this is the only way.

[ubonjoe]

1 minute ago, samuttodd said:

We were told by the office in Portland that did my 90 day visa.   We showed her our marriage certificate too.

That is would be the honorary consulate there.

I am certain they are not aware of what is needed to apply for an extension of stay at immigration here.

[samuttodd]

Boy,  what a lot of hoops to jump through.  I've got my original marriage certificate with me.  

 

  Apparently the Embassy no longer authenticates marriage licenses/certificates.    Sounds like I am better off trying a different Amphoe then,   maybe they will take my affidavit.

[Kwasaki]

2 minutes ago, thainet said:

This is enough to get your first extension.

Starting from your 2nd extension you will need all of the above PLUS the updated RK22 from your local amphur to prove you are still married.

Couldn't he just register the marriage or get married again in Thailand.

 

I'm off tomorrow to do marriage extension with my now 29 A4 papers, doubled up to making 58.

Remember first time years ago only 8 A4 papers doubled to 16.

We see what extra they want this. ????

[lopburi3]

6 minutes ago, samuttodd said:

Boy,  what a lot of hoops to jump through.  I've got my original marriage certificate with me.  

 

  Apparently the Embassy no longer authenticates marriage licenses/certificates.    Sounds like I am better off trying a different Amphoe then,   maybe they will take my affidavit.

I seriously doubt they will accept anything without MFA seal - even getting married is becoming problematic from reports here without double and triple checking with MFA.

[riclag]

post# 12 made a good point!

Go get a affidavit at the us embassy proclaiming your divorced

Get it translated

Bring it over to the ministry for the stamp

Finally take those papers and your wives and head over to the amphor to get married! Then start the visa process

[ocddave]

If they are playing hardball, then the US State Department method is the way to go, it takes a while though. You need to first get your Original Certified Local Marriage Certificate in the US, then send that to your Home State Secretary of State Department, they will verify the signature/stamp of the local registrar. Then you send the returned documents to the US State Department, who will verify your Home States Secretary of State Department signature/stamp. When that finally comes back, you then send these to the Thai Embassy in Washington DC, and they will verify the signature and stamp of the US Secretary of State Department. When this comes back, the final step is to bring it (it will be a bound/riveted set of about 4 pages) to Thailand and go to the MFA and have them verify the Signature/Stamp of the Thai Embassy in Washington DC.....viola....done. 

 

https://thaiembdc.org/consular-services/legalization/

 

I did mine like UbonJoe, but I have the above as backup just in case Immigration plays hardball in the future, because Technically, this is the only real way to prove what we are trying to do. My wifes friend is married to a US citizen as well, and they couldn't get their marriage registered properly either (same issue as you), thats why I made sure to cover my @ss just in case.

[samuttodd]

I don't get having to do this again in a year?   I mean,  if we are good this time and documented as "married" here in Thailand,    do we seriously have to do the marriage component of the equation at each re-issuing of the 12 mo marriage extension of my visa?   

 

 

[ocddave]

7 minutes ago, samuttodd said:

I don't get having to do this again in a year?   I mean,  if we are good this time and documented as "married" here in Thailand,    do we seriously have to do the marriage component of the equation at each re-issuing of the 12 mo marriage extension of my visa?   

 

 

Just once, you will need a copy of the paperwork for future extensions.

[ubonjoe]

45 minutes ago, samuttodd said:

I don't get having to do this again in a year?   I mean,  if we are good this time and documented as "married" here in Thailand,    do we seriously have to do the marriage component of the equation at each re-issuing of the 12 mo marriage extension of my visa?   

 

You will only need it done once to get a Kor Ror 22 foreign marriage registry.

You may need to get a fresh print out of the Kor Ror 22 to prove you are still married when you apply for a extension. Easy to get for a fee of 20 baht from any Amphoe.

[samuttodd]

Well.  Thanks for all of your help Gentlemen.

[JackThompson]

There are marriage "agents" who have arrangements with amphoes to avoid these issues.  It is possible your amphoe was fishing for a tip - but I personally don't know how to negotiate the "bribe" system here, without legal/criminal risk (and neither did my now-wife), so we ended up using a marriage-agent, after days of "amphoe shopping," to spite all the legit docs (MFA stamped translations, etc).

 

There are a bunch of these agents in Bangkok - usually doubling as translation-shops - and once your marriage is registered at any amphoe (not only near where you live), that hurdle is done.  It's around 10K for getting married, including translations.  Since you already have the translations, and are already married - only needing the KR 22 done - it should be considerably less.