There has been that much hoo ha and confusion regarding Marriage requrements in LOS, how about if we post this and possibly pin it for future reference. It's an old document I obtained from Oz Embassy, the fees may be out a bit and but in essence it's correct.

It quotes 2 days for processing but you can get around this by using an agency.

STEPS FOR REGISTERING A MARRIAGE IN THAILAND

Under Thai law, for a marriage to be legally recognised the parties must be registered at what is called the Amphur (registrar's office). Each district in Thailand has it's own Amphur.

If either party is a foreigner, the Amphur requires authenticated copies of a passport, a completed statutory declaration translated into Thai and the documents mentioned in paragraph 2 below, if appropirate. Statutory declaration forms are available at the Consular Section of the Embassy. The following steps should be taken to register a marriage:

1. Complete the statutory declaration and have your signature witnessed by the Consular or the Vice Consul. You must present your Australian passport as proof of identity. Thefee is $20 (approximately Baht 470).

(The Embassy only accepts Thai Baht as payment for services.)

2. Have the statutory declaration translated into Thai at a translation agency.

If one of the parties,, or both, have been married before, you must have

also have your original? divorce certificate or the original death certificate

of your spouse translated into Thai. The Embassy does not provided a

translation service.

3. After the documents have been translated they must be authenticated by:

The Legalisation Division

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Department of Consular Affairs

123 Moo 3, ChangW~itana Road

Kwang Toong Son Hong, Khet Laksi

Bangkok

Tel. 5751061,5751057

Ofifbe hours: 08:30 ? 15:30

The Legalisation Division requires copies of the statutory declaration and the translation, as well as a copy of your passport details. There is an application fee and it takes two days to complete.

When you have completed the above requirements, you should go to an Amphur Office to register the marriage. You should take with you the above documents, your passport and an interpreter to facilitate communication with the Amphur officials (This is generally required if neither party can speak Thai). It is important that you make an appointment before proceeding to the Amphur.

*Please note that if you wish to sponsor your spousefor migration to Australia you should contact the Immigration Section (Visa Section) of the Embassy and not the Consular Section.

Hope this helps clear some of the confusion.

My fiance wants the wedding at home with her family and village. So I was thinking of doing this but having a celebrant in australia marry us also and register the marriage here before or after the thai wedding while holding a fiance visa.

I can't see any problem with that. can you?

My fiance wants the wedding at home with her family and village. So I was thinking of doing this but having a celebrant in australia marry us also and register the marriage here before or after the thai wedding while holding a fiance visa.

I can't see any problem with that. can you?

The only legal marriage is one done at the Amphur office. The village affair is nice for the family, but it isn't a valid marriage ( notwithstanding the presence of monks there )

My Thai wife and I married in Australia, we later had a posh wedding in Bangkok for the family, all the bells and whistles and 9 monks, but we didn't register the marriage there because we were already legally married.

The Thai wedding was very necessary for the family, but had nothing to do with legalities.

The Thai customs are strong and this marriage was seen by the family as the true marriage, but the legal people don't see it at all.

You are married in Australia by a legal process therefore you are married in LOS.

The Amphur method is the legal process in LOS.

Under Thai law, for a marriage to be legally recognised the parties must be registered at what is called the Amphur (registrar's office). Each district in Thailand has it's own Amphur.

I don't want to / won't get into lengthy debate on the issue but I will ask just one question!!

If it is necessary for a marriage (legal solemised narriage in another country) to be registered at an Amphur to be legally recognised in Thailand why then will the courts in Thailand accept an application for a divorce when the only documentation is the "marriage licence and marriage certificate" which was never registered at any Amphur in Thailand.

I appreciate that there are many vagaries to be found in Thailand and perhaps the court slipped up. But they did accepted the fee and the divorce process duly commenced.

I don't recommend this path to a divorce as it will take more than a year and several court appearances before it is finalised.

Under Thai law, for a marriage to be legally recognised the parties must be registered at what is called the Amphur (registrar's office). Each district in Thailand has it's own Amphur.

I don't want to / won't get into lengthy debate on the issue but I will ask just one question!!

If it is necessary for a marriage (legal solemised narriage in another country) to be registered at an Amphur to be legally recognised in Thailand why then will the courts in Thailand accept an application for a divorce when the only documentation is the "marriage licence and marriage certificate" which was never registered at any Amphur in Thailand.

I appreciate that there are many vagaries to be found in Thailand and perhaps the court slipped up. But they did accepted the fee and the divorce process duly  commenced.

I don't recommend this path to a divorce as it will take more than a year and several court appearances before it is finalised.

I think you're missing the point...

This JUST relates to people who got married in Thailand, where the Thai wedding ceremony with monks etc. is effectively just a ceremony and has no legal bearing on whether or not you're married in law. So, you need the registration at the amphur to get married HERE.

If you have a legal wedding abroad, you are married as far as Thailand is concerned. You don't have to register a marriage in another country at the Amphur.

I posted this document as a kind of check list for people that require Amphur Registration of Marriage, I really didn't mean it as a discussion thread but here we go again.

George can we pin it somewhere as a reference, when I get to BKK will get current documents and possibly we can pin them somewhere too.

As I have posted elsewhere, the ceremonies with the monks and the pouring water over the hands ceremony should be regarded as blessings on the relationship and NOT as a wedding.

You can have the wedding registered at the amphur without any other ceremonies at all and be legally married, although her family won't be happy and might not consider you to be married. But in the eyes of Thai law and and your home country's law you are married.

Conversely you can have all the ceremonies you want with monks chanting, village elders chanting and then later pouring of gallons of water over your hands and you can wear all the beautiful costumes and suits you want and still not be married in the eyes of the law, simply because the two of you didn't go to the amphur to register the wedding.

Derek

Bronco,

Good article to clrify what is normal for a wedding to occur. The only thing missing is the bit where if you pay extra at the MFA they will authorise the translation in 2 hours, so same day marriages are possible without the use of agents.

Everyone also please note, there was no where in that outline which stated the translation had to be notorised/stamped or any other form of cash generation to make it acceptable. Mine was done (for a fee) but they forgot to sign the document. When we got to the MFA they pointed this out and told my (then) gf that she could sign it as the translator and it would be acceptable. She did, they accepted and we got it back fully stamped by the MFA. The Amphur took it, changed it, married in about 20 mins.

It's just an Info document handed out by the Consular Section at the Oz Embassy to prospective Brides and Grooms. As I said the fees are probably wrong and payment details changed, but is a guide. I scanned it into PC and was surprised at the spelling mistakes (which I left) in it.

I have another on getting the police clearance which I will post soon and would like to put them into a pinned reference section (admins what do you think ?)