Marrying with dual citizenship

[crabformer]

I am looking to get married in Thailand and have everything set. However I have an issue that I am a dual citizen and hold a passport for the US and for Germany. I want to marry using the US passport however I have traveled to Thailand with my German passport and thus have my visa and work permit tied to this nationality. Is this ok for getting married? We plan to do CR1 visa to go to the US but I am not sure if there will be complications if I married with my German passport.

[cmarshall]

What does getting married have to do with your passport?  Your passport does not appear on the marriage certificate issued by the amphur nor is the marriage itself recorded in your passport.  Your passport only becomes involved if you subsequently get a Thai non-immigrant "O" visa based on marriage.  That visa gets entered into your passport, but that has nothing to do with your wife's application for a CR-1 visa for her to enter the US, so it doesn't matter if your non-Imm "O" visa is entered into your US or German passport.  

[crabformer]

Thanks for you answer I am however more worried about something else not really related to visa. Nationality is recorded in Marriage Certificate. Im more worried US will not accept this as proof, when i submit CR1 and I provide a marriage certificate saying my wife is married to German national (not a US citizen) even though I do have US citizenship.

When checking if I can marry using my US passport I was told I have to use the passport I am in Thailand with.

[GinBoy2]

4 hours ago, crabformer said:

Thanks for you answer I am however more worried about something else not really related to visa. Nationality is recorded in Marriage Certificate. Im more worried US will not accept this as proof, when i submit CR1 and I provide a marriage certificate saying my wife is married to German national (not a US citizen) even though I do have US citizenship.

When checking if I can marry using my US passport I was told I have to use the passport I am in Thailand with.

Hmm I get where you are coming from here.

 

The fact that German passport number will be recorded on the marriage document could be an issue, but I'm not an immigration attorney, and God knows I don't fully comprehend the machinations of USCIS.

 

Now my gut feeling would say do a quick border run, then re-enter using your US passport as a tourist, get married, then another border run and re-enter with your German passport which I assume has your visa.

 

That I think would work, since you currently entered on a German passport and would leave on it.

 

You would enter on a US passport and would leave on it.

 

Then enter on the German one that you exited on in step one

[StevieAus]

1 hour ago, GinBoy2 said:

Hmm I get where you are coming from here.

 

The fact that German passport number will be recorded on the marriage document could be an issue, but I'm not an immigration attorney, and God knows I don't fully comprehend the machinations of USCIS.

 

Now my gut feeling would say do a quick border run, then re-enter using your US passport as a tourist, get married, then another border run and re-enter with your German passport which I assume has your visa.

 

That I think would work, since you currently entered on a German passport and would leave on it.

 

You would enter on a US passport and would leave on it.

 

Then enter on the German one that you exited on in step one

I am curious as to how and where you could “ do a quick border run” considering, unless the situation has changed recently, that most land borders are closed.

With the requirements for leaving and re entering the country by air such as quarantine that again is hardly going to be quick.

[dxrdxr]

The US government does not care about dual citizenship, there are no laws or regulations against it (they will suggest that it can be a problem in other countries so they don’t recommend it).

 

When your wife applies for a US visa, as her husband/sponsor simply show the US Immigration officials both of your passports. So they will have a clear link of Wife to marriage certificate, marriage certificate to German passport, German passport to you, and you to US passport. Thus wife is married to US citizen.

 

They won’t care and there will be no impact of you having 2 passports. The only rule is that you MUST enter the US using your US passport.

 

Thai government/immigration  is likely to not want to deal with 2 passports. Most governments treat a person as solely the citizenship of the passport that they entered the country on. For example, if you get put in jail the US government has no consular right to help you, only the German government has that right.

 

[dsj]

One thing you can do, is when you have to get the permission to marry form notarized at your Embassy do it at the US Embassy and not  the German Embassy.

[mikosan]

I am a dual citizen of the UK and Australia.  I have also made enquiries with regards to getting married and been informed that yes, I do have to use the passport on which I entered Thailand, and in which I have my visa, that being my Australian one.  It is necessary to have that verified by the Australian Embassy, then translated into Thai and together with other paperwork, including proof that you are able to get married, i.e. evidence of divorce, if you were previously married, certified by your embassy and also translated, then you present this to the relevant department in Bangkok.

 

It is of no relevance to the Australian or UK authorities which passport I use, but from the point of view of transferring a pension, which is my concern, it is important that the marriage is registered correctly at the local ampur, in the area in which you live.

 

I do not have to hand all the minutiae, but there are a number of useful and informative websites and some very helpful information on the Australian Embassy website which was of assistance to me, so there may be the same on either or both of the US and German Embassy websites. 

 

This is one such website that I found useful and discusses the issues in layman's terms.

 

https://www.thethailandlife.com/married-thailand-diy-day# 

[ericthai]

8 hours ago, StevieAus said:

I am curious as to how and where you could “ do a quick border run” considering, unless the situation has changed recently, that most land borders are closed.

With the requirements for leaving and re entering the country by air such as quarantine that again is hardly going to be quick.

you wouldn't be able to do a passport swap at a land boarder anyway. Immigration will want to see your exit stamp and wont allow you show an exit stamp in one passport and then use another passport. You would need to fly out. 

 

Have you wife make some calls, this is Thailand rules aren't always followed... a little gift can go a long way.

[cmarshall]

Just FYI even for a Thai citizen the conditions of her stay in Thailand are determined by the passport she uses to enter.  If, for some reason, she were to enter Thailand using her US passport and receives a tourist 30-day stamp, she would have to leave the country at the end of the thirty days and re-enter.   

[LukKrueng]

14 hours ago, StevieAus said:

I am curious as to how and where you could “ do a quick border run” considering, unless the situation has changed recently, that most land borders are closed.

With the requirements for leaving and re entering the country by air such as quarantine that again is hardly going to be quick.

You can't switch passports on land crossing. You must enter the neighbouring county with the same passport you left the first county

[StevieAus]

6 hours ago, ericthai said:

you wouldn't be able to do a passport swap at a land boarder anyway. Immigration will want to see your exit stamp and wont allow you show an exit stamp in one passport and then use another passport. You would need to fly out. 

 

Have you wife make some calls, this is Thailand rules aren't always followed... a little gift can go a long way.

It’s not for me I was responding to the post where it suggested he do a” quick border run”

I was suggesting it couldn’t be done.

[jackdd]

On 6/23/2021 at 3:15 PM, GinBoy2 said:

Now my gut feeling would say do a quick border run, then re-enter using your US passport as a tourist, get married, then another border run and re-enter with your German passport which I assume has your visa.

 

That I think would work, since you currently entered on a German passport and would leave on it.

 

You would enter on a US passport and would leave on it.

 

Then enter on the German one that you exited on in step one

Did you miss that there is a global pandemic going on, land borders are closed, entering Thailand means 14 days quarantine, and so on? "quick border run", nice joke.

[thaibeachlovers]

On 6/22/2021 at 11:36 PM, crabformer said:

I want to marry using the US passport however I have traveled to Thailand with my German passport and thus have my visa and work permit tied to this nationality. Is this ok for getting married?

Been in that situation and wasn't accepted for getting married in Bangkok. I did get married in Pattaya, but I think my wife must have bribed them or something.

 

[thaibeachlovers]

On 6/24/2021 at 6:43 AM, ericthai said:

you wouldn't be able to do a passport swap at a land boarder anyway. Immigration will want to see your exit stamp and wont allow you show an exit stamp in one passport and then use another passport. You would need to fly out. 

 

Have you wife make some calls, this is Thailand rules aren't always followed... a little gift can go a long way.

I used to exit Britain on a British passport and enter Thailand on my home country passport if staying on visa exempt entry, but that's a different situation from a land border, as you point out.