Married To Thai In UK. How To Get Ext. Based On Marriage.

[MUSTYJACK]

We were married in the UK, after which I obtained a Non O and a Retirement extension and we lived in Thailand.

 

I have never had an extension based on Marriage.

 

Been back in the UK for 2 years now thanks to Covid, and my Non O and Retirement extension has expired.

 

We want to return to Thailand and I will obtain a Non O from the Thai Embassy here and then after arrival apply for an extension based on Marriage.

 

I can fulfil all the money requirements etc. but am confused as to the paperwork and procedures requiredto obtain the Marriage extension.

 

Could someone kindly explain the procedure as we would like to be able to arrange all the paperwork correctly and to be able to do this as painlessly as possible without having documents refused because of some oversight on our part.

 

e.g.

1. UK marriage licence, will it need legalising and apostilling in the UK ,or will certification at the British Embassy in BKK and a  translation be sufficient? 

If it needs to be legalised in the UK, then will it need taking to the Thai embassy here in the UK  for further authentication or will the UK legalising be accepted at the MFA in Bangkok. 

 

2. Bank statements to verify income ... can they be print-outs from online banking or do they need to be bank supplied, and if so will they need authenticating before presenting them in Thailand.

 

We have had previous dealings with MFA Chaeng Wattana  when a surname change was done, and found them, and also the officials at Amphur, to be friendly, efficient and helpful ......  so long as the requested paperwork was correct in every respect.

 

Thanks in advance for any information and advice.

Edited February 11, 2022 by metisdead
ALL CAPS removed from topic title.

[ubonjoe]

1. It has to be legalized in the UK and by the Thai embassy in London. Procedure is in this file from the UK embassy,

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/714089/Legalisation_info_June_2018.pdf

The  next step after arriving here is to have your marriage certificate translated to Thai and then the translation certified by the Department of Consular Affairs' of the MFA in Bangkok.

Then you will have to register your foreign marriage at a Amphoe to get a Kor Ror  22 marriage registry that is required by immigration to apply a extension of stay based upon marriage. Best to contact the Amphoe about what their requirements are.

2. You will need 400k baht in a Thai bank  for 2 months in you name only or proof of a few months of transfers amounting to at least 40k baht from abroad to apply for the one year extension.

[Thalueng]

2 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

1. It has to be legalized in the UK and by the Thai embassy in London. Procedure is in this file from the UK embassy,

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/714089/Legalisation_info_June_2018.pdf

The  next step after arriving here is to have your marriage certificate translated to Thai and then the translation certified by the Department of Consular Affairs' of the MFA in Bangkok.

Then you will have to register your foreign marriage at a Amphoe to get a Kor Ror  22 marriage registry that is required by immigration to apply a extension of stay based upon marriage. Best to contact the Amphoe about what their requirements are.

2. You will need 400k baht in a Thai bank  for 2 months in you name only or proof of a few months of transfers amounting to at least 40k baht from abroad to apply for the one year extension.

There are more documents required for the application, such as tabien baan (blue book) of your wife, a map to your house in Thailand, photos showing you and your wife in front of and in the house, bank document confirming your 400k have been in the account on your name for min. 2 months, copy of bank book updated on the day of application, and copies of several pages of your passport which you best do at the immigration office's copy shop.

[ubonjoe]

29 minutes ago, Thalueng said:

There are more documents required for the application,

I am aware of that but I chose to answer the the OP's questions first.

[Formaleins]

3 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

I am aware of that but I chose to answer the the OP's questions first.

Be prepared fpr some real circus hoop jumping, when desling with the ministry if of foreign sffairs, translations, copies, psrentns birth crts. etc. I used an agent in tye end it was so much hassle, and even then took more than 6 months. good luck - Question for you, why not marry in Thailand abd go the oppositr route?

[ubonjoe]

7 minutes ago, Formaleins said:

Be prepared fpr some real circus hoop jumping, when desling with the ministry if of foreign sffairs, translations, copies, psrentns birth crts. etc. I used an agent in tye end it was so much hassle, and even then took more than 6 months. good luck - Question for you, why not marry in Thailand abd go the oppositr route?

Not what you were doing that required all of that. Parents birth certificates are not needed to register a foreign marriage.

He is in the UK so he can get most of it done before leaving.

 

[brewsterbudgen]

30 minutes ago, Formaleins said:

 good luck - Question for you, why not marry in Thailand abd go the oppositr route?

He's already married!!

[Crossy]

Follow @ubonjoe's link.

 

I would also get your birth certificate (get the long form with your parent's names), you (probably) won't need it for the marriage registration but whilst you are running the gauntlet of your local ampur office you might as well get a yellow book and pink ID.

 

I helped a mate through the process last year, he was already in Thailand so things were rather more complicated, you can read the saga here

 

 

 

[MUSTYJACK]

Thanks very much for the replies.  

 

 If the paperwork is not too onerous, and it doesn't seem to be, then I will register the UK marriage in Thailand and apply for an extension based on that, rather than "marry" again in Thailand which would probably entail an equivalent amount of paperwork anyway.

 

  Our marriage certificate was certified and apostilled at the Foreign and Commonwealth office UK, the apostille was then further certified as genuine by the Thai Embassy in London and the whole bloody shabang even further certified and stamped as kosher at the MFA at Chaeng Wattana. That was all done in 2018 when my wife changed her surname and I assume that those certifications from 2018 are still valid today.

 

Can I enter Thailand on a 30 day visa exempt tourist thingy at the airport, then extend for another 30 days and during that second 30 days change to a Non O at an immigration office, or are Non Os only given abroad, i.e. outside of Thailand. I am trying to avoid the insurance requirements necessary for those on O-A visas. (I don't mean the Covid insurance necessary to enter the country)

 

And what exactly is the Pink Card, and what benefits does it offer. I already have a yellow book in my name for the condo we jointly own. My wife has her own Blue book.

 

Once again, thanks for the help. It used to be so simple, these days its a real headache,

[ubonjoe]

6 minutes ago, MUSTYJACK said:

Our marriage certificate was certified and apostilled at the Foreign and Commonwealth office UK, the apostille was then further certified as genuine by the Thai Embassy in London and the whole bloody shabang even further certified and stamped as kosher at the MFA at Chaeng Wattana. That was all done in 2018 when my wife changed her surname and I assume that those certifications from 2018 are still valid today.

It seems you did the foreign marriage registry then. Do you have a Kor Ror 22 that the Amphoe issued.

The Kor Ror 22 will be need to apply for non-o visa based upon your marriage and for the one year extension immigration.

You can enter visa exempt and apply for the non-o visa.

 

[MUSTYJACK]

Quote

It seems you did the foreign marriage registry then. 

 

No, we didnt, as far as I know, register our marriage. 

 

The reason we certified our marriage certificate is because my wife has both a Thai passport and a UK passport, the Thai passport is in her maiden surname, and the UK passport in her married surname. 

 

At renewal time for her UK passport, they asked if she had a Thai passport  and wanted sight of it, they would not renew her UK passport unless either she renounced her Thai nationality or that the surnames on both passports were the same. (The question of having a Thai passport never came up on her previous UK passport renewal.) So, she could either change her married name back to her maiden name in the UK, or change her maiden name to her married name in Thailand and get a new ID card and then apply for a new Thai passport in that name, and only then could she renew her UK passport seeing as the surnames would now be  the same in both passports.

 

She chose to change her Thai surname, and we completed the procedure in 2018. Part of that process was providing a marriage certificate to prove her married surname, and that is why we already have a certified marriage certificate.

 

I think that the passport  policy has now changed as we know Thais in the UK who have renewed their UK passports despite having  a different surname on their Thai passport.

 

Changing a Thai surname cannot be done outside of Thailand and as we were in the UK at the time it necessitated a hastily arranged trip to Thailand.

 

We went to our MP in the UK to complain about this ridiculous and bureaucracy heavy requirement, but the reply from the jobsworths at the home office was that the policy  was due to "national security concerns", "money laundering" and "ID fraud" and of course "we are sorry, but no exceptions could be made, you will just have to travel to Thailand before your UK passport runs out and jump through all the hoops that we and the Thais make for you".

 

As you can probably gather I am no fan of bureaucracy and the intransigence of the faceless deskbound jobsworths that execute these rules and that is why I have asked for help here, in order to ensure as much as possible that the process is as painless as possible. 

 

I seem to remember that I either did a thread about the surname change procedure, or answered another poster with the same surname dilemma in 2018 or 2018. Yes, here it is.

 

https://aseannow.com/topic/985523-british-dual-nationals-asked-to-change-names-when-applying-for-a-new-british-passport/page/3/#comment-13299954

Edited February 11, 2022 by MUSTYJACK

[TimF]

I got my Kor Ror 22 last week.

 

For the bit in the UK I used a company called Vital Consular. They will handle the legalisation in the UK including Thai Embasdy in London. You can do it yourself but they offer a simple one stop shop for any document.

 

The "official" agent for translation at the MFA has moved and there is a booking system at MFA. No walk ins now. I did a full update on location of translation shop, costs etc on this thread ,(the second to last comment is my full update)