How long does the UK embassy take to authenticate affirmation for marriage?

[mnomad]

So after the sworn declaration and stamping, the translation, and then the legalization of the translation, the district office somehow sends it to UK embassy to authenicate? electronically? postal? how long does this usually take as they wont offer an appointment prior to this

[LoVeFuN]

I waited about a month to get an appointment at the UK Embassy ,Bangkok. Then after getting the affidavit translated and verified into Thai at the MFA , we walked in to the local  Amphoe  and were married in about an hour.

 

The UK Embassy may check your details after your affidavit is issued and if they were untrue then your marriage would presumably be invalid but there was no waiting after your appointment at the Embassy.

[ubonjoe]

The district office does not send the affirmation of permit to marry to any embassy.

You have to do it in person at the embassy and then have it translated to Thai. After that it has to be certified by the Department of Consular Affairs of the MFA in Bangkok.

Go through the steps here about register your marriage. https://www.gov.uk/marriage-abroad

 

Not visa or extension related. Moved to the Marriage and Divorce forum.

[mnomad]

Hi UbonJoe

 

Yes, we did have it translated to Thai (stamps on front), and that has been certified by Department of Consular Affairs (stamps/stickers on back)

 

The bangkok district in sathorn office has said they now take the step of authenticating it with the embassy? One office suggested it can take a few days, another up to a month (bang rak), hence the confusion here, not sure if embassy specifiy. The gf is adamant this step has been specified

[crazykopite]

In 2008 we did it in person at the old BE which I believe is now a shopping mall it took us no more than 2 hours then we had it all translated 1 hour jumped a taxi and 3 hours later we were married now 2022 we are now going through a divorce which can only take place in Thailand 

[RafPinto]

15 minutes ago, crazykopite said:

In 2008 we did it in person at the old BE which I believe is now a shopping mall it took us no more than 2 hours then we had it all translated 1 hour jumped a taxi and 3 hours later we were married now 2022 we are now going through a divorce which can only take place in Thailand 

Copy the government.

 

Say it was all a mistake and that you never wanted to marry.
A wai and 500 baht, problem solved.

[mnomad]

Thanks guys, visited another office this morning with the MFA certified stuff and a tree worth of documentation, and got the same message, although this time it changed from embassy authentication to centralized authentication (I am a third party to the translation so might not be perfect) - so armed with MFA stuff she still said it could take up to 2 months before we get a date for an appointment as they need to send all this off again..

 

Messaged the embassy and they too have seem confused about this, but we are at 5 district offices within Bangkok metropolises that are all referring to another further authentication (that they carry out, unlike the certified translation, and subsequent appointment at MFA for stickers on the back and ems back )

[Kalasin Jo]

Sounds grim. I'm sure we didn't have to do this. Like  another poster has said, when we did this in 2014 a personal attendance at the former BE building, security hassle at the gate, but after that went in in person and  the affirmation of freedom to marry was done either same or next day. Armed with that an agent collared us the moment we exited the Embassy compound and did almost all the rest and we married the day after.

 

I say almost all the rest because what they did not include, as I didn't ask for it, was getting our Thai marriage certificate's English translation legalised, for the purpose of getting my wife a French Schengen visa. Didn't even know this would be needed for the visa at that time.

That required our personal attendance at MoFA, who were very picky about the accuracy of the translation in to English, but we got our MoFA stamp and signature.

To accept a visa application the French Embassy then wanted this to be legalised by the British Embassy, as well as I am British. At first the BE said on the phone that they could not do this. The French Embassy said this was nonsense as they see them frequently. Looking back perhaps the person I asked thought I wanted them to legalise the Thai language document. Still pretty terse, not to explain that. After some research I realised that it's not the document which is legalised anyway but the MoFA stamp and signature of the official on it. Eventually I successfully got a legalisation appointment for that and the BE legalisation stamp and signed sticker on the translation the next day.

All had to be done in person back then. So alot of tooing and froing, and with the queuing at MoFA, early arrival there essential. Haven't had to check current practice either at MoFA or the BE.