Just a note letting members know I found new uses for the US Embassy notarized marriage affidavit.

 

Seemed like such a waste - $50 for an embassy notary stamp when my county clerk back home will notarize for $5, and translation and legalization only came to $20.  And then the nice lady at the amphur did the deed for us in under 45 minutes, walk-in, no waiting, no witnesses required and no translator, and gave us two lovely certificates suitable for framing for just 20 baht.

 

Anyway, about those uses.  The paper has your name, your passport number and your residence, with an embassy seal.

 

Bangkok Bank Silom accepted the single affidavit, made a copy, returned the original to open multiple bank accounts.

 

The amphur lady scanned the legalized affidavit into the system, and returned the original.

 

DLT at Mochit accepted the single affidavit in lieu of a residence certificate and/or embassy residence affidavit.  They retained the orginal (+copy for motorcycle), so drivers licenses were applied for after the hitching.

 

YMMV

 

 

@tonray  Sorry for the confusement.  I'll try to explain.

 

Lots of people report having trouble opening bank accounts, even with valid long term visas.  Some banks/offices will only open an account if you have a work permit, others require a letter from your embassy confirming your identity. 

 

DLT requires either a residence permit from immigration or a residence affidavit from your embassy to apply for a license or renewal.

 

Embassy letters cost $50 (US embassy) after waiting weeks for an appointment.  Immigration (Chang Wattana) won't accept an application for a residence certificate until you've done your first 90-day report (the first non-O annual extension counts as a 90-day report at CW), and then you still have several weeks wait for the certificate to arrive in the mail.

 

I found it possible (YMMV) to open bank accounts at Bangkok Bank Silom, and to apply for a drivers license at Mochit using my leftover, unneeded, single affidavit from the US embassy.

 

No extra fees, no weeks-long wait for appointments, and no waiting for certificates to arrive in the mail.  I don't recall anyone mentioning this as a possibility, so thought I'd pass along some useful information.

21 hours ago, NoDisplayName said:

And then the nice lady at the amphur did the deed for us

It would be nice to know what "nice lady"s job is or title is at the amphur. I'm sure you didn't walk up to the first lady you saw there and asked her for an affidavit.

Just now, AgMech Cowboy said:

It would be nice to know what "nice lady"s job is or title is at the amphur. I'm sure you didn't walk up to the first lady you saw there and asked her for an affidavit.

I don't know her job or title.  My girlf.....oops!.....my wife handled that.

 

The nice lady at the amphur is responsible for registering marriages and divorces.  The deed she did was to take the legalized documents we gave her, and provide us with a marriage certificate, returning the original legalized documents to us.

 

But that's not important.  This thread is about non-standard uses for the notarized and legalized "certificate of singleness" marriage affidavit  obtained from an embassy.