Verifying Marriage documents at the Thai Ministry of Foreign Afffairs

[jingjai9]

I plan to marry a Thai citizen. I will go to my embassy and have a marriage/divorce affidavit notarized along with obtaining a certified copy of my passport. I then will  go to the Thai Ministry to have my documents authenticated.

 

Does my wife-to- be have to come with me to the Thai ministry of Foreign Affairs?

 

I know I will need to have my paperwork translated to Thai.

 

 - - Has anyone on the forum been to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently? -- Do you need an appointment? My info.           from the US embassy says an appointment is not needed (to the best of their knowledge).

-- Does anyone know the average fee for translations in the Bangkok area?

-- How much does the Thai ministry charge to validate the documents (My embassy says "a nominal fee")?

-- How far is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the US embassy on Wireless Road in Bangkok?

 

Anyone have any other details about this process that would be helpful?

 

Thanks. I consistently get useful information from this forum and of course a few laughs as well.

 

 

 

 

[TimF]

I covered a lot of this in an earlier post. Scroll to the bottom almost the last reply

 

 

[keithcresswell]

I went to the MFA 3 weeks ago for the same reason. The Thai fiance doesnt have to be there but it actually helped in my case (for a change). I needed my passport and affirmation verified which cost 400THB each. I was advised to use a translator in the MFA because if there is an error its easier to go back to them to get it corrected. There was an error so  we were able to get it rectified easily. The translation cost was also 400 THB per page. We were also advised by the Translator that its best to collect the document in person than have it posted because of the time wasted if there is an error.

I don't know where you are based, but my local Amphur in Pattaya told me that a branch of the MFA had just opened there and we hadn't needed to go to Bangkok. Too Late...

[Kalasin Jo]

17 hours ago, jingjai9 said:

will go to my embassy and have a marriage/divorce affidavit notarized along with obtaining a certified copy of my passport. I then will  go to the Thai Ministry to have my documents authenticated.

 

Does my wife-to- be have to come with me to the Thai ministry of Foreign Affairs?

 

I know I will need to have my paperwork translated to Thai.

 

I take it this is a home country wedding. Not Thai. 

We married in Thailand Brit/Thai. Thai civil ceremony provided us with Thai Marriage Certificates and as a separate document registration details. Both in Thai only. We wanted to travel to and stay in France where I was resident. For her this requires a French issued Schengen spouse visa. Application and issue is by French Embassy agent in Bangkok.

Fortunately English translations were acceptable. These have to be legalised by Thailand's MoFA who were very, very particular about the English translation which had to redone by us at yet further expense.

At that time it was ok to just turn up but as early as you could manage because you got a queue ticket and then had to wait your turn to hand in the documents.

Then another long wait, only to have them given back for translation corrections. Panic! But of course a lurking agent quickly sidled up to offer help at a fee. Once redone we did eventually get the documents returned legalised. We had been there all day by then.

 

We then had to have these MoFA translations notarised by the British Embassy because I'm a Brit (ie: the MoFA stamps and signatures verified as genuine) as the French required this for the Marriage Certificate translation to be acceptable to them. A whole other saga getting that done because at first that Embassy said they didn't do this. To which the French said : that's rubbish we've seen lots of them pass our desks.

 

We had both the Marriage Certificate and the Registration document done, but actually have only ever been asked for the latter by Thailand's Immigration Police who of course don't want  our English translations anyway.

 

Good luck with getting what you need!

 

 

 

 

 

[jingjai9]

Kalasin Joe, no this is not a home country marriage. We plan to marry in Thailand.

 

[jingjai9]

keith cresswell

Thank you for informative post. You answered my questions. I appreciate it.