A little back ground

1. I live in Japan (permanent resident )

2. My income is Social Security

Thai lady

1. Government retired worker

2. real estate owner

Will get married in Thailand.

Location is near DMK airport

Did you already look here......https://th.usembassy.gov/getting-married-in-thailand/

1 minute ago, Upnotover said:

Did you already look here......https://th.usembassy.gov/getting-married-in-thailand/

Thanks, I'll check it out.

After marriage, should she apply for Social Security card and how does the "Green Card" come into place? Thanks.

19 minutes ago, camper star said:

After marriage, should she apply for Social Security card and how does the "Green Card" come into place? Thanks.

If you want to file US tax return as married filing joint MFJ, she will need to apply for a ITIN number by attaching a W-7 form to the US tax return and a statement declaring that she be treated as a US tax resident.

The Green Card does not come into play with regard to getting married.

I found the easiest way to get married in Thailand is to use one of the Translation Service providers on the US Embassy's approved list. I used Express Translations near the US embassy in Bangkok. They did everything. They told me what docs I needed, they translated them into English & Thai, got the docs stamped at MFA, scheduled the marriage appt at Amphur, and then took us there to get married.

1 hour ago, JohnnyBD said:

I found the easiest way to get married in Thailand is to use one of the Translation Service providers on the US Embassy's approved list. I used Express Translations near the US embassy in Bangkok. They did everything. They told me what docs I needed, they translated them into English & Thai, got the docs stamped at MFA, scheduled the marriage appt at Amphur, and then took us there to get married.

All my papers are in Japanese. I will try Express Translations. Is this the one I should go to...

https://www.expresstranslationservice.co.th/cms.php?id_cms=6&id_lang=1

6 minutes ago, camper star said:

All my papers are in Japanese. I will try Express Translations. Is this the one I should go to...

https://www.expresstranslationservice.co.th/cms.php?id_cms=6&id_lang=1

What papers are you referring to that's in Japanese?

You need your US passport & "Single Status" form notarized by US embassy stating you are free to marry. Your Thai girlfiriend needs her Thai house book, her DL or passport & "Certification of Family Status" form stating she is free to marry.

The one highlighted is the one I used. You may want to download the latest list on Embassy website. My list is old.

8 minutes ago, JohnnyBD said:

What papers are you referring to that's in Japanese?

You need your US passport & "Single Status" form notarized by US embassy stating you are free to marry. Your Thai girlfiriend needs her Thai house book, her DL or passport & "Certification of Family Status" form stating she is free to marry.

This the one I used, but there are several on the US Embassy provider list:

Express Translation Service & Travel Co., Ltd.

(near Ploenchit BTS)

Mahatun Plaza, 888 Ploenchit Rd, Ground Floor

Tel: 02-254-7169; Fax: 02-650-8653

PM sent.

7 hours ago, camper star said:

After marriage, should she apply for Social Security card and how does the "Green Card" come into place? Thanks.

she cant get a green card or ss card UNLESS ur living in the states!!
and even if ur living there, she cant just up and leave
she can take trips out for brief times

you get the Single Status" form notarized by US embassy in Bangkok
have no idea what papers u are referring to that are in Japanese

Getting married in Thailand is very easy, don't need pay for a service
getting divorced is even easier
Been there.... done that 5555

Step 1. Get your head examined

On 3/3/2026 at 9:01 AM, camper star said:

A little back ground

1. I live in Japan (permanent resident )

2. My income is Social Security

Thai lady

1. Government retired worker

2. real estate owner

Will get married in Thailand.

Location is near DMK airport

1. The marriage/divorce process is easy. Everything else can be complex, is Hard to Change once Married, and the law maybe applied differently depending on the Court and Region.

   Use Grok AI and copy this text and review, analyze, and understand it. Additionally understand that any Important document could be taken from an office, translated, reviewed for meaning of words, and analyzed for what effect it has on you and/or your spouse. " Next subject. In Thailand, for Marriage of foreigner to Thai national, specific to after marriage asset usage, property ie. Car, motorbike, land, house. What percentage of marital assets can be used during marriage and is there a set division of assets percentage upon final divorce from partner. "

On 3/3/2026 at 9:12 AM, camper star said:

After marriage, should she apply for Social Security card and how does the "Green Card" come into place? Thanks.

I checked into the marriage green card application process last year for a friend, at that time the average processing time was three years. I just heard from them that the application was now "on hold" because of Trump putting a hold on immigrant visa processing.

2 hours ago, Lee4Life said:

I checked into the marriage green card application process last year for a friend, at that time the average processing time was three years. I just heard from them that the application was now "on hold" because of Trump putting a hold on immigrant visa processing.

Will you as a couple then live permanently in Japan or the US or Thailand. When I married a Thai, we lived and still live in Thailand. She had to file for an ITIN (tax number) to enable you to file jointly i through the IRS. To get a green card, you will be required to do a lot of copying of her documents from Thailand and then process that through US immigration services. When we filed that (using an agency as it comes out as a book) Afghanistan had just fallen and the Immigration folks had over a 500K backlog of people filing, while they could only process around 35K per month so took over a year for us to receive approval for my wife to immigrate into the US by which time the desire to do such a move was gone!

Just now, Presnock said:

Will you as a couple then live permanently in Japan or the US or Thailand. When I married a Thai, we lived and still live in Thailand. She had to file for an ITIN (tax number) to enable you to file jointly i through the IRS. To get a green card, you will be required to do a lot of copying of her documents from Thailand and then process that through US immigration services. When we filed that (using an agency as it comes out as a book) Afghanistan had just fallen and the Immigration folks had over a 500K backlog of people filing, while they could only process around 35K per month so took over a year for us to receive approval for my wife to immigrate into the US by which time the desire to do such a move was gone!

I am in the process of doing this. In addition to checking the US embassy website you need to get the list of requirements from the Amphur District Office. This list may vary from office to office. Here is the list from the Bang Rak office in Bangkok. Once you have the documents you will need to book an appointment which may be a couple of months later.

for green card for wife and NOT in america

https://www.usa.gov/green-card-consular-process

fyi; u do not need ur wife to have a green card before you go and live in america
I took my thai wife to the states, where she got her green card

IF ur not going to live in america, why do u need to get her a green card?

On 3/3/2026 at 4:38 PM, zzzzz said:

she cant get a green card or ss card UNLESS ur living in the states!!
and even if ur living there, she cant just up and leave
she can take trips out for brief times

you get the Single Status" form notarized by US embassy in Bangkok
have no idea what papers u are referring to that are in Japanese

Getting married in Thailand is very easy, don't need pay for a service
getting divorced is even easier
Been there.... done that 5555

I mentioned b4, I married a Thai, if your are filing US taxes as a joint couple then she needs to apply for a ITN as mentioned above, as for the green card as she wants to immigrate to the US I guess and live there, then you should in my opinion (as I did) get a local agent who can gather all the paperwork and forward it to the US immigration folks who will deciide if she merits that green card. depending on waiting list it can sometimes take a long time.

There are long term implications to filing taxes in the USA. Once you start, it is difficult to get released from the filing.

There are assumptions of tax liabilities and filing obligations. Consult a qualified accountant and/or immigration lawyer.

On 3/4/2026 at 11:17 AM, bobonzo said:

Step 1. Get your head examined

The law of the Universe shall disagree with you. 555

23 hours ago, Presnock said:

22 hours ago, Presnock said:

Will you as a couple then live permanently in Japan or the US or Thailand. When I married a Thai, we lived and still live in Thailand. She had to file for an ITIN (tax number) to enable you to file jointly i through the IRS. To get a green card, you will be required to do a lot of copying of her documents from Thailand and then process that through US immigration services. When we filed that (using an agency as it comes out as a book) Afghanistan had just fallen and the Immigration folks had over a 500K backlog of people filing, while they could only process around 35K per month so took over a year for us to receive approval for my wife to immigrate into the US by which time the desire to do such a move was gone!

We will live in Thailand.

14 minutes ago, camper star said:

We will live in Thailand.

All of the process can be made a lot easier (i.e. green card documentation through an agency, not over costly) the ITIN for filing as a couple is very easy, just fill in the form, copy of p/p and marriage certificate if I recall properly. The actual getting married was fairly simple, My first wife had died of breast cancer so I needed to provide to the Embassy the death certificate and then had a free to marry paper and went to the district office and they filed our marriage. The necessary documentation can be found from earlier replies from some other people. I retired here over 20 years ago and still feel that it is paradise. Great food, good people who accept foreigners as neighbors. Cost of living here is much cheaper than many other countries. No snow, no cold weather and only storms are those during the hot season. I spent a couple of years in Japan too, loved it but didn't feel it fit me for retirement

Best of luck to you.

3 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

There are long term implications to filing taxes in the USA. Once you start, it is difficult to get released from the filing.

There are assumptions of tax liabilities and filing obligations. Consult a qualified accountant and/or immigration lawyer.

3 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

There are long term implications to filing taxes in the USA. Once you start, it is difficult to get released from the filing.

There are assumptions of tax liabilities and filing obligations. Consult a qualified accountant and/or immigration lawyer.

If he is an American citizen, then he can only avoid taxes on earned income by renouncing his citizenship. If they live in Thailand after the marriage, then he will probably become a tax resident here and should become aware of the tax situation, various visas, even some with exemptions to overseas income and there is a double taxation treaty between Thailand and the US so he should become aware of the tax situation. There are numerous messages on this forum in the past but best to google the tax situation to better understand without getting a wrong info. BTW what kind of visa do you plan to obtain to live here in Thailand?

1 hour ago, Presnock said:

If he is an American citizen, then he can only avoid taxes on earned income by renouncing his citizenship. If they live in Thailand after the marriage, then he will probably become a tax resident here and should become aware of the tax situation, various visas, even some with exemptions to overseas income and there is a double taxation treaty between Thailand and the US so he should become aware of the tax situation. There are numerous messages on this forum in the past but best to google the tax situation to better understand without getting a wrong info. BTW what kind of visa do you plan to obtain to live here in Thailand?

Just to add to that...if you renounce your US citizenship, you will still need to pay taxes to the US government for 10 more years - gotta love the USA. 😀

54 minutes ago, Issan girl said:

Just to add to that...if you renounce your US citizenship, you will still need to pay taxes to the US government for 10 more years - gotta love the USA. 😀

If you are no longer a US citizen and living permanently in a foreign country how do they impose US taxes?

Just asking out of curiosity!

2 hours ago, Presnock said:

All of the process can be made a lot easier (i.e. green card documentation through an agency, not over costly) the ITIN for filing as a couple is very easy, just fill in the form, copy of p/p and marriage certificate if I recall properly. The actual getting married was fairly simple, My first wife had died of breast cancer so I needed to provide to the Embassy the death certificate and then had a free to marry paper and went to the district office and they filed our marriage. The necessary documentation can be found from earlier replies from some other people. I retired here over 20 years ago and still feel that it is paradise. Great food, good people who accept foreigners as neighbors. Cost of living here is much cheaper than many other countries. No snow, no cold weather and only storms are those during the hot season. I spent a couple of years in Japan too, loved it but didn't feel it fit me for retirement

Best of luck to you.

I think you for your kind reply. For me a 50 year ... well, ok, again I thank you.

2 hours ago, Presnock said:

If he is an American citizen, then he can only avoid taxes on earned income by renouncing his citizenship. If they live in Thailand after the marriage, then he will probably become a tax resident here and should become aware of the tax situation, various visas, even some with exemptions to overseas income and there is a double taxation treaty between Thailand and the US so he should become aware of the tax situation. There are numerous messages on this forum in the past but best to google the tax situation to better understand without getting a wrong info. BTW what kind of visa do you plan to obtain to live here in Thailand?

Is a VA pension taxable?

2 minutes ago, scottiejohn said:

If you are no longer a US citizen and living permanently in a foreign country how do they impose US taxes?

Just asking out of curiosity!

The US allows up to 125000USD not to be taxed. After that it is taxed here in US and in Japan.

Just to make a few points, US social security & military pensions are not taxable in Thailand when remitted as per the US/THA DTA. You can read more about Thai income taxes on this forum (see link below).

As you probably know, US citizens are required to file US tax returns unless their income is less than the standard deductions even if they live overseas. If you wish to file as MFJ (married filing joint) to take advantage of the higher married standard deductions, you will need to attach W-7 form to your tax return to get an ITIN number for your wife, and you will need to attach a signed Declaration Statement stating that you and your wife elect to treat her (nonresident alien spouse) as a US resident for the purpose of filing joint US tax returns. We started filing joint tax returns in 2017. We had to mail in our first tax return, but we were able to file online after that. This year, the IRS Free File Fillable Forms system would not let us file online. We had to mail in our US tax return and include a newly signed Declaration Statement. There's a new check box on the 1040 tax form for nonresident alien spouses. It appears to me the IRS is tightening up on nonresident alien tax filings.

Introduction to Personal Income Tax in Thailand - Page 44 - Jobs, Economy, Banking, Business, Investments - Thailand News and Discussion Forum | ASEANNOW

4 hours ago, scottiejohn said:

If you are no longer a US citizen and living permanently in a foreign country how do they impose US taxes?

Just asking out of curiosity!

Filing requirements. Many countries have tax treaties with the USA. Thailand is one of them.

However, my comment was in respect to the wife seeking IRS status for filing. It's a voluntary choice, and one that should not be entered into without understanding the ramifications.

A few years ago, there were multiple threads on the U.S. tax provisions and enforcement requirement for a U.S. citizen or resident living or traveling outside the United States, to file income tax returns, estate tax returns, and gift tax returns and pay estimated tax in the same way as those residing in the United States. The way some people carried on, you think it was the end of the world. My point was that one should think carefully before agreeing to take on U.S. tax reporting obligations.