My Thai GF and I traveled to Argentina. It was always our intention to be married, and we decided to tie the knot while in Argentina. The people in the Thai Embassy in Buenos Aires were super nice, so we decided to get married there since they assured us that it was a perfectly legal marriage according to Thai law.

We subsequently returned to Bangkok. After a few months, I presented our petition to the Homeland Security Office to obtain an immigrant visa for my wife to the U.S. You can imagine my surprise when they told me that our marriage was not legal. We went to several Thai District Offices and showed them our Marriage Certificate. They assured us that our marraige was indeed very legal. However this was not good enough for Homeland Security.

To make a long story short, we eventaully had to get a divorce here and remarry. Even the American lady at the U.S. Embassy shook her head when I told her the saga. So we are now in the process of re-presenting our petition to the Homeland Security Office. Hopefully they won't find another technicality to frustrate us.

I post this n hopes of helping others who might find themselves in a like or similar situation.

While the Thai Embassy marriage may be valid in Thailand, it is apparently not valid in Argentina and consequently also not valid in the United States.

The Government of Argentina recognizes only those marriages performed by the Civil Registry.

While the Thai Embassy marriage may be valid in Thailand, it is apparently not valid in Argentina and consequently also not valid in the United States.

The Government of Argentina recognizes only those marriages performed by the Civil Registry.

It was never ourgoal to have our marriage legal in Argentina. We only wanted it to be legal in Thailand.

this is a problem for a lot of people from most western countries. Only a marraige perfomed at an amphur or equivilant in your own country & only after the correct paperwork has been completed, freedom to marry form etc from your embassy & stampted by the MFA in bkk (if married in Thailand) is legal in both countries. Why the embassies insist on performing these procedure is beyond me. same goes for divorces performed by overseas thai embassies too.