I have been married to my Thai wife for 36 years and two years ago just after they changed the marriage visa law to say that you had to have so much in the bank and so much income I asked immigration if I could change from a retirement visa to a marriage visa they said yes if I met the new requirements. At this point I asked why if I had been married to my Thai wife for 36 years would I have to do anything else. They still related that this was the new law. Sorry I had been in Thailand for 5 years and yes my mistake I should have done it sooner. My question still stands I did not just come into this country find a wife and ask for a marriage visa. I was married to my wife in the UK and showed immigration the paperwork they still related that I would have to meet the new law requirements. At this point I pointed out to them that this would not happen in the UK or the US or even Europe, but they just looked at me. And yes I had to go with a retirement visa. You would think that there would be something structered for people who have been married for a long while. It's not like you came here to find another wife or maybe not a bad idea.

Anyway another story I had to go to the Thai culture centre and show my marrigae papers to them yes here we go. They said they wanted a new British Embassy stamp on it. Why? Because it was an old stamp. Yes it was over twenty years old but it is still an offical stamp, buth they did not recognize it. Ok it is over twenty years, but do people not stay married for a long time in Thailand. So I possed this question. Say I lost some paperwork and had to come back two years later would you still require that I needed to go to the British Embassy to get an up to date stamp? NO reply.

Maybe the British goverment needs to follow the same rules in the UK as they do here. The woman is a second rate citizen and has NO say. You can not buy property outright etc. There is know such thing a free medication or doctors. All the illegal peopel in the UK would not be there if they done this and the British would get there country back.

Firstly there is no such thing as a Marriage Visa in Thailand.

You can extend a Non Immigrant O visa based on marriage to a Thai

if you can show a combined family income of 40K per month.

If you already have a retirement visa (O-A) or an O visa extended

based on retirement, then I strongly suggest you stay with the status quo.

Renewing retirement visa takes only one day, where as the visa

based on marriage takes a month.

A fixed amount in the bank (800K) is OK for retirement,

for marriage you must now meet the income requirement (40K).

Making comparisons with the UK is pointless, they are not the same.

Thais have a strange idea that documents become invalid if they are old,

sometimes this can happen after as little a 3 month............

Just go with the flow and get your marriage cert re-stamped at the embassy.