Name Change In Wife's Passport

[jonnie]

Hello, Is there anyone who could please share their experiences of changing their wife's maiden name in a Thai passport to her married surname.

I am not completely sure how to do this. We married and reside in the UK and therefore have a UK marriage certificate. We are due to visit Thailand soon for a holiday and would like to change her passport in BKK to my surname. I understand her Thai ID card must be first changed at her local Amphur.

What exactly will I need to do or obtain to firstly change the ID card?

I understand we will need to translate our UK marriage certificate to Thai because it is in English. The Consulate at Hull has quoted a £50 translation fee and £25 legalisation fee. Is it necessary to have this done in the UK or could the translation be done somewhere in BKK and then the legalisation done at Wireless Rd (who quote 1625B which is about the same as the £25 quoted depending on the exchange rate) Is a visit to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Chaeng Watthan Rd. BKK necessary irrespective of whether the translation takes place in the UK or BKK?

Any guidance on the correct hoops to jump through would be welcome.

Thank you. Jonnie.

[jimmym40]

We live in Chiang Mai and just went thru changing wife's name to mine on ID and thai passport. You are correct in the procedings. You must first obtain new thai ID card, then all you need to get thai passport is the new ID card. It's computerized now and we had the new passport mailed to use within 8 work days.

As far as your translation is concerned. I don't EXACTLY remember, but I think we didn't need to get our marriage cert translated in to thai. I believe they accepted the english version. If you can find the ministry of foreign affairs website, maybe you can email them and ask. We had a visa service mail our paperwork to ministry of foreign affairs to bangkok and paperwork with stamp was returned in about 10 days. I understand you can go yourself to the MFA and pay a small fee for expedited service (same day or next day) or something like that. If you are staying in bangkok anyway, probably better to do it yourself.

Cheers and have a great trip.

[jonnie]

Thank you Jimmy.

Best wishes. Jonnie.

[Sporting Dog]

My wife is just about to do the same thing - we are from Australia.

We have been told to get the marriage certificate translated and then certified (we will do this in BKK), back to the local Amphur for the ID card and then back to BKK for the passport...then fly home. I still haven't figured out what I need to do to get her visa into the new passport - perhaps the Aus Embassy has to do something as well.

I am a bit concerned about trying board the plane back to Oz with the wife - new passport in a different name, visa in her old name in an old passport. I can already see the looks of terror on the faces of the checkin girls. (I think I will need to talk to Aus immigration and/or start a new thread here).

Hopefully it will all work out.

[mnbcm]

We have been told to get the marriage certificate translated and then certified (we will do this in BKK)

What does he mean by translated AND THEN certified. Is this certification to be done by your embassy, the ministry of foreign affairs, or the translation service? When we got our marriage license translated, they said we now have a "certified translation" of our U.S. marriage license. I'm confused on who certifies what. Please tell me we didn't just drive 15 hours to the middle of nowhere in Isan for nothing. Guess I'll find out this afternoon...

Edited July 15, 2009 by mnbcm