Dear all,

I'm a Malaysian currently registered and married to a Thai national legally in Malaysia only. We would like to get married in Thailand in a Catholic wedding.

However, I heard that Catholics do not sanction registration before the actual ceremony. Since I'm already legally married to my wife in Malaysia, does that mean I will not be able to do the Catholic wedding since I do not have the single status affidavit.

I know the concern is not so much the Registrar but more on the Catholic church requirement that requires both parties to be single before the marriage ceremony. Has anyone been through this? How should I go about it?

Thank you in advance.

-Al

Dear all,

I'm a Malaysian currently registered and married to a Thai national legally in Malaysia only. We would like to get married in Thailand in a Catholic wedding.

However, I heard that Catholics do not sanction registration before the actual ceremony. Since I'm already legally married to my wife in Malaysia, does that mean I will not be able to do the Catholic wedding since I do not have the single status affidavit.

I know the concern is not so much the Registrar but more on the Catholic church requirement that requires both parties to be single before the marriage ceremony. Has anyone been through this? How should I go about it?

Thank you in advance.

-Al

I Know a catholic who married a thai catholic and were registered before the ceremony in bangkok, i cant be 100% sure but i can't see a problem with

it, a lot of couples renew their vows after many years......would that not be the same thing? Or you could say nothing and just go ahead with it......

its not like your breaking any laws...your marrying the same woman!

Thailand separates the legal and religious sides of marriage.

In the eyes of the law you are already married.

Check with your priest about the spiritual side.

Pop round to the church and ask the priest.

Pop round to the church and ask the priest.

This is the best advice for you. In my recent experience the rules and regulations for getting married in a Catholic Church in Thailand depend very much on the local priest. Some of them will not marry you unless you are part of the local congregation. I think the ones in the south are a bit more relaxed about it than up north. The legal side of things is less likely to be an issue. At the church where I ended up getting married, I actually had to show them a copy of the legal certificate from my own country to prove that I was genuinely married to that person. I also had to get a letter from the church in Australia confirming that we were both Catholics.

Apparently the Thai Catholic Church has had a few problems in the past with farang coming to thailand to get married for a second time in a Catholic church without going through the torturous church formalities to annul a marriage, so you may find that they actually request the marriage certificate from Malaysia to prove that you are genuine.

Good luck with it all.

Edited September 3, 200916 yr by maclovin

Thank you everyone for your comments. It was really helpful.