Bad Experiance Getting Marrid In Bangkok

[Hans Brix]

Let me explain my recent attempt at getting marrid in Bangkok. After reading many threads in this forum, everything seemed like walking for cake before I tried for myself. Ok here goes

1. I research agencies to get this done for me so I have no worries. Price range was 12K-15K baht and all were supremely pushy. I almost went with 12K agent but after reading this forum, I decided to do myself and save many K bahts. one agent was super pushy, calling many times on the day I said I'd marry. I wonder if he has connection with Ampurs or if all agents do. I bet tea money is flying at Ampurs. Read On

2. I go to embassy to get my freedom to marry doc. no problem here. after leaving embassy we were accosted by marry agent henchman who tried to push his translation service on my fiance (for 300 baht to get us in his door for a shakedown). I told him several times to get lost but he followed and tried to push my fiance with his push. His boss watched from afar. I got my fiance into a taxi finally and away from these pushers

3. I went to a translator and paid them also 500 baht to take to MFA after completion. This was high point of experiance. We were happy to not go to chaeng wattana. we were told to pick up stamped copies of docs 3 days later. then they said we could go to bang rak and get deed done.

4. come back 3 days later, collect docs and hop a taxi to bang rak amphur. ok we dont have 2 witnesses but after reading this forum, we take our chances that we can get 2 people over there. we go inside amphur and hand over docs to 1st lady. she looks things over and tell us she needs some extra copies of a few things. ok I read in this forum that this is typical. we get the copies and return to amphur. hand over all that she requested and are told that "machine is broken". Oh really? gee ok. but then she says we can go to Prakonong Amphur and get marrid there. we go to Prakanong and they look everything over for several minutes and are told "system is down". HMMMMM OK. I'm starting to think we have Liars at these Amphurs. We leave and go home

5. we arrive home and I tell fiance to call Wattana Amphur just to see if we're being lied to about "machine broken". Wattana says no prob just come down with 2 witnesses and 1 must be translator. I rack my brain and come up with someone who can do the job for a mere 1500 baht. they arrive and we go to wattana

6. we wait for number to be called and hand in our docs. they look all over for a while and translator asks questions and fiance gets grilled by amphur guy about where and how we met etc. after 15-20- minutes of doc checking and grilling, we are told that translation is wrong even though MFA stamped it. Date on doc said Nov. 2010. <deleted>? ok so we aint getting marrid that day and just wasted 1500 baht for 2 people as we are told to get new translation and MFA cert.

7. we are now royally pissed off and massively upset and go back to translator.

story not over. more later. but I will say that an off the record thai person in the know says that the amphurs are looking thru the papers for tea money. dont know how true it was but we were LIED to

nice way to start a marriage with this horseshit. another point, my wife is not issanso not sure if this had any bearing on lack of help

would love to get thoughts and opinions. I've read nothing but smooth sailing in these amphurs regarding marriages so I thought that this upsetting experiance should be noted in the forum.

[phil2]

I think if you have two witnesses, the Bang Rak office is okay. Although the lady there tried to change my wife's mind about marrying me, but when I went there with my friend a week later, the guy we met signed as witness and asked someone else ( an official ) to sign as the second witness. I and the other witness went there for nothing because they did everything, and just handed over the certificates in less than 10 mins. I guess it was because my wife was very young, and it was her first marriage, while my friend's wife was almost 40 and that was her second marriage.

Good luck, and I hope you finally sort things out.

[Benjie]

Whats it got to do with the Amphur how and where you met your wife, you're only going there to register the marriage - you don't need their permission.

[Hans Brix]

Whats it got to do with the Amphur how and where you met your wife, you're only going there to register the marriage - you don't need their permission.

This part I have no problem with. I'm sure the Amphur just wants to make sure the marriage is not fake or something and that we really know each other, not just marrying so someone can get a visa

[dmax]

hi, we were married at bang rak ampur with no problems, paid 12k to an agent on wireless road. although the same agent tried to stroke me for 50,000 thb to guarantee me the visa..little did he know that i knew the visa ( eea family permit visa ) is allready free and guaranteed if you meet all the right criteria which we did.

[Hans Brix]

I'm 100% certain that we'd have been golden if we paid 12K to that agent. Looking back, I wish I did but too late now. These amphur problems were all about the money I suspect and the fact that we tried to do it agentless

[Gippy]

I'm 100% certain that we'd have been golden if we paid 12K to that agent. Looking back, I wish I did but too late now. These amphur problems were all about the money I suspect and the fact that we tried to do it agentless

What does an agent do at an amphur exactly? Do they go to the amphur with you? Perhaps you just had a bad day because the system was down, it's quite likely that the system is a nationwide one so it would be down at all the offices. After that your documentation was wrong, hardly the amphurs fault as you could have got your future wife to check the translation before taking it to the MFA.

[Hans Brix]

I'm 100% certain that we'd have been golden if we paid 12K to that agent. Looking back, I wish I did but too late now. These amphur problems were all about the money I suspect and the fact that we tried to do it agentless

What does an agent do at an amphur exactly? Do they go to the amphur with you? Perhaps you just had a bad day because the system was down, it's quite likely that the system is a nationwide one so it would be down at all the offices. After that your documentation was wrong, hardly the amphurs fault as you could have got your future wife to check the translation before taking it to the MFA.

It appears to me that an agent does nothing at an Amphur other than deliver money. It would appear to me to be quite a racket

Yeah but the system wasn't down at Wattana. Hmm how strange is that? Oh and Bang rak said Wattana wont do our marriage, which was another lie. Sure my wife coulda checked the translation but it was RUBBER STAMPED at the MFA. <deleted> is the purpose of sending it to the MFA to get stamped for accuracy when it's incorrect but the MFA stamps it anyway. LOL. what a joke

Edited January 24, 2010 by Hans Brix

[scorecard]

There can be other twists of this which are also pretty annoying.

My adopted Thai son took his wife to the local amphur office in the depths of essan, with me also in attendance, to get their marriage certificate. My Thai sons first name (chua) is very typical Thai and his family name is my family name and is a very typical western surname.

His family name (surname) was changed to my family name many years ago, at his instigation, and with fully documentation approved by the ministry of interior and ministry of foreign affairs.And he took copies of these documents with him when he went for the marriage documentation.

At the amphur office the two very young male Thai officers went crazy about ugly western names and indicated they would not process the marriage documents with his typical western name on it, and they further instructed (sic) him to get his surname name changed back to a typical Thai name. After some pleading by my Thai son they did process the documents. During these discussions other staff members circled around and make nasty comments and one woman made rude comments about the mai law (not handsome) farang sitting with the group. They all laughed.

But when the official document came out of the printer half of the printing did not appear and some parts were overprinted several times. The officers absolutely insisted they could not re-print the document and we were told to take the bad document and go, and it was obvious they would not engage in any further dicussion.

Luckily on the way out of the offfice a regional officer was just arriving, and he stopped me and asked politely, in good English, if everything was OK. We showed him the bad document and he instantly and strongly called the two young officers to come to him.

In front of my family he gave them absolute hel_l, and angrily instructed them to re-print the document instantly. And he signed the new copy himself. He was really angry and I can imagine that the young staff got hel_l after we left.

The next day the father of my son's wife, a local resident, was visited by the regional officer and he again apologized.

Now, several years later, whenever my daughgter in laws father visits the amphur office he is treated like a VIP, and any notices from the amphur office are now personally hand delived.

Edited January 24, 2010 by scorecard

[mark515]

I married in Bang Rak in November 2009.

Had no problems just a long wait and lots of visits to the photocopy place next door.

Did not use an agent.

Did all on my own.

There is enough information on the net and this forrum to do it yourself. There is lots of advice available on here just ask the question and I am sure there will be someone here to help.

Had the same issues outside the embassy they are very pushy I paid 500 b for the translation and collected in 3 hours later better money spent and felt more confident. I used the translation place on the left soi 1. Although a few days later wanted some other documents translating and she was very expensive so guess she had a full days work that day.

[nakachalet]

geeweez....

paying 12,000 baht to an agent to help you to get the marriage certificate?

this is something shocking to me....

we are really screwed.... badly....

why does it cost so much....?

there are several farang lawyers on board thaivisa.... can they not do better for us....?

------------------------

hi, we were married at bang rak ampur with no problems, paid 12k to an agent on wireless road. although the same agent tried to stroke me for 50,000 thb to guarantee me the visa..little did he know that i knew the visa ( eea family permit visa ) is allready free and guaranteed if you meet all the right criteria which we did.

[moe666]

It's called paying for a service or do it yourself for basic cost.

[7by7]

Not a visa issue, so moved to General.

[hawthorne]

Don't take it personal. Some sail through like us and we were married and I had no idea what happened. My wife did everyhing and I assume we are legally married although she later tells me our marriage contract states all sorts of funny things that I have commited myself to for life!!!! Best thing I ever did.

Many other friends had nightmares such as yours. We compared the stories and no ryhme or reason why things were different. TIme of month maybe.

Welcome to Thailand and tomorrow is a new day new adventure.

[Travel2003]

I remember how nice it was to pay someone (lawyer) to take care of a lot of issues when I got married.

Yes, a shit load of copies for everything.

Was worth paying someone to do that.

Guess Im lazy (or stupid).

Anyhow, it was worth it.

Dont remember name of the Amphur.

Next to the last stop on Sukhumvit sky train line, I think it was.

Not so much waiting.

Went fairly smooth.

The 2nd most interesting that day, after the fact I got married, was this 80+ years old guy in the wheelchair, sitting next to me, in his hospital PJ's, with a portable bottle of O2 on the lap, marrying this 25-30 year old lady.

My God, he looked like he was barely alive.

And they went ahead marrying them as well.

They were accompanied by their "expert" whom was dressed in dirty jeans, and flip flops.

Westerner.

The "lawyer/expert/aid" was kind enough to escort the newly wed couple into a car waiting to bring the husband back to the hospital.

He knew all the staff in the Amphur, so he obviously did good business there.

[way2muchcoffee]

We used an agent. Given the two trips they had to make to Chaeng Wattana, the translations, the stamps, the rushed approval at Bang Rak and zero hassle it was 12k well spent. One small hitch. They buggered the name on the official translation, but when we approached them 6 months later they re-issued a new one with all requisite stamps at no cost.

Edited January 25, 2010 by way2muchcoffee

[Somtamnication]

The only reason the amphur was questioning your wife was to ensure that once married, you do not take her house, bank accounts, cash and any jewelry, property that was bought with her money and any other luxuries.

[beano2274]

Did everything myself, except picking up the certified document from MFA, which my wife did, she was told at the time to check it so she did. Took to Bangsue Amphur, 2 witnesses, wife as translator, very friendly staff, took no more than 30 minutes, no number to take nothing.

Why does everyone think about Tea money all the time, agents are everywhere trying to make money, you'll see when you try and arrange a visa for your wife to go to your country, they hang around you outside the Embassy like flies around sh*t.

Agents cannot guarantee anything, people have learned the hard way, I learned to do it by myself, that way it is cheaper and I know where things have gone wrong for next time.

Remember they are not checking for tea money, they have to check then pass to the big boss who signs everything, am sure you would not like to see a mistake on paperwork someone gave you, suggest checking things by yourself first

Edited January 25, 2010 by beano2274

[rodcourt49]

Whats it got to do with the Amphur how and where you met your wife, you're only going there to register the marriage - you don't need their permission.

Exactly...when I went for mine the senior fella..too busy to even make any eye contact whatsoever as he was watching soccer on TV at his desk, asked my intended if I had bought her a house and had I given her a dowry, and are you sure you want to do this..really made us feel welcomed to the fold.

[kikoman]

Why did you need an Agent?

I and two of my brothers were all married here in Thailand, I went as a witness with my brother to marry in Bangkok, all went well except for at the end of the paperwork, the officer doing the paperwork asked for 1000 baht fee, and Thais were charged 20 baht, they paid no more problems.

My other brother was married at a Thai marriage ceremony at a large Wat in Bangkok, A extremely nice ceremony, they gave the Wat a donation in an envelope and I never asked how much?

When I was married , I did all the paperwork myself, had to get a Thai translation of my Foreign Divorce Certificate With Embassy stamp. I also had to get an Embassy permission to marry certificate, these I took to a translation service across the street from the Embassy, the translation also had to be stamped by the Thai Documentation office. I paid 1,300 baht for the translation and the service of the translation service to get the necessary Thai stamp, and mail it to my home in Nakhon Sawan Provence.

Upon receiving the paperwork we went to the Lat Yao Amphur office to get married, The fee was posted on the wall for 200 baht to marry, also we did not have to take any witnesses as the staff at the Ampur would sign on our behalf.

We waited a long time as Amphur staff was in an intense discussion about our paperwork,Finally they called us to the front and explained the problem, The Translation service misspelled my name ,and was not the same as my name on my passport. They called Bangkok office a number of times to get permission how to continue with our marriage. I was resigned to the fact that we would not be married that day.

A female Officer came and advised us she was going to take responsibility and OK the marriage, we went on with the paper work and were married, when it came time to pay the marriage fee ,they refused to take it and apologies to us for the amount of time we had to wait to be married.

No tea money ,No marriage fee.

Cheers:

Edited January 25, 2010 by kikoman

[blubberboybob]

if you think the marriage process is a nightmare........wait until you get divorced.

[thaiozy]

geeweez....

paying 12,000 baht to an agent to help you to get the marriage certificate?

this is something shocking to me....

we are really screwed.... badly....

why does it cost so much....?

there are several farang lawyers on board thaivisa.... can they not do better for us....?

------------------------

hi, we were married at bang rak ampur with no problems, paid 12k to an agent on wireless road. although the same agent tried to stroke me for 50,000 thb to guarantee me the visa..little did he know that i knew the visa ( eea family permit visa ) is allready free and guaranteed if you meet all the right criteria which we did.

YES! have to agree as i was referred to one 15,000 & adding up the costs along the way there must of been a lot of tea money ( i reckon total costs easily 5000)

BUT in going with one we had no problems - just filled in papers at their office , they translated , of to embassy in taxi (all costs came out of the 15,000) , then to Amphur ( as mentioned were interviewed) no witnesses ( GF was pregnant) so maybe 4 hrs or so later DONE with the Amphur selling the wife a nice album for the certificate

[Kf6vci]

This stinks - seems a brown banknote would have let your proceed at the first attempt.

At the embassy of Cambodia, I ended up paying the guy $ XX more than the normal price for VISUM. This is indeed kind of "too much".

Germany wanted my divorce papers to get translated. then add some apostilles and wait a year for some court to grant the "Permission to Marry". - - -

We flew to Hong kong, it worked like a dream there.

Why not combine the marriage ceremony with a honeymoon in HKG?

Hans, please post part II.

Chris

[a2396]

The only reason the amphur was questioning your wife was to ensure that once married, you do not take her house, bank accounts, cash and any jewelry, property that was bought with her money and any other luxuries.

You must be joking. Farang cannot take her house.

[Heng]

Sure my wife coulda checked the translation but it was RUBBER STAMPED at the MFA. <deleted> is the purpose of sending it to the MFA to get stamped for accuracy when it's incorrect but the MFA stamps it anyway. LOL. what a joke

Yeah, you should check your translations, and so should the MFA. Chances are you're more likely to catch mistakes since you only have your own documents to look at with no time limit (it's called getting your documents in order before submitting them) while they have thousands PER day, with a time limit.

Have to do the MFA thing myself for my 2nd kid's CRBA and I will most definitely have the docs checked before having them "MFA'ed."

Edited January 25, 2010 by Heng

[nasajsc]

Did everything myself, except picking up the certified document from MFA,

How much should the translation cost, 300 baht? Anyone used the translation service that's

apparently directly opposite the MFA?

Edited January 25, 2010 by nasajsc

[GarryP]

Did everything myself. No troubles at the time, however, a few years after getting married it turned out that the surname on my son's birth certificate was different to my surname on the marriage certificate and my wife had a different version again in the household registration. All sorts of trouble then as we were living in Bangkok and had to clear up the mess in her home town in the North East. The spelling difference was in the symbols (tone symbols etc) that appeared above the name. As far as officialdom was concerned, my son wasn't my son and my wife wasn't my wife back then. So I can confirm that it is very important to check the translations before going further.

[Samuian]

married14 years ago at Amphur Banrak in Bkk.... no prob's at all, fast, efficient and "....gone in 60 seconds" - well it took less then 30 Min. including congratulations by the "Nai Amphur ....

[dick turpin]

As a general piece of advice, absolutely no need to use an agent.

Got married last november, took letter of affirmation to Brit embassy, after that

walked across the street to get a copy translated, picked up embassy letter next

day and took to translation service for them to compare were same same and paid

about 300 baht.Then hopped in taxi straight to MFA, where it took all of 15 minutes

to hand in documents, which were forwarded three days later.

No problem with local amphur when registering marriage, but suggest you take

a good thai speaker to speed things up.

[Trickcyclist]

can't understand all this.

My girl friend and I sat down in front of a guy in an office and walked out 4 minutes later, married.

No agencies, No serious money that I can remember, except at The Oriental for champagne, which was optional.