Law Prohibiting Marriage To Foreigners Over The Age Of 50 Proposed To Thai Cabinet

[sangfroid]

LIRPA LOOF

[EniGami]

Another "law" that will be forgotten tomorrow (or maybe even noon today)

[napapek]

1st of April?

Is that baloney an april fools joke. I know a chinese man in thailand that has 4 wives . this law would be as rediculous as the illegal gambling law and the law that prohibits prostitution.

[freedom4life]

should be said by now: "thailand, the hub of law"

Wrong...... it should read "Thailand, the hub of incompetent, ignorant, xenophobic, sexist, manipulative, wanna-be elitist politicians with a bought degree and an indescribably warped and surreal social outlook that could only ever exist in a country that encourages xenophobia and obsessively nationalistic behavior in order to control its populace for fear that they will ever realize how they are being abused and subdued in a class controlled society and would probably start a revolution (or already have)."

Yeah, I know its a mouthful but Im not good at condensing things sorry!

Nicely put. I would add that we the people will not accept any such so-called law.

[ezzra]

"If these people don't have enough money to retire then they shouldn't be here and become a burden to Thailand"

How is it exactly are those people are burden on Thailand? not like the Thai government support an expat

who runs out of money, or pay him any social security benefits, we expat, young and old alike gets nothing

for free from the Thai government and in fact, i'm one of the 10% of the population that actually pay taxes

in this country, yes, only 10% of the population here in the kingdom pays taxes,

And what? expat under 50 y o don't have problems with money and marriage to Thai ladies? is 50 y o a magic

age?

[shaurene]

I live here, and am married to a woman close to my own age. Having said that, I know plenty of older guys married to women a lot younger than they and in some cases it seems to work ok,

While it may not a shining example of a meeting of minds or mutual attraction, it works in a mutually supportive kind of way.

What I don't understand is the older guy (60 plus in a lot of cases) having children. They make various arguments as to why it is not a bad thing, however, at the end of the day you are going to have a child

that is going to be left fatherless at a relatively young age, and that is not fair on the child.

I am married 67 and she 41. I have also taken over as father to her 3 children. We are all so happy, her Thai hubby just left her went with another lady ,so Gob Shit were is a Thai man better, you think it ok for them to leave their children fatherless.

A lot of old falangs give a life to their ladys abandoned children.

[desi]

I'm not going to read three pages... especially as this looks like an April Fool's joke...

[Koh Chang]

1. April

[Screws]

What I don't understand is the older guy (60 plus in a lot of cases) having children.

In Asian countries children are an investment - ie old age pension. A friend who had 4 or 5 kids had one more - and 'gave' it to his elder sister, whose marriage prospects were not so great. That kid was seen to be her pension.

[phutoie2]

Somebody beat me to it on here, but today is April Fools Day!

[bifftastic]

Yes. Thailand should bring in this law to prohibit older Farangs and other foreigners from marrying very young women .

I have seen some farangs with young wives who could be their grand daughters!.

Laos and Cambodia have enacted these law: why not Thailand.

Because, the law does not say 'older men and younger women' it says 'foreigners over 50' so, if two people, both of whom are over 50, want to get married, they can't. Therefore it discriminates against those people.

Which is wrong.

Also, if two adult people, of any age, decide that they want to get married, who's business is it other than theirs?

It won't stop very old men having very young girlfriends, it will only stop those women from benefiting from the relationship, because it will have no basis in law, because they will not be allowed to be married, they therefore, will be entitled to nothing if the relationship ends. Currently they would get 50% of assets gained after marriage.

So, not only does this proposed law discriminate against foreigners, it discriminates against Thai people too.

I too, don't particularly like to see very old men with very young women, but it's not my life, it's theirs.

I don't understand why a government would involve themselves in who marries who. If they really think that it's because of the cheaper visa extension, then they should make the visa extension rules the same for anyone over 50, whether for retirement or marriage, rather than try to stop people from getting married.

Anyway, who gets to decide what age gap is acceptable or otherwise? It should be the people themselves that decide, it is, after all, their life.

[Shurup]

Yes. Thailand should bring in this law to prohibit older Farangs and other foreigners from marrying very young women .

I have seen some farangs with young wives who could be their grand daughters!.

Laos and Cambodia have enacted these law: why not Thailand.

Yes it may be bothering some people like yourself, but why not introduce a min age difference. It's just plain retarded if 48 y.o. woman can't marry a 51 y.o. man.

And whatever they say about the burden of not having to have an extra 400,000... I will just leave it with no comment

[dereklev]

Had me going for a minute and then I realised the date, it's April Fools Day

[dunkin2012]

It's fine...

It only applies to straight marriages. The sexpats can just marry an eighteen year old boy instead of an eighteen year old girl.

Fifteen bottles of Heineken and they feel the same anyway...

It would take 15 truck loads of whiskey or more before I would stick my jolly roger into a male. I will leave that for the gay community.

but madi gras in Sydney is amazingly fun....

[ezzra]

Now all the dating websites will have to add a warning to all the panthers 50 and over that they can

play, fornicate and have a flings but it is prohibited by law to marry them..LOL...

[bifftastic]

Somebody beat me to it on here, but today is April Fools Day!

good point! I missed that

[tartempion]

There goes the sin sod for a many parents, these will be pissed off loosing easy money

[supaprik]

Wonderful, another great move by the powers that be...but seriously the way I see it is this new law in fact hurts Thai people much more than "old farang", no wedding no sin sot, no house etc etc etc etc, the saddest thing I see from this though is this is another example of the Thai governments total disregard of foreigners and the benefits they bring, other recent comments from other "minister's" prove this, we are not only disliked we are in fact HATED by some and treated accordingly, I hope Thailand keeps its racist bullshit up so more of us have reasons to finally throw our hands up and say enough is enough..

[Mrchipps]

Hmmm i think i better stop put money on that country.

I have being married many years with a quite younger woman than mee

and i dont care about the "visa" ore whatever and why should i stay in Thailand its to expensive to be a farang. All Thai only see bath when they se mee

And if i should buy a house ,and if i put my pension to thailand why they think we should be rich to do that? If we can manage our life and they get our money????????

It seemes that are feel ashame how they threat there own citizen and try to cover this with "popular" laws.

Yes Thailand is a wonderful country BUT even my wife dont wanna come back if not for her family!

Dont they even think how much they earn from Farang?

Maby all should look in Cambodia ore Vietnam they have nice coast to with better price on house and property! And the Korea ppl run allmost all big Companies. Yes VN next!

[khunwes]

When are these politicians going to wake up and stop copying other countries? It would seem politicians are only concerned with tourism money. They say this is a democratic country I say B...S..T. What is so democratic about Thailand? It should a persons right to marry any person of their choosing.

[desi]

So sweet - April Fools :-D

[Tagaa]

My first thought was already voiced. I say pass the law. That gives me a easy out when the girlfriend starts pushing to get married..."Sorry honey, I'm over 50 & it's against the law."

I love the law of unintended consequences.

A few other random thoughts...

I never understood why a single retired person, supporting on himself in this example, has to have twice as much money in the bank to qualify for a visa (800,000) as a married man (400,000) to support 2 people & possibly kids, the parents & the odd auntie, not to mention all the sick buffalo's.

As for marriage in general, I think they should legalize gay marriage (they can put those age restrictions in that law as well). I've always thought that gay people have as much right to be miserable as the rest of us.

Some folks spoke of the racism of the proposed law. In case you haven't noticed, Thai society is exponentially more racist & much more sexist, than any western culture that I can think of. Not to mention the impression of Thais being more accepting of gays & ladyboys. That is a load of crap. The women may be, but the men here certainly are not. Men here think women are good for one thing and a consequence - sex & children. And they truly believe the age of the girl doesn't matter, nor does the fact that they may already have a wife & at least one mia noi.

Legislate away boys...you only reinforce the third world impression that the rest of the world already has of Thailand.

[maoro]

How many farang are like me? I live in Thai but work overseas. My wife 31 me 58 an have a great life together for 3 years, and Buddhist marriage only. I have invested over 6 million baht here recently and plan for 3 times that in next year. Who wins? I do because I am very happy, and I look after a couple of step kids and will be employing some of the family.

I agree that this type of law is againsty basic human rights.

What possible advantage to anyone from this idiot law?

[durianfan]

There goes the sin sod for a many parents, these will be pissed off loosing easy money

Yep....I imagine many villages in Isaan will be upset by this law.

[Screws]

More stupid insanity from the Thai Government. Amazing.

Yes. I much prefer the usual kind.

[samran]

This is great. All the FOOLS who are responding to this post.

Keep it coming guys. Show the world how paranoid you really are.

(great stuff George).

nb...this post will get buried and the cries from the TV masses shall continue.

[durianfan]

It is April 01 wake up!!!

I said as much but then my post was mysteriously deleted....

[tweezer]

Ha Ha! I love Thaivisa in the spring time.

[Just1Voice]

Ok, more than likely this is an April Fool's Joke, at least here in Thailand. However, it was in the news a month or so ago that Cambodia was considering such a law. But for a moment, let's say that LOS actually did consider such a law, and the effects.

1) Yeah, it would stop a lot of older foreign men from marrying women young enough to be daughters or even granddaughters in some cases. Some of those work, some don't. I know of one case of a man who is 60+ and married a woman 28 with 3 kids. They have a house and other things she and the kids would never have on their own, or with the overwhelming majority of Thai men, the kids are able to go to good schools, and they are all happy together. He has developed some health problems, but she is devoted to taking care of him in every way she can.

2) And what about cases such as mine? I have been married to my Thai wife for over 3 years now, having known her for over 4. When we got married I was 59 and she was 49, although both of us look at least 10 years younger than our actual ages. At that time I was only receiving 80% of my military disability pension, and no Social Security, so I would not have been able to meet the retirement visa requirements. However, since then the full military disability pension has kicked in, as well as the Social Security, so either visa is available.

3) If there WERE such a law, then there should also be a stipulation in regards to the age of the Thai woman, say a difference of no more than 20-25 years, as there are many men over 50 who marry Thai women who are also older (30+).

But, until I see a follow up on this story in other sources, I'll just consider this an April 1st joke and treat it as such.

Edited April 1, 2011 by Just1Voice

[rmacdon61]

First I hope Thailand won't use April 1st to make a joke. But if not it is an excellent proposal. First of all it is not a good idea to marry a 22 years young girl when you are 60 or older. It also protects the male person not to be robbed by a young girl. Besides there are very strange rules applicable from countries paying your pension and reduce it for strange reasons, because they think you will profit from it if you marry a Thai woman.

So a guy 50/55 is OK to marry a 22 you say???? But the Thai Gov says a 50 or older farang can't marry a 45 yr old thai woman??? Maybe they should pass a law that states any farang that asks for a retirement visa must speak thai. Maybe tall farangs shouldn't be allowed to get visa too, make thai oncomfortable?

Will a 60 yr old not have a 22 gf rip him off??

People make choises, good, bad, indifferent, but it is on them.

What would the thai gov. say if other countries told them if you come here, you must speak the language, worship our god, not marry our woman and just "BRING MONEY"!!!!!!!!!!!!