Marriage Visa Requirements As Of March 2012 Are What?

[RichBKK]

Hi there

some of you fellas might remember me from the finance forum and my saga of transferring money from the UK to a Thai Bank. A problem which was eventually solved with the very useful help given to me on here.

Now my ill luck when it comes to administrative situations tends to follow me around and after going to great lengths and inconveniences to get 400,000THB in to my account from the UK, I have been searching on all the regs and my wife to be has been phoning one immigration office and get this:

1. 400,000 THB rule according to doesnt apply to post 2006 applicants [but other sources say it does? Including written Thai documentation my GF found, said 400,000THB in account for 2 [or 3?] months or 40,000THB a month].

2. 40,000 THB income is supposedly required per month. trouble is, my line of work is freelance writing and author and being the nature of the beast it is, it is impossible to place a consistent figure. Some months I get plenty, others I get little or nothing but it is not at this time a fixed income. I cant declare 'I dont know' or 'it depends' on it can I, and believe me its variable at the moment [may change in a while mind as I have one or two irons in the fire].

3. My Thai wife [as of next week] actually earns 44,000THB a month herself in full time work as a magazine editor. Now again according to the thai rules she read, for the income side of things, you are supposed to be able to combine your spouse's income or even use it as a basis instead. But when my fiance rang one immigration office, the person gave out all this mysogynistic nonsense along the lines of 'a woman cannot be a sponsor of an alien husband'. Come again? What year is this?

I have had enough 'experiences' no not want to return to doing office work over here [too long to go in to, basically i dont do bullshit company suck-assing and like my independence and I dont particularly like the way foreigners are treated in many companies here] but I dont want to leave Thailand and I am slowly but surely building a nice list of contacts for my work as a freelancer which i dont want to abandon.

but the rules appear to me to be 'discretional' [a euphemism for 'confused' or 'inconsistent'] and that concerns me as no matter how polite I am [believe it or not, though I do get frustrated by the bureacracy of Thailand and though I might come across as a bit 'aggro' in this post, I never let it show to their faces], I have absolutely no luck in falling on the right side of that discretion. I am getting that work permit situation I had before feeling of deja vu.

Has anyone tried to apply for a marriage visa recently and is it possible the person on the phone doesnt understand the rules themselves? What are the rules?

Will be going in to enquire a bit more next week once I have the marriage made legally official, but would be interested to know if there has indeed been any changes to the rules and how people have gone about the whole thing. know it will take time and we kind of have been planning a short jaunt to singapore if my Tourist visa runs out but its a worry.

P.s. I have been in Thailand with tourist and work visas on and off since 2009, but i want something more stable to ensure I can stay here with fewer complications in the future after I am married [we have been together nearly 4 years and met in the UK btw] but i dont want to waste money on futile applications and I dont want the authorities too much wriggle room to piss me around. I am well aware through prior experience that as non Thais and non asians sometimes you do have to battle rather a lot of jobsworthiness and barely disguised xenophobia here in the corridoors of power when it comes to residency rules, i am not naive to that reality, but i dont want to give them any excuse to invent some technicality to reject me.

Cheers guys, any help much appreciated :-)

[lopburi3]

The rule is police order 777/2551 section 2.18 and requires male have 400k in bank account in Thailand for 2 months or 40k per month income. Wife income has no effect on this and is not included.

[RichBKK]

The rule is police order 777/2551 section 2.18 and requires male have 400k in bank account in Thailand for 2 months or 40k per month income. Wife income has no effect on this and is not included.

Concise and simple reply, which is much appreciated. thanks mate

was what i was led to believe before. Still, will find out soon enough after I complete the legal formalities of my marriage on tuesday next week. The money is in the bank, just this wil be my first application and some people were under the impression [including the person my GF spoke to on the phone] it had changed and you couldnt do it any more for new applications, income was required

perhaps it depends on the individual officer or something, also the '<deleted> and elbows' rule can often be a problem when talking to people behind a phone. Will update when I find out more

[Lite Beer]

Marriage Requirements

(6) In case of marriage with a Thai lady, the husband who is an alien must have an average annual income of not less than 40,000 baht per month or a money deposit in a local Thai bank of not less than 400,000 baht for the past 2 months for expenses within a year.

Letter from your Thai Bank showing balance and up to date bank book.

OR.

Letter from your Embassy showing income. Now may also need proof of income as back up.

Marriage Certificate

Marriage Registry entry.

Wife's Tabbien Baan and ID Card.

Your Passport.

Copies of everything.

Photos of you and your Wife in and around the house.

A map showing the way to your house.

Passport size photos and 1,900 Baht fee.

Take your Wife to be interviewed.

You will be given a 30 day under consideration stamp.

Go back in a month and get the remainder.