U.S. Marriage To Thai: Divorce Advice Needed

[thaidiver]

Hi,

Currently living in Thailand, as is my Thai wife; she does not have a valid greencard or travel visa for USA. We are separated but communicating on good terms and seeking a "no contest" divorce which will be legal in the USA/California.

We were granted a K1 fiance visa in 1999, and married in the state of Nevada. We lived together in California until 2007 when she returned to Thailand for good and we separated. Her greencard is expired and presently she has no way of going to the States to have the divorce executed there.

As previously stated, we need to execute this divorce in Thailand so that i can take the neccesary paperwork back to California and file the divorce. I'm not sure what this entails or how to go about either getting divorced in Thailand or what needs to be done back in the States once it is completed here. Any advice appreciated....

Cheers

[Mario2008]

Not that difficult. First you and your soon to be ex-wife need to register the mariage at an amphur (district office). For that you need a letter from your embassy, (affadafid that that your marriage document is true), next you have it translated into Thai by a tranlation agency and then have is certified by the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, consular department.

When that is done, you both simply go to the amphur and have the marriage recorded into the Thai wedding register. Now there is a record of your US wedding and you should be able to divorce in Thailand by simply stating that you want to divorce. (You will need 2 witnesses, not related to 1 of you).

It is probably also posible to legalise the marriage document in the US, through the Thai embassy. You could ask them about that.

I would select a big district office , where a lot of foreigners live. In Bangkok Bangrak is very popular. Ask them beforehand if you can register the marriage and get divorced in one go, in that case it should be not more than 1 hour before everything is settled.

If you have any assets to split you can make an agreement before you go to the amphur and enter the agreement into the divorce register. make sure it also complies with the law of the state where you are living in.