Does U.s. Marriage Certificate Qualify For "o" Visa?

[tuffy]

My wife (Thai citizen) and I were married and have been living in the U.S. and are now planning on moving to Thailand.

I want to apply for a multiple entry non resident O visa with the extension for marriage from a Thai Embassy here in the states before we move.

My question is will our marriage certificate from the U.S. be valid to promve marriage or is it nessesary to have a certificate from the Thai government, which we don't have?

Thanks for all your help!

[Crossy]

My wife (Thai citizen) and I were married and have been living in the U.S. and are now planning on moving to Thailand.

I want to apply for a multiple entry non resident O visa with the extension for marriage from a Thai Embassy here in the states before we move.

My question is will our marriage certificate from the U.S. be valid to promve marriage or is it nessesary to have a certificate from the Thai government, which we don't have?

Thanks for all your help!

Your US cert will be fine to get the visa in The States. You will need a translation when you come to do the extension in Thailand, but if you have a multi entry 'o' that won't be needed for 15 months

[autonomous_unit]

Yes, we did exactly that.

Note, for a number of reasons, we decided to register our marriage in Thailand... this is NOT getting married in Thailand but getting our foreign marriage recorded. We made our own Thai translation of the US marriage certificate, had it "certified" at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then took that to the local amphur office where my wife was registered as a resident. Because this was just recording a foreign marriage, the only "oath" being made was that the documents were genuine, etc. This could be done at any time, so it is not like the legal circumstances have changed... it is just easier to handle bureacracy with the locally-recognized amphur records.

I am not sure if you need this to apply for the annual extension of stay, or if merely presenting a certified translation of the US certificate would be enough for the Immigration department...

[tuffy]

I heard from a friend that it isn't the best idea to get married legally in Thailand. Is there an upside or downside to this?

[lopburi3]

I heard from a friend that it isn't the best idea to get married legally in Thailand. Is there an upside or downside to this?

First of all any legal marriage means you are legally married here in Thailand. You aren't allowed a new wife in each country.

What you have heard probably relates to the old policy of not allowing registration for land ownership for those married to foreigners so many never changed there last names to avoid it being obvious. The policy has been changed and there should not now be any reason to keep your marriage a secret.

[sierra01]

I heard from a friend that it isn't the best idea to get married legally in Thailand. Is there an upside or downside to this?

Did your friend happen to say why it's not a good idea to get legally married here? I got married 10 weeks ago so I'm interested as to the why of it, as I'm sure others are. Maybe your friend had a bad personal experience, or maybe there really is something in it, why don't you ask him?

[autonomous_unit]

Sorry, I should have been more clear. You already are considered married in Thailand if you are married legally in the US. The process I described is just to make it easier to demonstrate this fact to Thai bureaucracies. It works the same way in reverse too... a legal Thai marriage is a legal US marriage, but there may be procedures to simplify the documentation of this fact. We actually did this so I could get coverage easily under my wife's employee health benefits package.

I think the only "downside" to legally marrying (again) in the second country is that you have to falsely certify that you are unmarried, such that you can be legally married here. Translating and recertifying the existing marriage document is the correct procedure in this case. Of course, some people throw "second weddings" but that is a social and/or religious event and not a legal proceeding.

I hate to say it, but some people advising against "marrying in Thailand" may be unclear on the legal facts, or banking on the fact that their spouse is in the dark as to her legal rights. Maybe they think that the spouse cannot obtain a certified copy of the original foreign marriage certificate and prove the marriage in Thai courts, without their cooperation?

[Khutan]

<snip>Did your friend happen to say why it's not a good idea to get legally married here? I got married 10 weeks ago so I'm interested as to the why of it, as I'm sure others are. Maybe your friend had a bad personal experience, or maybe there really is something in it, why don't you ask him?

My Experiences are only good. From Positive comments when getting a Work Permit "Oh nice you are taking care your thai family" to other simple things like when going for job intervies I always made sure that the Marraige certifiacte was in place. That also got positive comments.

[sierra01]

I actually can't see any reasons why it's not good to get married here either. What annoyed me a little bit was his unsubstantiated claim, 'my friend said'.

I once got hauled over the coals on TV for making such claims, and I've never forgotton it, now if I claim something I make sure I can prove what I'm saying!

[tuffy]

I should apologize "for the my friend said" ...I hate that as well. To be honest I couldn't quite remember the reason, until lopburi3 jogged my memory. It was in fact the now outdated policy about land ownership.

I just threw the my friend said in so that I wouldn't have to go into a lengthy explanation detailing how my memory isn't what it used to be and I knew there was some reason that i didn't want to make it legal in Thailand but couldn't remember exactly why..... uhh.. what were we talking about again?