if your over 50 why not go the retirement route problem solved.

Why should he and have to show twice the money in the bank or an income of 25K baht more per month.

Also OP like myself is living here to be with his family not for retirement.

whats the difference living here or retired,instead of all the paper work plus 2 trips i know what i prefere and yes i am married and retired.but like everything in los.its down to money.

if your over 50 why not go the retirement route problem solved.

Why should he and have to show twice the money in the bank or an income of 25K baht more per month.

Also OP like myself is living here to be with his family not for retirement.

whats the difference living here or retired,instead of all the paper work plus 2 trips i know what i prefere and yes i am married and retired.but like everything in los.its down to money.

The problem is that due to a lot of misinformation about how hard it is to get extensions based upon marriage people are getting them for retirement and making financial sacrifices to do it.

The time/cost for a few extra documents and copies, time needed for the interview and one extra trip to immigration is the only difference between the two.

To my wife there is difference. Plus she likes to show people the little stamp above my extension that says it for is for marriage.

I already stated stated that it makes a difference to me.

And by the way the OP is less than fifty.

So what documents would be required to get an Non Immigrant O based on marriage - not an extension, the first issue visa?

I will need to get this done for myself in early June. I have the original marriage certificate along with some other documents in Thai that were given to us at the time we got married (last year)

What else is needed?

Signed/dated copies of spouse ID card and home register are the normal requirement in addition to marriage certificate.

Thanks Lopburi3

So if the USA Embassy will not certify my original USA marriage license what do I do?

Contact the embassy. They will make you give a sworn statement and certify that. Another option is to have the document certified by the Thai embassy or a general consulate in the US.

I think I have to do more than that. I think, as described below, they require translation and the MFA to stamp it as well. This process sounds vaguely familiar to the process requested when I unsuccessfully tried to get my marriage registered in Bangkok earlier.

Why not go to your Ampour & marry again. If they want proof that you are eligible to marry just show your current marriage certificate!!

He can not marry if he is already married - you have to have Embassy paperwork of not being married.

As my American buddy and Thai wife (married late last year in Panama) found out when they went to the Banglamong Amphur the day after the local Thai wedding ceremony to register their marriage in Thailand. My buddy spent a whole day dutifully sitting beside his wife who adamantly refused to see that she was getting her cart seriously before the horse. Eventually she accepted that the original Panamanian marriage certificates needed to be certified before being officially translated before being chopped by MFA. Only after doing that circle-jerk can they return to the same Amphur, get a totally different paper-shuffler and sit and sweat for another day while the desk jockeys fudge around the fact that they haven't a bloody clue and are too worried about loss of face to ask for advice from their similarly clueless superiors.

The registration at a District Office is what immigration requires - and the KR22 record of that registration. Immigration does not require translations of English language documents. What you need to do is complete that District Office registration.