Hello,

to allow my 'wife' (we're already married with the ceremony but not legally ;-)) long-term stays in Europe, we're seriously considering undergoing a legal wedding.

However, she told me that if we'd marry in Thailand, there would be disadvantages (Social Insurance-wise or regarding potential children or whatever) compared to when we'd marry in Europe. It was based on hearsay though, so I wonder if any of you know if there are any legal/financial/.. implications we should consider before making the decision on where to marry?

thanks,

r.

I am not sure, but common sense tells me to get married in the country where you two live.

It will also depend on where your home country is, I assume. From where I am, there is no social security if you don't live in the country and children will have a double passport in any case.

But from what I understood, that in for example France, people are still eligible for social security, so in that case it might be beneficial to get married there.

But I don't think it will matter in any way, as the best thing to do is to register the marriage in both countries anyway, then it is legal in both countries. Meaning that in one country you really get married and with those documents (translated, signed, officialized(?), etc.) you go to the other country to register it.

We have never bothered to do that, as we live in Thailand and not in Europe, but if we ever decide to live in Europe or you are still living there sometimes, it is a good idea to register the marriage in both countries.

Love the double pricing in your avatar.

Up north somewhere, maybe Nong Khai?

Most European countries have a policy of mutually accepting each other's legal marriages. Therefore it should not matter in which country you will have your marriage, it is a "only" a question of then delivering the marriage documents to the other country for acceptance.

If you get married in Thailand but fail to register the marriage with your home country, you might not only break your home countries law (Switzerland has a mandate that the marriage must be registered also in Switzerland even though a lot of Swiss don't do it), but your wife will have troubles to ever get social benefits from you home country like a widow pension from the state pension fund in case you would pass away before her.

Lot of people think that if they don't register their marriage back home, their wife will not have access to the funds parked back home... however they might be wrong if their wife is clever enough to have a good lawyer and send the marriage documents to your embassy requesting the marriage to be reciprocally accepted.

The marriage is accpeted in both countries. There is one area in which it cna be important where you marry, and that is in case of a divorce.

Some countries will follow the property law of the country in which the marriage took place regarding the division of assets.