Is a Divorce Affidavit as well as a "Free to Marry" Affidavit Needed to marry at an Amphur?

[NavaJauvana]

Yesterday in this Forum i asked what papers a farang needs to marry a Thai national at a local Amphur office.

The replies were great -- full of tips, guidance, and a dash of dark humor.

I had failed to mention that i am a US citizen and was previously married to an american and then legally divorced there.

My follow up question is: do i need a separate Affidavit from my Consulate confirming my divorce?

Will the Amphur require both a "Divorce" Affidavit and a "Free to Marry" Affidavit translated and certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Chaeng Wattana? Or will the original certified "Free to Marry" Affidavit and translation suffice?

Thanks.

[rotary]

If it is anything like 8 years ago you need the dates/place of marriage and divorce. Thats all. Many years ago you needed divorce papers. If you have the divorce papers handy I would take them with me. I had a work colleague that went to the US Embassy to get his paperwork and they tracked down he owed child support in the USA. They replaced his passport with a special passport for travel to the US only. That was his story anyway.

[laislica]

As far as it goes for us UK folk, I wrote my freedom to marry letter and enclosed the original of the divorce certificate.

With that evidence, the Brit Emb was happy to simply endorse my letter (for a big fat fee of course).

The Brit Emb site has a proforma that helped me write the freedom to marry letter.

My wife had been married and divorced and she simply took her original divorce cert to the Amphor.

Do you know that you will be asked a question about property that you wish to register?

The Thai wedding allows you to declare property that you own before the marriage that does not become 50/50 on marriage.

They will enter the details on the written part of the Marriage Cert otherwise they may state that they asked the question and you did not want to declare anything.

Everything bought after the marriage will be at least 50/50 ownership.

You can never own land, that will always be in a Thai's name and therefore 100% theirs.

However, in the unfortunate case of a future divorce, the Thai courts will require that property is sold and you should get back 50%.

Congratulations, Good luck and may you both be as happy as we are.

[green job]

The Best advice I can give you is make some kind of excuse up,,,,Do the Thai thing,and stay well clear of the rest.

Most all become miserable big mouthes and Always find a way to rip you off,

Stay safe good Luck

[nithisa78]

My previous wife passed very young. I needed every paper but toilet. Despite the U.S. and Thai Embassy being willing to accept an affadavit of truth.

YES, it was worth all the time and expenses.

I would not mention or use the same law firm again. They charged top dollar, made mistakes and during a time of bad health, NO they were not there for us. Total strangers who were also Thai, they were. Not the people being paid for it. They were a large and blended law firm. Resigned before the completion of what they took hard earned money for. We're over it, they surely aren't.

[rideswings]

Check out this link. Scroll down to Maxx58 post #8. He says it in a nutshell.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/792442-what-papers-does-a-farang-need-to-marry-in-thailand/?p=8948712

<<<I am an American citizen who married a Thai national last month.

Since I was previously married and divorced in the States I needed a Marriage Affidavit and a Divorce Affidavit. I took both papers to the US Embassy to be notorized at $50 each.

Then I took both papers and my Divorce Decree to be translated into Thai. Even though I had the Divorce Decree translated, it wasn't needed as I was never asked to show it.

Good thing, because the knucklehead who translated the two notorized papers messed up and I had to get them re-translated. There is an excellent translation service at the Foreign Affairs that translated both papers at 300 baht each and took less than an hour.

Took the translated papers to Foreign Affairs, payed the fee (I think it was 1,900 baht), waited a while, and then got the ok to proceed to the Amphur.

Went to the local Amphur near the Foreign Affairs office with my papers, had the wife fill out a paper that was in Thai, got a number and waited a short time before we were called into the office to complete the marriage process. After paying the fee (I can't remember how much), we were legally married in Thailand.

Wife had to show ID Card and House Registration paper. They provided the two witnesses for us, in fact, we didn't even see who they were.

Hope this helps!>>>

[Liquorice]

You shouldn't need a separate affidavit.

You will need to show proof such as Passport, Birth certificate, Decree Nisi, Death Certificates to confirm your identity and your marital status to the Embassy.

The Embassy should then prepare an 'affidavit of freedom to marry' having confirmed the facts you supplied.

That is the only 'affidavit' you need. Anything else is overkill and a waste of money.

[green job]

You shouldn't need a separate affidavit.

You will need to show proof such as Passport, Birth certificate, Decree Nisi, Death Certificates to confirm your identity and your marital status to the Embassy.

The Embassy should then prepare an 'affidavit of freedom to marry' having confirmed the facts you supplied.

That is the only 'affidavit' you need. Anything else is overkill and a waste of money.

Surely you mean getting a marrage certificate is a overkill. Keep it as simple as poss,honestly thats me and thousends of others advice, Over 85% been bitten

[aronp1]

You will need to bring your divorce papers to the US Embassy. You will be given two affidavits. They both need a notary seal from the US Embassy $100 they both need to be translated also.

[stevie1026]

a related question, since my wife and I are already legally married in Chicago, can I ignore the past divorce requirements?

[Liquorice]

stevie1026, on 22 Feb 2015 - 21:46, said:

a related question, since my wife and I are already legally married in Chicago, can I ignore the past divorce requirements?

If you were legally married in Chicago, then your marriage is valid in Thailand.

You can't legally marry again in Thailand but you could do the local village ceremony bit.

[regknick]

Removed it. Doh!

Edited March 20, 2015 by regknick

[stevie1026]

hi Faz....thank you for your response. What we are asking is for retirement purposes, we believe we want to "register" the marriage in Thailand and am wondering if this would basically be the same as getting married in Thailand....re...free to marry from U.S. embassy based on marriage certificate,since we are allready married, stamped then translated, go to foreign affairs, then Amphur. (is it possible that the Amphur in Korat is misinformed as they told us we needed the marriage certificate translated AND a letter from U.S. embassy, stamped at Foreign Affairs? I am thinking we go to embassy, get marriage certificate notarized,then translated , then foreign affairs and amphur in bkk???? Totally lost on this.....

Edited March 28, 2015 by stevie1026