There have been popular for foreigners to marry a local Thai, but what if both of them are foreigners, are they allowed to get married in Thailand?
The answer is YES.
And the following with explain how is the procedures and what documents you will need to get a marital status in Thailand.
How 2 Foreigners get married in Thailand
Procedures
The number of foreigners entering Thailand for marriage has been soaring during the pandemic. While the whole world was blocked, Thailand is one of the first places to open its border and because of that, hundreds of long-distance couples who were separated by the harsh border restrictions imposed by countries, were given the chance to get married in Thailand, and get a legal marital status so that they can both get into the same country without being separated again.
Though it is written in Thailand’s law that foreigners are allowed to get married in the country, there have been extremely clumsy procedures to be followed, as well as documents to be prepared.
Follow the below steps so you can manage it yourself:
- Get to the Amphur (local district office) for registration
Amphur in Thai means local district offices, they are responsible for all the administration work in the district where they located, including the registration and date booking for marriage and divorce.
Though there is at least 1 Amphur in each region, not all of them would provide service for foreigners. Only the Bang Rak District Office (Amphur) in Bangkok would do. So that means, you must head to if you are not a Thai passport holder, even your partner is a local Thai. Call a Grab Car or taxi and let the driver lead you the way.
- Submit Documents and Filing of Marriage Date
Walk inside and go talk to the staff sitting right in front of the door. She will pass you a list of documents that you will need for the booking, and you will need all of them ready before proceeding to the next step.
For more about these documents will be explained in the next section.
The staff will be responsible for all the checkings. But even if all documents are duly filed, You will still NOT be able to pick a date for your marriage. You will be told that the validation procedures will take place for at least 6 weeks, before having a solid date you will have to wait until they inform you via email or phone.
So if you are just holding a tourist visa which allows you to stay in Thailand for only up to 30 days, you will have extremely little chance of getting a respond before your visa expired.
Extend your tourist visa by reading this article, or get an official job and working visa in Thailand if you think you are luck enough.
Types of documents needed for registering a marriage for 2 foreigners in Thailand
For most nationalities, you will be required to submit:
- Single marital status officially issued by your Embassy
Make an appointment with your embassy to arrange for a declaration of your single marital status. It shall include your full name, your parents’ names, your signature as well as thee endorsement of your embassy.
Thailand requires additional declaration of that single marital certificate. But if your Embassy refuses or states clearly on its website that it provides no such service, you may show that webpage to the Amphur and it shall be fine.
Get it translated into Thai and certified by a sworn translator, then take everything to the MFA to get certified again.
- Statutory Declaration
It is a statement writing clearly all your personal background including your occupation, corresponding address, parents’ names and occupation, and anything about you that you think might let the Thai government understand more about you.
To be frank, for most cases it is just a formality that allows the Thai government to charge you 1 more thing, and there is no solid rules regulating the format and content of how the declaration is written, so you are advised to ask your Embassy for a template.
For the US and some European citizens, statutory declaration is not a must.
After writing so, you will need to get it 1) translated into Thai, 2) certified by your Ambassador, and certified by the MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand).
- Book for a Date
After getting all the documents ready, take it back to the Amphur and submit.
So in short, whatever your documents are, as long as they are not in Thai, you will need them:
- Translated into Thai
- Get certified by a sworn translator
- Get it certified by the MFA.
There are 2 places for you to submit documents to the MFA. One of them is the headquarter which is located in the northern part of Bangkok, where the other one is inside the Khlong Toei BTS station. Just get to the station and you will find it which is quite obvious on the second floor.
You will also meet a lot of freelance translators or unlicensed agencies there in the Khlong Toei branch, whom claim to provide all the services you need for your submission. However, many of them do not have the qualifications to do all the steps for you, and some of them even do not speak English. They usually require upfront payment that you would have to bear the risk of taking away your documents and never finding them again.
Besides, there are less staff working at the Khlong Toei branch that you will have to wait a longer queue. As the branch is not intentionally established to serve foreign marriages, some latest policies may not be reflected and the staff may not be very clear of them as well, hence you are always advised to go for the headquarter, though it is a bit far from the city centre.
Why hiring a professional agency / translation company to manage the whole marriage thing is a wise choice?
In Thailand, we are always advised to pay for a service if there is involvement of government procedures. Because rules are not transparent, lot of hidden fees and formalities, and the most importantly, you will need an internal connections to work that fast for you.
If you do all the things by yourself, you will lose time as well as challenged by the officials, and result may not be guaranteed. But if you pay for it, it will take around 1 week for getting all the documents ready, and even be able to get married on the same day you submitting them.
There are plenty types of companies that help foreigners get married in Thailand:
To translate your single marital status and statutory declarations or any other supporting documents into Thai, and get them certified.
- Visa Agencies
To help getting your documents certified by the MFA and submit them to the Amphur on behalf of you.
- Thai Visa Company with specification services
To extend your Thai Tourist Visa for 1 week, per 2 months or unlimited times if you want to stay in Thailand for no reason.
Click here if you want to know more about one-stop support for getting married in Thailand.