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Embassy Notarized Affidavits for Americans Marrying in Thailand

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing marriage registration here in the Kingdom.  

I am specifically talking about this in the context of American citizens as the primary thrust of my endeavors out here lo these past 11 - 12 years going on, has involved mostly the American Embassy so that's really where my knowledge base lies. So what are we talking about here? Americans wishing to marry a Thai National in the Kingdom, register a Thai marriage, need to go ahead and obtain, basically I call it an Affidavit of an Ability to Marry or an Affidavit of Single Status if you will. That document must be issued by the US Embassy either in Bangkok or the US Consulate in Chiang Mai, basically by the US mission to Thailand. It is basically a document that says this individual is either single and free to marry or is divorced and free to marry a Thai National and then once that document is obtained and notarized, it needs to be translated and legalized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here in the Kingdom and then that document is used as the basis for the Foreigner to go ahead and register their marriage to a Thai National. The Thai National generally speaking, their records are going to be in the civil database here and their ID card should be carrying around their information with respect to their single or marital status. 

So the thing to take away from this video is you have to go ahead and go to the US Embassy first before one can go ahead and get married in the Kingdom. You need to obtain a document which states that you are single and able to marry. That document than needs to be translated and legalized for use in the Thai civil registrar system and then the couple needs to travel to a Khet office, a district office here in Bangkok, or the Amphur office, in a province outside of Bangkok and go ahead and obtain the marriage registration. 

So for foreigners looking to marry here in the Kingdom, specifically for an American,  there are a lot of extra steps when compared to just two Thai people who want to get married and the reason for this is the Thai system does not know whether or not that individual is single and able to marry and for that reason they need this documentation to go ahead and act as the evidentiary basis for allowing the registration of a marriage; in this case we're going to presume it is to a Thai National although the same rules apply to two foreign Nationals, two Americans can get married here in Thailand and register their Thai marriage. Under those circumstances, both of them would have to go down to the Embassy and go through the same process on both sides before they would be able to register their marriage here in the Kingdom.

So to sum up, it's not just a matter of going down to the local civil registrar office and registering the marriage. An American citizen needs to go ahead and obtain some preliminary documentation proving single status and an ability to marry before a marriage will be registered here in the Kingdom of Thailand.