When two people decide to get married, they need to register the marriage as legally binding in Thailand. This is done at a local district office (called an amphur in Thailand).
To be able to register your marriage, you will need to submit some documents to the amphur and show them along with two witnesses. Once you have this, the registrar will issue you a marriage certificate in Thai which can then be translated into English and/or your own language.
If you are a foreign national, you will need to obtain an affirmation from your embassy. This is an affidavit that confirms that you are legally free to marry. It must then be translated into Thai by an approved Foreign Ministry translator and certified.
You will then need to take this document to your nearest Amphur or Khet. They will be able to tell you whether or not they are able to register your marriage as a Foreigner and what is required of you. They will also inform you of how long the process will take and the best time to go.
The Amphur or Khet will ask you to bring your passport with you. This will then be checked and they will then contact the embassy and the ministry of foreign affairs to ensure that all the paperwork is correct. Then they will contact you back with a date for the registration.
It should take a couple of days at most for the registration to be completed. This does not include the time it takes to obtain the embassy papers and translations etc.
Once the embassy has done their checks they will call you back and tell you that it is ready to be registered at the Amphur or Khet. This will then take another day or so for the Amphur to be able to complete the marriage registration.
In most cases you will be asked to fill out an application form and provide a photocopy of your passport and an authenticated affirmation. You will then need to provide 2 witnesses and have the documents translated into Thai by an approved translation service.
A lot of the embassies are very strict on this and they will not accept your application unless you have all the proper documentation. In some cases they will require that the documents are sent to them by mail and then they will verify them before allowing you to marry.
This is very important to make sure that you have everything in order, because if there are any errors on the registration it could be rejected by the Amphur or Khet and this can cause a lot of problems for you.
If you have any questions about marriage registration or need help with obtaining the necessary documents, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our family lawyers. They will be able to assist you and make the process as stress-free as possible for you.
You should also consider registering your prenuptial agreement at the same time as the marriage registration. This will enable the parties to have legal proof of their rights on their assets and prevent future disputes.
