Reader's question: Legal marriage procedure for a Thai woman with a Belgian man in Belgium

The registration of our Belgian marriage in Thailand is now 7 years ago. The details are no longer fresh in my memory. What stayed with me:

1/ based on local information from the town hall (ampur) of her home address in Thailand

– Legalized Thai translation of our Belgian marriage certificate
– Legalized Thai translation of my birth certificate
– Legalized Thai translation of my Belgian EU travel passport
– Passport photos only (which turned out to be superfluous afterwards because we took photos on the spot)
– Documents could not be older than 3 months when presented.

Now it could well be that they ask for other documents in other ampur (town hall): for example, photos of your home or birth/death certificate of your parents, etc... The fantasy of a Thai official sometimes knows no bounds 🙂

Ratification of the documents by a Belgian court was not requested. Many times I hear and read that they do ask this.

For my Thai wife, only her Thai ID card was required.

2/ Back in Belgium, we applied to the town hall of our place of residence:

– extract of our marriage from the marriage register (note: international version)
– my birth certificate

3/ We have legalized all documents, including a copy of my Belgian EU travel passport, at the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Sent by post, paid by bank transfer and received back by post.

3/ We presented the legalized documents at the Thai consulate in Antwerp. They were stamped there and “certified as genuine”.

4/ We had the documents translated in Belgium by a Thai translator who has been sworn in by the Belgian courts. Cost eur 45 per sheet and turned out to be pointless afterwards because the legalization department of the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not accept this translation.

5/ We went to the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs Legalization Service (MFA) at opening hours in Bangkok and presented the documents at the counter. Half an hour later we received them back full of jitters and strikethroughs in red and the message: “translation no good”. We were then approached by a Thai young man who promised us in his best English that he could solve our problem “same day but hurry.” In desperation we gave the Belgian legalized documents to the young boy who tore away more on his motorcycle. It was already after 10 am.

Afterwards we learned that this was a so-called “runner”. Someone who earns a living by taking documents to and from a translation agency recognized by the MFA officials on the motosai. Commission pays? Payment for translations was less than 1000 thb. for all. We didn't know then that you have to address those guys early in the morning in front of the door of MFA legalizations in Chang Wattana where they are waiting for customers. The young man who approached us was there for his 2nd round that morning.

We waited on site. Around 11.45:XNUMX am the “runner” returned with the original and translated documents. We were able to present it at the counter on the first floor just before the lunch break. We were given a number. Then we had lunch in the cafeteria/restaurant on the ground floor.

Then wait in a large waiting room on the 1st floor until our number appeared on a digital light board. That was shortly before closing time (16.00 p.m.?) First pay at the cash register (was a low amount, a few hundred Thb I think) and pick up our legalized documents at a counter.

6/ the whole package of legalized documents presented at the town hall (ampur) of my wife's Thai residential address in Thailand.

After more than an hour of waiting, we received a document in Thai with large bright red stamps that also administratively confirms our Belgian marriage in Thailand.

The female officer behind the counter was very curious. She asked my wife in Thai how much she got from me for registering our marriage. I don't know what my wife answered. Hopefully something like respect and love 🙂

We live in Thailand 650 km from Bangkok and have made it a multi-day stay for tourism and family visits. Fortunately, it was handled in 1 day with MFA legalizations, despite our misjudgment of translations and ignorance of “runners.”

There are agencies in Bangkok that handle the administrative matters for you for an additional fee. You don't have to travel to Bangkok. We have no experience with this ourselves.

Useful Sites:

http://www.thailandforfarang.com/assets/werkwijze.pdf
https://diplomatie.belgium.be/nl/Diensten/legalisatie_van_documenten
http://www.mfa.go.th/main/en/services/16265-Naturalization-Legalization.html