Question for married couples from the USA who use their marriage certificate for "trailing spouse" visa/extension purposes:
Have you successfully extended the stay of the trailing spouse (after 29-Feb-2024) at Hua Hin immigration using an original marriage certificate from the USA without any authentication documents from the state/commonwealth, Department of State, and Royal Thai Embassy?
For background, we applied for our original visas using the marriage certificate that we received when we originally got married, which was a "true and correct copy" signed by the county recorder with an embossed seal but which did not have any attached authentication documents. We also used that original copy for our first trailing spouse extension. However, after reading about a possible need for authenticated documents, we decided to pay an apostille to request another copy of our marriage certificate and obtain all the authentications that were required at that time from the state and federal authorities and with an additional authentication stamp provided by the Royal Thai Embassy. We were told that the authenticated documents would be valid for 3 years, and we have used them twice for trailing spouse extensions. However, based on Immigration Order No. 0029.154/1491 dated February 24, 2024, we are wondering if we will be able to go back to using the original copy of our marriage certificate that we received when we got married, which has no attached authentication documents.
Since we have presented two different marriage certificates at Hua Hin immigration that look quite different from one another, both of which were issued by a competent authority in the state in which we were married, but only one of which is attached to authentication documents, we are wondering if using the original copy will create confusion.
TLDR : Answer Summary
The question seeks advice from married American expats regarding the validity of using an original marriage certificate, without additional authentication, for extending a trailing spouse visa at Hua Hin immigration. The asker previously used both an original and an authenticated version, and now wonders if they can revert to the original following new immigration orders. Comments respond with varied experiences, noting the necessity of certifications in some areas and suggesting consulting immigration officials directly.
