What notarization process is required for using a US marriage certificate in Thailand?

Ignore any answer that refers to “notary” or “notarization.” Proving to Thailand government that your marriage certificate is real has nothing to do with notarization.

When you bring an official document from one country to another, they need a way to know it’s real.

Every country is either 1.) part of the Hague convention or 2.) not part of the Hague convention.

Thailand is not part of the Hague convention, so Apostille authentication does not work. Documents must be authenticated the old school way.

There will be stamps, seals and signatures.

After getting the state level authentication, I let this service (link below) do the rest of the stateside aspect for me, and then airmail it to my lawyer in BKK:



My documents were authenticated in 12 weeks and the total cost of fees was about $300. (This does not include what I’m paying the lawyer in Bangkok for BKK-related immigration.)

Oh man, that is a task. Assuming you married a Thai national in the states and are now working on Non-O immigrant status:

You’re going to need state (Oregon) level authentication and then send it to a document handler in D.C. For US Dept of State (country level) Authentication, followed by Thai Embassy (in D.C.) authentication. Then send it to Thailand, or take it there, and get it verified by US Embassy in Thailand, followed by translation. Then you can use the document in Thailand for immigration process.

I started this process in mid February, and just arrived back in Bangkok (end of May) for the next steps.

Timeline:

1. State level authentication: in Georgia it was a trip to Atlanta and less than an hour wait.

2. US Dept of state: 10 weeks

3. Thai Embassy: 2 weeks

4. Ship to lawyer in Thailand: 1 week

5. Sign power of attorney so lawyer can complete local authentication: 1-2 weeks

*Hire the document handler in DC so nothing gets screwed up or delayed.

*Process may be different for you as there’s lots of variables. We hired a lawyer in BKK to help us navigate the process. Can share in PM if you’re interested.

That is an official copy. It's the same way in ohio

where in oregon you from david

A lot easier if you had got married in Thailand. You would still need to get your marriage certified each year for visa extension purposes, making sure you are still legally married

They're using the wrong terminology - what they really want is an authenticated copy, not a notarized copy. To fully authenticate the document, you would need to have the seal and signature shown in the photo authenticated by a high level office of the State of Oregon, probably the Secretary of State's office. That officer's signature would be authenticated by the US Dept of State in DC, and THAT signature would then be authenticated by the Thai Embassy in DC. It's a very cumbersome and time consuming process that is total overkill for something as minor as a visa extension, but they can legitimately request it. (There's an international convention that greatly simplifies the authentication process, but Thailand isn't a signatory.)

Other people have said that their embassy notarized their marriage certificate. If the embassy will let you do a self-serving affidavit stating that the certificate is genuine, the MFA in Bangkok could authenticate the signature from the embassy and immigration would probably be happy. As a legal procedure that's totally meaningless, but all they really care about is the form, not the substance.

You have it notarised in the country where the certificate was issued. So if married in the US then it must be done in the US.

Pretty standard, I had Australian paperwork stamped at the Australian Embassy in Bangkok, can yours be done at the American Embassy?

Was this to try getting the marriage visa? Where one of you gets the visa and the spouse is considered the dependent or trailing visa holder?

We went through this crap. Notarized original from the county, then the STATE must notarize the document (called apostile), then send originals to certified translator near Thai Embassy. Then send both originals to Thai embassy. Pain in the ass. We had to do a divorce in Oregon and our marriage in Texas. All while in Texas. All in it took almost a year and about $1,000 US. Freaking ridiculous.

Here’s the info for Oregon. %20a%20Transcript%20or%20Diploma&text=Send%20the%20original%2C%20notarized%20document,you%20clearly%20list%20your%20documents.

Yes original notarized - Thai bureaucrats love documents

Given up—just do the 1 year retirement visa—far easier—also save legal ramifications on divorce in thailand🤪🤪🤪

Go to your embassy and notarize

when I had our marriage certificate done in US I had to send it to the Department of state for authentication to receive our Thai marriage certificate in Thailand.

@David ****

Sorry to hop on your post with a question, so i used an agency in Bangkok, Thailand and got a marriage certificate, with both Thai and English translated copies, do i have to get it notorized back in the states also? If so what is the purpose of the notorization?

Certified true copies of documents and notarized documents differ from one another in purpose, process, and cost.

A notary stamp is embossed on the original document. That stamp is not a notary stamp, and not embossed like one would be.

It can be done here

It's the same from the UK, you have to get your marriage certificate translated and then certified by the Thai Embassey in the UK.

@David ****

yes you need this notarised in the states unless someone can do here