How to Choose Help for Marrying in Thailand: The Questions to Ask Before You Pay

Two foreigners can marry in Thailand. The difficulty is not the law. It is the paperwork, which runs across two or three countries' authorities and ends at a Thai district office, the government office that registers marriages.

If you plan to register your marriage in Thailand, our marriage registration service covers the documents, the legalization and the district office for one fixed fee.

Services differ, and the differences are hard to see from a website. Below are six questions to put to any service before you pay, with what a full answer sounds like and our own answer.

The documents each partner needs

Ask the service to name the documents for your two nationalities. A full answer names two for each of you. The first is an identification document. A translated and legalized copy of your passport is accepted. Legalization is the chain of official stamps that makes a document from one country acceptable in another. The second proves that you are single, which Thai law requires. It has different names in different countries, such as a certificate of no marriage record, a certificate of singleness, or an affidavit of freedom to marry.

Ask also who obtains each document. Some nationalities prepare them at home, and others obtain them at their own embassy in Thailand. A full answer says which of those two paths applies to you, and why. Our lawyer works out which path fits your two nationalities. We translate the documents in advance and take them through the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, before you arrive or after you land.

The embassy appearance

Ask whether the service can attend your embassy for you. The answer is usually no, and a service that says yes should be asked to name the embassy and show the rule. Where your embassy requires you to appear in person, that appearance generally cannot be delegated to anyone else. The British Embassy in Bangkok is one example. The applicant applies online, attends an appointment booked at least seven working days after applying, and signs the affirmation there. Ask how long the wait for an appointment is at your own embassy, and how long the document stays valid once issued.

A power of attorney does not replace that appearance. It is a document that authorizes another person to act for you, and it works for the Thai offices rather than the embassy. We cannot attend an embassy for you, and Japan is the one exception we know of.

When the money is taken

Ask when each payment is taken, and what happens to your money if the marriage does not go ahead. A full answer ties each payment to a stage of the work, not to a date in the calendar. Ask in particular whether anything is charged before your documents have been checked.

Our fee is 49,000 baht (~1,480 USD), fixed, in three stages. It is 4,900 baht (~150 USD) when you book, 19,600 baht (~590 USD) when your documents are approved, and 24,500 baht (~740 USD) after you are married. That last payment is not charged if the marriage does not proceed. If your documents are rejected, the first payment is not refunded, and the second is refunded before your arrival, less costs.

The costs outside the price

Ask for a written list of what the price does not cover, before you pay. Our fee covers the translation, the legalization at the ministry, the district office booking, the government fees, and the transport of your documents. The price does not cover your embassy's fees, the cost of preparing your documents before you arrive, or a hotel, ceremony or photographer. A registration outside the Bangkok region costs 10,000 baht (~300 USD) extra.

The district office

Ask whether the service can promise a named district on a named day. Thailand has no central booking system for district offices. Most will not hold an informal booking before the legalized documents exist. The head of the district office alone approves a marriage involving foreign documents, and that person is not always available, because of meetings or emergencies outside the office.

We do not guarantee an exact district. We keep a record of several districts and their availability, and coordinate using scans of your documents. We aim for an office within about an hour's drive of where you are staying. If a district postpones, we change the date or the office.

The length of the stay

Ask how many days you should plan to be in Thailand, and what those days depend on. The Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs legalizes documents in three to five working days. It gives no guaranteed maximum. Ask whether the legalization can be finished before you arrive. With us it can, when each of you legalizes a power of attorney at home and sends the originals ahead, and then one working day in Thailand is enough.

If you bring your documents with you, the Thai side needs six working days at the minimum after the embassy step, and we recommend eight to ten. We do not promise a registration date, because the ministry's speed and the district's availability are outside anyone's control.

Ask all six questions before you pay, and ask for the answers in writing. Pride Legal Thailand was created to become the platform for the LGBTQ community around the world looking to get married in Thailand. We make the marriage plannable from abroad and completable in a single trip.

Pride Legal Thailand arranges the registration of marriages in Thailand for two people of any gender and any nationality. The fee is ฿49,000 (~1,480 USD) for both partners, fixed, with VAT and government fees included; registration outside the Bangkok region costs ฿10,000 (~300 USD) more.

To register your own marriage in Thailand, tell ELSA your nationalities and your dates on the Marriage page: she lists your documents and your timeline, and our lawyer confirms the plan. The steps in order: how two foreigners can get married in Thailand.