Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing registration of Thai marriages.  I thought of making this video after reading a recent comment on a prior video, quote: "As a legal nerd myself, please keep making these videos." And this comment came up on a video where we were comparing the US and Thai Immigration Systems and how Thailand does not have a counterpart if you will to US Immigration's Fiancé Visa, the K-1 Fiancé Visa. That is often a topic that will come up in the context of looking to get married here in Thailand because a lot of people and by the way, if you are unmarried and watching this video, and you are an American and you may be looking to get Visa benefits for your prospective spouse to the United States, it is a very good idea to contact a legal professional first, because the facts of your case may have a tremendous bearing on whether or not it is more optimal for you and your loved one to get married here in Thailand or to utilize a K-1 Fiancé Visa and get married in the United States; that is worth pointing out as a preface to this video. But this comment I am reading just to provide some context, was brought up on a video where I was comparing the fact that US Immigration has a Fiancé Visa and Thai Immigration does not. Again, quoting directly: "As a legal nerd myself, please keep making these videos. I appreciate them and find the content very interesting. Does Thailand even need a Fiancé Visa at least for Americans?" Yeah in answer to that, I can see why they don't have it. I mean the only reason I was making the video was because one, I have got make videos and content has got to be made so, okay. But do they need it? Arguably not. I can see the argument against that. Quoting further: "We can get a Visa Exemption stamp for 30 days on arrival no application and extend that for another 30 days for about 50 USD." Yeah fair enough, and as noted in prior videos, you can utilise a Border Run and get another 30 days and extend again for a total of 120 days. So if anything, Thailand's Immigration System through the exemption process, allows for even longer than the 90 days on a K-1 Fiancé Visa would allow so in essence Thailand already provides for this; I see your point. Quoting further: "That is only 60 days but for practical purposes would it not serve the same purpose of allowing couples enough time to get married?"

So again, ‘time to get married’, I think this person is talking about time to get married in Thailand, which brings us to the question of this video which is, in the past, getting married in Thailand was maybe a multi-day exercise to register. Today that is not so much the case. Most notably because in the past, I am going to do this from the context of Americans marrying but it is similar analysis for Australians, Canadians, British Nationals, many people from the EU, the analysis is going to be somewhat similar but bear in mind, I am talking specifically from an American standpoint. So in the past, one, bear in mind, American Citizen Services did not operate exclusively on an appointment system where there were a set number of appointments. In the past, they did things first come first served and that had its ups and downs. I remember sitting at ACS over the years and thinking "my goodness, the folks that work in ACS, the folks, the State Department people you couldn't pay me enough to do that job", it seemed pretty darned difficult. Now leaving that aside, but note it was first come first served so you could go down to the Embassy usually during their opening hours, usually like 9:00 to 5:00 Monday to Friday or actually it was usually like 8:00 to 3:00. In any event, they don't do that anymore. Everything has to be done on an appointment schedule and getting an appointment can be a delayed process, meaning it may take you some time to get an appointment so that alone may take a few weeks. On the other side of things there used to be a much more shall we say streamlined process associated with all the documentation in Thailand leading up to the actual registration itself. Because the documentation the foreigner has to get, then has to be processed through the Thai system in order to ultimately have the marriage registered. This takes a lot more time than it used to, I am here to tell you. There was a time when it could take a couple of days, then I used to tell people "oh expect a week". Now it can take some serious time and for this reason, again if you are an American looking at this from the context of US Immigration, it is probably a good idea to contact a legal professional, especially one who has a great deal of insight and experience dealing with the marriage registration system here in Thailand and who has a background in US Immigration in order to get and gain the most insight you can into whether or not it is the best idea to register your marriage here in the Kingdom of Thailand.

Now that said, what is the overall processing time? Right now I can't really tell you. At the end of the day it is going to be dictated a great deal by your nationality and the bureaucracy associated with your own Embassy here in Thailand. Then on top of that, again prevailing circumstances dictate that it could take a great deal of time and where you get married can have an impact too. So here in Bangkok it might take longer; down in Pattaya it might take less time; over in some other cities or out in the provinces it might take longer or it might take less time. Again it is going to be circumstantially dependent. I know I sound like a broken record but that really at the end of the day is the answer. And again I can't stress this enough, those Americans who are looking to marry a Thai fiancé here in Thailand, especially those looking at the possibility of American visa benefits even down the road, it is a very good idea to contact a legal professional first as you don't want to make decisions that could have long-term implications, oftentimes possibly to your detriment, based on ignorance.