Marriage In The United States Versus Thailand

Thailand marriage registration is a major issue in the field of Thai Family Law, the following article is a brief overview of the various issues associated with marriage in Thailand.

For those readers who are familiar with the English “Common Law” system, the idea of marriage registration is somewhat difficult to fully grasp at first glance. However, from the standpoint of family law there are many similarities between Thailand’s “civil law” system and a “common law” system such as the US. However, a notable difference between the Thai system and the “common law” system is the absence of an idea of “common law marriage”. In countries such as the United States there are jurisdictions which recognize “common law marriage”. A “common law marriage” is basically a creation of the Court whereby a judge (or panel of judges) finds that a couple is legally married even though the parties to the “marriage” took no affirmative steps to legalize their union.

In Thailand, in order for a marriage to be considered legal both parties must appear before a civil registrar and register their marriage. As so-called “common law marriage” is not generally recognized in the Kingdom of Thailand, even a couple that openly cohabits for a substantial period of time will probably be found to be legally unmarried. Further, as the doctrine of equity is basically absent in Thailand’s jurisprudence, there is often no recourse for either party in an unregistered marriage. As a result, irrespective of the fact that a couple has conducted a marriage ceremony and been accepted as married by their family and/or community, a Court is unlikely to grant either party any type of post dissolution spousal maintenance should the unregistered marriage dissolve since the Court would probably not recognize the initial existence of a legal marriage.

These ideas are rather important for those foreign nationals wishing to marry in Thailand. For example, if a couple travels to the Kingdom of Thailand and has a marriage ceremony with all customary and religious solemnization, the marriage may still be considered unregistered, and therefore not legally binding, if the couple does not in fact register the marriage. This is important to note for those couples from other countries because failure to actually register a marriage could result in the couple’s home country, or countries, not recognizing the legal union.

Of probable interest to bi-bnational couples who are not Thai is the difficulty of registering a divorce in the Kingdom of Thailand if the marriage is legally registered, but later dissolves. In the Kingdom of Thailand, it might be somewhat difficult to find a Court that will accept jurisdiction to grant a divorce if the parties to the marriage are not registered on a Tabien Baan (House Registration) in Thailand, or if one of the foreign parties refuses to avail themselves for personal service of process in Thailand. For all of the aforementioned reasons, those foreign national’s wishing to get married in Thailand ought to seek legal counsel prior to marriage in an effort to avoid possible legal difficulties down the road.

For information related to US Immigrastion from Thailand please see: US Marriage Visa or US Visa Thailand.

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