I Finally Changed My Last Name

I finally did change my last name! Eleven months ago, my wife and I started the process of getting married. Little did we know that this would take roughly a year to finish. In this article, I want to give you some insights on why it took so long and what was needed. So let’s dive in.

July 2023 - Do You Want To Marry Me?

In July 2023, I decided to ask my wife if she wanted to marry me. We had been together for 5 years at this point. We moved to Thailand together, and it was clear for both of us that we wanted to stay with each other for the rest of our lives. So I searched for a ring, and shortly after finding the perfect one, I kneeled down in front of her. She said yes, and we planned to marry straight away in August since this would mark our first year in Thailand. Little did we know how much we had to organize in terms of paperwork.

Collecting the Documents - A Loooooong Way

Since we had a plan, we started to inform ourselves about what is needed to officially marry in Thailand as a Thai-German couple - and this is where things started to get a little out of hand. Thankfully, the website of the German embassy explains everything in detail. In order to be eligible to marry in Thailand, I needed a document that proves that I am not married in Germany and generally eligible to marry. So far, so good. But in order to get this document, I needed to collect a whole bunch of documents for my wife too. We needed to collect documents about her family book, her family status, and from the central register in Thailand. Since we were both not that good in Thai, we had a lot of trouble collecting these documents. On top of that, some of the workers in the district office where my wife’s family lives argued a lot about issuing these documents.

Since all these documents needed to be translated and approved/stamped by the German embassy for use in Germany, it was pretty clear to us that there was no way to get officially married until August. So we decided to just hold the ceremony for ourselves in August and deal with the official stuff later. So we still married in August, but not officially.

Money Drainers

We collected all the documents by the beginning of September 2023. Once we had those documents translated, we went to the German embassy in Bangkok, and they started the process of approving the documents. Usually, this takes six to eight weeks. At least, this is what they say. For us, it took around twelve weeks. On top of that, we needed to pay around 350 Euros for collecting, translating, and approving the documents.

After twelve weeks, I picked up the documents, and the next step was to send all of them together with our birth certificates to a district in Germany. Since they needed the documents in original, I was very concerned about sending them. So I decided to buy insurance for the letter with the documents and also sent them with DHL Express. Four weeks later, I finally received my document that I am eligible to marry in Thailand as a German citizen. The process of sending and receiving the documents as well as handing out the new document cost around 250 Euros.

But this was not the end. With this document, I needed to visit the embassy again, and they had to approve this document again. But this time, for use in Thailand. So I got another document that was stamped by the embassy. Another 50 Euros or so and a couple of weeks later - meanwhile, it was the end of November - I also received this document. The final step was to go to the outer ministry in Thailand with this new document and let it be stamped and approved there again. This was surprisingly straightforward, but another 50 Euros were drained from my wallet again.

Everything Prepared - What Now?

At the beginning of December, we finally managed to collect all documents. So we started to look for a district office where we could receive the marriage certificate as soon as possible. Sadly, around this time, a lot of other foreigners had the same idea, and we didn’t manage to find a district office in Bangkok where we could marry in December. Since we also needed to move to Chiang Mai, we decided to marry there. Shortly before Christmas 2023, we queued for an appointment to receive the marriage certificate. In the middle of January 2024, we finally received the call and were able to get the marriage certificate to be officially married, at least in Thailand.

Now, we needed to translate the marriage documents and let them be stamped/approved again to register the marriage in Germany. But before we did that, we took a little break to celebrate and gather some energy.

Registration in Germany and Change of Last Name

On top of registering the marriage in Germany, I also decided that I wanted to take over the last name of my wife. For that, we needed another document to sign. In February 2024, we organized the translation of the marriage documents, and at the end of March 2024, we had an appointment at the German embassy in Bangkok again. They collected the documents. Because we needed to be there in person in order to sign the documents, we had to fly to Bangkok. The whole procedure of flying to Bangkok and back, translating the marriage documents, and the cost of legalizing the documents were another 250 Euros.

This week, I finally got an email from the district in Germany that they received all the documents from the embassy and successfully registered the marriage and changed my last name. For that, I needed to pay another 190 Euros.

So, almost one year after my wife and I decided to marry, we finally managed to go through almost every official step we needed to take in order to make this happen.

The only thing left now is to wait for the official document that I changed my name to arrive in Thailand, and then I can organize a new passport.

My Conclusion

Man… that was a hell of a ride. I never thought that it would be so complicated and cost-consuming to marry abroad. It took us twelve months and roughly 1200 Euros for everything to be done. But it was worth it.

It is worth mentioning that the process described here is just for German citizens. A friend of mine who has British citizenship and married his Thai wife was done in the timespan of 3 months and with a lot less stress.

If you ever plan to marry as a German citizen in Thailand, plan way ahead. You need to make a lot of appointments at the embassy in Germany where you or your wife need to be in person. Be prepared to pay a lot of money for all the documents and be patient. You need to wait for a couple of months each time you hand over documents. I would say, if you plan roughly one year ahead and have enough small money for an agency that helps you (I didn’t have one), it will ease up things. Don’t let all this paper stuff distract you from the fact that you will marry a person that you love. Keep that in mind. It’s worth the hassle.