Legal hurdles after same-sex marriage

With the great news of the samesex marriage law in Thailand comes another question — how to facilitate the lives of couples, especially when one of them is not a Thai national. Two lingering and nagging issues concern the acquisition of nationality and the channels for adopting a child.

- Vitit Muntarbhorn

A female couple gets married on Jan 23, the day the Marriage Equality Act came into effect.NUTTHAWAT WICHIEANBUT

At the outset, the public should be reminded that Thais who register their marriage abroad cannot register the marriage again in Thailand. However, they can obtain a certificate recognising their family relationship from the district office. On another front, if a Thai marries a foreigner in Thailand, or if two foreigners wish to marry here, the non-Thais must obtain a certificate from their embassy confirming that they are not already married before the district office will register the marriage. Some countries that do not yet recognise same-sex marriage are open to providing that certificate, and they should be lauded for doing so. Other countries are less forthcoming.

With regard to the nationality issue, there are generally four ways of acquiring nationality: by birth in a country, by blood links with the mother or father, by requesting nationality (naturalisation), and by marriage. Thai law opens the door to all four modes, but with nuances. Displaced persons from other countries, though born in Thailand, were deprived of nationality by birth in past decades due to national security considerations, although more recent amendments to the nationality law have sought to restore Thai nationality to some of them. There have been more than ten nationality laws and related amendments in Thailand.