Hi everyone,

My name is Eli and I'm from Israel.
In November 2013 during my trip to Thailand I met my girlfriend (she's lao of course :p) and in February this year I went back to see her and we stayed in Laos and traveled in Thailand together for almost a month. On my return back home, I invited her to come and stay with me in Israel and she did come in May for a total of 3 months. We talk and video chat with each other on the phone everyday since we met, and now she is coming here again (can't wait to see her) in November.

I'm 29 years old and she is 26. We already talking about marriage for a long time and I'm happy that I've found this forum hoping maybe you can help me with my questions or just give me some advice.

She is coming now and we will return together to Thailand in early February. Unfortunately I have only one month to stay there as I can't leave my job for longer and I don't really have money for everything.
As we land in bangkok, we will have to go to her village to pay for the "breast milk" I forgot the name of this  ceremony..but we will have to postpone the party as to financial problems, and that's OK with her as long as I pay her mom :)

I have al ot of problems and questions...
I read that it's almost impossible to marry in laos and that it takes ages.. I want to skip that.
Getting married in Thailand also not so easy as I read.. The only option for me as I see it now is to get married in Hong Kong and then get the marriage certificate approved with Lao authorities.
I was happy to stumble upon a thread here about marrying in Hong Kong by a guy named Chris, I wish to contact him to ask him everything but the thread is from 2011..a bit outdated.

Also, In order to bring my future wife to my country, I will have to get 3 different papers excluding the marriage certificate:

1. Birth certificate.
2. Single status certificate before marriage.
3. Police criminal record.

Everything has to be original, translated to English and Notarized!
My problem is that I cannot notarize it just like in any western country.. I must go to three different places to stamp all the papers before bringing her here as my wife, for a long 5 year process until she gets the citizenship.

I will have go and stamp the Lao Ministry of Justice, Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Israeli Embassy.
My question is.. Will I be able to stamp it all within a week or two? Will these offices cause me trouble or refuse to do it?
What do I need, what kind of paperwork I need in order to marry in Hong Kong?

I will be happy if anyone can help me answering these questions or better share their personal experience.

Thank you very much.

Hmm I'm not sure. I wish I could help you.

Have you try contacting the embassy in Laos and ask them what'e the proper procedure to take ? 

I think the hardest thing in the wild wild world  is getting papers stamped in commiest countries.

Everytime before I go to do this, I have nightmares. [smiley=angry.gif] [smiley=angry.gif] [smiley=angry.gif]

If your girlfriend is thai citizen. it is very very easy to get married in Thailand.

Why you need stamps by laos governmental orgainzations. You two can get married in Israel. That is fine.  If love lasts, f**k off the stamps. :drinkingbeer :drinkingbeer :drinkingbeer

Its all bout the $$$ comeon you guys , I thought u know the  game by now.

If he doesn't register the marriage with the Lao authorities then he can get fined a big sum (~$500 USD) if he gets caught staying in the same room as her in Laos.

Most hotels don't check, but I'm sure that every village in Laos has a police officer stationed to it.

peterpan wrote on 27^th Oct, 2014 at 3:25pm:

If your girlfriend is thai citizen. it is very very easy to get married in Thailand. Why you need stamps by laos governmental orgainzations. You two can get married in Israel. That is fine.  If love lasts, f**k off the stamps. :drinkingbeer :drinkingbeer :drinkingbeer

Sorry for the late response, nope she is not Thai, she is Lao original :)
I cannot get married in my country because here you can get married only if you are both the same religion. (Stupid huh?).

Anyways, she is now back in Laos again and I'm coming to start the whole process in less than two weeks.
I will post back if it was successful or not.

At the moment, I need your assistant.. if any of you speaks and writes Lao - please translate me the names of the documents and write it here both in English and Lao script:
1. Birth Certificate
2. Single Status Certificate / Affidavit / certification of non-impediment
3. Police Clearance Certificate

I heard that #2 can be obtained in "Hong gahn bok kong" or something like that, can someone correct me, explain what it is and write it in Lao?


thank you in advance!

You say:  "I cannot get married in my country because here you can get married only if you are both the same religion."

Easy solution:  Become Buddhist. 

(Not exactly joking.)

Peter wrote on 20^th Jan, 2015 at 9:33pm:

You say:  "I cannot get married in my country because here you can get married only if you are both the same religion." Easy solution:  Become Buddhist.  (Not exactly joking.)

Only Christianity, Islam and Judaism is officially recognized in my country.
If you have no religion (like me) or any other belief - you have to get married abroad and then get the certificate legalized (by Apostille or Chain of stamps) in order to recognize the marriage.

Unfortunately this stupid law will not going to change anytime soon.  :(

Sorry Elicoz, I'm just wondering, this is none of my business, and you don't have to answer me if you want. Is your girlfriend a Facebook Lao or an original Lao?

If she's a Facebook Lao then that's your business, I'm not going to look down on you for it. I read some statistic that says only about 10% of people in Laos have access to the internet.

I'm guessing she's a Facebook Lao because those are more likely to speak English, unless you speak Lao.

I speak Lao, and I feel like I am of the luckiest guys in the world because I can interact with non-Facebook Laos and marry a non-Facebook Lao girl.

Maybe in the future very few men will have the opportunities I did, if someday all Laos become Facebook Laos. It'll probably take over a hundred years though, and by that time I'll be long gone.

Also, I don't hate Facebook-Laos, but I think the government should not have allowed them to form. Originally there were none, but the government got careless and allowed too much foreign culture to come in and violate the country. They should have taken more measures to keep the culture frozen in time.

There are still areas that haven't been affected by foreign culture though. At least in my lifetime they'll continue to exist, but I'm not sure about my children's lifetime.

Of course, in these areas that are not affected by foreign culture, where the non-Facebook Lao people live, they are generally malnourished and their daily lives are hard. Free trade has always been necessary throughout history in order to ensure that civilizations flourished.

So you may ask, knowing this, why I still choose to resist. Let's look at Thailand for example. It used to be quite similar to Laos, with electricity being restricted to the cities. The King of Thailand implemented a program to improve the quality of rural lives, bringing electricity, infrastructure and other things.

Before this program, all the cultures of Thailand flourished and no one ever thought to copy the way foreigners dress or give up their own ideals. Once the infrastructure came in, the new generation couldn't handle all the influx of stimuli and just went totally berserk. All their values were supplanted by the negative properties of western cultures. Yes, they could have adopted the positive parts of western culture, but they chose to completely absorb the negative ones due to their naivete.

Such a basic, laid-back culture was not prepared for the shock it received. A huge shockwave was sent through the nation and their simple-minded brains could not handle it.

It's true that they suffered physically to some degree. They had to do some hard labor, but it was all worth it, because on the inside they weren't suffering like they are now. Now, they are truly hemorrhaging on the inside. They are all torn up, they don't know who they are anymore because their simple minds could not handle the shockwave.

Laos should know better, sometimes you have to tolerate a little physical pain in order to keep your spirit clean.

Then I guess she is among the 10% with the internet access (today a lot of people use smartphones with 3G plan FYI) a unique and original Lao with moderate English.

Yes, my assumption was correct. She is from Vientiane right? In Vientiane most of the people have easier lives.

Only Christianity, Islam and Judaism is officially recognized in my country.
If you have no religion (like me) or any other belief - you have to get married abroad and then get the certificate legalized (by Apostille or Chain of stamps) in order to recognize the marriage.

Unfortunately this stupid law will not going to change anytime soon.  :([/quote]


It is a stupid law. Amazing Israel

You have no religion but you live in Israel? So are you an ethnic Jew or what?