Sabai Dee,

I'm new to the forum and i hope some of you all can help me with my million and one questions. Firstly I'm after some information on the process on how to get married in Laos from start to finish, So where to start.

My Fiancee has a friend in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who she has spoken to, now he tried to help her but basically he isn't that high up with the process and could only tell her that she needed to come back to the MOFA once we had completed all the paperwork. The help is appreciated and I am sure it will come in handy at some point later in the process but it wasn't that helpful for us just starting out.

So i called the Laos embassy in Canberra ( being an Aussie ) and they where no help either, basically telling me unless we where married in Australia and where looking to legally register the marriage with them there wasn't much they could help with.

So i looked up as many places online as i could from forums to embassy websites, also contacting some legal firms in Laos itself ( on the advice of fellow forumers here ) and came up with a list of required documents, the hardest part is not knowing where to get alot of them from or how to explain that to my fiancee.

Documents Required from a Lao Citizen

1 - Marriage application
OK so is this provided from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs? is there a cost involved? Can anyone advise? My fiancee asked her friend at the MOFA and he said a form from them would cost her 7 million kip to be translated into English, im assuming this is the form he was talking about being the main document needed to complete the application, I'm also assuming that the 7 million would be for both Lao and English documents or is this a separate cost for both?

2 - Biographic information
What this? Where do we get it and how do i explain it to my fiancee?

3 - Residence Certificate
What this? Where do we get it and how do i explain it to my fiancee?

4 - Certificate of No Impediment
Where is this issued? How do i explain it to my fiancee?

5 - Medical Examination Certificate
Ok for the Australian Immigration Dept and our application for her to come to Australia she has to have a medical exam at the Australian Embassy in Vientiane, Is this examination certificate able to be used if translated or does it have to be from a Local Laos Hospital??

6 - Punishment record No. 3 (Valid for three months from the issue date)

Punishment Record No. 3 - This is the Lao citizen's police record.
A Lao citizen residing in Vientiane Capital can apply for this
document with the People's Court.

She is from Vang Vieng, is she able to get this from Vientiane at the above place or does she have to get it from Vang Vieng Peoples Court?? How do i explain what this is to my fiancee?


7 - Engagement certificate
When we decided to get married, we went to her families village and spoke to her parents, who in turn spoke to the Naiban and we had a party to make official that we wanted to marry ect. There was no mention of paperwork so who issues this? How do i tell my fiancee what this is?

8 - Copy of the family book, ID card, Passport
we already have these 3, We have Photocopies of her original Laos documents and she has just gotten all these translated into English for us, Will that be acceptable or do we have to have officially translated and issued/stamped copies?? If so where do we get these?

9 - 4 Photographs, Passport size
Easy enough

Is there anything missing that she will require for the application to be complete?


Documents Required from a Foreigner


1 - Marriage Application
As stated above the MOFA told her that the form is going to cost her 7 million kip for it to be translated into English for us, I am assuming that this is the form they where talking about, correct me if this is wrong and advise where this can be issued to us.

2 - Biographic Information
As above i have no idea on this, what is it? where can it be issued? what is acceptable?

3. Residence Certificate
Where can this be issued and what is acceptable?

4. Certificate of No Impediment
I understand this can be issued by the Australian Embassy in Vientiane?? I also assume this will have to be translated into Laotian??

5. Repatriation Guarantee and Financial Support
i understand what both of these are, my issue is what is acceptable? Is the Repatriation Guarantee an official form, If so wher can we get it? I also assume both of these will have to be in Laotian?? The Financial Support document i understand is basically just a Bank Statement?

6. Medical Examination
Easy - I assume a certificate issued by the Australian Embassy in Vientiane is acceptable, translated and certified of course

7. Police Record (Valid for three months from the issue date)
I know i can get one issued in Australia is this acceptable? translated of course, will it have to be certified after translation??

8. Certificate of Economic Status
I have no idea what this is, What is it and where can it be issued? Assume again it would need to be translated, what about certification??

9 - Copy of passport and ID card or drivers license
Easy - I already have copies and originals of these, what is acceptable? do they have to be certified copies if so where do we get that done? Translated again of course, do these have to be certified as well? where do we get this done?

10 - 6 Photographs, Passport size
Easy

11 - Embassy agreement
(Obtained from the Embassy in the form of a notarized document)
What is this for? what is it? Again does it have to be translated and certified? If so where can we get this done?



All the above are the only things i can officially find that are required.
But i have also been told that there are police interviews ( with the police chief of my fiancee's provincial area)

Now i found the below info on the US embassy in Laos website but it just lists a few places and not the order of what has to be done for the application.

After collecting all the needed documents, you should expect to
visit various government offices as follows. Each office may
require a fee.

Village Chief Office
Obtain the village chief's signature for
the Lao citizen's documents.

---- My fiancee's family is pretty good friends with the local Naiban and getting anything done from him would be easy and cost free, Its just not knowing which documents he can provide and what he needs to certify ----

District Administration Office
Present the complete application. This office will issue a recommendation for marriage.

District Police Headquarters
This office will conduct an interview about your relationship and will then issue an Interview
Report.

---- My fiancee is from Vang Vieng, Do we have it conduct this part of the process here or can we do it in Vientiane?? ---

Municipality Police Headquarters, Foreigner Control Unit
At this office you must inform the police officials that you intend to
get married. This office will report this information to the
Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

---- Again she is from Vang Vieng, Where would this be required ot be done?? ----

Consular Department of Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Present all of the documents for the acknowledgement stamps. There is a
fee for each page that must be stamped. Fees for Lao citizens and foreigners may be different. Normally, the officials will stamp only 5-6 important documents (not the whole application). The Consular Department will write a report for the Foreigner Control Department of the Ministry of Public Security.

Foreigner Control Department of Ministry of Public Security
This office will create two requests (for the Municipality
Administration office and Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

Municipality Administration office
After this office receives the request, you and your Lao partner
will schedule an appointment to sign the documents and finalize the
marriage certificate.

There's too many questions, and unfortunately I'm too busy to answer everything.

A biographic information is basically a short information about yourself. You and your girlfriend both need to provide this. Just describe in your own words about where you were born, where you live, what you do, etc. You can read sample biographic information of other people on the internet to give you some idea.

You can get a Residence Certificate from your council, or an official letter stating where you live will do.

Certificate of Economic Status is proof of income. A letter from your employer will do.

Your girlfriend will need to do the paperwork in Vang Vieng because that's where she lives. If someone lives in Luang Prabang, then they also need to do it in Luang Prabang.

We used to have a few "falang" foreigners on here who married women in Laos, unfortunately they are no longer with us.

It is a time consuming process and money involved too, but that's what happens when you marry someone in a foreign country. Once it's over, you want to make the marriage last forever.

BubbaBlue is right. 7 million kip ($900 US) is a lot of money to translate documents, unless it covers everything including processing documents and issuing you the marriage certificate.

If 7 million kip is just for translation, then you're being scammed.

Try this web address for info about the documents you need:

http://travel.state.gov/law/citizenship/citizenship_755.html

I know it's for USA but it lists the documents you need to marry a Laos citizen and the steps in the order you need to get through this.

You should expect to pay a little extra to have your documents done "quickly".   

I have a stack of documents left over from my marriage all of them in Lao,  sometime in the next few days I'll get them identified and let you know what I have.  I don't recall a CNI for my wife.

Quote:


Now the Admin can correct me if I'm wrong but once you have the engagement document you're considered married.  But I would be very careful to not give an appearance of improper behavior,  foreigners who have sex with Laos nationals can be fined between 500 and 5000 USD, blacklisted and deported.   
All though realistically you could probably just pay a small fine to the arresting officer (you won't get a receipt for this fine  )

Hope this was helpful
Bubba

Going off the site you linked Bubbablue its very similar to the one i got off the Australian Embassy site, lists the documents but in no way helps on where to get them ect.


Quote:


The above quote says that once we have all the paperwork we take it to the Provincial administrator, im assuming that it means we need to see someone in Vang Vieng correct? I was under the impression that once we finalized the papers we took them to the Ministry of Foriegn Affairs for them to be processed??

Thanks for the above information Bubba, now i have a few more questions i hope you don't mind answering.


1/ I have just been issued with my CNI and i know it has to be translated into Laotian for the MOFA it has already been certified and notarized by the Australian Government, my question is when i get it translated officially do i have to get it notarized again by the Australian government or does it get done by the official translation company or do i have to get it done by MOFA or some other government dept in Laos?

2/ What is a residence Certificate? i have looked up a few Australian government websites and they only issue these to immigrants seeking proof of residency not to current Australian Citizens.

Thanking you again, Chris

thanks again Bubba, I will be speaking to my fiancee again today so hopefully she has been able to get a few more of the documents required from her end and we should be a bit closer to getting approved.

Probs have a few more questions along the way, thanks again for answering so quickly. Much appreciated