Marriage equality: what has changed, and what still needs doing

The family provisions of the Civil and Commercial Code were amended to replace "man and woman" with "person", and "husband and wife" with "spouses". Two people may therefore become engaged and marry regardless of gender. The minimum age for marriage rose from seventeen to eighteen, and anyone under twenty still needs the consent of a parent or guardian.

The recognition sits in the principal family law rather than in a separate statute, so it carries through to other laws that refer to a spouse. Thailand is the first country in Southeast Asia to recognise marriage in this way.

What rights arise as soon as you register?

• Property acquired during the marriage is marital property, to be divided if the marriage ends.
• A spouse is a statutory heir and inherits without a will.
• A married couple may adopt a child jointly.
• Either spouse may give medical consent for the other when that person cannot give it.
• Joint management of property, and standing to act for the other in the matters the law gives a spouse.

What still has to be changed by hand?

Registration creates rights under family law, but several entitlements sit in records held by agencies or private companies, and those do not update themselves.

• Life insurance beneficiaries must be changed with the insurer.
• Provident fund and employer benefit nominations: check whether each set of rules already reads across to the new meaning of spouse.
• Joint accounts, authorised signatories, and powers of attorney signed earlier.
• A will, still needed if the division is to differ from the statutory one.

Which laws have not followed yet?

A number of statutes and regulations still use the older wording. The one that arises most often concerns parentage, because the law on assisted reproduction and surrogacy is still drafted around a husband and wife.

Couples planning to have children should take advice before starting, because the order in which the documents are prepared affects how the child is later recognised, and is far harder to correct afterwards.

What if one spouse is a foreign national?

A Thai national may marry a foreign national regardless of gender under Thai law. The step that takes longest is not the registration but assembling the documents from the other country, which must be legalised and translated as the Thai authorities require.

Once registered, the marriage supports an application to stay in the Kingdom, which is separate from the right to work; that needs its own permit. The other country may or may not recognise the marriage, so both sides should be checked before planning around property and inheritance.

This note states the general position and is not advice on your own situation. What each couple must prepare depends on nationality, existing property and plans for children. Send us the facts and we will set out the order of steps.