Fatone wrote: ↑

October 14, 2017, 6:15 pm

On aged pension from australia. In Oz if you marry you lose half your pension, if your wife is too young or not a resident. My question is if I marry my girl in Thailand and register the marriage will the Oz govt find out? Any clues? My initial idea was just have Buddhist ceremony but dont tell Thai Govt

With the Buddhist ceremony you are not legally married so there is nothing to tell any government.

A large percentage of people in Thailand including quite rich Thai couples are not legally married.

For the majority of Thai people the Buddhist ceremony is the most important, the amper marriage not necessary or important.

The benefit to you is with a visa and extension of stay, the benefit to her is that she may be entitled to something from Oz when you kick the bucket.

Retirement Visa would be easier, IMO , as long as the financial threshold is met

Oz will not give anything to her but if you marry legally you will lose part if not all pension if wife working age

The question is will Oz find out?

ATO / Centrelink etc will know ur overseas, as the immigration database is accessed by them. Alerts set up etc

The local Tesabaan to my knowledge does not advise Embassies of any of their citizens that are legally married within Thailand.

What could happen and its worth thinking about is the following scenario for Oz citizens anyway:

If you die in Thailand, then the local police / hospital advise the Embassy in BKK, they will then contact the person you have nominated on your passport application to pass on the notification of your death. Next of Kin etc. The Embassy will issue documentation to the local Police / Hospital for the release of your body however If its an Australian citizen in Australia, this accounts for delays in the release of your body from the mortuary. contact etc

If your wife legally married or just Buddhist ceremony is NOT the nominated person on your passport then the Embassy wont accept communication or instructions from her etc.... as they dont deal with multiple points of contact.

The Embassy could pass this on to Centrelink etc to advise of your death....

There have been numerous tragic accounts that Embassy staff recall, where a spouse / defacto relationship in Thailand hasnt been identified back in Oz with Next of Kin etc and they arent aware of these relationships and it makes challenging times for all the staff and families concerned.

Thanks Waz

Now you posted it here, they will know, but your Thai wife or future wife is not an Aussie resident for tax reasons, the pension will not go down, if you move to Oz or married a younger girl in OZ, then she would be required to work, no work, she would get the Dole if under pension age. So marrying a girl OS not on Oz gov books and never been to OZ you wont loose your payment, or any cuts.

AussieBoy wrote: ↑

October 29, 2017, 5:45 pm

Now you posted it here, they will know, but your Thai wife or future wife is not an Aussie resident for tax reasons, the pension will not go down, if you move to Oz or married a younger girl in OZ, then she would be required to work, no work, she would get the Dole if under pension age. So marrying a girl OS not on Oz gov books and never been to OZ you wont loose your payment, or any cuts.

That seems to be a nice idea.

I can see nothing in the https://www.humanservices.gov.au/indivi ... hip-status page that supports that idea.

It is clear that single maximum basic rate is https://www.humanservices.gov.au/indivi ... ge-pension $814.00 and married the rate is $613.60 Nothing about the tax resident status.

A friend of mine would be ecstatic if you can show where you got that info.

Yeah, me too!!!! I have pretty much resigned myself to living in sin, and they can not tell who I am from my user name so it doesnt matter what I post.

Fatone wrote: ↑

October 29, 2017, 8:02 pm

Yeah, me too!!!! I have pretty much resigned myself to living in sin, and they can not tell who I am from my user name so it doesnt matter what I post.

Your "wife" will not be bothered if you don't go to the amper for a piece of paper.

Unless she is rather unusual she will be happy with the full Buddhist/village/town ceremony and will consider herself properly married with that.

Although, of course, if you are in a in a de facto relationship they will also reduce your payments. Though that would be more difficult for them to prove. Also much more difficult to discover.

There is a contingent of Australian federal police that live and work in Bkk. If the Au gov. Departments really want to find out any thing , they surely will/ can.
Just someting to be aware of. Personally if one relys on the pension for money probably best to toe the line
Just sayin:::

Will they find out
Of course they will find out
You have go to the embassy to get form to get marriage

noosard wrote: ↑

October 30, 2017, 8:25 am

Will they find out
Of course they will find out
You have go to the embassy to get form to get marriage

I had a friend who worked in the Oz Embassy in BKK for many years- consular services

They dont go looking or chasing for this sort of stuff, its not their brief.

The AFP are a separate identity, and if requested by Centrelink, ATO, DFAT etc etc to chase some one up they could if they wanted to.

The easiest way to totally F*** you around, without even looking for you, is to flag your passport or even cancel it in severe cases , So you cant travel outside Thailand without local authorities knowing and alerting ......

They dont go looking or chasing for this sort of stuff, its not their brief.

No the embassy does not do that stuff
Centrelink does

Thanks for further comments