Marriage in Philippines

[Christine n Carl 0]

Thank you for that post, its what I am trying to find out. Most other posts tell me what they did. I know all the requirements.

We have talked to Local Registrar. This minicipality has chosen to make tougher requirements and it cannot be done in less than

one month locally.

Ten calendar days maybe Philippine family law requirement but the local registry can change that. As this one did making it 12

twelve work days for a total of 16 days posting. Plus they said one day to register and pick up next day for a total of 18 days.

Also they will not allow marriage seminar to be done until after posting, adding additional time.

From what I was told fiancee had to be a resident and thus was only eligible in her own town.

Your post gives me hope we can get around that and find a town that she can pay resident tax, and we can register

for license in the 10 calendar day reguirement.

As for CENOMAR anyone know how I might check NSO from US and if they have a record of my previous marriage

in the US, how do I go about getting it updated with proper divorce paperwork?

Thank you

The worst thing you could do is to circumvent the local registrar's requirement for a CENOMAR for you and your wife. DON'T DO THIS despite what you have read from other posters about them giving grease monies to the authorities. The consequence for you if you happen to get caught and punished is for you to be deported! This is very serious.

The reason for the CENOMAR for you although you are a foreigner is to make sure that you're not making a career of picking up a bride there, divorcing them in the States, then coming back to marry another one. Some foreigners make a profession of this and this is called "human trafficking", and that's the reason for the CENOMAR. It is to make it difficult for foreigners to marry again, and again in the Philippines. More and more municipalities are requiring this, but not all. What you could do is to find out which municipalities do not require this and get married there.

When I got married in the Philippines (Metro-Manila), some of the cities within the Metro do not honor the "Legal Capacity Affidavit from the US Embassy". What they require is a "certification" from the US Embassy that you are really divorced and legally able to marry. The US Embassy, of course, said "hogwash" and would not conform as they do not have the administrative capacity to check up on the authenticity of your divorce papers. What I did was to look for a city that honor the affidavit from the US Embassy and found Marikina City. Your fiancee is required to obtain her marriage license from her town of residence, but this is easy to obtain from another city as all she has to do is pay the "residential tax" for another place (about P20) and she's good to get a marriage license. Once the marriage license is obtained, usually after 10 working-days of posting, and the family-seminar is attended, you can get married ANYWHERE in the Philippines.

[Hank_ 9,173]

If you did not send a copy of your previous marriage certificate and complete the needed paperwork to NSO being your were married and divorced in the USA neither is on record with NSO. You have to file those to get them recorded in the Phils so if you did not get them recorded in the Philipinnes there is no record.

You not being a citizen of the Philippines I doubt you can get much of anything done with NSO, let alone be in their computer.

Edited November 19, 2012 by Hank_

[Christine n Carl 0]

If you did not send a copy of your previous marriage certificate and complete the needed paperwork to NSO being your were married and divorced in the USA neither is on record with NSO. You have to file those to get them recorded in the Phils so if you did not get them recorded in the Philipinnes there is no record.

Unfortuneatly in order for ex-wife to get new passport 4 years ago, the Philippine embassy in San Francisco required paperwork of marriage for her. Thus I am

assuming it was recorded somewhere in the Philippines, the NSO being the most obvious place.

You not being a citizen of the Philippines I doubt you can get much of anything done with NSO, let alone be in their computer.

If you did not send a copy of your previous marriage certificate and complete the needed paperwork to NSO being your were married and divorced in the USA neither is on record with NSO. You have to file those to get them recorded in the Phils so if you did not get them recorded in the Philipinnes there is no record.

You not being a citizen of the Philippines I doubt you can get much of anything done with NSO, let alone be in their computer.

Unfortuneatly in order for ex-wife to get new passport with her new name four years ago, the San Francisco Philippine Embassy required

paperwork to record foriegn marriage. I am just assuming this ended up at the NSO.

[Tahoma 2,291]

Unfortuneatly in order for ex-wife to get new passport with her new name four years ago, the San Francisco Philippine Embassy required

paperwork to record foriegn marriage. I am just assuming this ended up at the NSO.

Yes, your marriage is on record at the NSO. It's on record at the NSO because you reported your marriage to the Philippines Consulate in San Francisco as a requirement for your wife to get a new passport.

If you want to order a CENOMAR online, click here. You can also get one in person or by mail.

Since your previous marriage is on record at the NSO, when you order your CENOMAR, you will be issued a CEMAR (Form #5- Advisory on Marriages) which will show your previous marriage. You can't "update" it. Instead, you will submit your CEMAR and a certified copy of your divorce decree to the local civil registrar.

By the way, I've been on this board for four years, and I have never seen anybody get in trouble for a civil registrar "relaxing" their requirements. If anyone has had such a problem, I wish they would post about it.

Edited November 19, 2012 by Tahoma

[Christine n Carl 0]

Yes, your marriage is on record at the NSO. It's on record at the NSO because you reported your marriage to the Philippines Consulate in San Francisco as a requirement for your wife to get a new passport.

If you want to order a CENOMAR online, click here. You can also get one in person or by mail.

Since your previous marriage is on record at the NSO, when you order your CENOMAR, you will be issued a CEMAR (Form #5- Advisory on Marriages) which will show your previous marriage. You can't "update" it. Instead, you will submit your CEMAR and a certified copy of your divorce decree to the local civil registrar.

By the way, I've been on this board for four years, and I have never seen anybody get in trouble for a civil registrar "relaxing" their requirements. If anyone has had such a problem, I wish they would post about it.

Tahoma,

Thank you for post.

I will have fiancee ask Local Registrar if they will accept CEMAR and divorce decree.

DO you have any suggestions for getting local registrar to relax " 12 work day posting requirement"?

Unfortuneatly I do not have a month time off to meet these requirements.

Thanks.

"

[Tahoma 2,291]

Do you have any suggestions for getting local registrar to "relax" the 12 work day posting requirement"?

If your fiancée is savvy and confident, she can do it herself. She'll know the drill...money talks.

On the other hand, does your fiancée's family have any connections? The mayor? A town council member? Her barangay captain? These are people who can get things expedited for you.

If you don't have any success with the local civil registrar in her town, then get your marriage license in another town.

[Tahoma 2,291]

Another idea to bypass the waiting period: You can have your fiancée send you the marriage license application and you can get it authenticated at a Philippines Consulate in the U.S. and send it back to her along with the other required documents. Then she can submit everything to the local civil registrar.

[Ann Marie and Leo 9]

If your fiancée is savvy and confident, she can do it herself. She'll know the drill...money talks.

On the other hand, does your fiancée's family have any connections? The mayor? A town council member? Her barangay captain? These are people who can get things expedited for you.

If you don't have any success with the local civil registrar in her town, then get your marriage license in another town.

Exactly as I had to do it, and the same as mentioned above, the clerk/office manager told me that I needed to do X,Y & Z then 10 days waiting and she added some other BS, basicilly making it as hard to do as possible to get the job done in the timing we needed, it is the same as trying to get anything done in the Philippines. There is more red tape than a town full of Santa Clauses, needing to repair their torn red outfits. (the CFO comes to mind) LOL

We ask for a brief meeting with the Mayor, explained we were on a tight schedule, could meet all the document & seminar requirements, but it needed it to done in parallel, he smilled and said that actually the date we wanted to have the ceremony, he was not avalible, but he would marry on a earlier date, and they would give us the signed license when we presented the needed documents, and met the 10 day. He also instructed the clerk to make sure the completed package was given to us to send to the NSO, in a very short time frame after.

Moral of the story just ask, and a few piso's spread around never hurts, like the seminars, I think back them we needed two different ones, first one we just paid the fee, and they gave the Certificate, the second one was pay the fee, and bring them some Ice Cream.

We did invite the Mayor, and his friend to a nice lunch to help us Celebrate, the upcoming marriage, and became best of friends after.

[Artisan 138]

If your fiancée is savvy and confident, she can do it herself. She'll know the drill...money talks.

On the other hand, does your fiancée's family have any connections? The mayor? A town council member? Her barangay captain? These are people who can get things expedited for you.

If you don't have any success with the local civil registrar in her town, then get your marriage license in another town.

I honestly wish that people that suggested using bribes and graft to bypass local laws were banned from this forum. All it does is cause problems for people that expect it to work and instead end up paying fines, facing bans, or losing their freedom (which happened to one of my wife's co-workers after trying to bribe an official in Manila). The number of people that use this forum is tiny compared to the actual number of people that seek immigration to the US, especially in the Philippines. Fewer people still would come forward about attempting to commit a crime and having it backfire.

If the local registrar wants to increase the time required for the posting it is likely for reasons close to heart for the locals. If your marriage is planned for a few months from now perhaps you can have your fiance move to Manila or Cebu. It only takes a couple of months to establish local residency and the larger cities are more likely to follow the established family code.

If you really cannot get the wedding done in three weeks and your job is so totalitarian that you can't request a few weeks of unpaid personal time it may be time to find a new line of employment.

[Hank_ 9,173]

Unfortuneatly in order for ex-wife to get new passport with her new name four years ago, the San Francisco Philippine Embassy required

paperwork to record foriegn marriage. I am just assuming this ended up at the NSO.

You will need to get the divorce recorded in the Phils also then, after that you can request the CENOMAR.

[Tahoma 2,291]

I honestly wish that people that suggested using bribes and graft to bypass local laws were banned from this forum. All it does is cause problems for people that expect it to work and instead end up paying fines, facing bans, or losing their freedom (which happened to one of my wife's co-workers after trying to bribe an official in Manila). The number of people that use this forum is tiny compared to the actual number of people that seek immigration to the US, especially in the Philippines. Fewer people still would come forward about attempting to commit a crime and having it backfire.

Thank you for confirming that you don't know anyone nor have you ever heard of anyone who got in trouble for offering a "snack" to a local civil registrar for issuing a marriage license early. Or, for that matter, the mayor or anyone else who got it done early.

Few people use VJ? Few people would come forward?

First of all, you underestimate VJ. There may be relatively few people here, but they know a lot of other people who have gone through the process. We have the benefit of their collective wisdom. Second, I don't necessarily need to read people's personal experiences here on VJ. I'll settle for second-hand stories. I'll even entertain second-hand or third-hand stories from anyone anywhere.

Who has gotten in trouble for bypassing the normal waiting period for a marriage license?

Please stop trying to scare people.

[Christine n Carl 0]

I honestly wish that people that suggested using bribes and graft to bypass local laws were banned from this forum. All it does is cause problems for people that expect it to work and instead end up paying fines, facing bans, or losing their freedom (which happened to one of my wife's co-workers after trying to bribe an official in Manila). The number of people that use this forum is tiny compared to the actual number of people that seek immigration to the US, especially in the Philippines. Fewer people still would come forward about attempting to commit a crime and having it backfire.

If the local registrar wants to increase the time required for the posting it is likely for reasons close to heart for the locals. If your marriage is planned for a few months from now perhaps you can have your fiance move to Manila or Cebu. It only takes a couple of months to establish local residency and the larger cities are more likely to follow the established family code.

If you really cannot get the wedding done in three weeks and your job is so totalitarian that you can't request a few weeks of unpaid personal time it may be time to find a new line of employment.

Thankyou for your post, but suggesting new employment is not really a constructive post to help

solve my filipina and my problem.

[Christine n Carl 0]

You will need to get the divorce recorded in the Phils also then, after that you can request the CENOMAR.

Hank,

Thank you for post. Any idea how I can get this done?

I have checked Philippine Embassy in Los Angeles as

well as NSO website and have found no guidance on this situation.

Thank you again

[Hank_ 9,173]

Hank,

Thank you for post. Any idea how I can get this done?

I have checked Philippine Embassy in Los Angeles as

well as NSO website and have found no guidance on this situation.

Thank you again

I don't have a clue on how long it would take, but you should be able to get it done throught Philippine embassy that way you can have it completed before you head over.

[Tahoma 2,291]

You will need to get the divorce recorded in the Phils also then, after that you can request the CENOMAR.

If he was a U.S. citizen at the time of his marriage, he doesn't need a Philippines court to recognize his divorce, nor does he need to get an annulment. He can request a CENOMAR right now and the NSO will issue him a CEMAR (Advisory on Marriages).