What Are The Correct Steps To Getting Married In The Philippines?

[Mr Lee]

I have been asked this a few times over the years how to do it, and since my wife and I were married in the US, I do not know, so maybe those of you who have done it in the Philippines can post the step by step to help others who may wish to do it in the future. Thanks in advance.

[Mr Lee]

OK lets keep this topic only about what is needed to get married and keep all opinions on whether to do it or not out of it. Some posts that were made here have now been moved to a new topic Marriage or Not, Opinions.

[ancienrocka]

We have organized about 15 weddings to date and surprise, surprise the legal requirements and processes vary slightly depending on the Civil Registry that you use.However his is an extract from my web site which gives what is pretty much the standard set of requirements - the full page is at Not at this address /planning-a-marriage-in-cebu.phpTHE CENOMARThis an acronym for Certificate of No Marriage and is basically a certification by the National Statistics Office stating that the person applying is not currently married – either the person has never married or their previous marriage has been annulled. I means you will not be entering into a bigamous marriage. They can be obtained in person from the NSO in Cebu or elsewhere in the Philippines, or online at www.e-census.com.ph . We went to our local Municipal Hall, paid 240 pesos and got our Cenomar one week later – very easy. The following information is needed to obtain a CENOMAR:

• Complete name of the person to be certified
• Complete name of the father
• Complete maiden name of the mother
• Date of birth
• Place of birth
• Complete name and address of the requesting party
• Number or copies needed
• Purpose for the certification

For the Filipina – I have read that the Cenomar is not a requirement for marriage and that it is only essential if you want to be certain that the civil status of the person you are marrying is still single and that he or she is unattached. However we really weren’t given the choice; we were told by the Civil Registrar that we had to have one. for us getting a Cenomar for Elsa was stated as a requirement for obtaining a Marriage LicenseFor the Alien Partner – For us, a Cenomar for me, the “alien” partner, was not required although I have heard of some cases where it was. This could just be one of the many inconsistencies in the application of the law here or it could be a case of “better safe than sorry”.THE CERTIFICATE of NO IMPEDIMENT (CNI)This is sometimes also called a Legal Capacity to Marry. As an Australian Citizen I will quote from their website – I am sure that the basic information is the same whatever citizenship you hold.“NOTE: Philippine law requires the CNI to be issued by the Embassy of the applicant’s country of nationality in the Philippines. Documents issued in Australia or other countries are not acceptable to the Philippine authorities. The Certificate of No Impediment (CNI) to Marriage, is not a requirement of Australian law. This is issued at the request of overseas countries seeking to ensure that a marriage involving Australian citizens, celebrated in that country, will also be recognized as a valid marriage by the Australian authorities”.I flew to Manila as there is no Consular Office in Cebu and got my CNI within 1 hour for about 3,500 pesos. friends of mine who are UK citizens got their CNI from the local Cebu consular office for around 4,400 pesos. To the best of my knowledge, if you have non-Filipino citizenship, you cannot get married in the Philippines without a CNI.THE MARRIAGE LICENSE:We obtained our marriage from the local Civil Registrar in Consolacion and he was one of the nicest, most helpful civil servants I have ever met in any country; but I have had some clients who have been subjected to what amounts to “verbal abuse” for their decision to get married to a younger Filipina. Maybe they were unlucky or maybe it is part of a “psychological test” to check if your intentions stand up to a bit of scrutiny – remember getting angry with a civil servant will not result in any speedier resolution to your problem – respect and humility are the tools with which to grease the wheels.If you’re both getting married for the first time, the Civil Registrar will ask to see your original birth certificates or your baptismal certificates and you will need to know the full name, address and citizenship of both your parents. You will also need the Cenomar, the CNI and possibly proof of attendance at the Family Planning and Marriage Guidance Seminars, details of which are included on this page. If you have been previously married, you will need to provide the death certificate of your deceased spouse or the judicial decree of your absolute divorce, or the judicial decree of your annulment or declaration of nullity of your previous marriage.If you are under the age of 18, you can’t get married in the Philippines even if your parents agree with the marriage and if you are between the age of 18 and 21 you will need the written consent of your parents. Applicants between the age of 21 and 25, must ask their parents or guardian for advice upon the intended marriage and, in our case, my wife’s mother was required to come with us to confirm to the Civil Registrar that she had given such advice. If you do not obtain such advice or if the parents advice is unfavorable, you will need to wait 3 months for issuance of the license instead of the normal 10 day waiting period while notice of the marriage application is posted on a bulletin board outside the local Civil Registrar’s office. We paid our 500 pesos and got our license, as promised 10 days after we applied. We then took the license to our celebrant so that the marriage contract could be drawn up.THE FAMILY PLANNING SEMINARA Certificate of Attendance at a Family Planning Seminar conducted by the Division of Maternal and Child Health at the Municipal/City Hall in the same municipality or city where the contracting parties applied for the marriage license is also required.In our case, we attended a very basic one hour seminar conducted by some very nervous 4th year nursing students from Cebu Doctors University and were issued our Certificate of Attendance free of charge. However I have heard of other people who had to attend a seminar from 8am until 5pm and were charged 1,000 pesos – which is right? I don’t know.MARRIAGE GUIDANCE COUNSELINGIf either of you are between the ages of 18 and 25, you will need to show proof to the local civil registrar that you have received marriage counseling. If you do not receive marriage counseling, your marriage license will not be issued for three months.Elsa and I went to the Marriage Guidance Counselor at the Municipal Hall in Consolacion and collected a multiple choice questionnaire for each of us which we had to take home and complete after discussing the issues raised between us. The questions were fairly basic and were designed to test each person’s attitude to their own and their partner’s responsibilities within marriage. I you believe in keeping your wife tied to the cooker and available to meet you every whim, you might not pass, but if you know the meaning of S.N.A.G. then the test is fairly easy. The next day we went back the the counselor for a meeting to discuss our expectations and 30 minutes later had our acknowledgment of attendance which cost us nothing.FINDING THE CELEBRANTMarriage in the Philippines may be solemnized by any of the following:-Civil Celebrants – the law states that marriage may be legalized by “any incumbent member of the judiciary within the courts’ jurisdiction”. For most people this will be a judge although I know of people who have been married by the local Mayor – mayors are not mentioned in the Act, so the mayor was either a judge as well or Mayors are considered to be included in the definition above. Costs for the use of judges seem to vary from case to case and of the 3 people I know who were recently married by judges, one told me they paid 8,000 pesos, one said 5,000 pesos and the last said 500pesos. We didn’t use a civil celebrant so this information is merely hearsay.Religious Celebrants – In our case, as Elsa is a Baptist we used the pastor at the church she attends. He had no problem with my previous marriage but did want to know that I was a Christian and insisted that I was baptized in the baptist faith. There was no set cost for his services but a “love gift” of cash was expected. Again the law states that you can be married by “any priest, rabbi, imam, or minister of any church or religious sect duly authorized by his church or religious sect and registered with the Civil Registrar General , acting within the limits of the written authority granted by his church or religious sect and provided that at least one of the contracting parties belongs to the solemnizing officer’s church or religious sect “. So there are many choices of religious celebrant to be found, but in many cases friends of mine have not been able to find a Catholic Priest who will marry them because of their previous marriage and divorce.Other Options – most of the alternative celebrants are pretty much “long shots” and require special circumstances in which they can marry you, but the law states that you can be married by a “ship captain or airline chief”, a “military commander” and a “consul-general, consul or vice-consul”THE MARRIAGE CONTRACTOnce you have received the marriage license you need to take it to the celebrant so that they can prepare the marriage contract that you will sign during the ceremony. They will basically transfer the information from the marriage license to the marriage contract, leaving spaces for the signatures of the Bride and Groom, the Celebrant and the Witnesses (primary sponsors).We learned one important lesson the hard way – make sure that the typing of the Marriage Contract is perfect. If at some time in the future you need an NSO certified copy of the Marriage Contract, (e.g. for a 13a Visa), they will not accept any erasures, strike throughs, type overs, white outs, etc. – if in doubt get it typed out again, it will save you a lot of running around in the future.

[brock]

Well all I know is if you need advice on what to do to get married, DONT ask me, I have married my wife 5 or 6 times and I,m still not married in the eyes of the law.Sooooo I will be over again in December to marry again for the umteenth time, I just wish that if they wants to be corrupt and scam they could all do it at the same time, then it would save me money, am getting little bored with scamming judges and lawyers and everybody else who touches the marriage, plus its costing a fortune in wedding photo`s, When people ask me ..when did you get married...I dont know what year to tell them.....lets hope it will be 2011 for sure this time,Wish me luck, I just knowwwwww i,m going to need it. Brock

[Mr Lee]

Well all I know is if you need advice on what to do to get married, DONT ask me, I have married my wife 5 or 6 times and I,m still not married in the eyes of the law.Sooooo I will be over again in December to marry again for the umteenth time, I just wish that if they wants to be corrupt and scam they could all do it at the same time, then it would save me money, am getting little bored with scamming judges and lawyers and everybody else who touches the marriage, plus its costing a fortune in wedding photo`s, When people ask me ..when did you get married...I dont know what year to tell them.....lets hope it will be 2011 for sure this time,Wish me luck, I just knowwwwww i,m going to need it. Brock

Maybe time to ask for ancienrocka for guidance, to make sure everything gets done correctly, since that is part of his business. Might save you money in the long run. Paul's above post was pretty detailed, so he seems to know his business. Anyway best of luck my friend. :o Please let us know how it all works out.

[Jollygoodfellow]

Well all I know is if you need advice on what to do to get married, DONT ask me, I have married my wife 5 or 6 times and I,m still not married in the eyes of the law.Sooooo I will be over again in December to marry again for the umteenth time, I just wish that if they wants to be corrupt and scam they could all do it at the same time, then it would save me money, am getting little bored with scamming judges and lawyers and everybody else who touches the marriage, plus its costing a fortune in wedding photo`s, When people ask me ..when did you get married...I dont know what year to tell them.....lets hope it will be 2011 for sure this time,Wish me luck, I just knowwwwww i,m going to need it. Brock

Its not so bad Brock,think of the receptions after each wedding,beer,lechon x 6 or 7. Then there's 6 or 7 honeymoons which bring back the romance of the relationship. Its all good, everyone should get married at least once a year. :bash: :thumbsup: