Englishman marrying Filipina in Philippines

[Paulypoos1973]

Hello Im new to these forums and looking for any advice. I am an Englishman in my 30s and I plan to marry a lovely Filipina woman this year in the Philippines. It will be a very simple civil service as neither of us are rich. So far I have applied for my CNI here in England (certificate of non-impediment) as proof I am unmarried (never been married). I understand that I need to hand this into the British Embassy in Manila and ... if Im correct ... they give me a local CNI. Then what do I do? The marriage will be in the Cavite area.

Im told I have to wait 10 days to marry after declaring my intentions. Then hopefully the wedding will go smoothly and not cost a great deal (Ive been warned they might try to charge me more as Im foreign). Then I will come back to the UK and will have to start the whole proceedings surrounding getting my bride back to the UK (most certainly will require advice on this at some point :-s ).

What documents will my partner need for the wedding? So I can advise her and ensure they are ready.

Thanks for reading and I hope all goes well :-)

[Paulypoos1973]

Sorry forgot something....once Ive handed UK cni into embassy how long does it take to be issued filipina one for the wedding? Next day? Same day?

[Englishman2010]

Welcome and congratulations

I'd just like to state for the record for the forum, that it is not me, Englishman who is getting married The thread title is a little confusing given that Englishman is my forum name

[daff 'O dill]

Welcome and congratulations

I'd just like to state for the record for the forum, that it is not me, Englishman who is getting married The thread title is a little confusing given that Englishman is my forum name

loool

[stevie c]

Well spotted Ian i see what you mean

[Englishman2010]

Well spotted Ian i see what you mean

I saw the thread title and thought, hang on, is there something I don't know about here

[stevie c]

[Paulypoos1973]

:-|

[sheriel]

Ok i read your post Englisman,ask others if you will,but its a long process,i have been there and done it on reflection i would have got Visitors Visa for my Filipina and married here, i have many freinds who have done that ,just take a step back and consider it for all concerned

[bigmarco]

Hi and welcome to the Forum.
I recently got married in Malabon.
Yes you need to get a Local CNI from the Embassy. I booked an appointment before I left london and they actually issued the Local CNI to me at the appointment. Check the Embassy website for the documents you need because I had to also provide proof of divorce. Definitely worth booking the appointment before you leave the UK as you are not allowed to just turn up.
After that off to Malabon Municipal hall to book wedding and yes you're right you have to wait 10 days. In that time you have to attend a class for half a day with your partner which is compulsory before they will marry you. I provided local CNI proof of divorce birth certificate passport and fee. Get your partner to check now what she needs. All the fees for ceremony and class are itemised so I didn't feel ripped off at all.

Good luck to you both

[febmary]

Best wishes in advance for your upcoming wedding. Be patiently to browse the threads and u will find a helpful tip.
Hope your future wife have the Cenomar, birth certificate, etc. Better check the website for additional requirements.

Goodluck!

[grahamw48]

I agree it's pretty straightforward once you've gathered together the required paperwork.....and the beer at the reception is much cheaper.

[lastlid]

Hi Paul. Whereabouts in Cavite?

I married a girl from Cavite province in June 2011. We initially made plans to marry in the civic hall there but struggled to find a way to fit everything in within a short space of time (issues with not being able to get enough time off work ) so we ended up using a marriage agent that other members of her family had already used, who set us up with a civil wedding in Paranaque City and this did the trick (the main stumbling block was the seminar and we managed to get dispensation for that) and thus managed to fit it all in including the 10 day requirement, that you refer to.

We didnt really need the seminar but it appears to be mandatory unless somehow you can get dispensation. We had a problem selecting a date that would fit in with the available timetable and the mayors calendar LOL.

(BTW, we used Island Cove for the reception and stayed there in the lead up to the advanced wedding ceremony and a few days the other side of that.)

On the CNI exchange, we didnt have to make an appointment but I gather that is the case now. The UKBA do a set of notes on their requirements for CNI exchange. Once we got the local CNI from the UKBA we then gave it to our agent, so I cant help you there, unless of course you use an agent too. The agent dealt with the Paranaque City authorities from then on in. We had to make a preliminary appearance at the Paranaque Civic hall but the agent dealt with everything on our behalf, we just had to be present.

BTW. We managed to squeeze in a trip to VFS, which was worth doing.

Documents? I recall she had to submit her Cenomar (CNI) and passport and photos and (not a document I know but) her mom had to give her signed authorisation / permission as she was 23 yo .....dont know if I have missed anything there. She had her Cenomar and passport at the UKBA too for the CNI exchange.

I notice that some advise on marrying back here in the UK but opinion is split on that. One of the drawbacks to marrying in the UK is that one has to fork out for both FLR and the Fiancee visa. Approximately a doubling of fees. In our case we had no choice as her mom insisted on marriage in the Philippines ( I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong on the fees )

[Arthur Little]

I saw the thread title and thought, hang on, is there something I don't know about here

... you and me BOTH, Ian ...

[Arthur Little]

... Stevie too, it seems ... ... press-ganged into wedlock!

Well spotted Ian i see what you mean

[Terpe]

Hello :-) Im new to these forums and looking for any advice. I am an Englishman in my 30s and I plan to marry a lovely Filipina woman this year in the Philippines. It will be a very simple civil service as neither of us are rich. So far I have applied for my CNI here in England (certificate of non-impediment) as proof I am unmarried (never been married). I understand that I need to hand this into the British Embassy in Manila and ... if Im correct ... they give me a local CNI. Then what do I do? The marriage will be in the Cavite area.

Im told I have to wait 10 days to marry after declaring my intentions. Then hopefully the wedding will go smoothly and not cost a great deal (Ive been warned they might try to charge me more as Im foreign). Then I will come back to the UK and will have to start the whole proceedings surrounding getting my bride back to the UK (most certainly will require advice on this at some point :-s ).

What documents will my partner need for the wedding? So I can advise her and ensure they are ready.

Thanks for reading and I hope all goes well :-)

Here is some useful general information about overseas marriages and civil partnerships

and some CNI information here including the British Embassy appointment system and how to apply

CNI information here

Please do remember the CNI has only 3 months validity, so plan out carefully what needs to be done and when. It's a good idea to make a project plan from wedding day backwards so you can line it all up.

The CNI is available from your local registry office. It takes 22 days from time of application. It's 21 days for the 'bans'.


Generally, if you can get all your 'ducks lined up' with your paperwork etc, and things go fairly smooth along the way you should have no problems getting married within a 20-30 day timeframe.
I'm sure there are many who will say you can achieve it in only 14 days, and in my opinion that can be done if you are very lucky and the organisation is real slick.
Probably even more will tell you that 21 days is easy. Well I think on balance that's a reasonable time without major problems, but not much time left for honeymoon, that's why I suggested 20-30 days. I do kn ow that getting
that must holiday leave from your employer may be an issue.

I suggest you always check the latest information for paperwork needed etc but in principle you need:-

Birth certificate - original
Passport

CNI - (Certificate of No Impediment to Marry)
Present this document to the British Embassy in the Philippines to be issued a Philippine version called a Certificate of Legal Capacity to Marry.
This certificate is needed for the application of a marriage license.

BTW many Brits are now reporting that you may well be required to obtain a your own CENOMAR (Certificate of No Marriage) from NSO (National Statistics Office) so you might need to include this contingency as well.

Marriage License - Apply for this in your fiancée's home town at the registry office. (or locality of where marriage will take place)
You might also be requested to attend the "Pre-Marriage Seminar" counselling sessions prior to being allowed to be married. Check and ask when you apply for the marriage license

After you apply for the license there is a mandatory 10 day waiting period while the marriage banns are published

To apply for the Marriage License you should consider having the following:-

Your birth certificate
Your passport
Your C.N.I.
Your NSO CENOMAR (if needed, please check well beforehand)
Your Divorce decree asbsolute (if applicable)

Certificate of 'Pre-Marriage Seminar' (if needed, please check well beforehand)

Her N.S.O. birth certificate (This should be fresh from NSO on latest type of security paper. Check)
Her Passport (or other appropriate ID)
Her Barangay clearance (if needed, please check well beforehand)
Her community tax certificate (often called Cedula)
Her postal I.D. Address
Her cenomar
Her Parents signed advice form (for under 25 years)
Her Parents I.D.


Hot tip

Always take extra time to very carefully and very thoroughy check and read through all paper work at each step before signing anything. If there are any typing errors/mistakes/mismatches etc it can cost you dear in time and money.

Hottest Tip

Always smile and always remain relaxed, calm and cool.

BTW, is it civil wedding or Catholic Church wedding ?

[lastlid]

Oh yes, as Terpe says, I had to submit my birth certificate. But my wife didnt need Baranguay clearance or Cedula, as far as I know, unless the agent dealt with that for us. She didnt have a postal I.D. at the time so she could not have used that as part of the process. I didnt have to provide my own Cenomar.

I have to admit I didnt always completely comprehend some of the process anyway. Even now, becasue of the way it is organised at a civil wedding, I am not entirely sure of the exact wedding date. It specifies a certain date on the marriage certificate but in reality the ceremony took place 10 days before that so the date on the certificate is just the official date for the records. Even just a few days ago my wife was wondering what date should we consider our wedding anniversary.

I had visited my wife previously in April, hence the reason why I only had a limited time available to fit everything in. I didn't set out to do it all in a limited time frame, it was just the vacation circumstances I had left to play with.

Not including flights from and to the Isle of Man we did it in 16 days, including 2 days to exchange the CNI.

[juvyjones28]

A warm welcome to the forum!

I'm also from Cavite and just recently got married (Oct 2011) with my British man. So here's what we did.

He applied for CNI in the UK and he got it after 22 days. He arrived in Philippines early October then the next day we went to the British embassy (you need to book appointment by e-mail). We got his exchanged local CNI after an hour so its the same day process.

you can check out their website to have better view of the process:

http://ukinthephilippines.fco.gov.uk...ply-for-a-cni/

After our appointment at the British embassy we went straight to my church ( INC Temple in QC) to get his local CNI checked but on your situation you won't need to do this as your having your wedding ceremony at civil service hall. We then went to my Local Registry office at City hall to apply for marriage license. So we finished it all in 1 day

here is the checklist of documents we submitted(original & 1 photo copy)

Me:

Birth Certificate
Cenomar from NSO
1 passport size or 2x2 photo
Barangay clearance
Cedula
Parental consent as I was 22 when we applied for marriage license.
My parents ID


My husband:

Birth Certificate
Passport
Local CNI (Certificate of No Impediment)
1 passport size or 2x2 photo

We submitted pre-marriage counselling & family planning certificate too. (my husband laughed at this he said he's old enough to know this things but its mandatory to get marriage license so he had no choice)

They posted our marriage license application for 10 days. At the 10th day they asked us to go back and collect our marriage license.

All in all the whole process only took 13 days for us. We had all documents ready before starting the whole process so its a plus We had church wedding and all went well.

He was only here for 3 weeks and I'm so glad we got everything done in 3 weeks. We got married late Oct and still had 3 days honeymoon in Tagaytay . I can't wait to be with him again its hard for a newly wed couple to be apart from each other But I'm about to lodge my spouse visa application at the end of January so hope everything will be ok.

I also got our marriage certificate(from NSO) in 2 weeks(thru advance endorsement) and my new passport(with his name on it) in 7 days. I'll post tomorrow my experience about it when I have time.

Goodluck to you and to your soon to be wife, I hope you can get everything done without too much hassle. Best wishes in advance

[lastlid]

I seem to remember her mom gave belated parental consent on the day of the advanced wedding ceremony i.e. on day 1 of the 10 day period. She had to whizz across the road to the civic hall for that ..... (not as an afterthought or belated consent but just because she wasnt present when we first went to the civic hall the day before).

[lastlid]

I also got our marriage certificate(from NSO) in 2 weeks(thru advance endorsement) and my new passport(with his name on it) in 7 days. I'll post tomorrow my experience about it when I have time.

It took us a little longer for the marriage certificates, about a month, which by all accounts is still quite quick but 2 weeks sounds superfast indeed!

[lastlid]

A
We submitted pre-marriage counselling & family planning certificate too. (my husband laughed at this he said he's old enough to know this things but its mandatory to get marriage license so he had no choice)

To this day I dont know why, but we didnt do the seminar. The agent somehow got us clearance on that. In truth my wife didnt need the family planning thing as she has a very sensible head on her. I dont know what would have been in the pre marriage counselling but the reverend that married us gave that to my wife.

[juvyjones28]

It took us a little longer for the marriage certificates, about a month, which by all accounts is still quite quick but 2 weeks sounds superfast indeed!

Yes normally it takes 6 months to get from NSO. but for those who need it asap they can use fast track or what they call 'Advance Endorsement'. In my case I was so lucky and got it for 1 week & 6 days

[lastlid]

In my case I was so lucky and got it for 1 week & 6 days

Possibly a forum record?

Arthur?

[juvyjones28]

To this day I dont know why, but we didnt do the seminar. The agent somehow got us clearance on that. In truth my wife didnt need the family planning thing as she has a very sensible head on her. I dont know what would have been in the pre marriage counselling but the reverend that married us gave that to my wife.

LOL lucky you . Some registrar officers consider you cos you are a foreigner and won't ask you to attend pre-marriage counselling and family planning seminar. But in our case we had to go through it . Its ok though in the end we got everything okay

[grahamw48]

We got ours immediately from the judge's secretary, duly stamped with the gold -embossed stamp.

I believe it is called 'cash advance to the judge'.

[lastlid]

We got ours immediately from the judge's secretary, duly stamped with the gold -embossed stamp.

I believe it is called 'cash advance to the judge'.

[Arthur Little]

Hello Im new to these forums and looking for any advice.

Hello to you ... and to the filipino/uk forum. I got married in the *Phils ... but that was more than 3 years ago, and the protocol *there is forever changing (almost as frequently as the British weather, it seems!) Therefore, I would go along with the helpful suggestions provided by those members who've gone through the process much more recently ... all the while, carefully following Terpe's links.

Good Luck.

[stevie c]

It took us a little longer for the marriage certificates, about a month, which by all accounts is still quite quick but 2 weeks sounds superfast indeed!

My wife & i had our marriage certs back from NSO in 2 weeks also

[Paulypoos1973]

Thanks everyone for advice, especially Juvyjones28. Blimey such a complex process!!! I knew a lot of it but it appears I will have to book a 3 week trip to fit it all in, certainly hope I can get out of the marriage/family planning seminar :-p AND that the marriage licence comes QUICK so we can have our civil service immediately after the 10 days. Thanks again everyone.

[grahamw48]

As with everything, money talks....nowhere more-so than in the Phils.

Just make sure all Filipino documents are genuine, on National Statistics Office 'security' paper where that is a requirement, and acceptable to the British authorities.