Englishman marrying Filipina in Philippines

[RickyR]

As mentioned above, make an appointment with the Embassy as early as possible (can be done via e-mail, address on the website). Conversion is normally a very quick affair, but they occasionally ask people to come back the next day if they have a backlog of paperwork.

Also you need a CENOMAR for BOTH yourself and your wife, these can be ordered online and you fiance can pay for them both locally and they'll get delivered to her house.
www.ecensus.com.ph

[Arthur Little]

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

OURS was fairly quickly dealt with too ... despite the intervention of the Christmas/New Year hols.

[malditako]

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

thought its you who's getting married )

[Rory]

Every time i read a thread like this i am double checking that i have everything that i will need and the best way to get any documentation that is missing. We are planned to get married early May so i have not even applied for my CNI here and Cenomar's there as the lifespan on these documents are 3 months.
This pre-marriage seminar, this is a new one to me and just another obstacle to get over. Can this seminar be pre-booked in advance or is 10 days while we are waiting for the licence to arrange one enough time, if needed?
We will be getting married in Cebu, does anyone know if we need to sit this seminar in this region?

[juvyjones28]

This pre-marriage seminar, this is a new one to me and just another obstacle to get over. Can this seminar be pre-booked in advance or is 10 days while we are waiting for the licence to arrange one enough time, if needed?
We will be getting married in Cebu, does anyone know if we need to sit this seminar in this region?

Rory please do not worry about the pre-marriage seminar. It could be done within the 10 days waiting period for marriage license or you can have it done on the day you submit your marriage license application. The seminar and counselling is mandatory to get the marriage license but other registrar officers won't bother you to attend, others give consideration, others are strict so just see how it goes. Every City hall in the Philippines has this law so I'm afraid Cebu is not excepted. Goodluck and best wishes in advance.

[juvyjones28]

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.

Sure everything will be okay Paul, 3 weeks should be enough to accomplish everything for the wedding. fingers crossed for you.

[sarahheller]

Hi englishman, I know all the requirements because we've been there at the british embassy, yes your right you have to get your local CNI in your town hall and present it to the british embassy manila and then after 2 hours they will release your local CNI.. The embassy will release your local CNI if you have complete requirements as well as your wife to be. Yes your right you have to wait 10 days posting till you can get married and don't worry it not cost too much in applying. Your fiancee needs to comply birth certificate from the NSO, CENOMAR and passport thats all the rest will be made by the civil registrar office, what important is that you will complete all the requirements that need to submit in the civil registrar office in Cavite. Remember also that you also get your CENOMAR

[lastlid]

Every time i read a thread like this i am double checking that i have everything that i will need and the best way to get any documentation that is missing. We are planned to get married early May so i have not even applied for my CNI here and Cenomar's there as the lifespan on these documents are 3 months.
This pre-marriage seminar, this is a new one to me and just another obstacle to get over. Can this seminar be pre-booked in advance or is 10 days while we are waiting for the licence to arrange one enough time, if needed?
We will be getting married in Cebu, does anyone know if we need to sit this seminar in this region?

Initially we were in the process of prebooking the seminar in advance ( we had a date lined up with the mayor ), through a friend of the family but when we found that it didnt fit into our available schedule we had the wedding set up through an agent that managed to get us dispensation on the seminar.

We were told we couldn't do it during the 10 day waiting period, as we enquired about that, but no doubt that can vary from one area to another.

[Rory]

We were told we couldn't do it during the 10 day waiting period, as we enquired about that, but no doubt that can vary from one area to another.

We would be pushing it if we could not fit the seminar in the 10 day waiting period. I have only planned to be the full 21 days that my visa will let me. I know i can pay for another week but i will have my return flight booked.
As i have been told on here, 21 days will be enough, i just getting more and more nervy the closer it all gets.

[stevie c]

Rory i was married in the phils & it took me 15 days only i paid 300 pesos to skip the seminar.

In fact i was maried on the 27th september 2010 & believe it or not my wife was here in the uk on a spouse visa on the 9th of november 2010 thats the visa granted cfo completed, the marriage certificate recieved back from the NSO & flights booked.


So dont worry just be prepared have everything in order & you can be married within in 21 days comfortably.

[Terpe]

....As i have been told on here, 21 days will be enough, i just getting more and more nervy the closer it all gets.

Rory, 21 days will be enough just as long as you and your Fiancee get all the correct ID's and paperwork and have all the organisational 'ducks lined up' ready to go.

90% of cases get done and dusted between 14-21 days.

Just remember it's the Philippines and things can go wrong.

As an Engineer, I always think postive and always plan for the worst. Well it works for me

It's not difficult if you make a good plan that's not too tight. Your fiancee can help a lot to get things organised.
Be sure to be very focussed on getting married and enjoying the day,
Do not get diverted from the basics.
Do not get talked into anything that might create delays or problems.

Good luck.

[Englishman2010]

thought its you who's getting married )

I made that mistake once before

[lastlid]

We would be pushing it if we could not fit the seminar in the 10 day waiting period. I have only planned to be the full 21 days that my visa will let me. I know i can pay for another week but i will have my return flight booked.
As i have been told on here, 21 days will be enough, i just getting more and more nervy the closer it all gets.

Yes. You have more time to get through the necessaries than we had. That breathing space that Terpe refers to is available to you in a 21 day time frame that wasnt there in our case. Our time frame was a little tighter. Also, we couldnt do the CNI exchange in one day (June 2011) but it sounds like since they changed it to an appointment system it may be possible to do it in 1 day giving a full day back to your schedule.

We took our honeymoon in the 10 day gap. That worked well.

To be perfectly honest, I sweated a little over the first few days, owing to the tight schedule, which did take a little bit of the gloss off things. I adopted a bit of an ostrich approach to it. But everything went to plan despite some typhoon dodging upon arrival and once we had got the advanced wedding ceremony done and dusted (day 6) it was downhill from then on in. We also had an added area for concern which was the Isle of Man factor but it turned out okay, thank god.

Our time line...

Day 1 Thursday. Dropped of UK (Isle of Man in our case) CNI to embassy.
Day 2 Collected local CNI
Day 3 Saturday
Day 4 Sunday
Day 5 Delivered all required documents to agent and visited civic hall in Paranaquay with preliminary paperwork. Couldnt do this on the friday as we were only able to collect the local CNI in mid afternoon. And you know what the Manila traffic is like.
Day 6 Advanced wedding ceremony and wedding reception.
Day 7 and onwards...honeymoon and flight home after the 10 days had elapsed. My wife collected the marriage certificates about a month later.



You should be able to do it more comfortably than us. We were struggling for a Plan B but you should be okay......

[toging]

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

thats what i thought

[Ian S]

I'm hoping it doesn't take that long to get married. I'm going to Phils to get married soon, and I'm only going for 2 weeks. Think I might be cutting it a bit fine.

One tip I can give that I haven't seen here yet: Get your fiancee to apply for your CNI before you go there. This will give you less things to do when you are there. Actually in my case I am getting my fiancees sister to apply for my CNI as my fiancee is still in USA. You just need to give her a letter of authorisation, and other necesary documents.

[grahamw48]

Good tip.

[DeltaRomeo]

I married a girl from Cavite province in June 2011. ..... so we ended up using a marriage agent that other members of her family had already used

Can you tell a little more about the marriage agent please?
Based in Cavite? What duties were carried out - where these unprompted (i.e knowledgeable about all requirements)? What was the cost?

Cheers

[Terpe]

I'm hoping it doesn't take that long to get married. I'm going to Phils to get married soon, and I'm only going for 2 weeks. Think I might be cutting it a bit fine.

As long as your fiancee or her sister can set up a slick process you have a reasonable chance.
The biggest part of your available time will be taken up by the 10 days wait for the marriage licence.
I have known people who have gotten married within 14 days so I do know it's possible.
Not advisable, but possible
I wish you best of luck and a happy wedding

[stevie c]

As long as your fiancee or her sister can set up a slick process you have a reasonable chance.
The biggest part of your available time will be taken up by the 10 days wait for the marriage licence.
I have known people who have gotten married within 14 days so I do know it's possible.
Not advisable, but possible
I wish you best of luck and a happy wedding

asTerpe said it can be done in 14 days as i was one of the lucky ones who actually got married in that timescale.

So plan everything before you go get your mahal to double check everything is correct there & you should be ok ...Good luck

[Ian S]

I've read on here many people say it is hard to do in 14 days but I'm not really sure why. All I can I think that we need to do is apply for marriage licence, wait 10 days, have ceremony. Ok, so some people need to attend seminar, but we have already been told that is not necessary (maybe because of our age etc).

So why should we need more than 14 days, and what would the agent actually do apart from book appointments for marriage licence and ceremony?

[grahamw48]

Ian, things (more often than not) don't always go according to plan when dealing with any kind of officialdom in the Philippines.

I don't know why you're limited to 14 days, but as it's your marriage and future together that you're seeking advice about here, my advice to you would be to allow as long as you possibly can for the various processes to take place.

You're permitted 21 days visa-free anyway, so if it was me I'd be using it.

[LastToKnowMovie]

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.

Would love-to-know of other-people's-experiences.

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 :-)

I-too plan-to-marry a Filipino 'girl' [she will-be 25yo in-June]; I suspect she MUST register for-a-visa BEFORE coming-to the-UK:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/vi...cp/apply-visa/

This is likely-true, even-if we marry in Manila.

I am British, born-in Manchester England.

[Ian S]

Ian, things (more often than not) don't always go according to plan when dealing with any kind of officialdom in the Philippines.

I don't know why you're limited to 14 days, but as it's your marriage and future together that you're seeking advice about here, my advice to you would be to allow as long as you possibly can for the various processes to take place.

You're permitted 21 days visa-free anyway, so if it was me I'd be using it.

Ok, I see your point. Unfortunately I've already booked the flight so there isn't anything I can do about that. We'll just have to hope everything goes ok, and if not I'll have to make a return visit. I'm going in a weeks time, so I'll let you know what happens.

[grahamw48]

Ok, best of luck Ian.

Flight dates can be changed of course, and visas extended.

It's only money.

[joy_86jm]

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

lol that so funny

[joy_86jm]

Yes. You have more time to get through the necessaries than we had. That breathing space that Terpe refers to is available to you in a 21 day time frame that wasnt there in our case. Our time frame was a little tighter. Also, we couldnt do the CNI exchange in one day (June 2011) but it sounds like since they changed it to an appointment system it may be possible to do it in 1 day giving a full day back to your schedule.

We took our honeymoon in the 10 day gap. That worked well.

To be perfectly honest, I sweated a little over the first few days, owing to the tight schedule, which did take a little bit of the gloss off things. I adopted a bit of an ostrich approach to it. But everything went to plan despite some typhoon dodging upon arrival and once we had got the advanced wedding ceremony done and dusted (day 6) it was downhill from then on in. We also had an added area for concern which was the Isle of Man factor but it turned out okay, thank god.

Our time line...

Day 1 Thursday. Dropped of UK (Isle of Man in our case) CNI to embassy.
Day 2 Collected local CNI
Day 3 Saturday
Day 4 Sunday
Day 5 Delivered all required documents to agent and visited civic hall in Paranaquay with preliminary paperwork. Couldnt do this on the friday as we were only able to collect the local CNI in mid afternoon. And you know what the Manila traffic is like.
Day 6 Advanced wedding ceremony and wedding reception.
Day 7 and onwards...honeymoon and flight home after the 10 days had elapsed. My wife collected the marriage certificates about a month later.



You should be able to do it more comfortably than us. We were struggling for a Plan B but you should be okay......

We able to collect our local CNI at the same day, we just waited about 30 mins there at the embassy.

[grahamw48]

We able to collect our local CNI at the same day, we just waited about 30 mins there at the embassy.

So did we...only problem was that halfway through the wedding someone at City Hall noticed that there were some spelling differences between the British and the Filipino docs (fiancee's name)....so had to go back to the embassy THEN to get corrected !

That's why I tell people NOT to rely on everything going smoothly as planned.

[Iani]

Hi, silly question maybe, but I am reading that if I got married in Phils, one thing I would need is a CENOMAR - and am I reading this right - I would need to apply for that in Phils?

Surely this isn't right, I mean, my divorce won't be registered there, my birth won't be registered there - how would they know I am ok to marry?
Obviously I'd get the CNI here and get it converted, but this CENOMAR is confusing me

[jonnijon]

Yes you need a cenomar,they just want your money you can get it online. www.ecensus.com.ph

[RickyR]

The Cenomar is to check you haven't been married in the Philippines previously, since there is no obligation to actually inform the British Embassy or the UK if you get married in the Philippines.