# Prepare to Marry in Philippines



## eco (Mar 23, 2011)

Hi, my plan is to go and live with my fiancee in the Philippines next month. We first met 1 year ago and I stayed with her for 6 months then. I have been back here in Aus since early Sep/10 alone. Now I would like to marry her when I'm over there if possible but I'm worried as I heard that we would have to live together for 6 months just before we get married.

I would like to know if we can get married after I'm there for 2 months?

I would also like to know what I will need to take with me to get married there i.e. birth cert etc?


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## Turboadam (Apr 19, 2011)

_"we would have to live together for 6 months just before we get married"_
Not for the purpose of Australian immigration purposes you don't.

I have married my Thai GF in Thailand so that we can be together in Aus (Offshore Partner Visa), we have not lived together other than when she was here on a 3 month tourist visa.

Take your original Birth cert, certified copies, Any divorce certificate, any name change cert etc etc. I do not know how you satisfy the authorities there though. Im Thailand it involves trips to the Aus embassy, Thai Foreign affairs etc etc.
Good Luck.


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## eco (Mar 23, 2011)

thanks for your tips. Yes it is mainly to satisfy Australian Immigration when we apply for a visa for her later but also I thought that the marriage would not be legal or certified by Philippine Authorities unless we lived together for 6 months just before the marriage, I'm not sure if that is right or not?

I have not been married before and have not changed my name so I understand now that I only need to bring certified copies of my original birth certificate.


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## touch_of_pink2000 (Dec 4, 2010)

you should ring the australian embassy here in philippines to ask requirements for you to marry a filipina.arent they going to ask you a certificate of singleness other than a birth certificate?one of the requirements that a filipina should present to marry a foreigner is birth certificate and certificate of singlenss


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## pinkrishia (Aug 24, 2010)

Hi there,

Is it a church wedding or civil one? In civil wedding, it is much simplier, you need to bring your birth certificate and when you arrived in PH, go to Oz embassy in Makati and ask for the certificate of no Impediment. it would cost you roughly 100 oz dollars. It is valid for 6 mos from the date of release, You can get it right away, Bring passport with you and your fiancee. Then you can go to the registry with your fiancee to apply for marriage license. You need to attend seminars then. You will wait for 10 days after the application to get the marriage license which is valid for 120 days from then. You can use the license anywhere in the Phils. On the other hand, if it is church wedding, you need to bring your baptismal and confirmation certificates, it is much complicated though and you need heaps of effort to make it done. You will be both interviewed by people from the church and seminars. If you are divorced, you need to bring the certificate too. If she's under 25 yo, she needs to have parent consent to get married. Good luck. =)


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## eco (Mar 23, 2011)

pinkrishia said:


> Hi there,
> 
> Is it a church wedding or civil one? In civil wedding, it is much simplier, you need to bring your birth certificate and when you arrived in PH, go to Oz embassy in Makati and ask for the certificate of no Impediment. it would cost you roughly 100 oz dollars. It is valid for 6 mos from the date of release, You can get it right away, Bring passport with you and your fiancee. Then you can go to the registry with your fiancee to apply for marriage license. You need to attend seminars then. You will wait for 10 days after the application to get the marriage license which is valid for 120 days from then. You can use the license anywhere in the Phils. On the other hand, if it is church wedding, you need to bring your baptismal and confirmation certificates, it is much complicated though and you need heaps of effort to make it done. You will be both interviewed by people from the church and seminars. If you are divorced, you need to bring the certificate too. If she's under 25 yo, she needs to have parent consent to get married. Good luck. =)


thanks a lot for the information and this sounds correct from what I have read. I have never been married before, my gf has a baby though from previous Philippine bf but he left when she was pregnant and never contacted since.

i guess my main concern is to make sure I bring what is needed so I don't have to go back to Australia to get it so as long as I bring my birth cert copies and passport it should be ok it seems. I will go with the civil wedding I think. We will have to plan it out and organize it when I'm there and we can have a wedding reception with her family after we are granted the document. We will be staying in Cebu as she is from there so I will try to find out where to go there which I expect there would be a place or is Makati the only office in the Philippines? Also with the 10 day wait, do we attend seminars in that time or before and how many seminars and days does it take?

The only problem is my fiancee has no passport and not much ID, I guess we will have to get all that sorted out first, I hope that doesn't take too long?


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## pinkrishia (Aug 24, 2010)

eco said:


> thanks a lot for the information and this sounds correct from what I have read. I have never been married before, my gf has a baby though from previous Philippine bf but he left when she was pregnant and never contacted since.
> 
> i guess my main concern is to make sure I bring what is needed so I don't have to go back to Australia to get it so as long as I bring my birth cert copies and passport it should be ok it seems. I will go with the civil wedding I think. We will have to plan it out and organize it when I'm there and we can have a wedding reception with her family after we are granted the document. We will be staying in Cebu as she is from there so I will try to find out where to go there which I expect there would be a place or is Makati the only office in the Philippines? Also with the 10 day wait, do we attend seminars in that time or before and how many seminars and days does it take?
> 
> The only problem is my fiancee has no passport and not much ID, I guess we will have to get all that sorted out first, I hope that doesn't take too long?


Hi eco,

I have never been married before as well but my fiancee and I are planning to make it done next year, hopefully. So I researched everything about it and I am just trying to help you based on the forums, research, and experiences of my friends.

Are u asking where to go to get the certificate of No impediment? It is located at Level 23-Tower 2 RCBC Plaza 6819 Ayala Avenue, Makati City. RCBC tower is popular in Makati city so just grab a cab to go there. Bring passport with you and ID.

It is important that your fiancee has heaps of ID's cause when you apply for a spouse visa later on, you sure will need it. Passport, voters ID, School ID, NBI Clearance, Postal ID, etc.

You need to go to the registry with your fiancee in Cebu and ask for their requirements cause it depends on the local government. The seminar is part of it and you need to do it prior to the application cause its one of the requirements. The seminar is just half day as far as I know.

It also doesn't matter if your gf has a baby, as long as she's free to get married and you have a genuine relationship, you will be fine. Make sure to keep everything like receipts of your travel, restos or hotels, heaps of pictures of both of you and her family cause you will definitely need it when you apply for spouse visa later on. Good luck. Cheers.


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## eco (Mar 23, 2011)

thanks a lot, I think my questions are answered now and I will bookmark this page to refer back to once I'm over there.


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## pinkrishia (Aug 24, 2010)

eco said:


> thanks a lot, I think my questions are answered now and I will bookmark this page to refer back to once I'm over there.


You are most welcome. Just send me private message here if you have queries so I can answer it to the best knowledge that I could. Good luck in organizing the papers. Best wishes.


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