⌛ U.S. Marriage Process Here

Hope the following helps others in saving time and money.
We travelled to Cebu Monday and went to the U.S. consulate at 0830 Tuesday with the understanding we had all the paperwork required to apply for the Certificate of Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage, a mandatory document for a US guy to marry a filipina, and expected to return to Dum same day on the 1:00pm bus. It turns out my fiance had her original birth certificate and a xerox copy but had left her NSO certified BC copy at our house in Dumaguete. Consulate General Mr. Domingo quickly sent us on our way to obtain the NSO copy before he would approve. That required the rest of the morning and all afternoon at the Cebu NSO office to obtain the doc, plus another night at the Marriott, then back to the consulate Wednesday. Fortunately, given this was my third trip to satisfy the requirement, mission accomplished. Thurday, we go to the Dum NSO office to obtain my fiance’s cenomar for showing she is not presently married. I am told by locals this is a one day process, but.... Then Friday her and her parents and I will go to Sibulan to apply for the marriage license, we completed the requisite pre-marriage seminar there instead of Dum because we heard it is less of hassle. I understand once you have the license there is a ten working day wait. Our ceremony and reception is planned for Sept 4 so hopefully all the paperwork and other logistics are done. Stressful. What’s the old saying, the job aint over til the paperwork is done!

 

:o Well done so far patO, you do have one more hurdle though. You will need to visit the Halls of Justice to purchase Your Marriage Contract, and I presume organise a judge, Unless you are getting Married in a Church Of course. This is only after your ten day waiting Period is up. ( It is an objection Period, bans we call them ) I really do hope you can haggle with them for the date you have set aside. My Best wishes for you both, have a Happy life together.



( Someone please correct me if I am wrong here, Are the halls of justice the only Place to obtain the marriage contract ? )


Jack P.

 

Jack, thank you for the kind words. We had to go to the NSO to get a CEDULA for both her and I, this afternoon we will go to Sibulan to apply for the license. If Sibulan doesn't work we will go to her home town of Santa Catalina and apply there (and of course retake the pre-marriage seminar if they don't accept the Sibulan one). We know the mayor of Santa and he can perform the ceremony. Reception planned for Casablanca. Cheers

 

I believe you must obtain the marriage license in the Municipality where one of you last resided for 6 months or more. Once you have the license you can marry anywhere.

Larry

 

Thanks for the reply Shadow. Our journey to a marriage license is now successful, requirements reviewed by Dgte registar, paperwork filled, future papa-san and mama-san signed docs, and license will be processed following our pre-marriage seminar Tuesday 8/17 and license received on 8/30 in time for the planned 9/4 big bang. A high number of documents were required: Of particular interest was the copy of my divorce decree from the US. The ex received the original decree, given she hired the attorney (even though I paid for her atty), and it was difficult for the Dgte admins to understand there is only one original and no way will the ex give it to me, I had to get her to scan and email a copy, Dgte admins want the original. After my diplomatic (perhaps less than) explanation we got by that perturbation. I had to show my passport, permanent visa card (which was helpful due to the decree opposition, Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage, Philippines CENOMAR (Certification of not presently married to a filipino (our forefathers must have had multiples), plus all the docs my fiance required. Painful process, nevertheless, mission accomplished in a tough 4 days including 2 in Cebu. Hopefully, this helps those fortunate like I am to love and marry a lovely young filipina.

 

For my wife and I, our "big bang" was on 9/6/03. By the time we managed to get a marriage license from LCR Duma my wife was not so sure she wanted to marry me, and the LCR was certain they never wanted to see me again. I had to get a judge to interpret for them their own regulations.

Larry

 

and both remains the same 7 years later ... hehe

 

Yeah, I definitely made an impression!

Larry

 

:D Well I guess I had an easy time then in 2008. Perhaps you paved the way for us somewhat Intolerant Foreigners. I certainly made a few scenes. I am constantly reminded by "Her in Doors" I know that Deep down we are all HAPPY! Good Luck PatO

Jack P.