Certificate of No Impediment from British Embassy

Hiya to you all!

I could do with some advice with my marriage paperwork. My situation is that I am British and my fiancee is a Filipina. We are both living in the UK but planning to marry in the Philippines. We really want to be able to fly out and get married within a week of arriving.

I should soon be obtaining my Certificate of No Impedement from my local Register Office here in London. I understand I need to take this document to the British Embassy in Manila and get it transferred to a Philippine-recognised CNI or Certificate of Legal Capacity, and that this procedure can be turned around on the day you visit.

My question is: Do I need to be present at the embassy to do this, or can I send one of my fiancee's friends or family member ? I could provide them with my birth certificate as well as the London CNI. Time is of the essence so I want to fedex the paperwork to them before we arrive.

Similarly, do we the couple have to be present to apply for the Marriage Licence before the 10 day waiting period? Or do the rules vary from region to region? My fiancee's family seem to believe they can take the paperwork there on our behalf, though a bit of research online seems to suggest otherwise.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated - all this bureaucracy is starting to make me panic!

Salamat po!

Herb

Hello Herb....

First of all... you have to be both present to apply for a marriage license in the Philippines so it would be pointless to get the local version of CNI ahead of time. This is the normal process that you have to go through:

1. Get a Certificate of No Impediment from your local civil registrar
2. Go to the embassy to convert it to Legal Capacity to Marry

* You can do this by sending the original copy of the CNI, a photocopy of your passport and a authorization letter for the "family member" who is going to pick up the Legal Capacity.

* Also, you can get the Legal Capacity to Marry that smae day. There is also a fee of £35 if im not mistaken.

3. Once you have the Legal Capacity to Marry, you can go to the local civil registrar where you intend to marry and file for a marriage license.

* You and your partner must be present and should appear before the civil registrar.

* There are other requirements such as your passport with the stamped date that you are really present in the Philippines, your birth certificate and hers in SECPA papers which you can get from NSO, parental consent if you and your partner is 25 below.

4. The Civil Registrar will then give you the application form to sign and will give you the schedule for the marriage counselling and family planning seminar. It is a pre-requisite before you can apply for a marriage license.

5. Once you have the certificate for the two seminars, you will then go back to the civil registrar and file for the marriage license., thus the beginning of the 10 day period posting for Notice of Marriage.

6. On the 11th day, you can then pick up your Marriage License and you are free to marry then.

OR THERE IS ANOTHER WAY TO GO ABOUT THIS.... BUT IT MAY MEAN YOU HAVE TO TRAVEL TO LONDON IF YOU ARE NOT FROM THERE. I AM NOT SURE HOW TO GO ABOUT EXACTLY BUT HERE IS WHAT I KNOW....

* You can go to the Philippine Consulate and you can apply for the marriage license there or you and your partner can have an oath taking there and they will give you a document saying that they both have seen you and that you have taken oath blah blah blah ( It has a red ribbon on it ) you can send it to the Philippines and a family member can apply on you and your partners behalf. You can call the Consulate Office or email them just to be sure.

THIS WAY ISNT GOOD BUT ID POST IT ANYWAY....

You can get the CNI, send it to Manila with the documents needed, ask a family member to go to the embassy to exchange it for the Legal Capacity, ask them to keep it for the mean time...

Ask them to go to the local civil registry where you intend to marry and maybe they can look for some people who has access inside or some fixers. Get his/her number and tell that person that you will contact them when you arrive.

On the day of your arrival... contact that person... and tell him that you need his service.... and voila in 2 days you have your marriage license.... ofcourse you have to pay a certain amount under the table.

If you wish to go about the process this way... I suggest you get a fixer that is a legitimate employee of the local civil registrar, that you verify the authenticity of the marriage license by asking for a certified true copy from a different person in the civil registrar.

To answer your question... NO! the process does not vary from region to region... because we follow one rule.

BTW, where are you getting married? Do you intend to get married in a catholic church because if you do, trust me! its not gonna be easy!!! They have more requirements than the civil registrar!

Goodluck and I hope this helps.. If you have any further question... hola at me!

Camille

I just notice... youre from london!

hehehe... good for you!

Thanks Camilla, there's some very useful info there. If it's true we can take an oath at the Philippine Embassy in London that might just save our bacon! I hope we can get around the family planning seminars that way. It seems quite a ridiculous requirement given we are in our thirties, I'm a well educated westerner and my partner is a senior medical health professional in the Nhs.

yes, we have realised it will have to be a civil wedding. It will be in mindoro. I know her family have many contacts in the local community, so maybe the *ahem* under the table way is a possibility!

You should also take a look at the British Embassy Manila web site just to satistfy yourself that you have covered all the requirements

You will see an email address there and you can ask them to confirm any point and possibly arrange to fedex the papers in advance

To convert the CNI paperwork is done inside 30 minutes

Best Wishes for a Happy Day

Yeah, I've called the British Embassy (now it's a weekday). It's true you can send someone on your behalf with a letter of authority.

We've also called the Philippine Embassy here. It seems Camillie is also correct that you can apply for your marriage licence here and they can witness you signing the application form, so you can get around the 10 day problem. The only awkward thing is the Application Form has to come from the Register Office in the Philippines! But we can get someone to collect one and send it over to us.

Anyway I am feeling a lot more relaxed about the whole thing now - especially now my fiancee has told me her Dad is great friends with their local Registrar!

Herb

Hi,
I got married in the Philippines just over a year ago....
I got my Certificate on No Impediment before I went - and then when I got to the Philippines I went to the British Embassy with it and got local version of this - Legal Capacity to Marry I think.
However - you have to be in the Philippines for 10 working days before you can marry if you arrive with the CNI. Of course there are ways around this 10 day waiting time - the registrar at the City Hall in Manila said she could marry us immediately if we wanted - but would put the appropriate date in the papers so to seem I had been there 10 days.
Be strong and try to avoid getting involved in any corruption - it's more hassle than it's worth.
Trust me - I learned the hard way

Andrew

Hi Stereo! Did you have a bad experience with the corruption then?

Anyway I think we're sorted now, and did it all above board and kosher! I suppose our situation was different to most on here because we were already both living in the UK. But hopefully this method might help other people too. The only hassle was sending documents back and forth.

First we sent my London CNI to Manila and someone changed it for us at the British Embassy in Manila. We also had to get someone to collect the Marriage Licence application from the Registry Office in Mindoro where we are getting married. They sent these back to us and we just took them to the Pilipino Embassy here in London. We were witnessed signing the form and it was stamped and signed by the Consul Officer. We're now sending this back to Mindoro to be posted for the required 10 day waiting period. Hopefully we will have our marriage licence ready when we arrive there.

I'd just like to say a another big thank you to Camille for alerting us to this possibility!

Herb

All the way along I had people trying to get money for stuff. The biggest being 50,000php for a marriage certificate that THEY had made a mistake with - they spelled Filipina wrong under the nationality section for my wife and claimed it would take the 50000 to change it. The next day it happened free but it involved paying someone else a fee to 'sort' it.
Every step of the way there were issues. All I wanted was for everything to be legal and above board, but it seemed impossible because of the terrible system.
In the end - the visa application was easy - we applied for it - 2 weeks later it was granted - no interview or anything.
It was getting the paperwork on the Philippines side that caused months of stress.
I now have a marriage certificate complete with the wrong date of marriage.......the wrong address of my wife......and the wrong place of marriage.

Whoa! 50K for a marriage certificate? Yikes! I paid 5,000 for my marriage license, 2 NSO copies of my marriage certificate after 3 days of marriage :P

Im sorry to hear about your experience... I hope this wont happen to anybody else....

HERB...

Thanks for the message! Im glad all is working fine for you! Relax and enjoy the moment! Congratulation in advance!

Cheers!

Glad to be of help,
Camille