Can you confirm what I need to take with me as I hope to marry this December in the Phillipines I am a little confused by what I hear and read and would greatly appreciate a definitive answer Thanks in advance
@Howerd recently married in the Philippines, hopefully he will reply to your post, meanwhile there is a thread below that may help you; http://www.british-filipino.com/ind...he-philippines-and-settlement-in-the-uk.9718/
I married in the phils in May. I have written about it before on this forum but basically: 1. You need to go to british embassy and get an affidavit of marital status. To do that, you make the appointment at the embassy and take with you: The fee. Your passport Your divorce documents (if applicable) Proof of your address (like a council tax bill) The completed affidavit which you will fill in, in advance, but not sign. That must contain the proposed date and time for your wedding in the phils. Then you sign it and they stamp it and give it you back. Its documented here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/marriage-in-the-philippines 2. Then you take the above affidavit and all the above documentation (and I took my birth certificate as well) to city hall in the phils. And you also take your significant other and they take birth certificate / CENOMAR certficate / passport and there might be a few other documents they need (get your philippine partner to ask). You also need to take some philippine passport photo size photo of each of you with you when you register for the license. 3. once you register your intent to marry then you have to wait for the marriage license to arrive. This is supposed to take about 10 working days but in my case it took about 15 days. 4. Once you have the marriage license you then can go marry at your venue of choice / or make an appointment to marry at city hall. I think they will only give you the appointment slot once you have the license but you may be able to 'under the table' get unofficial confirmation that your proposed time is free beforehand if your significant other knows someone in the office. 5. On the day after you marry, you get a temporary marriage certificate. You get an official one some time later from NSO. In my case it took about a month to arrive. Most people find it easier to make two trips otherwise you'll find yourself making one very long trip about a month long and getting stressed out about it. Its not difficult. good luck.
Getting married in December is a little problematic. My wife wanted to get married in December but that is a busy time and, like @ChoiAndJohn, we had to wait about 15 working days to get the marriage license. You have not said if you are going for a civil or church wedding. If you have a church wedding there will probably be further seminars to attend, depending on the church. The Catholic Church imposes its own seminar requirements. My wife is an evangelical Christian and we had to attend 3 seminars together, as well as read a prescribed book and write a synopsis of that book. Personally, I think it best to get most of the formalities out of the way on the first visit (Embassy and Marriage licence application) and then return 2-3 months later for the wedding ceremony. The Marriage Licence is valid for 120 days.
When in December are you planning for ? As others have said December is a busy month here and you'll be reliant on processes going smoothly. Has the date been set and arrangements in hand ? How long are you planning to be in Philippines ?
As @Howerd says, having a church wedding will put a whole load of additional seminars and obligations in your path. Clearly a Catholic church wedding will not be an option if one of you has been divorced before - I can't comment on other religious denominations.
