Having been to Hong Kong and married my pinay bride I thought I would write a guide to help any members wishing to do this. It really is a simple process. First visit this site you can get a lot of information and a basic understanding of how it works. http://www.immd.gov.hk/eng/faq/marriage-registration.html No visit to Hong Kong is required to give notice of your intended marriage it can all be done by email and courier. You will need to get married at one of the two Government register offices as this makes it easier to obtain a certified true copy of your marriage certificate for visa purposes (City Hall or Cotton Tree Drive). Do not use a Civil Celibrant. You can contact the register office direct and they will email you the required "notice of intended marriage" forms. The forms need to be completed and then authenticated by a notary public. You then send the duly completed and authenticated forms by courier to the register office in Hong Kong. When recieved they will confirm your marriage date. It is then required that you appear in person four days before the actual marriage date and present your original documents ( passports bride and groom, divorce certificate if applicable). We used an agent that charged a very reasonable fee, they checked all the paperwork for us, offered various services such as arranging transport to and from the wedding venue and talked us through the entire process including providing the required two local witneses. I would reccommend using them it made everything hassle free (mods please advise if I can post the link here I not an agent but maybe not allowed?). To clarify, a certificate of no impediment is not required nor a Philippine cenomar in Hong Kong, required documents are a Passport and divorce document if applicable (Decree Absolute). If one of you is Filipino you will need to register your marriage with the Philippine Consulate in Hong Kong. Simple proccess but needs to be done while you are there, good luck finding the building and correct floor, do your homework first its hard to find! Any questions just ask I will be happy to help!
Interesting article. Can you tell me how long it took for the official wedding certificate to be finalized by the Embassy in Philippines so that you could travel. Thanks
Hi Geoff The Philippine consulate in HK process the marriage registration document which you collect after 48 hours. You then have to wait for the authorities in PH to complete the registration process (I forgot to mention your wife will need to produce her Passport and Birth Certificate at the Philippine consulate in HK). It has been one month now and we are expecting the process to complete soon. I will post here when that happens! Hope that helps.
I was interested to know how long it takes to get spouse visa. I understand it is faster if you marry in hong Kong
You can get the spouse visa pretty quickly if you pay for priority processing which will only take 10 working days, subject to number of applicants and how straightforward the case is.
I think it is only faster by virtue of you not having to wait a couple of months for the NSO marriage certificate if married in the Philippines. I believe you are in Germany Geoff from what I remember, if so your missus will have to apply for a Schengen family reunification visa and not the UK settlement visa we are familiar with here on the forum. I think some of the other chaps who brought their loved ones to a EU country to settle could help you with that one if your circumstances are still the same.
Hello again, my circumstances are still the same and we are aiming to come back and live in Germany. If there is anyone in the forum who has had this experience, I would be very grateful for any advice regarding the schengen family reunificaion visa. Many thanks for your advice. As others have said, it is a long and hard road but we are determined to get there.
Hi Geoff if I recall from your first post you had concerns about yourself traveling, have you now met your lady?
Hi,first of all congrats to both of you☺ Hope you keep us posted with the progress. Which agent did U use by the way.. We opt to do same in October and need guidelines☺ Cheers!!
