It's good to be here!

[mshoei@blueyond]

Thanks for allowing me to join this forum :)

I would like some info on a couple of points. I am due to get married on the
29th March 2008 to a wonderful filipino lady who I spent 3 weeks with in
Sept this year.

1 If we apply for a spouses visa on NSO issued Scepa papers, will they raise these documents at the same time we go to register the marriage?

2 If this is so & assuming an appointment at the embassy is available having prepaid the fees taking appropriate documentation, I could accompany my wife shortly after the wedding for visa application?

3 Is it essential to get her passport changed before she leaves for uk?

4 If successful how is the visa granted ie day of visit, much later, 1 month or more etc. (Tina has to give a months notice at work)


Thanks for your help & to the masterminds behind this site :cwm12:

[ginapeterb]

Hello friend, first of all many others will want to give their opinions, perhaps it would be good for you to use the search functions, you will find a wealth of similar questions in the past.

1. NSO Marriage contracts are not normally issued on the same day the marriage takes place, an incumbent judge or member of the judiciary must first authenticate the marriage document by seeing that all witnesses to the said marriage have signed.

2. The Documents are then fax transmitted to the National Statistics office for onward processing and data filing, once the marriage has been indented into the microfilm of marriages for that district, a NSO Marriage contract is then forwarded back to the Filipino spouse.

3. You may accompany your wife to the British Embassy should she be scheduled for an interview, however you will not have much of a role to play, as you are not the applicant, you may wait downstairs in the cafe behind the security guard, or you may hang around the Ayala centre, you can also stay in your hotel and wait and watch HBO, and await the results of your wife;s interview.

4. It is not essential to change your wife's passport to her married name whilst in Philippines, as you have more pressing matters on your plate such as ensuring your wife has an emigrant number, before this can be issued your wife would need to attend for pre-embarkation guidance and counseling at the St Mary's Eurphrasia foundation.

5. You may have your wife's passport annotated by the Philippine Embassy in London to show that she is married, the fee is £15.00.

6. If successful your wife's visa is normally issued the next day by 3pm, or in the case of a postal decision, the passport and supporting documents will be dispatched back to your wife via the courier service used by VFS Global.

Does that help ?

[andypaul]

Im to read it correctly that the British embassy is now interviewing many of the candidates again? I know Kimmi had an interview recently. I guess its the latest change to the process:NoNo:

Although petes ver much right about not needing to change your wifes name in her passport. My wife decided she wanted to get it changed, which meant she needed to go to the cfo to obtain a letter which she took to the DFA and then a week or so later she picked up her passport in her new name.

This took time as if i remeber correctly we needed to wait for the nso marriage cert to come back which luckily for us didn't take to long.

As Phill overment offices are just like british ones and the term "how long is a piece of string" describes how long you may wait this could be processed quickly or take a signficant amount of time.

We had to get all this processed and sorted before we applied for visa and saved time later.

The one plus is if you have been to the CFO talk before the visa application you merely needed to go in once the visa is approved and get the stamp which takes less than an hour as oposed to a most of the day seminar (which admitly done prior when obtaining the letter for the DFA)

Merely pointing out another way, but as pete says if speed is of the esscence no need to bother.

[kimmi]

hi mshoei,

welcome to the forum..I agree with wot our mates have said on here..

u cannot really get the NSO Marriage certificate after the day of the wedding, it need to be process and duly signed by proper authorities. Ive read here some couple get it in weeks, while some in a month or so it really depends on the government staff if they are too slow to process documents..

U can accompany ur wife if in case she is scheduled for a visa interview, but u cannot go with her upstairs to the British Embassy..only the applicant will be allowed to enter..

In my case, i applied for a Fiancee Visa and got a scheduled interview at 9:30in the morning, was called at 11:30 in the morning done at 11:45 and waited for the result then they told me to come back at 4pm to collect my visa and other docs..

U can surely get a lot of informations, tips and advises here from other people who experienced applying for a Spouse Visa and got successful..and u can also visit the ukvisa website for further information..http://www.vfs-uk-ph.com

Just make sure u research,prepared all the neccessary docs I am sure everything will be alright..

Goodluck...:) and Best wishes on ur wedding:)

[mshoei@blueyond]

Thanks for your replies helpful people, I am real pleased to have found this site.

It was my first trip to the Philippines this year, in fact the first to Asia so I found it quite an experience! I spent most of my time around Makati Manila as Tina works in a call centre there whilst living in Quezon city. However we made it out to the provinces on a number of occasions which was real good for apart from seeing more of the country I think my lungs needed the oxygen!

Being largely a country boy, experiancing the traffic congeston & the loose interpretation of the highway code was serious entertainment, that is you didn't have to be anywhere at a particular time & you have a strong disposition. I have a great admiration for the people who largely made me very welcome, as in any major city though you have to sensible & not put yourself in risky situations.

Looking forward to going back in March & traveling further south (not by car!!) After we are married & hopefully take in some of the amazing islands.

Salamat,

Mark. :D

[IanB]

Oh dear I suppose I have got all this to come next year too. It all sounds even more complicated than marrying in Thailand. I look forward to trawling the forum for help and to all of the support that you guys give!

Ian

[andypaul]

Its not as bad as it sounds and from what i have read previously about thai procedures (there is a very good site which mirrors the same subject matter for brit/phills which i know a few on here have read due to the excellent info avaiable) its very much similar.

[andypaul]

Thanks for your replies helpful people, I am real pleased to have found this site.

It was my first trip to the Philippines this year, in fact the first to Asia so I found it quite an experience! I spent most of my time around Makati Manila as Tina works in a call centre there whilst living in Quezon city. However we made it out to the provinces on a number of occasions which was real good for apart from seeing more of the country I think my lungs needed the oxygen!

Being largely a country boy, experiancing the traffic congeston & the loose interpretation of the highway code was serious entertainment, that is you didn't have to be anywhere at a particular time & you have a strong disposition. I have a great admiration for the people who largely made me very welcome, as in any major city though you have to sensible & not put yourself in risky situations.

Looking forward to going back in March & traveling further south (not by car!!) After we are married & hopefully take in some of the amazing islands.

Salamat,

Mark. :D


Glad you had a good time out there. With the winter months its the ideal time to get your research in on this site and others like ukvisas site as Kimmi very sensibly suggests. As well as procedures and visa this/that and about marriage planning. Dont forget to do your research on the country, people and its culture which is so similar yet so different to the brit culture.

It may also be helpful to introduce Tina to this site. If you follow the get married and move to uk plane most do, it will be a massive change to Tinas life as you can imagine more so than for you.
This site and particularly the Ladies on here can help her with this.

Don't forget to put were your from so you can join in the Brit boys have a pop at the other areas:)

[vbkelly]

Thanks for allowing me to join this forum :)

I would like some info on a couple of points. I am due to get married on the
29th March 2008 to a wonderful filipino lady who I spent 3 weeks with in
Sept this year.

1 If we apply for a spouses visa on NSO issued Scepa papers, will they raise these documents at the same time we go to register the marriage?

2 If this is so & assuming an appointment at the embassy is available having prepaid the fees taking appropriate documentation, I could accompany my wife shortly after the wedding for visa application?

3 Is it essential to get her passport changed before she leaves for uk?

4 If successful how is the visa granted ie day of visit, much later, 1 month or more etc. (Tina has to give a months notice at work)


Thanks for your help & to the masterminds behind this site :cwm12:

hi mshoei@blueyond welcome to the forum,as far as i know after your wedding your marraiges certificate still there in church or civil registry office (where you married) for a couple of weeks but its defend if you don't push them to transfer to the local registry office to have a stamp in there,and the local registry normally they transfer it after a month to the NSO office thats why its take to long to process. what i did before i told to church staff to forward my marraige cert.straight away after the wedding to the local registry office just pay a little bit of penny and after a week went to the local registry in town where ive got married speak to the manager to get the original copy of marraige cert. photo copy it send the original copy to NSO send it personally to 24hours courier keep the reciept by the next day go to NSO show the reciept to the staff so they know your marraige cert. is already there in the office,then i've got it....goodluck to you both!