Marriage in the Phillippines

[Shamrockdave2003]

Guys im sure you have answered this question a million times

But please bear with me as i have read conflicting info on the forum.

My fiance and myself are going to get married (Civil) in the phillippines - hopefully Juneish time.

In prep, let me get this right......

I get a CNI from local office - takes 21 days
When i fly to Manila i take it to the British Embassy they can change it within the day.
This is where i get confused i know we have to apply for a marriage license and all, but i have read that we have to wait another 21 days after the Manila CNI is given out?????????????

Can someone clear this up for me.

In short i can only take a few weeks holiday from work and need to know if i can do this all in one hit or will i need to fly out there twice

Please help

SD

[walesrob]

within the day.
This is where i get confused i know we have to apply for a marriage license and all, but i have read that we have to wait another 21 days after the Manila CNI is given out?????????????

Talk to the local office where you intend to get married, and ask them if they could do things a bit sooner. If your nice to them, and bring em a box of chocolates, they will oblige, BUT I'm not saying this is the norm. Strictly, yes, it is 21 days, but its the Philippines, you know.....Don't forget that pre-marraige seminar as well, it will be 20 minutes of extreme boredom/torture/waste of time* (delete as appropriate)

[Shamrockdave2003]

oOOOOOOOOOOH this is a nightmare 21days and 21 days there plus 10 days for a licence.

[KeithD]

Could be worse....those that don't follow this forum can wait months

[joebloggs]

Talk to the local office where you intend to get married, and ask them if they could do things a bit sooner. If your nice to them, and bring em a box of chocolates, they will oblige, BUT I'm not saying this is the norm. Strictly, yes, it is 21 days, but its the Philippines, you know.....Don't forget that pre-marraige seminar as well, it will be 20 minutes of extreme boredom/torture/waste of time* (delete as appropriate)

pre-marraige seminar , i never went to a pre-marriage seminar !!!,

maybe i'm not legally married

[jta]

Guys im sure you have answered this question a million times

But please bear with me as i have read conflicting info on the forum.

My fiance and myself are going to get married (Civil) in the phillippines - hopefully Juneish time.

In prep, let me get this right......

I get a CNI from local office - takes 21 days
When i fly to Manila i take it to the British Embassy they can change it within the day.
This is where i get confused i know we have to apply for a marriage license and all, but i have read that we have to wait another 21 days after the Manila CNI is given out?????????????

Can someone clear this up for me.

In short i can only take a few weeks holiday from work and need to know if i can do this all in one hit or will i need to fly out there twice

Please help

SD

hi shamrock,


that 21 + 21 +10 (days) it only happens if u dont have CNI from UK... Pls search this in Googles, How to marry in the philippines for british citizen...hope this will help your confusion...Goodluck...

[Abarth]

I have just married in the Philippines (8th Feb 07) but I had the all singing and dancing white (or marching) wedding....and not a civil wedding.

You are right about gaining a CNI here in the UK first and this does take 21 days and 40 quid (well this was the cost mine here in County Durham).

When you land in Manila you go to the British Embassy and hand over your CNI (you may have to wait in a line outside the building, what I did was to go the day after I landed at 8.30am and was the 4th one in) You need to have the correct amount of money with you and your passport (yes more money changes hands) I cant remember off hand but I think it was 4500 pesos.....and then you wait 1 hour (like I did) or if they are busy you will get it the same day. (they close at 1.30pm I think)

Once you have the Philippine version of the CNI you then go to the city hall in the place you are to marry (take your passport as they may need to see you are who you say you are) At this point more money changes hands again (you have to get used to this lol) once all the details and documents are done you then have to wait 10 days this does not include Sundays. So add 11 days waiting time depending on when you apply at the city hall.

What I did was to apply for a extension to my stay at the local immigration office (the one I used was close to my hotel in Legazpi City) this cost me 500 pesos for the guy at the office (his under the table costs I think lol) and 1020 pesos with local taxes for the extension...so a total of 1520 pesos for a extra 7 days was not bad...

I had a total of 28 days because I needed to take into account the 10 days waiting time. If your girl knows someone that works in the city hall then you may be able to shorted the 10 days (with some more wheeling and dealing under the table)....I tried but because I am a foreigner they felt they could not offer thia sorter service lol (it was worth a shot lol)

With you having a civil wedding you will not have to deal with the church things like I did as they are very long winded and slow....

I hope you have a quicker time in getting your marriage contract from the NSO than I am. Ours was not sent to the NSO from the church until the 10th March. And to add to this the the local NSO office was damaged in the December 2006 typhoon. But we are applying for a Advance Endorsement and this will take 30 days....so this time April we will have this...but my wife will have to go to Naga City and this she told me is 4 hours on the bus (and I think this is one way I took the Legazpi to Manila once and never again lol 10 hours to travel 200 miles lol)

But the kicker is the visa fees will already have gone up by then but I can do nothing about this....


I hope this helps....

[Shamrockdave2003]

Cheers Abarth.

Thats much better - i thought you had to wait 21 days here and 21 days there to convert CNI but you say 1 day coolio.

So all i have to wait for is the 10 days

Cheers buddie and good luck

SD

[Ann07]

Hello

Exactly!

But if your fiance knows somebody from the registry office. She could apply and ask for the copy of the license(2) and send it to you so that you can fill it in. And return it back to her with the CNI and changed it to local version which is the legal capacity. And if she hand it back to the registry office they will start counting the 10 days. So that once you arrive you can get married anytime.. And more time to enjoy together...

Yup, Cni is 4500 php

[Ann07]

Better to talk to the head and discuss the reasons. Coz i did the same and the head advised me to do this way. Its up to her persuasive powers

[Ann07]

No under the tables they are so helpful

[Shamrockdave2003]

If i send her CNI surely she cant go into British Embassy and get it changed to local one??????????? surely i have to do that in person??

SD

[Ann07]

Of course she can. Its me who changed my husbands CNI at the embassy. She just need you passport details and birth certificates all photocopy and the fee thats all! So quick just wait less than an hour...

[Ann07]

Shamrockdave is your fiance is from cebu? Coz shamrock is famous in cebu

[Shamrockdave2003]

Cheers.

No she is from Quezon province

[aromulus]

Hi Shamrock.

I got married on February 19th in Cebu.

I arrived on Sunday the 4th with my CNI (Italian Version), applied for the licence on Monday the 5th, and would have been able to marry on the 16th... Only we waited a few more days. Everything was done well inside the 21 days visa period. If you have all the documents in order, it will be a piece of cake.

Dom

[emeraldisle]

I have just married in the Philippines (8th Feb 07)
What I did was to apply for a extension to my stay at the local immigration office (the one I used was close to my hotel in Legazpi City) this cost me 500 pesos for the guy at the office (his under the table costs I think lol) and 1020 pesos with local taxes for the extension...so a total of 1520 pesos for a extra 7 days was not bad...

I was under the impression that we didnt need a visa to stay in the philippines. Is this just were they stamp ur passport coming into the airport? And is their serious repucussions for overstaying? i.e.(honeymoon)

[andypaul]

I was under the impression that we didnt need a visa to stay in the philippines. Is this just were they stamp ur passport coming into the airport? And is their serious repucussions for overstaying? i.e.(honeymoon)

21 days is visa free after that you need to apply for a visa.

I have read reports of people overstaying for a few days not even having it mentioned to getting serious grief (remeber an offical can make your life hell if they don't wanna let you though passport control)
I have never been lucky enough to have stayed more than 14 days or so but if i was i would obtain the Visa just to save any grief at the end of the trip.

[gingxrick]

Maybe I'm wronge but I believe that its only the british male or female that can apply for the cni to be exchanged when geting married in the Philippines. How can you send your british cni to your g/f for her to exchange it???, it could be for anyone.

[gingxrick]

Hi anno7, didnt you get married in the UK,??

[Ann07]

Hi ging and ricky

yes...

take care both

ann

[andypaul]

Maybe I'm wronge but I believe that its only the british male or female that can apply for the cni to be exchanged when geting married in the Philippines. How can you send your british cni to your g/f for her to exchange it???, it could be for anyone.

I was wondering about that to i would think it very unlikely a fillpino would be able to get access to the british consul office, especially with all the security there is.

Even once inside the lady checked my passport very carefully
.
But im sure Gingrick and i are happy to be proven wrong if its possible.

[Ann07]

I did it before. My husband sent me his cni through royal mail and i changed it to the local one at the British embassy. With the photocopies of my husbands passport and birth certificates and the fee. It took me only minutes.

ann

[Ann07]

i even phoned the british consul office before changing the cni just curious!

[andypaul]

i even phoned the british consul office before changing the cni just curious!

Thats useful advice so the lady could recieve the cni from hubby to be, change it and get the paperqork rolling the second part you did with them holding the paperwork till we were arriving is what we did as well which saved the ten day wait.
When the phill partner takes the cni and photocopies i guess you brought plenty of id to proof who you were? I also remeber that no bags are allowed into the embassy so best to have someone look after them outside.

[Ann07]

yes, you are right no bags allowed... only my organizer which i put all the papers needed. i brought id's with me at that time but they didnt asked for it.or maybe because i always visit the place. but better bring just in case.

ann