Getting married in PH: UK CNI no longer needed?

Hello!

I'm a UK citizen and I'm intending to marry my Filipina partner of many years in October in PH, and have the appointment with the UK embassy to pick up my local equivalent of the uk CNI in September.

The confusion lies in relation to the uk CNI itself - I was under the impression I needed to take that with me and exchange it after having read an endless supply of websites and forum posts, but it seems the uk gov site says I need to download a word doc "affirmation of marriage" form and just take that with me instead:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...the_Philippines_leaflet_as_of_30_JAN_2015.pdf

I suppose my questions, then, are these:

1) Do I still need to book in the uk wedding register appointment, wait 28 days then obtain the UK CNI or is this officially useless now? (I already paid for the appointment a few days ago....d'oh).

2) Do I need to get the document I receive from the uk embassy legalised in any way (either at point of obtaining it or immediately after)?

https://www.gov.uk/get-document-legalised

Or is that not normally required?

Thanks for any help you can give We're well underway with the plans for her applying for the spouse visa to come to the UK after the wedding which is very straightforward, but some of the actual details of the PH wedding organising (as far as documents go) are proving a little more stress inducing

hi Bing--welcome to the site

i too am planning to get hitched in the filis sometime in october--and like you am somewhat confused about the legal things.
i phoned my local registry office--who said i need to get whatever paperwork is required by the country i'm getting married in ! but i do have to give 28 days notice here-----but how can i if i dont know the wedding date ? or is the 28 days a minimum---with no maximum.

Hello! as i understand it, the old procedure was:

1) have an idea of your rough wedding date, and make sure you sort an appointment with the UK wedding people that falls within 3 months of your intended wedding because that's how long the CNI is valid for there. unfortunately the UK weddings / registry people aren't aware of what's needed over in PH at all so they can't give any specific advice.
2) go to the UK embassy in manila, exchange your CNI for the local equivalent. You and your partner take your form (and hers, which she applies for via post) to the wedding registry place in your chosen PH locale, and wait ten days - their equivalent of our 28 days notice (you have to pay for the speeded up service).
3) take the doc they give you and go get married. this final doc is valid for somewhere between 3 to 6 months - can't remember the exact timeframe.

Some of the UK gov pages I'd looked at seemed to imply I'd still need a CNI alongside the new affirmation / affadavit, but I think I may have just been reading them wrong. But the people I spoke to on the phone at the UK Embassy were very firm about not needing the CNI anymore - just the docs asked for on the site.

It just makes me a little nervous about flying all that way with no CNI - I'm not sure how recent a change this is, but I assumed there'd already be lots of posts about no CNI needed on websites and forums by this point. Instead it seems to be a bit of a black hole topic so I'm just wanting to cover all the bases I guess

Some people recommend getting the CNI just in case. But yes, the rules have changed.

If you do a search on the forum search box, there are a few that have gone through the newer process already.

User Sunnyjim ran a thread on it.

i got married there in march 2014 and it had just changed on the gov site and did not need the CNI but i had already got it from my local Register office but i still showed it at the embassy in manila, as you never know if going to change it back. when i got home i called the main Register office and they told me if the marriage was legal in PH and had all the correct paperwork from the NSO, then it was legal in uk.

cheers everyone. had a read through some of those old posts and it does seem like some places aren't aware of the new document setup. we're getting married in Baguio, so I'm not sure if they know about it yet.

i suppose my next question would be: if I take the old UK CNI to the embassy in manila, they won't actually exchange it for anything - I'll still only have the new affirmation document, plus the UK CNI in my pocket.

with that in mind, will the registry in Baguio even know what to do with / accept the original UK document if they don't accept the new affirmation? Or will I be left with two useless bits of paper?

we are planning to get hitched in baguio..might see you there!

she's asking the registry office there tomorrow about it, will let you know what they say - there is a website but the numbers don't work(!), which is at least somewhat expected...

Thats the best solution. Good luck.

it would be helpful if anyone else who got married in the filis this year could tell us their account of how they went about it

A question from my partner before she goes tomorrow:

She'll be showing [the wedding registry people in baguio] the doc I need to fill in and the relevant pages on the Gov website, but can someone tell me exactly what it is that the manila Embassy will be handing me back and what it looks like?

We don't really know if all they do is take the form I print out, print a fancier version out and stamp it, or if it looks significantly different, or if it's still even called an affirmation at the end of it. We're just thinking that they may know what finished document x looks like, but not be able to associate it with anything from the website. Had a look around here and elsewhere but I can't find anything useful, image wise

err--i think you have to submit your affidavit / affirmation in person when youre over there.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...the_Philippines_leaflet_as_of_30_JAN_2015.pdf

oh, i am what I mean is, she's confirming with the Baguio wedding registry place tomorrow if they a) know about the new UK affirmation forms and b) accept them. But besides the form on the website that I have to fill in that she's going to show them, I'm just curious if there's any images online somewhere of the "finished article" so to speak - the stamped document you receive from the embassy. Just thinking it might be more useful to the people in the wedding registry department than the Word document I have to fill in which they may not have seen before.

/ edited the above post to make what i meant clearer

Link below to our own personal experience of 2014 just after the wedding registration requirements changed.
Note the final visa that will be issued has changed from may 2015.

http://www.british-filipino.com/ind...-engaged-to-get-a-visa.9612/page-3#post-64648

I had similar concerns about the new arrangements, affirmation/oath in lieu of a CNI, when applying for a marriage licence in Cebu during December 2014. I got a CNI from the Local Registry Office in the UK and had it 'Apostilled' as well.

Of course, the British Embassy in Manila were only interested in my affirmation and not the apostilled CNI. The Philippines authorities also have no interest in an apostilled CNI as they are not familiar with UK Local Registry documents and were not signed up to the Hague convention on apostilled documents at the time (they may be signed up now but I am not sure)

When the Embassy returned the affirmation document to me (with their seal on it) they also gave me a letter outlining the new arrangements, explaining that the British Embassy no longer issues CNIs. I think that letter should satisfy the LCR in Baguio, but they almost certainly know of the new arrangements by now, anyway.

Good news, they do indeed know about the new process and happily accept the new affirmation / affidavit so no CNI required. Hope this helps Bigmac

Thanks again everyone!

Yes CNI is no longer required to get married in the Philippines. Just need to book and appointment with the British Embassy in Manila. All they request from you is to show original documents and copies of your Birth Certificate, Colour Photocopy of your passport, Divorce Decree if been married before and now divorced. Make sure the affirmation or affidavit is typed and printed from a computer. Also they will require from your fiancée, If your fiancee was previously married and it was annulled in the Philippines, original marriage certificate from
the Philippine Statistics Authority (formerly known as the National Statistics Office) with an
annotation stating that the annulment has been made final.

Howerd is correct, they will return the Affidavit or Affirmation with a stamped seal and cover letter to show to the local registry that CNI is no longer required.


https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...the_Philippines_leaflet_as_of_2_July_2015.pdf

ive been labouring under the impression i still had to give notice--( 28 days now )---in the UK if i want to get married in the filis------so i just called my local registry office--only to be told this is not the case---just need the CNI ( takes 21 days--fee £35 )

------but the lady on the phone was unaware a CNI is no longer needed in the filis---therefore--i do nothing in the UK--!!

can anyone who has recently got wed--or intends to soon---in the filis--please confirm this.

Like I stated before CNI is no longer required for marriage in the Philippines. You need to book an appointment with British embassy in Manila to do an Affidavit or Affirmation.

Check the links below...Read the info and link in my previous post above. You don't need to do nothing in UK.. I just got married in Philippines and it was all okay.


https://www.consular-appointments.s...oaths-affirmations-and-affidavits/slot_picker


https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/marriage-in-the-philippines

Embassy will ask you what date and where marriage will take place so make sure you have a date and a venue already planned in advance as it could take at least 10 to 14 days to get the marriage license.