Second Helping of advice please

Hello again

I have given up on the idea of bringing Melody over to Spain, and then for us to cross over into Gibraltar to get married. The sheer volume of paperwork involved, plus the fact that half of it would need to be repeated once Melody had changed her name meant that it was impractical.

So, what we have decided to do is follow the advice given on here, and marry in the Philippines in December. I'm planning to go over for my second visit in August, to jump through all of the hoops in order to get us a marriage licence.

My query is this: I understand that I cannot apply for a marriage licence until I have been in the Philippines for 14 days (apparently they check the last date of entry in your passport). Then they say that the licence can only be granted after a period of ten days has passed, and that I cannot leave during that period, meaning that I would need to be there for almost four weeks.

Is there a way of circumventing this procedure. It's not that I don't want to be there. It's not that I can't afford it, although I'm no millionaire. It's quite simply having that much time off work, and then needing to return again in December - yet more leave on top of my visit last May.

Any ideas, advice or suggestions will be much appreciated.

I did it in 2 weeks. It was tight but did it. I used a " fixer" as some might call them. It worked well.

I'm here in the Philippines now sitting out my ten days. Even marrying at a local town hall where the family are well known didn't allow us any leeway on that, seems to be the only requirement that's fixed in stone wherever you go!

Make sure all your papers are in order, book your embassy appointment for the day or the day after you land and if possible register the wedding on the same day. It wasn't too bad fir us as we are only half a days drive from manila, if you're further out on one of the islands it will be harder!

Even then two weeks is pushing it, three is better and still assumes everything is ok. I was lucky I changed job not so long ago and negotiated the three week holiday into my contract

Check out the thread THIS IS IT!! fir more detail on how things are going....

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your reply. I've just got off the phone from Melody (Thanks to facebook messenger for the free phone calls!) She has a friend who works at the Registry Office (and probably every other government office too!)

Apparently, I have got it wrong again! The ten-day waiting period and the fourteen-day stay in the Philippines can run concurrently, not consecutively, so I only need to be away from work for two weeks, not three and a half. Oh, and I need to attend a seminar (hopefully not in Tagalog)

We are still aiming for the wedding in December, as other people want to come over from the UK and Spain, although we could, in theory, be married before I leave Laoag.

Good Luck with your own situation Steve, and congratulations!

I note you mention the seminar. This was a stumbling block for us. We couldnt find a way in the Mayors calendar to fit it in in the 2 weeks we had available. Our "fixer" found a way around that so we didnt have to do it,

All in all it went smoothly, even with some typhoon dodging thrown in.

I think I'm marrying a fixer! She tells me that the friend in the Registry Office says that the seminars are held on Fridays, and that an attendance certificate for both of us can be "obtained" easily enough, as long as one of us (her) attends.

I will have a can of Red Horse instead, to ward off the effects of the heat. One can't be too careful in affairs of dehydration.

Well, my wife's uncle knows one of the Cavite councillors and she was going to process everything for us for just the admin costs. But we just couldn't squeeze the seminar into the available time off work that I had. And for some reason she couldn't fix it for us. So we had to get someone who could. It cost a few bob but it worked. I had already taken time off work that year for a previous trip so I only had just a couple of weeks to play with after that.

My recollection is that the seminar isnt required if the fiancee is over a certain age? Bit of a blur now....

I think we are both of a certain age John, I'm 51 and Melody is 32, but best be safe than sorry. I'm going for three weeks in August, and maybe two in December, so hopefully, we won't be too squashed for time, and not too many typhoons/earthquakes/volcanic ash clouds to contend with

Ha. Yes. Dont sneeze when you are there as you might trigger an earthquake.

As you might have read in the other thread the 'seminar' consisted of three written questions about marriage and parenthood as well as a two minute chat about what we had written. I think though that this is one of the locally arranged requirements and is probably different in every town.

Regarding travel, think carefully about your flights to give yourself maximum time on the ground, don't forget to add two days travel at each end of your trip!!

Good luck to you too and keep us posted on progress. Bearing in mind my experience are you going to go for the CNI and the affidavit just in case?

On the CNI and Affidavit, what do you think of this?


http://www.british-filipino.com/ind...fidavit-may-not-be-recognised-in-uk-law.9114/

Storm on a teacup!

I must admit that at times in my life, I have left this sort of thing to fate. But that journey back from the Phils last month was a pretty damned awful experience, and not one that I would wish to repeat without there being a positive result.

Any idea on whether it is possible to still obtain a CNI AND an affirmation. For once in my life, I might just be a "belt and braces" type of bloke.

You can get both for sure but at the British embassy in manila they will only ask for the affirmation. At the local registrar office they wanted both but I think that was just a case of them being a bit behind the times. If you have 3 weeks to wait and £35 it won't do any harm...

I presume that had she not let you copy her, the marriage would have been cancelled.

I'm driving myself slowly crazy over this mountain of paperwork and requirements. Good to be on here, where there is proof that it is possible!

Definitely possible.

I once thought that as soon as we married we could both hop on a plane together back to the UK. Came as such a shock when I found out the harsh reality. However, we are proof that it is indeed do-able.

I ran into this snag.

I recommend marrying in Hong Kong.