Our experiences -- documents preparation before our wedding

Ok. First we needed to look for the instructions/steps/procedures at the German Embassy (GE) website with regards to the preparation of our documents for our wedding. I am a Filipina and my husband is a German national.

On the website of the GE, here is the link for the information regarding marriage between German and Philippine nationals. In that page, you will find four links. Three of them are in German language and one is in English. The fourth link pertains to Certificate of Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage (or my husband and I call it CLCCM). It is stated that...

The German partner will need a certificate of legal capacity to contract marriage independent whether the marriage shall take place in the Philippines, Germany or a third country. This certificate is only issued by the civil registry of the (last) place of residence and information has to be obtained by the German partner directly there regarding which documents have to be submitted. In general the following documents are required from the Philippine partner:

BIRTH CERTIFICATE, issued by the National Statistics Office (NSO) in Quezon City, Metro Manila, on Security Paper (SECPA)

COMMUNITY TAX CERTIFICATE (original) as proof of residence

PARENTAL CONSENT to the marriage if at least one of the partners is between the age of 18 and 21 (unless he or she had been married before), duly authenticated by the competent Philippine authorities (see further under 'Affidavits/Sworn Statements').

PARENTAL ADVISE for the marriage if at least one of the partners is between the age of 21 and 25 (unless he or she had been married before), duly authenticated by the competent Philippine authorities (see further under 'Affidavits/Sworn Statements').

AFFIDAVIT of your parents (if deceased, of close relatives), stating your present civil status. The authentication by a public notary has to be in turn authenticated by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs. For any information contact directly the Department of Foreign Affairs.

PROOF OF PRESENT CIVIL STATUS:
■ SINGLE:
Certificate (original), issued by the National Statistics Office (NSO) in Quezon City, Metro Manila, on Security Paper stating the non-appearance of your name in the ’NATIONAL INDICES OF MARRIAGE’, not older than six (6) months from the date of issuance.
■ WIDOW/WIDOWER:
Marriage Contract and Death Certificate, duly issued/authenticated by the National Statistics Office (NSO) in Quezon City, Metro Manila, see information on the rear of this page.
■ DISSOLVED MARRIAGE:
Marriage Contract with amendment that the marriage is dissolved, Court Order/Decree
and Certificate of Finality, duly issued/authenticated by the competent Philippine authorities.

However, my husband contacted Standesamt (or Civil Registry Office) and he was given a list of documents/requirements which I have to submit to them.

• Two (2) passport-size pictures
• One (1) whole body picture (13x18cm)
• original Baptismal Certificate
• original Elementary School records (Elementary School Form 137)
• Marriage certificate of the parents issued by NSO
  
• Two (2) passport-size pictures of the parents
• Birth Certificate(s) of the sibling(s) (if there are any siblings); in this case the birth certificates issued by the local civil registry office are sufficient.
• Birth Certificate issued by NSO
• Community Tax Certificate
• Affidavit of my parents. (After it has been notarized, I brought it to the Department of Foreign Affairs Authentication Division to have it authenticated or also known as "red ribbon").
• Proof of present civil status, CENOMAR issued by NSO
• Photocopy of every pages of my travel passport, with a stamp of Certified True Copy on every pages.
  
• Any document which has my complete address. I had my Sworn Statements of Assets, Liabilities, And Net worth Annual Declaration form. I also had the two photocopies stamped with Certified True Copy.
• Consent form
• Payment of 80 euros to Standesamt in Germany.
  Paid by my husband.
  

All these (except the passport-size pictures and my whole body picture) must be submitted with two photocopies and translated from English to German language. We hired Orange Translations Inc. to translate my documents. For more info on the list of translators accredited by the GE, please click here.

Standesamt required more than what was stated on the page of the GE website. Actually, most the documents in the list above are found here. This page concerns on the Examination of Philippine documents. But my documents were not exactly for the purpose stated on that page. They were for my husband's requirements for his CLCCM.

After acquiring the complete document requirements, I mailed them to my husband in Germany via FedEx. Within three working days, he got my documents and submitted them to Standesamt. Within a week, he got his CLCCM.

When he arrived in Manila, he brought with him the following necessary documents:

• Certificate of Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage
• International Birth Certificate (in English language)
• Authenticated Birth Certificate
• Residence Confirmation Paper issued by Standesamt where my husband lives
• Registration card or Federal Identity Card

...and certified true copies of each of his documents. Then immediately on the next day, we went to GE to have his CLCCM translated in English. And after two days, we came back to pick it up. GE is open from 8am to 11am only for this type of Consular Service. So better phone GE first before going there.

And the day after, we went to the Municipal Hall in Marilao, Bulacan where I live. We submitted the following documents for our Marriage License application.

• My NSO Birth Certificate
• My NSO Cenomar
• His international Birth Certificate (in English language)
• CLCCM (in English language issued by GE)
• Photocopy of his travel passport
• Payment of Php 350.00

We attended the whole day Marriage counseling and we were given a certificate of attendance. Then we waited for 10 days until we went back and picked up our Marriage License. Then we gave our Marriage License to our officiating Pastor.

The following documents have certain validity period/dates:

• CENOMAR - 6 months
• CLCCM - 6 months
• Marriage License - 120 days or 4 months
• Community Tax Certificate - 1 year

Time Preparation needed for all these must be at least 6 months.