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.

Marrying my German national husband

Now this is kinda long story for me to tell. But I will make it short then. And focus on one aspect at a time.

Getting married to a German national isn't easy. However, for the sake of Love for my husband, I have done all. Of course too, with the help and support coming from my family, my friends, God especially, and my husband and his family too.

One very essential note to all ladies who will be marrying their German fiancé or planning to get married with their German boyfriend.

1. Learn the German language. Not an easy task though.

Better start learning their language as early as you can. Ask your boyfriend or fiancé to teach you and help you understand their language. German language is not easy to learn. For me, it is completely different from our language, Tagalog or the international language, English.

This is my main reference during my self-study with the help and never-ending support and teaching of my very strict teacher, my dearly sweetest husband. Follow the different levels of the German lessons on that site. And I am sure, you wouldn't need to enroll in any Language school or hire a Tutor to give you home tutorials, which are for sure will cost really lots of bucks. PLUS you should have more patience, faith in God and prayers, as well as the support from your loving husband.

My husband, Stefan, also have been sending me some of the helpful info on the German grammars, common words, phrases and sentences they use, and giving me some homeworks, exercises, quizzes. It has been so stressful since we are working at same time. (Oh by the way, he is back in Germany while I am still here in Manila processing my visa. I will make another post and discuss about my visa processing). So it has been very difficult to learn alone when he is far far away from me. We communicate via emails, ym chat, text messaging and phone calls.

Here are some important pointers which are very helpful during self-study. Learn these things above all other things.

• Genders of Nouns (Masculine, Feminine, Neutral). Yes, German nouns have genders!
• 4 Grammar cases (Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative)
• Prepositions. This is very very important when you are constructing sentences.
• Tenses of verbs based on the grammar case. Memorize them!
• Pronounciations. This is also very helpful during the A1 level of the German language.
• Buy a German dictionary. I recommend the Collins German Dictionary. I have my one which is just 3 inches x 4.5 inches and approximately 1.5 inches thick. It costs Php 499. You can find it at National Bookstore.
• Buy a German phrase book and at same time is also a two-way dictionary such as this.
  

Practice speaking Deutsch with your better-half/fiancé. This will make you "used" to speaking Deutsch and will lessen your nervousness during the Oral exam. By the way, I have mentioned the word "exam" here because one of the main requirements for you to be able to live with your husband or fiancé in Germany, is the Certificate of proof of Basic knowledge of the German Language. Basic knowledge means the A1 level. A1 is the first level. The German Embassy will ask you to provide this certificate during your visa application. Goethe Institut Manila, I think, is the only Language Course School in the Philippines that the German Embassy recognize. Please check out their courses offer, schedules of exams and other details

In my case, I was not able to enroll at GI because I have a job. I work from Monday to Friday, from 8am to 5pm. And I live in Bulacan. GI is located in Makati. I could not imagine traveling back and forth everyday after office hours. So I decided to have a self-study. PLUS we were able to save at least Php 18K from the enrollment fee with books, fares, foods, etc. If you are in the same case as mine, you may also just take the A1 exam and pay the appropriate fee, Php 4K in my case. But OF COURSE, make sure, you are prepared. On this link, you can download their sets of sample practice exercises. Very very helpful too! Make sure you check their website too for some changes in their practice material and information. The format of the A1 exam is exactly the same as found in their sample exercises. So make yourself used to it also. Good luck ladies!

P.s. I got a total passing grade of 93% in my A1 Exam last June 30, 2010. Highest passer for this batch. Got a gift from GI. :-)