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Marriage Between Filipino & French Nationals (FAQ)

Over the course of a few years I've been receiving mails, good feed backs and additional questions from Filipino women who are in the p...

Thursday, 24 November 2011

Lɪᴠʀᴇᴛ Dᴇ Fᴀᴍɪʟʟᴇ

After the wedding we were advised by the consular representative to compile our requirements for the Livret de Famille (Booklet of Family or Family Booklet) and to submit all the necessary documents as soon as possible to make the Visa process sooner as well. This is a French legal document which somehow is the same as our Marriage Certificate in the Philippines.  We were told that it's gonna take about two to three months for the transcription to be done and here are the requirements:
Original Marriage Certificate issued by the NSO and duly authenticated by the DFA (Red Ribbon)
Photocopy of Marriage Certificate issued by the City Hall or City Registrar

Note:  This list of requirement will be handed to you together with your Certificate of Legal Capacity to Marry and consular representative will actually advise you what to do next.


Since we had our wedding done at the City Hall which was celebrated by the Mayor we had to be the one to submit our papers (Marriage Certificates) to the city registrar.  So, about six days after the wedding we forwarded our documents to the city registrar.  It's important to do it as soon as possible because there's actually an "expiration date" for these documents to be forwarded to the city registrar which is about 10 to 15 days from the celebration of the wedding.

When we forwarded the documents to the city registrar we were advised to come back three days later to get our copy and also to submit a request for the NSO electronic endorsement of our marriage certificate so we can get a copy of it faster than usual. Indeed, after three days we received our personal copy of the MC from the city registrar and then we submitted a request for the NSO electronic endorsement and we had to pay ₱200.00 for it and again we were asked to come back after ten days to submit another request, this time, for the actual NSO authenticated copy.

As advised, I came back after ten days (had to do it alone coz my husband already had to go back to French West Indies to work) and then I had to pay ₱190.00 per NSO copy of our MC and I decided to request for three copies since I know I will need this document a lot for my passport, the embassy etc..  After I paid the ₱190.00 per copy i was advised to come back within five business days for the releasing of the document..at last!

The moment I received the NSO copy of our Marriage Certificate I went directly to a travel agency where I could pay for DFA authentication assistance or better known as "red ribbon" and I paid ₱2,500.00 for the service and again was told to wait about twelve business days but thankfully there were no delays and I actually got it within just eight business days.

So, at last our requirements for the Livret de Famille is already complete I'm just waiting on the date to forward it to the French embassy in Makati which will actually be soon.
The MC from the city registrar should look like this.

NSO Authenticated Marriage License should look like this.

DFA Authenticated Documents should look like these.

Note: The compiling of documents for le livret de famille should only take about a month and a half if you process everything right away.


Thursday, 20 October 2011

STEP FIVE: Filipino-French Wedding Procedure in the Philippines


Now The Philippine Process

After we received the Certificate of Legal Capacity we headed to Cebu right away to start the Philippine side of the wedding process.

First we went to the city registrar supposedly for the pre-marriage counselling/seminar only to find out that we had to register first.  We got scared because the woman told us that the seminars in the next few weeks are already fully booked but thankfully she was considerate enough to insert us on the nearest date since my fiancé is not a Filipino citizen and might need to travel back to France soon.

PMC or Pre-Marriage Counsellings are only done every Wednesdays and Fridays so we had to wait for the next available schedule which was a Wednesday.  We had to pay ₱100.00 for the registration and we had to bring a valid ID for me and a passport for my fiancé.

The seminar only lasted for four hours and it's done in a mix of the Cebuano-English languages so I had to translate a few parts to my fiancé.  Some topics were pretty interesting but thankfully it was not so long.

After we did the seminar we had to wait another ten days for the publication of banns at the city registrar.  After the ten day wait time we came back to get our marriage license and our marriage certificate which the solemnizing officer will require on the day of the wedding and we had to pay ₱1,050.00 for that.

We had chosen to let the mayor of Cebu City, Honorable Mike Rama solemnize our wedding because we were told that if we ask a judge to do it we will have to pay an amount between ₱10,000.00 to ₱20,000.00 which we'd rather spend for the reception, it's just ridiculous and if the couple are both Filipinos they will only have to pay ₱300.00.  See?  It's just ridiculous!!  And besides, the Cebu City mayor's office is incomparably nicer (more presentable) than most offices of a judge, which is another very good point to consider.

But it's not that simple and easy to let the mayor do your wedding since he's a pretty busy man.  We contacted and went to the mayors office weeks before our chosen date to make sure he can include it in his schedule and we kept on calling his office to check and make sure that his schedule hasn't changed with any kind of out-of-town/country emergencies.  

When we had all the papers ready we went to the mayor's office the following day for the wedding.  It was very quick and Mayor Rama never failed to make some jokes and sing a few lines from his favorite songs....it was not the usual boring ceremony :) and we had a simple yet perfect wedding!!!

With Mayor Rama



Saturday, 17 September 2011

STEP FOUR: Filipino-French Wedding Procedure in the Philippines

Release of the Certificate of Legal Capacity:

Weeks after I submitted all our papers to the French embassy in Makati my fiancé sent an email to Miss Audrey HUI BON HOA-CHAN to inquire about our paper and she replied it's ready for pick-up and that he could send someone to get it. We were very surprised but in a good way. Initially she told us that in September when he arrives in the Philippines she will have to conduct an interview before they release the Certificate of Legal Capacity but apparently the interview's not necessary in our case (we heard these interviews aren't really nice). Anyway, we're thankful we did it.

My fiancé arrived on the tenth of September, for a very special trip...to tie the knots with me! Yayyy... The following Monday after my fiancé's arrival we went directly to the French embassy to meet Miss CHAN and the certificate of legal capacity to marry was indeed ready. At Last!!

It's the other side of the coin this time...the Philippine process!

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