K3 -Marry in 2 days (Philippines)-what to do with the Marriage Certificate

[GarynMarie 0]

Another question everyone-I know I could probably get the answer with some research but our time here in the philippines is limited at the internet cafe. I am hoping I can get help instead here in the forum. My Question- When we get the marriage certificate what should we do with it. Does Marie keep it with her in the Philippines or do I take it with me back to the U.S., also-whats this I read about a NSO certified copy? Does Marie get a certified copy here in the Philippines from the NSO or do I get a certified copy in the U.S.? Do we send a copy of our marriage certificate to the NSO or do we send the original (which I am not comfortable doing) and one more question(Sorry) Do I need a certified copy to send with the petition which I will start when I arrive back in the states or just a copy of the original certificate. It seems like I remember reading that all i need is a copy of the Marriage certificate when sending in the I-130 and etc... Can I sneek in 1 more question please (sorry but my mind is racing right now- I marry Marie in 2 days-Im a wreck Anyway-In what part of the whole K3 process do we need the NSO certified copy of the marriage certificate .Thats all-Thanks Gary PS: YODRAK or Aussiewench-if you read this could you please read my last post and confirm for me-your answers are like Gold to me-I posted about 6 months ago under a different name with a number of questions about filing and you 2 were a big help-Thanks

[Rob and Melinda 0]

My wife Melinda and I were married in the Philippines on May 2nd, 2006.

She took the original copy of the marriage license to NSO and got a certified copy that will be needed for the interview in a couple of months.

I took a copy of the marriage license back to the US with me and sent it to the attorney.

Also I suggest at the same time she is at NSO that she get certified copies of her birth certificate, and get a new passport in her married name. The name on your petition for the I-129F and I-130 must match the name on the passport, so change her name on the passport now.

Also get her police clearances done now.

This way everything is ready for the time that you will need them. This is what my wife did on her own, even without me asking her, pretty smart!

Anyway, hope to see you sometime in the PI, best wishes on your new marriage, I sure miss Mel alot. Going to see her for my 3rd visit on the 29th of August.

Rob and Melinda

[soulm8z0928 0]

Marie shld get atleast 3 copies for the marriage certificate and 3 copies of her birth certificate.What she (Marie) has to do is that wait for 3 weeks after you wedding. she has to go to nso to file for a copy of your marriage certificate & birth certificate. get 3 copies of it (P60/each for the marriage certificate). then, there will be a date on when it will be release.

when she have the marriage certificate, she has to go to authentication office in malacañang (ofc of the president) to have it authenticated. if she's lucky enuf, she can get it authenticated same day, if not she has to go back the next day to get it. Lastly, she has to go to Dept of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to have a seal and red ribbon on it. this might take 3 days processing.

One for her and one for you and one for the embassy. marie will need it when she gets the passport if she wants to use ur lastname already (like what i did) and the other one, the embassy here in manila might ask a copy of it, so just to make sure atleast she guys have copy of it already. the one for you, she can send that to you once its authenticated and have red ribbon on it. just incase uscis needs it as a proof that u guys got married here.

p.s. you can get as many copies as you want. hope this info help . let us know if she needs more information and il be happy to assist her.

p.s. 2

its me sherwin who post that note . coz my husband (bernard) not familliar with it. might think when i said that il be happy to help her.

im here in the philippines as well. good luck!

[jazzy 0]

Garynmarie,

Hi,

OK....first as far as filing the petition, all you need is a copy of the original marraige certificate. Later in the process if you are going with the cr-1 you will need to file a certified copy of marraige certificate with the ds-230 and at that time also provide an original nso cert. of marraige (they will return originals at the interview).

Your wife needs to get certified copies at the civil registry of your marraige cert. Bring the cert. marraige cert. to nso office and they will process it....its taking a while right now to process.....once you get the nso copies back (and get at least 3 as already suggested above) you can get her name change stamped into the passport. We were told if you have a current passport they wont give a new passport...they make an offical stamp indicating the name change in the current passport. If she doesnt have one now...then she will get a passport showing the married name....but you must have the nso copy for the passport stuff. For everything else you can use the civil registry copy.

Don't know what soulm is talking about with the red ribbon and such...none of that is needed...the civil registry certifies it and then the nso....thats it and all that is needed as proof of marraige.

You do NOT need the nso copy for filing either the I-130 or the I-129f...just copy of the original marraige cert. from civil registry.

Jazzy

[soulm8z0928 0]

Garynmarie....

u can send the copy of marriage cert u got from the local civil registrar with the petition. as far as the passport and other info my wife posted to you, it is all correct. jazzy, my wife just did this whole process, will pick up her new passport on tuesday from dfa. you don't get a stamp in current passport to show new name, u get a new passport. she will have to go to the authentication ofc to have the marrriage contract authenticated,after getting it from the nso ofc. here is an excerpt from the dfa website...

http://www.dfa.gov.ph/consular/passport.ht...ing%20Documents

"ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

A. For married women who chose to adopt surname of husband

Marriage Contract (MC) in Security Paper issued by the National Statistics Office (NSO) or CTC issued by the Local Civil Registrar duly authenticated by NSO."

note the "duly authenticated", u do that at the auth ofc.

also, ur wife will need to attend a cfo seminar, which she can schedule anytime she wants.

[jazzy 0]

Garynmarie....

u can send the copy of marriage cert u got from the local civil registrar with the petition. as far as the passport and other info my wife posted to you, it is all correct. jazzy, my wife just did this whole process, will pick up her new passport on tuesday from dfa. you don't get a stamp in current passport to show new name, u get a new passport. she will have to go to the authentication ofc to have the marrriage contract authenticated,after getting it from the nso ofc.

A. For married women who chose to adopt surname of husband

Marriage Contract (MC) in Security Paper issued by the National Statistics Office (NSO) or CTC issued by the Local Civil Registrar duly authenticated by NSO."

note the "duly authenticated", u do that at the auth ofc.

also, ur wife will need to attend a cfo seminar, which she can schedule anytime she wants.

Gary,

Note it says Marraige contract on security paperissued by the NSO "OR"........

Once you have the certificate from NSO on security paper thats all you need.....that IS your authenticated certificate....and my wife and I just did this process as well and you DO get a stamp in the current passport.....they would not allow for a new passport......be careful how she got that passport....did she use a "fixer"?

Jazzy

[soulm8z0928 0]

ok, i did misunderstand my wife on 1 thing, correct, no need to go to the auth ofc, but my wife has heard that sometimes the embassy will ask 4 auth copies, so she got them authenticated now just 2 b sure there would be no delay later. as far as the passport however, my wife did not use a fixer, she did it herself, she has her old passport which was punched by dfa, making it invalid, and will recieve her new passport with her married name on tuesday. now, i guess it might be possible to have a passport amended with and official stamp, don't know for sure, i guess if jazzy wife had hers amended then it's possible, but, personally, i wouldn't want the old passport with a stamp in it, just 1 more thing 4 immigration officer to question at poe. i much prefer to have all names on all documents matching.

[jazzy 0]

ok, i did misunderstand my wife on 1 thing, correct, no need to go to the auth ofc, but my wife has heard that sometimes the embassy will ask 4 auth copies, so she got them authenticated now just 2 b sure there would be no delay later. as far as the passport however, my wife did not use a fixer, she did it herself, she has her old passport which was punched by dfa, making it invalid, and will recieve her new passport with her married name on tuesday. now, i guess it might be possible to have a passport amended with and official stamp, don't know for sure, i guess if jazzy wife had hers amended then it's possible, but, personally, i wouldn't want the old passport with a stamp in it, just 1 more thing 4 immigration officer to question at poe. i much prefer to have all names on all documents matching.

Hi,

I don't know quite how your wife was able to get a new passport....thats very unusual....the rules you showed the link to are for new and renewal passports, it says nothing in that link that refers to a name change on a current passport....the usual way for current passports is the stamp in the passport indicating the name change......by the way what copies did your wife get authenticated?...the civil registry copies?....there is no need to authenticate the nso copies if they are on security paper....that IS the authentication.......as far as the poe....as long as you have a copy of your marraige certificate with you there is nothing to question.

Jazzy

[JRluvsLhyn 0]

Am I missing something? or is their new rules about changing/renewing your passport to your married name? ok, I have passport which is still valid but soon as I got our marriage cert. from NSO, I went to DFA to change my passport and yes they did issue me a new passport on my married name and they cut the front page of my old passport to make it invalid. so I think it is not unusual to get new passport on your married name.

To the OP,

1.Once you get your marriage certificate you can take one copy with you as you will need a photocopy to file your I-130. Yes photocopy is all they need.

2. NSO certified copy of your marriage cert. is your original copy that is acceptable in any agency anywhere in the world. You will need this during the interview.

3. If you get married in manila, the judge or whoever perform the marriage is the one who will forward your marriage license to the NSO and you will have to wait for about 2 to 3 weeks before you can get certified copy from them. The original copies given to you are for your personal copies not for NSO. Good luck!

Edited August 14, 2006 by JRluvsLhyn

[jazzy 0]

Am I missing something? or is their new rules about changing/renewing your passport to your married name? ok, I have passport which is still valid but soon as I got our marriage cert. from NSO, I went to DFA to change my passport and yes they did issue me a new passport on my married name and they cut the front page of my old passport to make it invalid. so I think it is not unusual to get new passport on your married name.

Hi,

My wife went to Cebu DFA office to get this done and they will not issue a new passport unless its lost or being renewed. To change a name on a current passport they will only put an official stamp in the passport indicating the name change.

Perhaps the office in manila does things different, but the Cebu office wont do it. My wife's friend just had the same experience a few weeks ago.

Jazzy

[JRluvsLhyn 0]

Hi,

My wife went to Cebu DFA office to get this done and they will not issue a new passport unless its lost or being renewed. To change a name on a current passport they will only put an official stamp in the passport indicating the name change.

Perhaps the office in manila does things different, but the Cebu office wont do it. My wife's friend just had the same experience a few weeks ago.

Jazzy

Hi,

Ok! I missed that part

[soulm8z0928 0]

Am I missing something? or is their new rules about changing/renewing your passport to your married name? ok, I have passport which is still valid but soon as I got our marriage cert. from NSO, I went to DFA to change my passport and yes they did issue me a new passport on my married name and they cut the front page of my old passport to make it invalid. so I think it is not unusual to get new passport on your married name.

Hi,

My wife went to Cebu DFA office to get this done and they will not issue a new passport unless its lost or being renewed. To change a name on a current passport they will only put an official stamp in the passport indicating the name change.

Perhaps the office in manila does things different, but the Cebu office wont do it. My wife's friend just had the same experience a few weeks ago.

Jazzy

well it is certainly possible that cebu might do it differently, although i don't know why they wouldn't issue a new passport if you asked for one. i would think that as long as you'll pay the fee and provide the necessary info/docs you could renew a passport anytime, i don't think there is any requirement that the old 1 has to be expired already or close to expiring. i could be wrong on that. i believe u jazzy, i just don't understand why cebu dfa won't give new passport. but in manila they do issue new passport. anyway, garynmarie, good luck, congrats on ur wedding, hope ur vj is smooth and quick.

[jazzy 0]

Hi...me again,

You know it amazes me how the Philippines handles things in different parts of the country...even the cfo seminar is different in cebu than in manila. The Cebu office will not renew a passport until it is time to renew (close to expire date) and will only issue the official stamp in passport....believe me we tried...i wanted my wife to have the passport with her new last name...but they just wont do it. Now her passport was only 1 year old and not even close to expiring, but her friends passport was only 10 months till expire date and still they wouldn't give a new one.

Thats why i asked about fixers....coz thats about the only way to get it done in cebu...and we weren't about to go that route...thats just asking for trouble.

Jazzy....

[griffin 7]

GREETINGS!

I AM FROM CEBU CITY AND AT FIRST I DID AMMEND MY PASSPORT BUT WHILE READING SOME POST OF HOW MUCH HASSLE I WILL HAVE IF I WILL OPT TO HAVE A NEW PASSPORT IN THE STATES NOT TO MENTION THE HIGH FEE, I WENT BACK TO DFA CEBU CITY, FOLLOWED THE RULES....PAID 500 PESOS, SHOWED CFO CERTIFICATE THEN GOT MY NEW PASSPORT AFTER 4DAYS.

P.S. ONE HAS THE OPTION TO HAVE A NEW PASSPORT ESP, WHEN YOU HAVE NEW NAME.

P.S. MY OLD ONE WAS STILL VALID TILL 2007, AND YES I NEVER ASKED ANY FIXER TO DO IT.....

[jazzy 0]

I AM FROM CEBU CITY AND AT FIRST I DID AMMEND MY PASSPORT BUT WHILE READING SOME POST OF HOW MUCH HASSLE I WILL HAVE IF I WILL OPT TO HAVE A NEW PASSPORT IN THE STATES NOT TO MENTION THE HIGH FEE, I WENT BACK TO DFA CEBU CITY, FOLLOWED THE RULES....PAID 500 PESOS, SHOWED CFO CERTIFICATE THEN GOT MY NEW PASSPORT AFTER 4DAYS.

P.S. ONE HAS THE OPTION TO HAVE A NEW PASSPORT ESP, WHEN YOU HAVE NEW NAME.

P.S. MY OLD ONE WAS STILL VALID TILL 2007, AND YES I NEVER ASKED ANY FIXER TO DO IT.....

Griffin,

I don't know how long ago you got this done, but as of april of 2006 when we attempted to get new passport they are not giving you that option...we tried and so did my wife's friend...they just won't do it...we had cfo cert., and all other req. documents.

Jazzy