Marriage in the Philippines

[NoOtherWoman 0]

i wasnt to be here i dnt knw why i got into this topic. my apology again.

[Natanloupan 11]

The second paragraph of Article 26 of the Family Code is the primary law on the issue of divorce and Filipino citizens: “Where a marriage between a Filipino citizen and a foreigner is validly celebrated and a divorce is thereafter validly obtained abroad by the alien spouse capacitating him or her to remarry, the Filipino spouse shall have capacity to remarry under Philippine law.”

But if it is the alien spouse who initiates or files the divorce action, Article 26 of the Family Code will apply. The divorce will be recognized here in the Philippines; if the divorce allows the former alien spouse to remarry, the Filipino will also have the right to remarry under Philippine law.

A Filipino who validly obtains a divorce decree abroad and wants to remarry must first file with the Family Court a petition for recognition of a foreign divorce decree.

The recognition of foreign divorce decree applies to who ? All who have a foreign decree or just Filipinos who filed for it ? The fact that we were married without that being done is our marriage null and void ? She was married with a status of single from the cenomar .

i wasnt to be here i dnt knw why i got into this topic. my apology again.

No big deal it happens .. good luck on your journey

[Natanloupan 11]

My wife went to a lawyer and said in Article 26 since her ex husband filed the divorce she was free to remarry . If we want to get the marriage certificate adjusted we would have to petition the supreme court to recognize the foreign divorce decree . This would cost about 20,000 to 50,000 peso and depend on how busy the courts are . Quickest would be 3 months , but could take up to a year . . My wife will get an affidavit done tomorrow and I will send that in along with the letter of explanation . Praying That will be sufficient to satisfy USCIS and get an approved petition . If we have to get that changed it will be a nightmare and costly adventure for us .

[Natanloupan 11]

January 22 , 2014


U.S. Department of Homeland Security
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
P.O. Box 82521
Lincoln , NE 68501-2521


RE: Request For Evidence
I-130 , Petition for Alien Relative

Subject: Marriage Certificate Discrepancy

Per the request of USCIS I would like to address the discrepancy with our marriage certificate found during the review of the I-130 submitted on behalf of XXX XXXX . Thank you for the opportunity that you have given us to explain these discrepancies found on our petition .

I hope you can tell by the explanations that we have a high regard for the work done at USCIS and have made significant efforts to address the circumstances that led the request for evidence and prevent this from occurring again in the future .

When a Filipino citizen reports a marriage to a foreign spouse to the consulate at the National Statistics Office status will be updated to " Married " . When a divorce is reported then the status will be then updated at NSO to " Unmarried Person " . My wife's status at the time we were married was " Single " on her Cenomar at the National Statistics Office . The Philippines had no records of the foreign marriage or divorce .

XXX XXXX filed and was granted a final decree of divorce in XXXX XXXX thus allowing him to freely remarry again . In the Philippines under Article 26 of the Family Code is the primary law on the issue of divorce and Filipino citizens : Where a marriage between a Filipino citizen and foreigner is validly celebrated and a divorce is thereafter validly obtained abroad by the alien spouse capacitating him or her to remarry , the Filipino spouse shall have the capacity to remarry under Philippine law . If it's the Filipino spouse who initiates or files the divorce action against the alien spouse , the subsequent divorce will not be recognized in the Philippines . But if it is the alien spouse who initiates or files the divorce action , Article 26 of the Family Code will apply . The divorce will be recognized in the Philippines ; if the divorce allows the former spouse to remarry , the Filipino will also have the right to remarry under Philippine law .

When we went to the local registrar my wife and I presented all our documents including her final divorce decree . Following the law of Article 26 of the Family Code my wife was allowed to remarry . It is a requirement to present a Cenomar from the National Statistics Office . My wife's status on the Cenomar was " Single " and then required to put on line 7 of the civil status " Single " on the marriage certificate . I presented my foreign divorce decree and it was then required to put on line 7 of the civil status " Divorced " . With all our documents presented we filed our marriage certificate . We were married legally under the laws of the Philippines on 10/25/2013 . We were provided with a legal and stamped marriage certificate shortly after our marriage .

After research and advice this is the letter I came up with . What do you think ?

[SoCalMark 49]

Nice job, sir

[Natanloupan 11]

Nice job, sir

Thank you , sir

I found this during some research

Art. 11. Where a marriage license is required, each of the contracting parties shall file separately a sworn application for such license with the proper local civil registrar which shall specify the following:

(5) If previously married, how, when and where the previous marriage was dissolved or annulled;

Now not sure if this is only for a Filipino marriage and not a foreign marriage over seas . Clearly she has a divorce and not dissolved or annulled . I would think this would be a An irregularity which would not make the certificate void . However she could be liable for it . We did tell them about the foreign divorce and a simple N/A was put into the section on the application for marriage license .

n/a or N/A is a common abbreviation in tables and lists for not applicable, not available or no answer. It is used to indicate when information in a certain table cell is not provided, either because it does not apply to a particular case in question or because the answer is not available.

One can argue about which it is not provided or does not apply . It is better then the word " None " which would mean none exists . This gives us a little bit of proof that we did provide the decree . Perhaps the " No Divorce in the Philippines " and the need to get the document recognized in order to be able to provide the details of it on the application .

What came first the chicken or the egg ? LOL Article 26 or the need to recognize the decree before you can remarry ?

I am not an expert and I am learning from the internet , but I think I am right it is just an irregularity that the divorce is not listed . She is clearly divorced and able to remarry under Art. 26 . The single status would still be a valid marriage certificate .

Now will USCIS require the corrected certificate ? So far they have not and I do not think they will . Hopefully this will not be a future problem in the future . Praying for a smooth journey from here on out .