Utah On-Line Marriage Legal to Bring Spouse from PI?

[David & Diana R 1,005]

15 hours ago, top_secret said:

For the Philippines anyways, It is confirmed that the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco, which has consular jurisdiction over Utah, IS registering Utah Marriages and issuing ROM's which will register with PSA, making it completely legit in the Philippines.   There are confirmed cases of spouses of Filipinos successfully traveling as balikbayan with the Utah marriage certificate.  There are confirmed issuances of 9a visas based on Utah marriage certificates though the unrelated travel waiver problem remains.  AFIK no one has reported trying for a 13a visa with one yet though it would seem it should work.

 

1: Get marriage license.
https://www.utahcounty.gov/Dept/ClerkAud/Marriage.html
$70

 

2: Get married.

Take payxibka up on his generous offer to officiate $0, or pay WEBWED ~$1000 or something(???) , or some guy in Utah $100, or the Utah County Clerk who you are already dealing with anyway.
https://www.utahcounty.gov/Dept/ClerkAud/MarrCeremony.html
$35

 

3: Order Apostilled copy of Marriage Certificate for use with Philippine government.  (Apostille not needed for USCIS)
https://www.utahcounty.gov/dept/clerkaud/CertCopy.html
$45

 

4: File Report of Marriage with the Philippine consulate in San Francisco.  (it is confirmed they ARE registering online marriages)
https://pcgsanfrancisco.org/civil-registry/
$25

 

There is still the issue of consummating the marriage.  Costa Rica is a great place you could accomplish that with current travel restrictions.
 

4.)  A problem???  I was married in the Philippines in 2012.  My Filipina wife divorced me in 2020 in the US. She is now a US citizen.  I had hoped I would NOT have to report the new marriage to the Philippines Government as they will see me as a bigamist.  I have been told that the marriage does not "have" to be reported to the Philippines.  My fear is if we report it to them they will not accept the new marriage.  If I understand correctly the Philippines would need our new marriage certificate and a few other items to get a waiver so I can enter the Philippines to be with my new wife. Would they be checking to see if we registered the marriage with the Philippine Embassy?  I looked into having the first marriage "dissolved" in the Philippines and so far it looks like it is going to take a minimum of one year to do so. (Knowing the Philippines it would be a miracle of the highest proportion if it took less than 3 years.  Then there is the CFO.  Are they going to check to see if we registered our marriage in the Philippine Embassy in San Francisco?  I had hoped I would get a waiver to enter the Philippines once I have the marriage certificate in hand.

Please advise, Mahalo, David O

[top_secret 2,421]

3 minutes ago, David & Diana R said:

4.)  A problem???  I was married in the Philippines in 2012.  My Filipina wife divorced me in 2020 in the US. She is now a US citizen.  I had hoped I would NOT have to report the new marriage to the Philippines Government as they will see me as a bigamist.  I have been told that the marriage does not "have" to be reported to the Philippines.  My fear is if we report it to them they will not accept the new marriage.  If I understand correctly the Philippines would need our new marriage certificate and a few other items to get a waiver so I can enter the Philippines to be with my new wife. Would they be checking to see if we registered the marriage with the Philippine Embassy?  I looked into having the first marriage "dissolved" in the Philippines and so far it looks like it is going to take a minimum of one year to do so. (Knowing the Philippines it would be a miracle of the highest proportion if it took less than 3 years.  Then there is the CFO.  Are they going to check to see if we registered our marriage in the Philippine Embassy in San Francisco?  I had hoped I would get a waiver to enter the Philippines once I have the marriage certificate in hand.

Please advise, Mahalo, David O

 

Well in that case skip step 4.) and hope for the best.   You can get a foreign divorce recognized by the Philippines if one of the divorcees is a foreigner to the Philippines.   But that takes some time and money.  If you cannot report the marriage then you will always run the risk of being hassled about that by Philippine agencies.  We hadn't reported yet the last time my wife left the Philippines for our Peru vacation and Philippine Immigration gave her hell for an hour and a half about that and any other issue they could find but she did eventually get to depart so it wasn't a deal breaker issue.   I have also seen a recent account of someone successfully enter the Philippines traveling with his wife, as Balikbayan using only an Apostilled Utah online Marriage Certificate.  As far as waiver from DFA to enter alone on a visa, those seem to be a long shot under any circumstances.  I haven't heard of many waivers actually issued yet.  If you wife is able to travel out, meet in a third country and return together as balikbayan seems about the only really reliable way to enter the Philippines at the moment.  CFO could be an issue as well.  They wouldn't check themselves but they have been known to ask the applicant for a ROM.   Once she has her visa I'd say try to push it through CFO as urgent due to a imminent flight she would would miss and you don't have the ROM yet because they said it would take 6 months until it was available in PSA.

[Skyman 323]

17 hours ago, top_secret said:

AFIK no one has reported trying for a 13a visa with one yet though it would seem it should work.

I believe 13As are not being processed outside the RP at this time. 

[TerrySF 8]

On 7/12/2021 at 4:00 PM, David & Diana R said:

Thanks,  I just got off the phone with a wedding officiant in Utah that will do the on-line marriage for 100 dollars.  I then deal directly with the Utah County Government, no middlemen or extra fees.  About 70 dollars to Utah.  Nothing to it!  Yes, I have been reading very negative reviews  on WebWed.  They charge like 890 dollars for the same thing.  Do it yourself for only 170 dollars!  Research pays off!

Exactly! We didi the same and all went smoothly.