What does a foreigner need to get married in the Philippines?

Philippine law (Family Code, Article 21) requires a foreigner to present a certificate of legal capacity to contract marriage from their own embassy. The US government does not issue one, because it keeps no marriage records. Instead, the US Embassy notarizes your own sworn statement that you are free to marry. Philippine registrars accept it in place of the certificate.

• Book an appointment online with the US Embassy in Manila or the Consular Agency in Cebu. Walk ins are not accepted, and a Manila booking cannot be used in Cebu.
• Bring the affidavit filled in but not signed. You sign it in front of the consular officer. The embassy offers a template, but you do not have to use it.
• Bring your passport. If you were married before, bring the divorce decree or your former spouse's death certificate.
• The fee is US$50 per notary seal. Manila takes cash or card. Cebu takes payment in advance through Pay.gov.

Citizens of other countries go through their own embassy, which may issue an actual certificate. Check its consular page.

Apply at the Local Civil Registrar (LCR) at the city or municipal hall where either of you lives. Each city publishes its own checklist, so get theirs before you go. A typical list looks like this:

Every applicant must attend pre-marriage counseling with the local family planning office before a license is issued. Book it early. It is often the step that sets your date.

Fees are set by each city and are usually modest. As one example, Naga City lists PHP 500 for the application and PHP 200 for the license.

Once you file, the registrar posts a notice of your application for 10 consecutive days, so anyone with a legal objection can raise it. The license is issued after that. It is valid for 120 days, anywhere in the Philippines, and expires on its own if you do not use it.

If the Filipino partner is 18 to 21, written consent from a parent is required. From 21 to 25, the applicant must ask a parent for advice, and if it is refused or not given, the license is held for 3 months.

The officiant sends the marriage certificate to the local civil registrar within 15 days. Later, it is recorded with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), and you can order the PSA copy on security paper. That PSA copy is the document you will use for almost everything that follows, such as a 13A spouse visa in the Philippines or a US spouse visa. It often takes a few months to become available.

You do not need to register the marriage with the US Embassy. A marriage that is valid in the Philippines is generally recognized in the United States.

The Philippines has no general divorce law. Bills have been filed in Congress for years, but none had become law as of November 2026. The exception is Muslim Filipinos, who can divorce under the Code of Muslim Personal Laws. For everyone else, ending a marriage inside the Philippines means annulment or a declaration of nullity, which is slow and expensive.

Mixed marriages have one important difference. Under Family Code Article 26, if a valid divorce is obtained abroad, the Filipino spouse can remarry too. The Supreme Court ruled in Republic v. Manalo (G.R. No. 221029, 2018) that this applies even when the Filipino spouse is the one who filed the divorce abroad. The divorce still has to be recognized by a Philippine court before the Filipino spouse's records change.

• Showing up at the embassy without an appointment, or with the affidavit already signed.
• Leaving the counseling session to the last week.
• Planning a wedding date less than 3 weeks after the license application.
• Bringing a divorce decree that is not certified, or not bringing one at all.
• Assuming the Philippines has divorce, or that an annulment is quick.