Thursday, July 28, 2011

Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage Paper part2

Your German Partner finally receive your Philippine Documents for his Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage  Paper (yey!). If its already translated to German, then he can already visit his Standesamt with all your documents along with his Passport & his Birth Certificate.

The processing for this paper varies from each Standesamt, so do not panic incase you have a different experience. They are really case-to-case basis. Here are the 2 common experiences that I was able to gather:

1. There are some whose Standesamt requests for document checking first (of the Philippine partner) and ask them to pay around 12,000php equivalent. It took them 2-3 months to get their papers. The good thing about this is that they are no longer subjected to document checking when they process their visa.

2. There are some whose Standesamt did not ask for document checking anymore but they will be ask to pay an equivalent of 5,000php for processing the documents. Your partner can get this paper less than a month. Those who are done with their visa process mentioned that this document checking was ask from them after the interview at German Embassy Manila. It is safe to assume that most of the applicants will be ask of this.

On our experience, we were not ask to do the document checking yet. My partner must be extremely lucky and he got his paper on the same day when he filed. Cool huh?

After getting his 'Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage' paper, you still have one more step to go: Give it to the German Embassy in the Philippines and have them issue a "Consular Certificate". In this document, they will certify that your partner is free to marry you: they will put both of your names there. They will also put the validity period of the said Certificate. The Good Consul will have the certificate stamp and sign for. Your partner's paper will become its attachment. Then there you have it: you are done!

To have this step done, you have the following choices:

1. Have your German partner hand carry it and personally drop by the German Embassy either in Manila or Cebu.
-- Allot 2-3 extra days for the pick up just incase.

2. Have your German partner send it to-and-fro the Embassy via courier.
-- He can do this while he is still in Germany. Or if he chooses, he can bring it with him in the Philippines and send it via courier (maybe you are living outside Manila or Cebu). Again, allot extra weeks for this.

3. Have your German partner send it to you and you will be the one to visit the German Embassy.
-- It will be best that your partner includes an authorization letter allowing you to process it for him and that the purpose of the document is for your marriage.
-- bring your passport with you for identification purposes.

On our case, we did the third option at German Embassy Cebu. I also have his Birth Certificate translated. Like other documents, the rates are in Euro but you need to pay them in pesos based on the current market rate. Both the Birth Certificate translation and the issuance of the Consular Certificate of the Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage costs 2,000php. The certificate was ready to pick up after a day.

Hope it helps! Good luck!