help with Certificate of Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage

Hi climo,

Welcome to Expat-blog!

I hope other members will be able to advice you.

Wish you good luck
Christine

Its quite confusing, from legal capacity to tax forms. Who is in the tax form, ex wife?

Are you talking about "legal Capacity" issued by the US embassy?

If so,

Step 1
You can use the NSO issued annulled marriage (affixing court ordered papers), to be certified by the Philippines Foreign Affairs, if you are already in Manila (all papers must be original + copies).

If you are in USA - you send that annulled papers first to Philippine Gov for attestation - go to nearest consulate. Next Step, send the stamps and sealed papers to US Secretary of State, it should be stamp and sealed by them.

The Foreign Affairs Dept usually seal and stamp the documents. It is the only way that you can show that annulled papers to any foreign government, are genuine and authentic.

This process does not only apply to marriage application, all foreign documents such as birth certificate, degree certificate, etc, must be attested by Foreign Affairs before you can present to any foreign government.

You can bring the attested papers to USA Embassy and hopefully that should be enough getting your new legal capacity form.

thanks for the reply!
Yes the ex-wife is on the taxes. I was worried that the embassy would actually check with the states...but I hear now its just an affidavit, your word under oath.

So your saying I should get my annulment documents certified by Foreign Affairs before I go to embassy? I figured I would just tell them I'm married but got annulment to which i show the NSO annulment. Yes, I'm living in manila.

Dear female_expat
Hi, thanks for sharing your kbowledge about what you mention with climo. I am on my way to have my annulment done, (hopefully)

Is it the annulment papers that I am going to have need to have an stamp from Phil DFA?, like attestaion?, Is that proof that your annulment is genuine, not fake? is it the purpose of bringing that to DFA? let say you're planning to get married in the future?(who knows, right?)
I just wanted to know for clarification.

Thanks in advance for your reply.

For any legal documents to be presented to any Embassies:

1) it must be attested by the DFA as Foreign Embassies dont recognize documents that are not attested and therefore, before you present documents to your Embassy, it must be annotated, sealed and stamp.

2) The Ph Gov must swear that documents issued by their agency are authentic. The attestation comes with a security paper and serial number. Every year the color of the paper change and Embassies knows about that.

3) The legal papers that you present should original annulment papers and NSO certified annulment papers plus 3 or 4 copies. If you dont bring copies - DFA will instruct you to go to photo-copier and get copies.

Don't show up in your Embassy and present papers that are not attested as Consuls dont recognize those papers.

climo wrote:

Need some advise everyone!

Long story short. I got married in 2006 to a filipina which went sour. I was granted an annulment from the courts in Feb. 10

I'm looking to get married in the future..If my Legal Capacity form is denied because of the above marriage, can I use my official NSO annulment documents to prove the marriage is void?

CN: Will the NSO annulment document over ride the Legal Capacity form if denied?

I added her to my income tax forms so it still shows we are married according to the government and probably the Legal Capacity form...even though the annulment was granted.

TIA

I think there will be no complications in your case to remarry here in the Philippines provided you present legal documentations.My husband(an American national too) and I got married in the year 2009 here in Manila.Before we can get a marriage contract in Makati City Hall, he was required to provide a Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage.This is not just a form made up( by any foreigner who wish to marry a Pinay) but this is a legal document he had obtained in the U.S. embassy here in Manila.He made an appointment online to the U.S. embassy site first and appeared personally at the U.S. embassy based on the appointment available.He had presented his birth certificate, passport and divorce decrees to the Consular attorney and the sworn statement has been signed by the administering attorney which we presented in Makati city hall to apply for marriage contract(marriage contract release BTW varies from municipalities...you may want to check online about this).

Regarding issue of annulment, in our case it is me who had a marriage that had been annulled.Since in your situation, you are the one who had a previous marriage annulled, the U.S. embassy will also require you to present a marriage certificate(NSO copy) with annotation of the date when your marriage was annulled(this is obtained in National Statistics Office-NSO). But you cannot obtain such document if after the finality of the court decision is not filed in NSO.If you had in your hand the court decision copy plus finality of your annulment you need to have that certified by the court where it had granted the decision of your annulment or where you got your marriage contact(municipality).Afterwhich, you file that to NSO.I don't know if your embassy acknowledge NSO copy oy your marriage contract with  annotation of your annulment on it. But if you want that the document will not be denied, formalized it by these steps:

1.Having your court decision copy plus finality of court decision certification be made "certified true copy" in the court that granted your annulment/ where you got your marriage contract

2.File to NSO about  your annulment by bringing the above document in item 1 plus NSO copy of your marriage certificate(before the annulment)

3.Wait for several weeks/months(don't have a clue how long for the docs to be released these days) for the release of your certificate of marriage(NSO copy) with annotation already of your annulment in it.

4.Obtain a copy in item 3 from the National Statistics Office

5. Bring a copy of documents in item 1 and 4, and go to the Supreme Court(Manila).Request for a specimen signature of the attorney/lawyer who granted the annulment decision(they will issue you a certificate)

6. Bring all items/documents in item 1, 4 and 5 to Department of Foreign affairs Manila to have the annulment case  and annotated marriage certificate be authenticated(Nice certification with "RED RIBBON ON IT").These documents when presented to embassies/government offices are acceptable rather than the certified finality of court decision of your annulment.If you live outside Metro Manila, you might want to inquire if the above procedure/services in your locality are available, otherwise, courier services like LBC, DHL and JRS EXPRESS provide such as a third party to process documents for you if the procedure is too tedious for you to do.

7. Last is make sure your future partner have other documents needed too before your special event(wedding).Like CENOMAR (certificate of no marriage if single/ court decrees if divorced or annnulment decrees if previously married).

8. Then you are set to obtain for your marriage contract...for the big event!

Goodluck!

P.S. NSO legal document will not override the legal capacity to contract marriage.Release of this to your embassy is same day, so if you can provide all legal documentations it is easy to obtain.

You will need to present both the NSO copy of your marriage certificate with annotation of your annulment on it plus legal capacity to contract marriage when obtaining marriage contract to local municipality.