Bringing Filipina Wife to Malta?

So you have been talking to her but have not met her?

Webcam so far.

Brandon669 wrote:

Ok ive been talking to this girl. She is 3 years younger. I wish to marry her. She lives in Cebu, so I need to travel to Cebu airport. I will need to pay for the flight, around 1600 euro with return. I need to pay for civil wedding ceremony after the wedding, i dont know how much that costs. I also need to pay her flight from Cebu to Malta so she comes back with me.

What things do i need? Birth certificate? Passport obviously.. money.. what do i need and what does SHE need to come here? How long do i need to wait till the marriage certificate is issued?

Also what do i do after i bring her here? Identity Malta? Thanks.

I would talk to Identity Malta first as they may view it as a 'marriage of convenience' and not let your new wife in!
l would also forget marriage till you have met the lady and got to know her especially with all the costs involved.

Ray

Some sound advice here.
I lived in Cebu for over a year and met and went out with a few ladies. The last one moved into my apartment with her two kids. After several months I found out she had a drug addict boyfriend so inadvertently I was feeding his habit. This is very common apparently for Filipino women to go out with us 'foreigners' and have either a secret boyfriend or husband. They tend to be rather amoral I'm afraid so be very careful. My experiences are written in my blog here https://laurie-laz123.blogspot.com/
Good luck.

I had a work friend from Indonesia and she openly admitted that she only married her English husband so she could live in the UK, I think there’s a lot taken in this way.
I also don’t understand how someone can want to marry a person they have not physically met.

Okay Brandon669, I would suggest you go to Cebu to meet her first. You can stay in the Philippines quite cheaply. It may be best to rent via AirBnB.com. Meet her family and get to know her. Your visa will allow you to stay for 3 months, thereafter you can keep renewing. Be aware it is the only country I've been to that you have to pay to leave the country; it was 750 pesos each but I think it's been increased by their corrupt government. The papers required would probably be the marriage certificate, her birth certificate, passport, police clearance and maybe her id card. Then you can apply for her residency in Malta/Gozo. I'm not sure if she'd need a visa. Also be aware it's a developing country so things may go slowly unless bribes are involved. I once lived in Kenya where officials who wanted a bribe had big signs close by stating 'bribing is illegal' . Some countries need evidence of communication between both parties.

Laz2016 wrote:

Okay Brandon669, I would suggest you go to Cebu to meet her first. You can stay in the Philippines quite cheaply. It may be best to rent via AirBnB.com. Meet her family and get to know her. Your visa will allow you to stay for 3 months, thereafter you can keep renewing. Be aware it is the only country I've been to that you have to pay to leave the country; it was 750 pesos each but I think it's been increased by their corrupt government. The papers required would probably be the marriage certificate, her birth certificate, passport, police clearance and maybe her id card. Then you can apply for her residency in Malta/Gozo. I'm not sure if she'd need a visa. Also be aware it's a developing country so things may go slowly unless bribes are involved. I once lived in Kenya where officials who wanted a bribe had big signs close by stating 'bribing is illegal' . Some countries need evidence of communication between both parties.

So i need 1600 euro for 2 way ticket. around 1000 euro for staying and marriage expenses. Then I need to come back here and process the papers for her, then I need to buy a 700euro 1 way ticket to Philippines and buy two 1 way tickets to Malta for both of us (1600 euros) to bring her back with me. 4900 euros I calculated,  make it 5000. I dont need any documents from Malta to marry there? Apart from my birth certificate maybe. I will take my Birth Certificate with me + Id Card + Passport obviously. Is there a way that I could go there and bring her with me at one go? So i dont have to travel two consecutive times to the Philippines?

Where in Identity Malta (department do I need to go?) Citizenship department? Thanks

You are completely deluding yourself if you think you can do all this in "one go" and then come back a few days later with your "wife".

In fact there are laws in place in the Philippines to specifically prevent what you are attempting to do.

1. Is she under 25 years old? If yes, then you will need a notarized affidavit of parental consent or advice.

2. A AFFIRMATION/AFFIDAVIT of MARITAL STATUS - this can only be issued by your country's embassy in Manila - I don't even know if Malta has one there.

3. Certificate of Attendance in a pre-marriage counseling, family planning, and responsible parenthood seminar. (this is a one day session - mostly conducted in Tagalog, so completely pointless for foreigners, but if you don't attend, you won't get the licence).

4. After you have all these document (plus the usual ones, birth certificate, passport etc), then you can apply for your marriage licence - this will take at least 10 working days to be produced.

5. Once you have the licence, you can then book the marriage.

6. You will then need to apply for the marriage certificates, then of course your wife will need a new passport in her married name and in addition she will need a CFO "sticker" in her passport before she is allowed to leave the country with a foreigner.

7. Not to mention you will have to apply for the Schengen Visa (or a marriage/family visa), which will require more paperwork to be processed.

Each of these steps takes time and money - they cannot not be done in a week! I very much doubt it could all be completed in less than two or three months

Let me give you a piece of advice - you don't even know this person - you would not believe the amount scams that occur in the Philippines - go and visit her, see how you get on - if you can take time off work, then stay there for a while, and during this time you can start the ball moving with getting the paperwork started.

But let me tell you this - I lived and worked in the Philippines for 6 years, the bureaucracy is unbelievable, nothing gets done quickly and if you are missing one single document, then everything will stop, and that was in Makati, which is the business centre of Manila - in Cebu things will run much, much more slowly, and there will always be problems and delays.

I knew my wife for four years before we got married; rushing into a marriage with someone you barely know from a very different culture is just asking for trouble.