Marriage Licence and Civil Wedding Requirements
Legal and notarial · civil registry
Quick answer
Both parties file separate sworn applications with the local civil registrar. The registrar posts a notice for 10 consecutive days before issuing. The licence is then valid anywhere in the Philippines for 120 days. Parties aged 18 to 21 need parental consent; those 21 to 25 need parental advice.
Every figure on this page is from LawPhil Project's own published documents.
Last verified 1 source, listed below
Executive Order No. 209, the Family Code of the Philippines1. PHGuides is independent and not affiliated with any agency.
Philippine marriage runs on the Family Code, Executive Order No. 209, promulgated on 6 July 1987. Almost every deadline below is in the Code itself, which is why they are the same in every city and municipality even though the fee is not.
What makes a marriage valid
Article 2 sets the essential requisites and Article 3 the formal ones. Article 4 then makes the absence of any of them void the marriage from the beginning.
| Requisite | Type | Article |
|---|---|---|
| Legal capacity of both parties | Essential | 2 |
| Consent freely given before the solemnizing officer | Essential | 2 |
| Authority of the solemnizing officer | Formal | 3 |
| A valid marriage licence, except in the exempt cases | Formal | 3 |
| A ceremony before two witnesses of legal age | Formal | 3 |
Article 6 adds that no prescribed form or religious rite is required. What is required is that the parties appear personally and declare that they take each other as husband and wife.
The licence timeline
- Both parties file separately. Article 11 requires each to file a sworn application with the proper local civil registrar, stating full name, place of birth, age and date of birth, civil status, how any previous marriage ended, present residence and citizenship, degree of relationship to the other party, and the father’s full name, residence and citizenship.
- Present a birth certificate. Article 12 lets the baptismal certificate stand in if the birth certificate is unavailable. Both are exempt from documentary stamp tax and need not be sworn to.
- The registrar posts a notice for 10 consecutive days on a bulletin board outside the office, in a conspicuous place accessible to the public, asking anyone who knows of an impediment to say so.
- The licence issues after that publication period.
- It is valid 120 days, anywhere in the Philippines, with the expiry date stamped in bold on its face.
An impediment raised during posting does not automatically stop the licence. Article 18 says the registrar notes the particulars and his findings but issues the licence anyway after publication, unless a competent court orders otherwise. No filing fee is charged for that petition and no bond is required.
Age, consent and advice
| Age of the party | What the Code requires | Article |
|---|---|---|
| Below 18 years | Cannot marry at all; the marriage is void even with parental consent | 5, 35(1) |
| 18 years to 21 years | Parental consent, manifested in writing before the registrar | 14 |
| 21 years to 25 years | Parental advice must be asked for | 15 |
| Over 25 years | Neither | - |
If a party aged 21 years to 25 years does not obtain the advice, or the advice is unfavourable, the licence is withheld until 3 months after the publication is complete.
Where consent or advice is needed, Article 16 also requires a certificate of marriage counselling from an authorised priest, imam or minister, or an accredited marriage counsellor. Failing to attach it suspends the licence for 3 months from completion of the publication, which is the same penalty the Code attaches to missing advice.
Marrying without a licence
Chapter 2 exempts three situations, and Article 33 adds a fourth.
| Situation | Article |
|---|---|
| Either or both parties at the point of death, and valid even if the ailing party survives | 27 |
| A party’s residence has no means of transportation to appear before the registrar | 28 |
| The couple have lived together as husband and wife for at least 5 years, with no legal impediment | 34 |
Article 34 requires the parties to state those facts in an affidavit, and the solemnizing officer to state under oath that he ascertained their qualifications and found no legal impediment.
Article 33 is the fourth: marriages among Muslims or among members of the ethnic cultural communities are valid without a licence, provided they are solemnized in accordance with their customs, rites or practices.
For the first two cases, Article 29 requires the solemnizing officer to execute an affidavit before the registrar stating that the marriage was performed in articulo mortis, or naming the barrio or barangay whose location left no means of transportation. Article 30 then gives a hard deadline: the original affidavit and a legible copy of the marriage contract must reach the local civil registrar of the municipality where it was performed within 30 days after the marriage.
Who may solemnize
Article 7 lists the officers, and two of them exist only for marriages at the point of death.
| Officer | Limit on the authority |
|---|---|
| Incumbent member of the judiciary | Within the court’s jurisdiction |
| Priest, rabbi, imam or minister | Duly authorized by the church or sect and registered with the civil registrar general, and at least one party must belong to that church or sect |
| Ship captain or airplane pilot | Articulo mortis only, between passengers or crew, at sea or in flight and also during stopovers at ports of call, under Article 31 |
| Military commander of a unit | Must be a commissioned officer; articulo mortis only, within the zone of military operation, for service members or civilians, under Article 32 |
If either party was married before
Article 13 replaces the birth certificate requirement with the death certificate of the deceased spouse, or the judicial decree of absolute divorce, annulment or declaration of nullity. Where the death certificate cannot be secured, the party makes an affidavit setting out the circumstance, their actual civil status, and the name and date of death of the deceased spouse.
Foreign nationals need a certificate of legal capacity to contract marriage from their own diplomatic or consular officials, under Article 21.
After the ceremony
Article 23 makes it the solemnizing officer’s duty to hand one of the parties the original marriage certificate, and to send the duplicate and triplicate copies to the local civil registrar of the place of solemnization not later than 15 days after the marriage. The officer keeps the quadruplicate.
Under Article 24 the registrar prepares the required documents and administers oaths without any charge, and the documents and affidavits filed with a licence application are exempt from documentary stamp tax.
Every period in the Code, in one table
The Family Code writes its numbers as words. They are collected here as figures, with the article each comes from, because these are the deadlines that decide whether a wedding can go ahead on the date a couple has booked.
| Period | What it governs | Article |
|---|---|---|
| 18 years | Minimum age to contract marriage at all | 5 |
| 18 years to 21 years | Band needing parental consent | 14 |
| 21 years to 25 years | Band needing parental advice | 15 |
| 10 days | Posting of the notice of application, consecutive | 17 |
| 3 months | Delay where parental advice is absent or unfavourable, from completion of publication | 15 |
| 3 months | Suspension where the marriage counselling certificate is not attached | 16 |
| 120 days | Validity of the licence, nationwide, from date of issue | 20 |
| 5 years | Cohabitation that removes the licence requirement | 34 |
| 15 days | Deadline to send the duplicate and triplicate certificates to the registrar | 23 |
| 30 days | Deadline to send the Article 29 affidavit and marriage contract | 30 |
Two of those, the 3 months under Article 15 and the 3 months under Article 16, run from the same event and can apply at once. A couple aged 21 years to 25 years who neither sought advice nor attached the counselling certificate is looking at the same 3 months either way, not six.
What this page does not cover
The Code does not fix the peso cost of a marriage licence. Article 19 leaves the amount to “the fees prescribed by law or regulations”, which means the local government sets it, so no figure is stated here. This page also does not cover the PSA copy of the marriage certificate issued after registration, church requirements, which are not law, or the seminar some local governments require alongside the counselling certificate.
Related
The PSA marriage certificate guide covers the copy you request afterwards, the PSA CENOMAR guide covers the certificate of no marriage record that registrars commonly ask for, and the annulment guide covers what happens when a marriage ends, and the getting married life event page collects every document the whole process touches.
Frequently asked questions
- How long is a marriage licence valid?
- Article 20 makes it valid in any part of the Philippines for 120 days from the date of issue, and it is automatically cancelled at the end of that period if unused. The expiry date is stamped in bold characters on the face of every licence.
- How long does it take to get one?
- The registrar must post a notice of the application for 10 consecutive days on a bulletin board outside the office, and Article 17 says the licence is issued after that publication period is complete. That 10-day posting is the floor built into the Code.
- What age can you marry?
- Article 5 allows any male or female aged 18 years or upwards who is not under the impediments in Articles 37 and 38. But a party aged 18 years to 21 years also needs parental consent under Article 14, and a party aged 21 years to 25 years must ask for parental advice under Article 15.
- What if my parents refuse advice?
- For the 21 years to 25 years band, Article 15 says that if the advice is not obtained or is unfavourable, the licence shall not be issued until 3 months after the completion of the publication of the application. It delays the marriage; it does not prevent it.
- How much does a marriage licence cost?
- Article 19 says the registrar collects the fees prescribed by law or regulations, and that no other sum shall be collected as a fee or tax of any kind. It is issued free of charge to indigent parties, established by their own affidavit or oath. The Code does not fix a peso amount, so the figure is set locally.
- When can you marry without a licence?
- Three cases. Article 27, where either party is at the point of death. Article 28, where a party's residence has no means of transportation to reach the registrar. And Article 34, where the couple have lived together as husband and wife for at least 5 years with no legal impediment to marry.
- How many witnesses do we need?
- Not less than two witnesses of legal age. Article 3 requires the ceremony to take place with the parties appearing before the solemnizing officer and personally declaring that they take each other as husband and wife in front of those witnesses.
- Is a marriage abroad valid here?
- Article 26 recognises marriages solemnized abroad in accordance with the law of the place and valid there, except those prohibited under Articles 35(1), (4), (5) and (6), 36, 37 and 38.