Short answer. Thirty days after the performance of the marriage. The officer sends the original of his affidavit, together with a legible copy of the marriage contract, to the local civil registrar of the municipality where the marriage was performed — not to the registrar of anybody's home town.
What the law says
The original of the affidavit required in the last preceding article, together with the legible copy of the marriage contract, shall be sent by the person solemnizing the marriage to the local civil registrar of the municipality where it was performed within the period of thirty days after the performance of the marriage.
Family Code, Article 30 — Transmittal of the Affidavit and Marriage Contract. Read the full provision →
Thirty days, the original affidavit, and a legible copy
Article 30 is precise about all three elements. The period is thirty days after the performance of the marriage. What travels is the original of the affidavit — the officer keeps no better version of it — together with a legible copy of the marriage contract. And the destination is the registrar of the municipality where it was performed. That last point catches people out, because a deathbed marriage is often celebrated wherever the dying party happens to be: a hospital in another province, a relative's house, a place neither party has any other connection with.
Why this is longer than the ordinary rule
For a marriage celebrated in the ordinary way, Article 23 gives the solemnizing officer fifteen days to send the certificate copies to the registrar. Here the period is doubled. The reason is practical: the marriages covered are the ones performed where the paperwork is hardest to complete — at a bedside, in an isolated barangay, in the middle of an emergency — and the officer must also draft and swear the affidavit that Article 29 requires before he has anything to transmit. The longer period is an allowance for those conditions, not a lower standard of record-keeping.
A late filing is a breach of duty, not an annulment
It is worth being clear about what the deadline does. Registration records a marriage; it is not one of the requisites that make a marriage valid. So an officer who transmits the affidavit on the fortieth day, or who never transmits it, has failed in a duty the Code imposes on him and can be answerable for that failure — but the couple do not become unmarried because of it. What they lose is proof, and in a marriage celebrated without a license the proof is the only thing standing between the surviving spouse and a long argument.
What to do if the record is missing
Ask at the local civil registrar of the place where the ceremony actually happened, and ask specifically for the affidavit as well as the marriage record, since the two are filed together and one may have arrived without the other. If nothing is there, approach the solemnizing officer, or the institution he served, for whatever remains in his files. Where a deathbed marriage is being questioned in the settlement of an estate, gather the affidavit, the marriage contract and the death certificate before anyone takes a position on what the marriage was worth.
Related provisions
- Family Code, Article 30 — Transmittal of the Affidavit and Marriage Contract
- Family Code, Article 29 — Officer's Affidavit for Marriages Under Articles 27 and 28
- Family Code, Article 23 — Solemnizing Officer's Duty After the Marriage