Short answer. Not later than fifteen days after the marriage. The solemnizing officer must hand one of you the original certificate and send the duplicate and triplicate copies to the local civil registrar of the place where the marriage was solemnized, keeping a further copy in his own file.

What the law says

It shall be the duty of the person solemnizing the marriage to furnish either of the contracting parties the original of the marriage certificate referred to in Article 6 and to send the duplicate and triplicate copies of the certificate not later than fifteen days after the marriage, to the local civil registrar of the place where the marriage was solemnized.

Family Code, Article 23 — Solemnizing Officer's Duty After the Marriage. Read the full provision →

Fifteen days, and the duty is the officer's

Article 23 puts the obligation squarely on the person who solemnised the marriage, not on the couple. He must furnish either of the contracting parties the original of the marriage certificate and send the duplicate and triplicate copies not later than fifteen days after the marriage. Two details are easy to miss. The original goes to you on the day, so a couple who leave the venue with nothing in hand should ask why. And the copies go to the registrar of the place where the marriage was solemnized, which may be neither party's home town.

The receipt is your evidence trail

The article adds a step that exists purely so the transmission can be proved: Proper receipts shall be issued by the local civil registrar to the solemnizing officer transmitting copies of the marriage certificate. That receipt is the document that settles later arguments about whether the certificate was ever sent, and by whom. It stays with the officer, together with the quadruplicate copy of the certificate and the original of the marriage license, which the article requires him to retain in his file. If your record cannot be found, those are the papers to ask him for by name.

Late registration and the validity of the marriage

The fifteen-day period governs an officer's duty; it is not a deadline that decides whether you are married. Registration records a marriage that already exists, and the formal requisites in Article 3 make no mention of it. So a certificate transmitted late, or one that a careless officer never sent at all, is a serious administrative failure and a real problem of proof, but it is not the same thing as a defect in the marriage itself. Understanding that distinction usually lowers the temperature of the conversation considerably.

If your marriage does not appear on record

Start where the copies were supposed to go: the local civil registrar of the place where the ceremony was held, not the one where you live. If nothing is on file there, go back to the solemnizing officer and ask for the receipt and the copy he was required to keep, since those establish what happened to the document. Where the officer cannot be reached or the record was never made, this becomes a matter of proving a marriage by other evidence, and it is worth taking your own original certificate and any photographs, invitations and witness details to a lawyer.

Related provisions

Note. Statute text quoted on this page is reproduced from the official enactment and is linked to the full provision. The explanation around it is general legal information from Vivas & Nobles Law Office, not legal advice. Whether it applies to your situation depends on facts only a lawyer reviewing them can assess.