Short answer. A certificate of legal capacity to contract marriage, issued by the diplomatic or consular officials of their own country. It must be submitted before the license can be obtained. A stateless person or a refugee files instead an affidavit stating the circumstances that show their capacity to marry.
What the law says
When either or both of the contracting parties are citizens of a foreign country, it shall be necessary for them before a marriage license can be obtained, to submit a certificate of legal capacity to contract marriage, issued by their respective diplomatic or consular officials.
Family Code, Article 21 — Foreign Nationals: Certificate of Legal Capacity. Read the full provision →
The certificate comes from their country, not ours
Article 21 is short and its logic is worth grasping before you queue anywhere. A foreign national's capacity to marry is a question for their own law, and a Philippine civil registrar is in no position to answer it. So the Code requires a certificate of legal capacity to contract marriage, issued by their respective diplomatic or consular officials — the embassy or consulate speaking for that country's law about that person. The registrar is not being asked to judge whether your fiance is free to marry; he is being handed the answer by the only authority competent to give it.
It is a precondition, not a document you can supply later
The article says the certificate must be submitted before a marriage license can be obtained. That sequencing is the point most couples get wrong when they book a date first and start on paperwork afterwards. In practice the certificate is also the step you control least: it is issued on the foreign government's own timetable, in its own form, and sometimes only after that government has run checks of its own. Where your fiance has been married before, expect the enquiry behind the certificate to focus on how that marriage ended, because that is exactly what their national law will look at.
Where the embassy no longer issues one
Some countries have stopped issuing a document under that name and offer their citizens a sworn affidavit of eligibility to marry instead. Whether a particular registrar treats that as satisfying Article 21 is not something the statute settles, and it is not safe to assume from a forum post that it will be accepted. Ask the local civil registrar you intend to file with, before your fiance travels, what they require and in what form. Bringing a document the office will not take is the most common way a wedding date is lost, and it is entirely avoidable.
Stateless persons and refugees
The article provides for the case where there is no government to certify anything. Stateless persons or refugees from other countries shall, in lieu of the certificate of legal capacity herein required, submit an affidavit stating the circumstances showing such capacity to contract marriage. Note the substance required: not a bare declaration that they are free to marry, but a statement of the circumstances that show it — age, civil status, how any earlier marriage ended, and why no consular certificate can be had. That affidavit is worth drafting with help, since it is doing the work an entire foreign ministry would otherwise do.
Cases citing this provision
These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.
- Grace J. Garcia, a.k.a. Grace J. Garcia-Recio, vs. Rederick A. Recio, G.R. No. 138322, October 2, 2001 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Honorio L. Carlos vs. Manuel T. Abelardo, G.R. No. 146504, April 9, 2002 — read the decision on LawPhil →
Related provisions
- Family Code, Article 21 — Foreign Nationals: Certificate of Legal Capacity
- Family Code, Article 35 — Void Marriages