Short answer. Ten items, in a sworn application each of you files separately: full name, place of birth, age and date of birth, civil status, how any previous marriage ended, present residence and citizenship, your degree of relationship to each other, and your parents' or guardian's names, residences and citizenships.

What the law says

each of the contracting parties shall file separately a sworn application for such license with the proper local civil registrar which shall specify the following: (1) Full name of the contracting party; (2) Place of birth; (3) Age and date of birth; (4) Civil status; (5) If previously married, how, when and where the previous marriage was dissolved or annulled

Family Code, Article 11 — Contents of the Marriage License Application. Read the full provision →

Two separate applications, and both are sworn

Article 11 does not contemplate one joint form. It says each of the contracting parties shall file separately a sworn application. That structure matters more than it looks. Because the application is sworn, the disclosures in it are made under oath by each party in their own name, and a false entry is not a clerical slip that the other party can be blamed for. It also means neither of you is answering for the other's civil status or parentage. If your partner's application says something you would not have said, that is their statement, made under their oath.

Civil status and how a previous marriage ended

Items four and five are where most difficulty arises. The Code asks not only for civil status but, if previously married, how, when and where the previous marriage was dissolved or annulled. Note what the question assumes: that the previous marriage actually ended by death, dissolution or annulment. Long separation, an abandoned spouse nobody has heard from, or an agreement to part ways are none of these. A party in that position who writes 'single' is not tidying up a form; they are swearing to something untrue, and the marriage that follows can be attacked long afterwards on the strength of that entry.

Why the registrar asks how you are related

Item seven, the degree of relationship of the contracting parties, exists because the Family Code bars certain marriages outright. Article 37 makes marriages between ascendants and descendants, and between brothers and sisters whether of full or half blood, incestuous and void. Article 38 adds a list void for reasons of public policy, reaching collateral relatives within the fourth civil degree and certain relationships created by adoption or by a killing. The application is where that is screened, which is why the honest answer is required even when the relationship is remote and the couple see nothing wrong with it.

Parents, guardians, and the residence certificate proviso

Items eight to ten cover the full name, residence and citizenship of the father and of the mother, and of a guardian where a party under twenty-one has neither parent. Citizenship appears three times in the article for a reason: it feeds questions about capacity and about which law governs. The article closes with a small protection worth knowing — applicants, their parents or guardians shall not be required to exhibit their residence certificates in connection with securing the license. Before you sign, read your own form line by line, because you are swearing to every entry on it.

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.

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.