Wedding Preps Updates: Documents

8 months and 3 weeks and 6 days to go before our wedding, and here are the additional accomplishments. I mentioned in one of my post about our Church wedding requirements, and I’m so glad that we already got new copies of all H’s documents.

"Confirmation Certificate"

The first document that we were able to get is his Confirmation certificate. It was a breeze getting a fresh copy of this one. No hassles at all even if in the record book his father’s name was wrong. We just requested the Parish Priest to copy the names written in H’s old baptismal certificate. And the priest did so without questioning us further or making a big deal out of it. If it is in Manila, for sure they will require us to get an affidavit or maybe question us rigorously. And he also wrote the note “For Marriage Purpose” when I asked him to please write it there in the bottom. Yes, I told the priest to “write” it down since the certificate was handwritten. Think about old school.

"Birth Certificate"

The second document was his birth certificate. Finally, someone is registered! Prior to that, H doesn’t know what’s a birth certificate is and he is not also aware about its existence. When he told me that he doesn’t have one, I started googling about it, as to where to get it or what’s the equivalent document, and got the information at the UNICEF blogsite. Only after my research when H was convinced that there is a Birth Registration and he can get a certificate for that. Birth registration exists here but it is not being followed and the Birth Certificate is not given any importance. It was the 2004 Births and Deaths Registration Act that made birth registration compulsory for all persons born in Bangladesh. So, finally, on my birthday he went to the city corporation to register himself.

"Baptismal Certificate"

Third, his baptismal certificate. We had to schedule a trip to Chittagong for this one since he was born and baptized in Chittagong. I went with his mom to Chittagong via train and this trip deserves a separate blog entry. We arrived in Chittagong around 3pm and we couldn’t do any work that day anymore, so we went to the parish office first thing in the following morning.  If the priests in Dhaka were helpful and friendly, this time, the clerk there was annoying. Or let’s say, I find his attitude not fitting for someone working in a religious institution. Anyway, I’m still thankful that we were able to get it after 2 hours, even if he didn’t want to type the “For Marriage Purpose” note since according to him, there’s no space for that and they don’t really do that. This time, the certificate is type-written.

"Certificate of Singleness"

Fourth, his Certificate of Singleness. This one is quite a hassle because first there was a mistake in the date, the date should be before the civil wedding date. And, it's annoying when someone will have to tell me that it is okay when it is not what I require. Then again they don’t know what title to write in the subject. It seems that the advocate was not familiar with the certificate but well, we just have to trust him as he is known to H’s cousin-in-law. They end up writing "Certificate of Singleness" as per my instruction.

"Declaration of Marriage"

And we also got our “Declaration of Marriage” certificate on the same day that we got his Certificate of Singleness. Yes, we got married civilly here in order to omit some requirements in the Philippines and that is the “clearance to marry” from his embassy in the Philippines and the Marriage License from the city hall. We will not have enough time to apply & get for that clearance & license (both require physical appearances) since he will be in manila 5 days before our wedding only. So, we decided to get married civilly so that he doesn’t have to go to the embassy and apply for the clearance and we can submit our Marriage Certificate instead of the Marriage License. Yes, I’m his legal wife here already but not yet in the Philippines since it’s not registered there yet. Well, that’s just my own joke to him. I'm eligible to apply for "Non-Resident Visa" or "NVR" already, but we decided to just get it after our church wedding since one requirement for that is to stay here for a year which is not possible right now.

"Registration of Marriage"

We already applied for our Registration of Marriage in the Philippine Embassy, and we will have to wait for another two months before I can request a copy from NSO. Even if we are legally married now, we are not staying together as husband and wife yet because for us, the civil wedding was for documentation purposes only. We want to really celebrate our married life together after our church wedding. Yeah, so near yet so far :-) Our embassy here in Dhaka does not administer marriage between Filipino and a foreigner, I'm not sure about in other countries.

"Pre-Cana Certificates"

Fifth, our pre-cana certificates. We are required to attend the class together, so we asked permission from the Chancery we can have it here since it’s impossible for us to be able to attend it together in manila. We had the Pre-cana at the Holy Spirit Major Seminary in Banani, and they required us to submit a letter of recommendation from our respective parishes. I got my one from Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Shrine since we are getting married there and he got one from the Holy Rosary Parish in Tejgaon. I will write a separate post regarding our pre-cana class.

"Certificate of No Impediment"

Sixth, finally we got a letter of “No Church Impediment”. We had to go back to Tejgaon to get this one after we got our pre-cana certificates. This letter is to inform the chancery that we don’t have any impediments here, stating that we are free to marry each other and that none of us was/were married before to anyone or other people.

I’m so happy with our progress. I will bring home all the documents with me and will submit it to the Chancery once I get new copies of my baptismal and confirmation certificates. I’m still undecided if I’m going home to Vigan to get this or just ask my friend to get it for me. While my Birth Certificate and CENOMAR (Certificate of No Marriage) from NSO was received by my sister already in manila. The only thing left are the Marriage Banns and the Canonical Interview. The Banns we will have to post by February 2013 and the interview we will have it on May 14, 2013. After that, we will get a clearance from the Chancery which we will submit to the church so that we can get married.

UPDATE: October 7, 2012

After a month of following up with my friend who is based in Vigan, finally, they found my Confirmation Certificate.
 It was not in the Parish Office but it was in my Highschool's Campus Minister's office since I received my confirmation from our school. The reason why we checked the parish office first because my mom told me she got my sister's certificate from there and we received our confirmation at the same time, so I assumed that my one is also there. Only to find out that the Parish Office decided to return the records to the origin or where the event was held. When my friend went to the campus office, they can't find my original record also, but since I'm known to them, they were able to furnish me a copy of the certificate.
So finally, with all the documents in hand, I went to the Chancery last October 4 to submit it already. Ms. Bessie is one pleasant lady, we even chatted for few minutes about my life in BD. And now, she reminded me my only pending documents - the wedding banns, NSO Marriage Certificate and the canonical interview. She explained it to me that I have to get all the docs from her again prior to our Canonical interview and then return it back to her after that, and after 3 working days, our clearance will be release and this clearance, we have to submit it to Mt. Carmel so that they will allow us to get married :-) I'm so happy with my accomplishments. Now, if only I can proceed with my plans of DIY projects like the kissing bells-cum-escort card, table number lay-out, AVP, cord, and other small things. I hope mr. sun will keep on shining so that I can go to the wholesaler heaven called Divisoria and also to check Wellmason again in Quaipo for the beads and accessories for the cord.