The Philippines registers a foreign divorce in the Philippines only through a court process called Recognition of Foreign Divorce.

Many countries require only that the foreign divorce decree be presented to that country’s local civil registry. Most people are surprised to discover that the Philippines requires a full-blown court case to simply register a foreign divorce in the Philippine Civil Registry system so that the foreign divorce is recognized in the Philippines.

The Philippines is the only country in the world without divorce (aside from the Vatican). Recognition of a foreign  divorce is actually an exception to the general prohibition against divorce in the Philippines.

A Filipino’s marital status is recorded in the Philippine civil registry system. Philippine law provides that changing this entry in the civil registry can only be done upon order of a court.

Because of this, the Philippine civil registry cannot automatically recognize a foreign divorce. The local and national civil registrars need a determination by a Philippine court that the divorce was validly obtained according to the foreign country’s laws and an order by that court directing the registrars to therefore record the divorce.

“But my divorce was validly obtained!” say most people when we explain this.

Yes, it most likely was.

Still, the Philippines specifically requires a court case to register and recognize your foreign divorce.

I cannot predict when that will happen.

Yes, there is a divorce bill being discussed.

Yes, there have been several divorce bills.

Yes, the Philippines has been trying to pass divorce for decades.

We have not yet succeeded, but we might succeed in 5 years or 10 years – no one knows.  

In any event, that would just be exchanging one court case for another.

It is because the courts are overworked.

Court statistics show that courts’ intake of cases is greater than their disposal rate. The cases pile up. Courts struggle under heavy dockets, so months can pass before the court resolves a submission.

Going to court here means understanding and accepting the court’s calendar and timeline.

Notions of rushing the case, speeding it up, or “expediting” it — as some people imagine is possible — might waste even more time and cost you more.

The best that can be done is for the lawyer to be diligent, on the ball, and pack the most progress he can into every step.  

Let me tell you a story.

A lady needed a recognition of foreign divorce quickly and found a broker who promised her that he could get it processed in 3 months. Her broker showed up with the documents and she promptly submitted them to Japan, only to find out that they were fake. Undaunted, she tried again.

Her new broker gave her more formal looking documents which she submitted only to find out that these too were fake. Upset and unhappy, she finally accepted that a valid judicial recognition of foreign divorce really did take 1-2 years and approached us.

We took the case and are doing it right.

Do not go to so-called fixers. It is absurd to put your trust in someone whose pitch is that she will act unethically. Get a lawyer who will do it legally and right.

“So I just present my foreign divorce decree, right?”

A number of items have to be established for a recognition of divorce case to meet the Philippines’ requirements.

These include:

       1. The citizenship of the parties.

       2. The marriage certificate

       3. The divorce decree

       4. The foreign law

       5. Special power of attorney for us to work on the case

       6. Affidavits and court appearances

       7. Other documents the court may need

Proof of these need to be presented to the trial court in accordance with the Philippine Rules of Court. This can be tricky because they invariably include foreign documents whose authenticity need to be proved according to the Philippine rules on evidence.

Recognition of foreign divorce in the Philippines is a Rule 108 case. It is an adversarial proceeding, meaning that the Philippine government sends a prosecutor to appear during the case so that he can check for full compliance to Philippine law.

So yes, you need a competent, conscientious lawyer for this.

“Can I file in that court instead of this one?” asked a client.

“No,” we told him.

There are rules that control which court should handle a case for Recognition of Foreign Divorce. It is best to follow those rules or risk redoing the case.

For example, a lady got in touch with us February this year.

She had won her Recognition of Foreign Divorce case but the decision was not accepted at the civil registrar because it was filed in the wrong court. She was told to redo the entire case. She was confused because she thought winning the case was all that was important. She asked us what to do.

We told her to speak with her current lawyer and follow the advice of the civil register.

Bottomline: She had spent 2 years on the case and she would need to spend another 2 more.

This is a pretty bad example of what happens when you don’t file in the right location. You may have to file again or you might actually have to redo the entire case.

So, follow the rules on where to file for Recognition of Foreign Divorce.

It can save you a lot of trouble down the road. 

There are 3 major stages.

        1. Before Court

        2. At Court

       3. Registration at the civil registrar(s)

Let’s go through this:

Prior to court

Long before trial, you have to submit documents and information to your lawyer.

You may have to get additional or corrected documents depending on your lawyer’s assessment of the accuracy and completeness of what you have. (Yes, we have come across mistaken translations, inaccuracies, and incorrect ways of authenticating the documents.)

Your lawyer will work with you to create a Special Power of Attorney, a Petition, a Judicial Affidavit and work out schedules and logistics.

Your lawyer will guide you through obtaining all the required documents. It’s honestly quite a bit of work to get everything all together.

At court

Your lawyer will file the case in court.

He’ll comply with court requirements to make sure that all concerned parties are notified.

He’ll also submit other documents the case requires. There are notice requirements to the relevant parties (these can get detailed).

He’ll appear at your hearings. He will present your evidence and the witness. He will then submit a final paper summarizing proof and explaining why the case should be granted.

Then, the court will decide.

Registration at the Civil Registrar

After the court releases its decision, the decision still has to achieve finality. Then, it still has to go through several steps so that your foreign divorce is accepted by the Philippine Statistics Authority which administers the National Civil Registry System.

The court’s recognition of the divorce is not automatically accepted because the PSA has bureaucratic requirements for the verification and registration of the court decision itself.

There are several government offices to navigate in compliance with these steps before you can get an official document stating that your foreign divorce is accepted by the Philippines.

No, this is not online.

Yes, it is manual.

This often means a lot of legwork.

Someone physically goes to each of these government offices, court decision in hand, to line up and then return several days or weeks later to pick up a corresponding document.

The end result after all that is a PSA certification showing the foreign divorce has been recognized – essentially an annotated marriage certificate.

A judicial recognition of foreign divorce acknowledges that your marriage was ended legally.

The way it does this is by causing a change in your marriage record in the Philippines. A note recording the successful recognition of your foreign divorce is imprinted on the side of your PSA marriage document. This is called an annotated marriage certificate.

This annotated marriage certificate can then be used for various legal purposes here. It can also be authenticated or apostilled so that it can be used abroad.

It does not delete the marriage record – what it does is acknowledge that your marriage did exist in the past and that it legally ended even under Philippine law.

Recognition of foreign divorce is a court case in the Philippines.

Because it is a court case and goes through the Philippine court system, you need to understand how that system works and the rules that govern it.

       1. It will take 1 to 2 years.

       2. Anyone who promises it in a few months or weeks is blowing smoke.

       3. It has to be filed in a specific court – not just any court will do.

There are particular documents that have to be collected and duly certified to comply with Philippine laws on evidence. Clients often gather them incorrectly on their own and need help early on.

The Philippine court’s decision must be recorded in the Philippine civil registry system to truly complete the process.