Too many papers for registration of our Marriage in Germany.

Hey I just want to let you know that you are not the only one I'm also in a process to get married to a German guy but before I came here in germany they wanted a lot of paperwork I just hope It will be over soon

I didn't say I'm the only one who's married to a German guy. 

It seems you don't understand my concern. In my case we are already married here in the Philippines. Now we are in the process of registering our Marriage in Germany but they were asking more papers from me which is not expected. As you read the what I mentioned above those are the necessary documents I need to pass.

My question is does anybody here experienced the same?

There is no need to register your marriage in Germany. They are bound (by international treaty) to accept valid marriage certificates from other countries. All that is needed is to have the certificate legalized at the German embassy in charge of where you married (they place a stamp and seal at the back of it) and you might need an official translation if it's in any language other than those spoken in the EU.
I suppose you are applying for a visa for yourself? In that case the authorities must check whether yours is a marriage of convenience (i.e. for the sole purpose of getting a visa). The documents asked for point in that direction. If the requirements seem too onerous (German Ausländerbehörden are known to be sometimes unreasonable), you might want to engage a German immigration lawyer.

Hi,

That helps a lot, now I understand.

Thank you

Germans seem to like a lot of paperwork. We were advised that if the Stadesamt is not co-operating to try a different one.

ich bin seit 14 Jahren mit einer Thai zusammen. Ohne Heirat. Zwei kinder. Meine Tochter ist 9 Jahre alt, mein Sohn ist 6 Jahre alt. Wir waren beide vorher nie verheiratet. Aber die Arbeit sich bei einem deutschen Standesamt zu ehelichen ist oft Schickane. - Dein Beispiel zeigt es ja. - Ihr solltet das Standesamt wechseln und in einen Bezirk gehen, wo viele Auslaender leben. Ausserdem kann eure Ehe in Hong Kong geschlossen werden, die wird in Deutschland meist problemlos anerkannt. Ferner gibt es noch Daenemark, http://speedheirat.com/notwendige-dokumente.html  oder unter google probieren: heiraten in dänemark dokumente . Ich wuensche euch alles Gute.

Prinzregent: Your post is good and contains useful information, but since this is an English language forum, please post in English in future, so all our readers can understand it.

Here's the above post translated by Google:

prinzregent wrote:

I am 14 years together with a Thai. Without marriage. Two children. My daughter is 9 years old, my son is 6 years old. We were both previously never been married. But the work is to marry with a German registry office is often chickane. - Your example shows it yes. - You should change the registry office and go into a district where many foreigners live. In addition, can your marriage in Hong Kong are closed, which is usually easily recognized in Germany. Furthermore, there are Denmark, [link under review] or try google: get married in denmark documents. I wish you all the best.

EnajLopih wrote:

Hello to everyone,

I'm a newbie here. I want to ask if anyone of you experienced the same way.

I am married to my handsome husband  , a German last December, 2013. He's back to Germany now and went to the Office where He will be registering our Marriage. But we were really surprised because they were asking too many documents from the Philippines, such as:

- Marriage Certificate of my Parents
- Birth Certificate of My Siblings
- My Baptismal Certificate
- Form 137 ( Primary School )
- A photo showing our house in Google Map ( maybe a screenshot  ) 
- CEMAR
- Where did I live since I turned 15 y/o ( like a document, I guess ) I'm clueless!
- Passport Photo 2 copies
- 1 whole body Photo, Seriously? 

Well, of course I can actually send these I'm just surprised. Does anyone here experienced the same?

Thank you so much. 

This is unbelievable! We got married in the Philippines too and all my husband presented to get her tax class updated was a copy of our marriage certificate! All these documents (CEMAR, etc.) were already submitted before our marriage, when he was applying for legal capacity to contract marriage.

[Moderated: Inappropriate]

I just like to share my story and i hope it will give a little idea to someone whos planning to marry and stay here in germany, Last year i came as student in germany to learn german language and finally after few months my bf and i decided to get marriy , and we did it in denmark and w/ my  passport as the only document fr the Phil . After we submit our wedding cert here in germany they issued the visa w/ out asking me to do the application  in the phil im very thankfull, well i guess its important to do a little research to make the thing a bit easier

Hi rubie40,

thanks for sharing your story here...Well, I am newbie here and I am searching all over the internet about getting marry so easy..first, we are planning to get married in Germany but requiring all those requirements and the process took very long..and my bf heard that marrying in Denmark is easier..

My question is if already married in Denmark are you still required to go back to your country and process the family reunion visa? or? after having the certificate possible to stay longer in Germany?

Thank you

If you get married elsewhere you will still have to apply for the family reunion visa. You always have to apply to have your marriage recognised in Germany.

Thank you missbeesy..

Hi,..i experienced the same..so it is not a new thing..

Best is provide everything they asked of you and you will not encounter any problem with them...when you completed the requirements, they will process your registration...but if not then it will take time....at the end of the day...it is you who will benefit from it...

So goodluck..


Sharon

I think Beppi and a few others have given good comments here but your post still makes me wonder who is trying to scam whom? I don't see any angle where you would benefit from lying, so I assume it is someone else. Although it is true that Germany often requires  a lot of paperwork, the list of requirements you have posted make NO sense at all. Exactly which person at which office asked for this? Most of this information would be totally irrelevant and uninteresting for any German bureaucrat. With a passport and legal document showing you are married with a certified translation into German - there is nothing else to prove! If you are in the Philippines then you should be going through the German consulate there. Once in Germany, you have to be registered in a municipality through the auslandische Einwohneramt. The Standesamt mentioned in this thread is where you need to go to get married or if you somehow were in Germany without having gotten a residency visa on the basis of marriage while abroad. The only reason to have a marriage recognized in the first place is so that you can get a residency visa for which they might inquire about if you have any criminal record, what your professional degrees are  and a couple of other things but still not the information you indicate. Just marrying a German will not actually guarantee you a residency permit if there are serious criminal convictions, a record of having been deported from Germany or questions of the validity of your marriage (again - not dependent on your parents or siblings etc)

Tomin: Please do not make potentially false assumptions and/or accuse other posters of being wrong!
Staff of German "Ausländerbehörde" (Foreigner Registration Authority) have a well-earned reputation to be unfriendly, unhelpful and often unreasonable in their buerocratic demands. Often only knowing your rights and threatening legal action will get them into the correct action - but which newly arrived foreigner can and will do that?
Count yourself lucky if you haven't encountered this when you first arrived - it may have something to do with your nationality!

Beppi, I stand by everything I wrote and tried to do it diplomatically but a lot of what is written is simply not possible - so the question is who is making this stuff up. I clearly asked for more details as to who exactly should be asking for such irrelevant data. Yes, there is a lot of bureaucracy in Germany and many officially are unfriendly and even incompetent at times and you make a very important point that to know one's rights is crucial but you are the one now speculating and making false accusations. Maybe you don't know as much about these things as you think you do. I have lived a long time in Germany and have also traveled in the Philippines and no I don't think any of what I went through has much to do with my nationality. Once upon a time the Germans treated Americans like gods but that time is long over. Like getting work permits for an American not married to a German; it used to be easy and now the employer has to state that they could not find a suitable person not only in Germany but in the whole European Community market. Sure, people from less developed countries will be scrutinized more but there are also rules and always a reason for the rules even if one doesn't agree with them. To claim that German officials will ask for such things is simply not believable and sounds like a cliché.

You are wrong: They do ask for these things, and they are even allowed to.
As the discussion showed, this arose not from a request to get the marriage recognized in Germany (which is a formality and requires little paperwork), but from an application for a spouse visa. In such cases the authorities can check the family background of the applicant and must check whether the marriage is real or exists just to get a visa (marriage of convenience).
I have personal experience with this, although my wife is from a rich Asian country, so it wasn't that bad (but unpleasant nevertheless).
Now please stop accusing other posters of making things up or being wrong. A friendlier tone is more appropriate for this forum!

Sorry but you are the one with an aggressive tone not me. Again, I think you have given a lot of good information but you are assertive about a few things that don't sound correct. For a foreigner married now to a German they need to get an Aufenhalterlaubnis which is a residency permit and not actually a visa. Being legitimately married to a German will be the basis for getting residency but there is no such thing as a "spouse visa". Of course the German officials will want to verify the legitimacy of a marriage but the marriage certificates of a foreigner's parents and siblings is totally irrelevant unless she were trying to claim German citizenship on the basis of German ancestry. One has to pay a church tax if one is registered as a catholic or protestant in Germany but a certification of baptism is irrelevant to one's marriage status. As a background check, German officials are typically wanting to know about any criminal record, history of having been refused a visa or having been deported, what one's education and professional qualifications are, has one been married before and well as one's overall financial situation. Providing such information is a lot of trouble and feels like an invasion of privacy. But the reason behind is to make sure the marriage is legit and hopefully avoid that the foreigner ends up needing social assistance. Knowing the financial info is important for taxes or later claims to assets in case of divorce. But again, most of what she says is being asked is irrelevant to these concerns of the German officials so I am curious exactly who is asking for this information. Have the requests come directly from German officials or is it her husband or a lawyer claiming that the officials asked these questions?

You are absolutely right that these demands by the German authorities are irrelevant and unreasonable.
But accusing the OP, who is clearly surprised herself and probably a victim of the authorities, of being a scam and making things up is not reasonable. Could you instead help her in dealing with the difficult bureaucrats?
You are also right that I used "spouse visa" and "residence permit" interchangeably to make my posts shorter and more readable, although there is a difference: Spouse visa is needed before entering Germany and given by the embassy, residence permit is after taking up residence in Germany and given by the local registration and foreigner office.

I did NOT accuse her, on the contrary I said from the beginning that I saw no reason to suspect that. And yes, someone might be trying to scam her - that's EXACTLY why I asked for clarification as to who is asking for such documentation; authorities (who you've now put under suspicion!) a lawyer, her husband or who? I wanted to avoid unreasonable speculation but in response to your post it seems I have to bring up some possibilities in case she has not gotten these requests directly from an official bureaucrat. Maybe she has gotten this from a lawyer or maybe (hopefully not!) it is from her husband. Seems I saw a movie last year about a foreign woman who marries a westerner who goes back home to work. She then doesn't hear from him and goes to look for him only to find out that he doesn't live or work where he said he did. Maybe her husband scammed her, playing husband in the Philippines to get sex and then claiming endless, unreasonable documentation to keep her from being able to follow him to Germany. This is now total speculation - I am not saying this happened but it is just an example of one of many possibilities. She obviously is concerned that these claims for documentation sound strange and I agree with her - thus one needs to find out what is really going on to make sure she is not the victim of a scam. I have heard of lawyers cheating people in such matters and of course it can be a case of bureaucrats looking to either get a bribe or simply block someone from immigrating due to prejudice or suspicions of fraud. If everything is actually being done correctly then she has little choice but to give the documentation requested but it all sounds strange enough that she posted here - and she should continue to get some answers about what and who is delaying her acceptance. It is not nice to have to make such speculations but one will not find a solution without uncovering the real problems so please stop accusing me of bad behavior for asking the hard questions.

I am married to a Geman guy so it is prudent to register your marriage no matter when or where you got married. You are lucky those are the only paperwork they want so it is extremely reasonable. I was asked for 2 years worth of tax returns in the USA and 2 years worth of pay stubs from my job, also my college transcripts. A decade later I now realize why the wanted this paperwork. Just go with the flow and pay whatever they want. Your life will be much easier later in the future.

Hello everybody. I need advice from anyone who is a Filipina who got married in Germany recently.  I am a Filipina and have a Geman boyfriend. We are planning now to apply for Marriage Visa.  Can you please tell me what paperworks do I need to send him so that he can apply in Germany for Marriage Visa? I've heared already a lot from other friends, but they told me different things as they hear it only also from their friends. So I want to know it directly from those  who have experience already and is currently living now in Germany. Your help will be very much appreciated then . Thank you in advance.

Hi! Newborn DIN ako. . we wanted to get  married in the phils. My fiance talked to the civil registrar concern about getting marriage in the phils. They required us the same documents you have listed above in order for us to get his capacity to contract marriage. I have done that. submitted the paper a week ago . .this Docu should be all translated. You are required to submit baptismal certificate and form 137(primary) if you are registered late.  Thats what I know . .i have also made a sketch about my declaration of residence. They also required pass photo of my parents and their marriage contract together with my sibling's authenticated live birth. I have authorized them too to check all my profile.

I also submitted a full body picture and pass photo(neutral gray and white background). It's not The photo of your house it is what you called declaration of resident ,you need to sketch the place where you live 15 years and up(in my case I have only reside in only one place since I was born).i have accomplished that all and submitted .i need to submit those papers required to release my fiance's capacity to contract marriage. I am waiting now for that piece of paper so we can get married here in iloilo. comply all the requirements . .

From what I understand Sweetie_Zoe had to fill out all of these forms to marry in the Philippines. This is very different that saying they were requested by German officials. Sounds like the Filippino officials rather than the German ones are asking "too much" or am I misunderstanding something?

I am only saying this because this is what I have experienced. The additional documents required for EnajLopih are also the same Documents I have submitted so that my fiance can get his the capacity to contract marriage. I have got the full list of requirement from the civil registrar where my fiance is a resident.

Hello Sweetie_Zoe,

Does the whole documents need to be legalized by the DFA with that red ribbon?

Hello Lhei Yah,

We submitted it without red ribbon.

Hmmm...I stayed in different places since i am 15 yr old to the present. Does it mean, i need to write all addresses where i lived before together with their  sketches? Or the sketch is only for my recent address?

Just to share. Many people I know, like German citizens married to foreigners or foreigners living in Germany (like me) got married in Denmark instead. Denmark is known as the Las Vegas of Europe in terms of weddings. Much easier, smoother with much less bureaucracy and red tape. Hoping your preparations are almost done now. Congratulations on your wedding!

This might help. http://www.getmarriedindenmark.com/faqs/

Lol that was just a figure of speech she didnt mean it the way you assumed from your first statement.

Denmark i dont think is possible anymore. It seems that doesnt work anymore. We just got married in December and before we did we were told that they will not accept a Denmark marriage certificate as my husband is German. I was asked for a consent letter signed by my dad allowing me to marry him, was also asked for a certificate issued by the court in Nigeria stating i was single and a few other documents. Now im American as well and was told to bring documents from both countries but while getting married i was asked which laws i wanted to marry with. Duh i chose the American. Now i ended up not needing half the documents i was asked for so my advice would be give whatever they ask of you and the whole process will move like Ben and Jerry's ice cream

beppi wrote:

Tomin: Please do not make potentially false assumptions and/or accuse other posters of being wrong!
Staff of German "Ausländerbehörde" (Foreigner Registration Authority) have a well-earned reputation to be unfriendly, unhelpful and often unreasonable in their buerocratic demands. Often only knowing your rights and threatening legal action will get them into the correct action - but which newly arrived foreigner can and will do that?
Count yourself lucky if you haven't encountered this when you first arrived - it may have something to do with your nationality!

Second this...

I made no false accusations at all, only asked for clarification. And the clichés about German bureaucracy are often (not always) exaggerated. I thought the point of a forum where people could give firsthand experience was to get knowledgeable advice rather than rely on hearsay, rumor and clichés but it sounds like some people prefer that to facts. Further posting on this subject have shown that it is the Filipino officials and not German ones who asks for lots of crazy stuff like baptism records and sketches of former residences

Hello! I have a question! I'm a filipina married to a german guy. We got married in dubai with a german company processing all the wedding papers, with translation and all that. Then we applied for a schengen visa for 3months. Now i am here in hamburg and we are planning to settle down, we already registered our wedding here. Then we asked someone in the Rathaus about the processing of the permanent visa and he said i just need to learn the language and thats it. No need to go to phil. But we went to the right person to asked all the details and he said i need to go back to phil. I thought it will be easy coz we are here already, and so many people told us it will be easy. It doesn't make sense to me honestly. Pls someone shed a light!! Thank you!!

So are you in Philippines right now or still trying to make a way out of it? I just dont get it why I need to go back if Im already here and all the papers are legal and registered already.

I cannot say if you will have to go back to the Philippines or not, I think a Filipino who has been through the process can answer that best. As an American, I married a German, in Germany and on this basis got a residency visa that was for 3 years with limited working options - only within my stated profession. After the 3 years, since I was still married, and had had no trouble with the law, I automatically got an unlimited (but still not permanent) visa and I was allowed to take any job. I know other nationalities can do this but on a 5 year rather than 3 year basis. Once I had this visa, there were no troubles but one could always be thrown out of Germany if one committed a serious crime. The difference between unlimited and permanent is this; I could stay as long as I liked, even forever BUT if I had left Germany for more than a year then I would lose the visa and have to start all over again. If I had then gotten divorced, there is a good chance they could simple say no we dont let you live here again. But new European rules have come into place and after having lived legally in Germany for 15 years, I now have a new level of visa which says I can leave for more than a year without losing my residency. For this, I didnt have to take any tests about the language or anything. But still, if I committed a serious crime they can throw me out. The only true permanent way of staying is to get German citizenship. For this one must stay a certain number of years legally in Germany, I assume the number of years depending on your nationality, and then pass a citizenship test which will include knowledge about the language, culture, politics and laws. The process I have described is basically the same for everyone except at the very beginning they might make some different requirements for the first multi-year limited visa. If one has specific questions, it might be best to have a lawyer inform you of your rights. This might be done in an hour long session without any court case or complicated legal action. When one knows their rights then they have a better position to deal with the officials. For example, when my 3 year limited visa was up and I wanted the unlimited one, I was told that my wife who is German, had to have a job and that instead of 3 years I had to wait 5 years etc. This was all nonsense and I told them so but of course in a polite way and finally did their job. Some officials simply don't know all of the rules well or might try to intimidate people who dont know there rights.