1. Certified copies (2) of your birth certificate or Naturalization Certificate
2. Certified copies (2) of complete divorce judgements for any previous marriages
3. Download or obtain from INS: INS Forms I-130, G-325A (4), I-129F, I-134, I-864
4. Passport
5. Visa if you will stay over 21 days

What to bring:

1. Passport plus several photocopies
2. Proof of citizenship: Certified copy of your birth certificate plus several photocopies. If naturalized, get original plus several copies of Naturalization Certificate.
3. Certified copy plus 1 photocopy of complete divorce judgements for any previous marriages
4. 2 sets of Form G-325A (Biographic Information)

Arrive at least 2 weeks before the wedding date, 3 weeks if possible. After arrival, obtain ‘Affidavit in Lieu of a Certificate of Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage’ from U.S. embassy, then apply for marriage license at the local civil registrar or a courthouse where you will be married. You will have to wait 10 days for the license, which could mean anywhere up to 2 weeks because some local jurisdictions only count workdays, so check ahead of time. I got my license at a local courthouse and it only took 9 calendar days. If you absolutely have to get a waiver of the 10-day waiting period, your fiancée should talk to a judge at the local courthouse ahead of time to see if this can be legally arranged. You will probably be required to attend a pre-marriage seminar and possibly a population control class before you get the license.

What to bring back with you:

Help your wife complete 2 sets (8 pages) of the G-325A and date and sign them with her original signature on each page. Obtain color ¾ frontal photos of your wife (4 copies) and yourself (2 copies), I recommend you use a Florofoto Store. Also, bring back an original certified copy of your marriage certificate from the Local Civil Registrars Offfice.

If you haven’t read this yet, here’s some valuable info from the U.S. Consulate in Manila:

http://usembassy.state.gov/posts/rp1/wwwh3220.html

http://usembassy.state.gov/posts/rp1/wwwh3225.html

http://usembassy.state.gov/posts/rp1/wwwh3317.html

http://usembassy.state.gov/posts/rp1/wwwh3318.html

Expect a 4-6 month wait for the K-3 visa.

The big advantage of the fiancée visa is that it gives you more time to decide if you really want to make the commitment. If you are both certain that you are ready to go through with marriage, then there is no advantage to the fiancée visa.

I think Raquel’s advice to try for a small church wedding was a good idea. If you want to marry in the church, you will need some additional documents and need to meet further requirements. Advance planning is essential for a church wedding!

Ray

Forget about the passport for now. After you marry, she will have to get a new one with her married name, which is not a legal requirement, but highly recommended. She will have plenty of time to apply for a passport after the wedding. She will also need the NBI clearance and NSO birth and marriage certificates, which she can be working on after you come back home.

If a lady will be traveling overseas as a fiancée or spouse of a foreign national, she will need to complete the CFO (Commission on Filipinos Overseas) seminar before they will issue the passport. Either way, she still needs the seminar before she will be allowed to leave the country. It takes a half-day and can be done in Cebu or Manila. The lady who does the CFO seminar in Cebu has been known to occasionally require the parents of the girl to come in and talk with her especially if she is very young and the foreign guy is very old, That may be what she was referring to.

Proof of intent to marry? I don’t know why the consulate would ask for that. John Domingo has his own rules sometimes and does things a little differently than the Manila embassy for the “affidavit in lieu of....”. The only “intent to marry” that I know of is the letter required to be filed with the fiancée visa, which you mentioned.

Why would you go to the consulate for a notarized letter saying that you were there together? I’ve never heard of such a thing. That sounds like a waste of the notary fee, which used to be $55 US. That is not necessary for the proof of meeting.

Ray

In reality, just proving that you were in the Philippines is usually acceptable as proof of meeting. If they will challenge anything, it will be the validity of your relationship.

The NBI clearance should be good for one year.

Ray