If you are a foreigner considering retiring in the Philippines with your Filipino spouse, you will be looking at visas and trying to establish legal residency.
You’ll probably be considering a 13a spousal visa.
You’ll easily get a 13a spousal visa so long as your marriage has been recognized in the Philippines.
Problems arise when marriages cannot be recognized in the Philippines, with some common examples being:
- When a Filipino has divorced a Filipino and then remarried
- When a Filipino validly divorces a foreigner and then remarries but the new marriage cannot be registered because a Recognition of Foreign Divorce was not undertaken
If this situation describes you, read this article to see how we at FCB law address these common situations.
When a Filipino has divorced a Filipino and then remarried
A Filipino who has divorced a Filipino abroad has a divorce that cannot be recognized in the Philippines.
The Philippines is one of the last countries without divorce.
Even if this divorce is validly conducted, the Philippines will still not recognize any divorce between 2 Filipinos.
So, any marriage entered into after the divorce will also not be recognized.
The only way to correct this would be to go through an annulment in the Philippines.
An annulment in the Philippines is a court case that ends a marriage between 2 Filipinos.
It is often the only way to end a marriage between 2 Filipinos.
It is quite different from divorce in other countries.
- It requires a court trial with witnesses
- It may need a psychologist as a witness
- It takes about 3 years
- It’s more expensive than divorce abroad
Despite this, an annulment in the Philippines is generally the only way to end a marriage between 2 Filipinos.
And when the marriage is finally ended, a new marriage can then be recognized by the Philippine government.
When a Filipino validly divorces a foreigner and then remarries
A Filipino who has validly divorced a foreigner can recognize this divorce in the Philippines.
This requires filing a case called Recognition of Foreign Divorce.
It is a court case with a trial and testimony.
It generally takes about a year to a year and a half.
In other countries, Recognition of Foreign Divorce might just be a registration.
However, the Philippines requires a court trial because the Philippines is still quite strict about divorce not being allowed and so checks minute details.
As such the process requires much more work than it normally would abroad.
Still, it is faster and cheaper than an Annulment in the Philippines and should be a first choice if it can be done.
In summary: Retiring in the Philippines requires your marriage to your Filipino spouse to be recognized
If you are a foreigner retiring in the Philippines with your Filipino spouse, you must make sure that your marriage is recognized so that you can get a 13a visa.
In addition to the visa, an annulment in the Philippines or a Recognition of Foreign Divorce enables the following:
- Clear inheritance rights
- Clear conjugal property rights
- Clear spousal rights
- The right for a Filipina to user her new husband’s last name
As you can see, when a marriage is unrecognized, the new spouse often suffers.
In inheritance cases, the Philippine government assumes that the registered spouse has rights to the common marital property.
Institutions and banks will ask for Philippine marriage documents to see who the spouse is and who therefore has rights to any mortgaged or purchased property.
Courts may assume that the spouse named in the Philippine documents has rights to the other spouse, and thus, this can get complicated.
Furthermore, a Filipino’s passport name can only be changed to the new spouse if the marriage is recognized.
In FCB law’s practice, we’ve processed many cases of both Annulment and Recognition of Foreign divorce.
Many of them were due to immigration issues such as this – i.e. a foreign spouse and a Filipino who retired in the Philippines – as well as the desire to avoid property complications.
If you are in this situation, it is best to engage counsel to have a conversation fit to your specific circumstances.
The details do matter and the correct advice can prevent you from difficulty securing your legal stay in the Philippines as a retiree.
