GOVPH

CIVIL REGISTRY

The Philippine Embassy performs civil registry services for Filipino citizens residing in Belgium and Luxembourg. These include reports of birth, marriage, and death.

Civil Registration

Civil registration is a continuous, permanent, compulsory, and universal recording of vital events occurring in the life of an individual such as birth, marriage, and death, as well as court decrees and legal instruments affecting his/her civil status in appropriate registers as mandated by Republic Act No. 3753 or the Civil Registry Law.

Uses of Civil Registry Documents

• To establish the occurrence of birth, marriage, or death, and therefore provide prima facie evidence of facts surrounding these events;
• To serve as identification in legal and personal transactions such as applying for jobs, obtaining passports for travel, applying for entrance into schools, claiming insurance benefits, etc.; and
• To provide data on the number of births, marriages, deaths, fetal deaths, adoptions, and the like, which in turn are essential in a country’s development planning.

The Consular Section of the Philippine Embassy in Brussels provides legalization services similar to services done by notaries public in the Philippines. These legalization services are done on documents or instruments which will be used in the Philippines and executed by Filipinos.

Affiants/clients must personally appear before the Consular Section. Consular fee is €25.00 per document (not per page), payable by cash only.

Processing period is three (3) days from submission of complete and accurate document.

Before personally going to the Embassy, affiants/clients must seek clarification from the recipient of their documents or instruments in the Philippines the appropriateness of the legalization service that they need to avail of from the Embassy.

The following are the consular services offered by the Embassy:

Acknowledgment refers to an act in which an individual on a single occasion:

(a)  appears in person before the vice consul, consul or consul general and presents an integrally complete instrument or document;

(b)  is attested to be personally known to the vice consul, consul or consul general or identified by the vice consul, consul or consul general through "competent evidence of identity"; and

(c)  represents to the vice consul, consul or consul general that the signature on the instrument or document was voluntarily affixed by him for the purposes stated in the instrument or document, declares that he has executed the instrument or document as his free and voluntary act and deed, and, if he acts in a particular representative capacity, that he has the authority to sign in that capacity.

• Clients must provide the complete document for signing and must count the number of pages of each document for notarization.
• All signatories must appear before the Embassy to sign each page of the document.
• Each signatory must submit a photocopy of either their passport (information page) or valid government-issued identification card (both sides of the card).

Copy Certification refers to a notarial act in which a vice consul, consul or consul general:

(a)  is presented with an instrument or document that is neither a vital record, a public record, nor publicly recordable;

(b)  copies or supervises the copying of the instrument or document;

(c)  compares the instrument or document with the copy; and

(d)  determines that the copy is accurate and complete.

Jurat refers to an act in which an individual on a single occasion:

(a)  appears in person before the vice consul, consul or consul general and presents an instrument or document;

(b)  is personally known to the vice consul, consul or consul general or identified by the vice consul, consul or consul general through competent evidence of identity;

(c)  signs the instrument or document in the presence of the notary; and

(d) takes an "oath or affirmation" before the vice consul, consul or consul general as to such instrument or document.

Affirmation or Oath refers to an act in which an individual on a single occasion:

(a)  appears in person before the vice consul, consul or consul general;

(b)  is personally known to the vice consul, consul or consul general or identified by the vice consul, consul or consul general through competent evidence of identity; and

(c)  avows under penalty of law to the whole truth of the contents of the instrument or document.

The phrase "competent evidence of identity" refers to the identification of an individual based on:

(a)   at least one current identification document issued by an official agency bearing the photograph and signature of the individual, such as but not limited to, passport, driver's license, Professional Regulations Commission ID, National Bureau of Investigation clearance, police clearance, postal ID, voter's ID, Barangay certification, Government Service and Insurance System (GSIS) e-card, Social Security System (SSS) card, Philhealth card, senior citizen card, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) ID, OFW ID, seaman's book, alien certificate of registration/immigrant certificate of registration, government office ID, certification from the National Council for the Welfare of Disable Persons (NCWDP), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) certification; or

(b)  the oath or affirmation of one credible witness not privy to the instrument, document or transaction who is personally known to the vice consul, consul or consul general and who personally knows the individual, or of two credible witnesses neither of whom is privy to the instrument, document or transaction who each personally knows the individual and shows to the vice consul, consul or consul general documentary identification.