Welcome

Family Matters

Family with baby

Family with baby, © colourbox.de

Article

Acknowledgment of Paternity

If your main residence is in the Philippines, the German Embassy in Manila may notarize an acknowledgement of paternity according to German law. The main requirement for such a notarization is that the case demonstrates a certain reference to Germany. This is usually the case if one of the parties involved is a German national.

An acknowledgement of paternity has to be notarized in accordance with German law and requires some preparatory work. We therefor request that the following documents be emailed or sent as simple paper copies via regular mail to the German Embassy:

  1. Copy of the child’s passport or other official identification
  2. Birth certificate of the child
  3. Marriage certificate of the parents (if applicable) and divorce decree if the mother was previously married
  4. Copy of the mother’s passport, including all stamps and visa
  5. Copy of the father’s passport, including all stamps and visa
  6. Birth certificate of the mother
  7. Birth certificate of the father
  8. Certificate of no marriage (CENOMAR) or CEMAR (Advisory on Marriages) of the mother of the child, issued from the “National Indices of Marriage
  9. filled out form with contact details

According to German law, it is possible to notarize a prenatal acknowledgement of paternity. Should you wish to acknowledge paternity before the child is born, please replace requirements 1 and 2 on the above list with the mother’s record of prenatal care and a confirmation of the expected date of birth.

Vater mit Baby im Arm
Vaterschaftsanerkennung© Zoonar.com/Margarita Borodina

Philippine documents have to be issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) (formerly National Statistics Office (NSO)) on security paper (SECPA). Please visit either PSA Helpline or the Philippine Statistics Authority for further information.

In order to prepare the notarization of the recognition of paternity, please send the above-mentioned documents as well as the filled-in questionnaire as PDF attachments (not as embedded picture files) by email (reference: “recognition of paternity”).

The German Embassy reserves its right to ask for additional documents not stated on the above list.

Please note that a thorough document check might be necessary should any doubts regarding the paternity arise after all provided documents have been reviewed. Please be advised that a document check may cause additional processing time and incur additional costs.

The Embassy will verify the provided complete documents and contact you directly to coordinate an appointment for the notarization. Please note that all original documents along with a valid passport will have to be presented at the time of your appointment. The notarization of an acknowledgement of paternity is subject to a charge depending on the current exchange rate of the embassy. Details can be provided upon inquiry.

Declaration of Consent

According to German law, an acknowledgement of paternity only becomes legally binding once the mother of the child has given her declaration of consent to this acknowledgement. If the presumed father has already acknowledged paternity in front of a German authority and the mother of the child has her main residence in the Philippines, her declaration of consent can be notarized at the German Embassy in Manila.

The declaration of consent to an acknowledgement of paternity has to be notarized in accordance with German law and requires some preparatory work. We therefor request that the following documents be emailed or send as simple paper copies via regular mail to the German embassy:

  1. Acknowledgement of paternity by the father in front of a German authority
  2. Copy of the child’s passport or other official identification
  3. Birth certificate of the child
  4. Marriage certificate of the parents (if applicable) and divorce decree if the mother was previously married
  5. Copy of the mother’s passport, including all stamps and visa
  6. Copy of the father’s passport, including all stamps and visa
  7. Birth certificate of the mother
  8. Birth certificate of the father
  9. Certificate of no marriage (CENOMAR) or CEMAR (Advisory on Marriages) of the mother of the child, issued from the “National Indices of Marriage
  10. filled out form with contact Details

According to German law, it is possible to notarize a prenatal acknowledgement of paternity. Should you wish to acknowledge paternity before the child is born, please replace requirements 2 and 3 on the above list with the mother’s record of prenatal care and a confirmation of the expected date of birth.

Philippine documents have to be issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) (formerly National Statistics Office (NSO)) on security paper (SECPA). Please visit either PSA Helpline or the Philippine Statistics Authority for further Information.

In order to prepare the notarization of the consent to the recognition of paternity, please send the above-mentioned documents as well as the filled-in questionnaire as PDF attachments (not as embedded picture files) by email (reference: “recognition of paternity”).

The German embassy reserves its right to ask for additional documents not stated on the above list. Please note that a thorough document check might be necessary should any doubts regarding the paternity arise after all provided documents have been reviewed. Please be advised that a document check may cause additional processing time and incur additional costs.

The Embassy will verify the provided complete documents and contact you directly to coordinate an appointment for the notarization. Please note that all original documents along with a valid passport will have to be presented at the time of your appointment.

The notarization of a declaration of consent is subject to a charge depending on the current exchange rate of the embassy. Details can be provided upon inquiry.

Maintenance (Child Support)

Any person entitled to maintenance can lodge a request to recover maintenance abroad. This will most frequently be done in order to recover child maintenance. When children are under age, their legal representatives must act for them.

Which maintenance law applies in these cases is determined in accordance with the international private law of the requested state. In many cases, the law of the state in which the person entitled to maintenance has his/her habitual place of residence is applicable. So if the child lives in the Philippines, Philippine law is applicable to determine the claim of maintenance.

Germany and the Philippines have ratified a number of multilateral treaties in regard to Child Support and Maintenance, notably the United Nations Convention on the Recovery Abroad of Maintenance of 20 June 1956, the Convention of 23 November 2007 on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance and the Protocol of 23 November 2007 on the Law Applicable to Maintenance Obligations.

Those conventions seek to establish a modern, efficient and accessible international system for the cross-border recovery of child support and other forms of family maintenance, inter alia by creating Central Authorities in every member state to deal with cross-border cases.

Hence, if you want to claim child support or family maintenance from the Philippines in Germany, you must address the Central Authority of the Philippines:

Child Support Secretariat
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)
IBP Road, Batasan Pambansa Complex, Constitution Hills,
Quezon City, Philippines 1126

Telephone: 8931-8101 loc. 10324 or 10325
Viber number: +63919-521-4262 (exclusive for inquiries on child support cases)
Contact Numbers: 09195214262 / 09455278210
E-mail: childsupport@dswd.gov.ph
Method of communication: preferably via indicated email addresses
Website: www.dswd.gov.ph

Contact Person: Atty. Elaine F. Fallarcuna,
Assistant Secretary and Point Person of Central Authority to the HCCH
effallarcuna@dswd.gov.ph

The Philippine Central Authority will forward your request to the Central Authority in the Federal Republic of Germany which is the Federal Office of Justice.

The Federal Office of Justice verifies that the request is complete and takes suitable steps to assert or enforce the maintenance claim. In addition to attempting to reach an amicable agreement and voluntary payment, it may also be necessary to assert the claim in court. The Federal Office of Justice takes action for the applicant during the entire proceedings, once it has been duly authorized by the applicant (or the legal representative). This also incorporates the investigation of the whereabouts of the person obliged to furnish maintenance and their ability to pay. Depending on the case constellation, a foreign maintenance title may be declared enforceable in the Federal Republic of Germany or a first maintenance title is created. If paternity has not yet been ascertained, paternity determination proceedings are first implemented.

Adoption

Please find further information regarding adoption from our German website.

Registration of marriage abroad in Germany

For information about registration of marriage abroad in Germany, see here (in German).

Registration of birth abroad in Germany

For information about registration of birth abroad in Germany, see here (in German).

Gerechtigkeitssymbol
Anwälte, Ärzte und Übersetzer© colourbox.de

German name law

For information about German name law, see here (in German).

Birth, marriage and death certificates

If you need a new German birth-/marriage-/death certificate please contact directly the civil registry in Germany which notarized the case of birth, marriage or death. The competent civil registry will then issue the requested number of new certificates. Please be informed that a fee will be charged which has to be paid by the applicant.

Philippine certificates can be obtained at the Philippine Statistics Authority, more information about the procedures can be obtained here or you could visit the PSA Helpline.

Top of page