Rajnish Pandya, a Mumbai born graduate student who moved to Manila, Philippines for post graduate degree in business in 2010. After finish his business major he’s been working in Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., which is one of the leading banks in the Philippines.
He fell in love with his fellow Indian classmate, Rashmi Chawla, who was a Philippine resident. The relationship grew stronger with time, and they knew since the very beginning that they wanted to get married.
When the time came for them to talk to their parents, Rajnish had a more difficult time convincing his parents than Rashmi but the parents agreed finally to have a wedding ceremony in the Philippines and a reception in Mumbai.
But little did Rajnish knew that he would need a single status certificate to get married in the Philippines, which is most commonly known as CENOMAR (Certificate of No Marriage). Leaving job to get the certificate wasn’t possible since he was already taking a one month leave to get married and go on a honeymoon.
As the name suggests, it is the certificate which proves the marital status of the person and it is needed in the Philippines and many other countries. When asked, how did you get the certificate? Rajnish replied, “I’ve been associated it with a couple of companies over the past year that provides services for NRI. I use medical services for my parents mostly and I had no clue there was any such thing as bachelorhood certificate in India. I never heard of such certificate, so when Rashmi and I decided to get married. I contacted S2NRI for the certificate; they told me it would take approximately two to four weeks. But I guess I received my certificate in 20 odd days which still is a lot of time, but after staying in India for first 21 years of my life, I kind of understand how our system works.”
Summing up, not all the countries require you to have CENOMAR to get married, but some countries do. So, make it easier on yourself by applying in advance in case you decide to marry abroad.
