Report of Birth and Report of Marriage
When a Filipino has a child or gets married outside the Philippines, the event does not appear in the Philippine civil register on its own. Somebody has to report it. That is what a Report of Birth and a Report of Marriage are for, and until one is filed, the Philippine state has no record that your child or your marriage exists.
At most posts — including the Embassy in Washington — this is a mail-only procedure. There is no counter and no appointment.
Report of Birth
A child born abroad to at least one Filipino parent should be reported to the post with jurisdiction over the place of birth. The child is Filipino by descent from the moment of birth; the report is what turns that into a document.
A child born in the United States to at least one Filipino parent is already a dual citizen at birth — American by place of birth, Filipino by descent. That child does not need an RA 9225 petition. They need a Report of Birth.
RA 9225 is for a parent who lost Philippine citizenship by naturalising, and for their minor children as derivatives. Filing the wrong one wastes weeks.
There is no fine for filing late. Posts say so explicitly — delayed registration carries no monetary penalty. It is still worth doing promptly, because everything downstream depends on it: the child's Philippine passport, their eventual PSA birth certificate, their ability to claim citizenship as an adult.
What goes in the envelope
The exact package is set by each post, but the Washington version is representative and gives a good sense of the scale of it:
- A cover letter naming the service requested, your contact details and a list of what is enclosed.
- Four original Report of Birth forms, each separately notarised by a notary public. Printed or typewritten — handwritten forms are rejected. Posts encourage you to email a draft for checking before you pay to have it notarised.
- One original and four photocopies of the child’s US birth certificate.
- Four photocopies of both parents’ passport data pages.
- Four photocopies of proof of the Filipino parent’s current Philippine citizenship — permanent resident card, visa, work permit, or dual citizenship Identification Certificate. If that parent is a former Filipino, their foreign naturalisation certificate instead.
- A self-addressed prepaid USPS Priority envelope with tracking.
- A money order for the fee — US$25, plus a separate money order for the US$10 expedite fee if you want it. Posts ask for them separately.
If the parents were married
Add the PSA marriage certificate — one original and four copies, on security paper. If you do not have one, order it through psahelpline.ph or psaserbilis.com.ph, and see the PSA guide. If the marriage itself has never been reported, you can file the Report of Marriage at the same time.
If the parents married after the birth
You need a notarised Joint Affidavit of Legitimation, plus a CENOMAR for the Filipino parent or parents — the PSA certificate proving no prior marriage on record.
If the parents are not married
Two affidavits, and this is where the apostille rule bites: the Affidavit of Admission of Paternity and the Affidavit to Use the Surname of the Father must each be notarised and apostilled by the competent authority — four originals of each. The apostille comes from the Secretary of State of the state where they were notarised, not from the consulate.
Report of Marriage
A marriage celebrated abroad where at least one spouse is Filipino is reported the same way, to the post covering where it took place. The structure is the same: notarised forms in quadruplicate, the US marriage certificate, passport copies, proof of citizenship, prepaid return envelope, US$25 money order and US$10 for expedited release.
The reason to do it is practical. Without a Report of Marriage there is no Philippine record of the marriage, which means a spouse cannot change their name on a Philippine passport, and the marriage cannot be relied on in Philippine property, inheritance or immigration matters.
How long it takes
Once a complete application reaches the post, processing is quick — Washington states three to five business days before the documents are dispatched. The unpredictable parts are the post office in both directions and the time it takes you to assemble everything.
Posts reserve the right to return incomplete applications, and they do. Given that every form has to be notarised four times over, an incomplete package is an expensive mistake as well as a slow one.
What happens afterwards
The report is transmitted to the Philippines and enters the national civil register. From that point the birth or marriage becomes a record the PSA can issue a certificate for — which is what every later procedure will ask you to produce.
Allow time for that to filter through before ordering the PSA copy; a request made too soon comes back as "no record found". And find the post with jurisdiction over the place of birth or marriage in the consulate directory — for civil registry it is where the event happened that decides, not where you live now.