Today, I will explain the paternity acknowledgment procedure for a child born out of wedlock in the Philippines.
The paternity acknowledgment process consists of three main steps:

1. Registering the child’s birth
   
   
2. Preparing documents for paternity acknowledgment
   
   
3. Visiting the district office to file the paternity acknowledgment
   

How to Register the Birth of a Child Born Out of Wedlock in the Philippines

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If the child was born in Korea, the child must first acquire Philippine nationality before proceeding with paternity acknowledgment.
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By registering the birth at the Embassy of the Philippines in Korea, the child can acquire Philippine nationality and obtain a Philippine passport.

If the child was born in the Philippines, you must register the birth at the local city or municipal office in the Philippines and then apply for a passport.

If the child is currently staying in Korea, after acquiring Philippine nationality, you must also apply for a legal stay status in Korea.
This application is submitted at the Immigration Office, and there are two possible scenarios:

• If the Filipino mother is legally staying in Korea, you may apply for an F-1 visa for the child.
• If the Filipino mother is staying illegally, the child’s stay status can be applied for after completing the paternity acknowledgment.

Preparing Documents for Paternity Acknowledgment

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The second step is preparing the required documents for paternity acknowledgment.

You only need to remember two key documents:

1. The child’s Birth Certificate
   
   
2. CENOMAR (Certificate of No Marriage)
   
   

CENOMAR is a certificate proving that the Filipino mother was unmarried during the pregnancy period.

Both the birth certificate and CENOMAR must be authenticated with an apostille issued by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) before being brought to Korea.

Apostille processing in the Philippines often takes a considerable amount of time.
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For this reason, it is more efficient to prepare all necessary documents at once, especially if you are also planning for the child’s nationality acquisition or marriage registration in the future.

District Office Procedure for Paternity Acknowledgment

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The third and final step is visiting the district office (gu office).

Once all documents are prepared, visit the district office to submit the paternity acknowledgment application.
Required items include:

• Paternity acknowledgment application form
  
  
• Prepared supporting documents
  
  
• Identification documents

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In some districts, especially where staff have limited experience with multicultural or international family cases, additional documents may be requested or processing may be delayed.
If this happens, you may either comply with the additional requirements or consider submitting the application at a different district office.

After submission, the paternity acknowledgment is usually processed within about seven days.

Once completed, the child’s name will be officially registered in the Family Relationship Register. You can confirm this by issuing a Family Relationship Certificate, which will show the child listed as a family member.