Thanks for all the replies - I will answer all the questions, however:
Something I didn't mention earlier, is that I actually have dual citizenship, British/Irish (born Northern Ireland)
I only got my Irish passport recently (18 months ago) primarily due to avoid the extreme hassle of dealing with the British embassy (won't answer emails, appointments have to be made many months in advance, and expensive fees)
As the Irish embassy are much easier to contact, I used my Irish passport for the marriage process and this is the nationality that is listed on the marriage certificate.
Therefore, the current status is:
1. I have emailed the Italian embassy asking them to clarify by what they mean by "registered"
2. I have emailed the Irish embassy and asked if this is something they can arrange, and if not, requesting their advice on what to do next
To answer the questions
Directive/2004/38/EC wrote:Out of interest, where were you married?
Call the British embassy consular section and ask them how you can register the marriage to satisfy the Italians. They will probably tell you that they have not idea.
Then tell the Italians.
I would suggest, in general, that you get a visa to Germany and fly there as your first point of entry into Schengen. They tend to be a lot more professional and organized.
We were married in Manila
I looked at Germany as I thought they would be "by the book", but there is no mention of a family/spousal visa on their website (same as Italians)
Spain & Netherlands mention it, but they don't explain it properly
Only Czech Rep (of the Schengen countries I have checked that have an embassy in the Philippines), spell out exactly what the procedure is for family/spousal visas
It looks like some embassies are going out of their way to "bury" this information, meaning only the "clued-up" people who are aware of
Directive/2004/38/EC, can take advantage of it - and even then most of these countries are making it as difficult as possible
With regard to travelling to Germany - we genuinely are going on vacation - we only got married in July and this will be our "honeymoon" and my wife wants to see Rome, Florence & Venice - we could go in through another country - but why should we? The tickets will be more expensive AND we have the hassle/cost of internal flights to/from Italy, not to mention the wasted travelling time
EUsmileWEallsmile wrote:
This should be relatively easy if you are in the Philippines; you may need to get your marriage certificate translated into Italian and legalised by Philippines' authorities / Italian authorities. This is basically a procedure that would allow your marriage certificate to be recognised as being valid by the Italians.
There has been no mention of translations, but as all legal documents in the Philippines are in English, therefore hopefully that wouldn't be necessary. With regard to it being legalised, I have investigated (thanks to the Filipina on the other thread) and this can be done quite easily via the DFA (Departement of Foreign Affairs) in Manila - so we will be starting that process on Monday
One last question - my wife has a new passport in her married name and also the old passport in her maiden name, surely this is proof that she has gotten married to me?