Legitimation

A few days ago, a friend of mine called me to ask for help in changing her son’s name in his birth certificate. Her child was born before the effectivity of Republic Act No.9255, which allows illegitimate children to use their birth father’s surname. She and the father eventually got married. However, their since the child was born before R.A 9255, he still bore his mother’s surname.

The process of changing an illegitimate child’s status to legitimate is called Legitimation. It takes place when the parents of a child who was conceived and born outside of marriage subsequently marry each other.

In Legitimation, it is necessary that when the child was conceived and born, the parents were not disqualified by any legal impediment to marry each other.

Under the law, legitimated children enjoy the same rights as legitimate children and the effect of legitimation shall retroact to the time of the child’s birth.

The process of recording such legitimation varies. The requirements would depend on that of the local civil registrar where the birth of the child was recorded and/or registered. However, most common requirements include the following:

1.Joint Affidavit of Legitimation signed by both parents.
2.Certified True Copy of Marriage Contract
3.Certified True copy of Birth Certificate
4.Admission of Paternity/ Acknowledgment of Father
5.Certificate of No Marriage (CENOMAR) from NSO

Some local civil registrars require the personal appearance of both parents and an interview. For a more specific list of requirements, inquire at the pertinent local civil registrar.

Once the legitimation is recorded in the local civil registrar, an entry in the child’s birth certificate shall be made, enabling him or her to use the surname of the birth father and raising the status of the child from illegitimate to legitimated.