American w/Filipina Wife and Step-child - Bring To Bahrain

The basic process for a dependent visa and documents are detailed here:

http://lmra.bh/portal/en/page/show/189

Your employer would need to assist with this as they will be the ones doing the application on your behalf.  They HAVE to apply in THEIR login of the LMRA EMS system.  I don't get what you mean by doing it on your own?  will they apply and you have to bear cost?  or they won't apply even?   while they are on your sponsorship, at the back end, the company is the real sponsor and must lodge the application through their login.  Or give you the requested authorizations / forms to be able to apply through LMRA counter in Sanabis.

In all cases, you would need to have:

1) Attested marriage certificate - attestation by the Bahrain embassy in the country the marriage was performed in.  Prior to that, MOFA of that country must also attest
2) Birth certificates for the children also attested in the same manner
3) Proof of custody through court order to either parent (or a notarized NOC - for your current wife from her prior husband as well as from your previous wife for your other two kids). All of these need to be attested as well.  For your case, they may ask for an NOC PLUS the proof of custody as the case is not standard i.e. you are sponsoring kids from both partners but again, they may not 
4) Not sure if your wife would need to give custody but if required, I suppose notarized document would work if she has attested documents proving custody of the daughter or NOC from Father.  I have heard all manners of outcomes i.e. no custody needed or NOC accepted or worst case, court order of legal adoption needed

The process can take between a week to 4 weeks.  Sometimes it takes longer.

Refer to this sticky:  https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=750635

Thank you for your reply..

My step-daughtrer's biological father has no legal right to her, under Philippine law. He is not listed on the birth certificate nor has any custodial bearing on her. My wife and him were never married, the daughter does not bear his name, and again, he is not listed on her Birth Certificate. 

I was married to my two children's mother. I am now fully divorced from her. I do have full legal custody of those two children through a divorce decree (bearing Judge's Signature).

Marriage Certificate is form the United States Embassy, so no attestation necessary there.

Out of curiosity, did you face any problems in Qatar sponsoring your daughter?

The reason I ask is that based on my experience in UAE and Bahrain, the documentation requirement is onerous at times.

On the father name on birth certificate, there was a recent case about a lady who posted on these forums whose application was turned back by LMRA due to father's name not being on the birth certificate. She had to go get a paternity acknowledgement to add it to the birth certificate subsequently and get an NOC from the father.  As I said, it may or may not matter for your nationality but this is only discovered at the time of application - bit arbitrary.

It's good you have those documents but keep in mind that attestation is for using them in Bahrain i.e. the Bahrain Embassy in the home country of the document would need to attest them (which they do if the state department or ministry of foreign affairs attest first).  If you have a good service provider, a work around (doesn't work always) is to get them stamped by your Embassy in Qatar and then submit for stamping to the Bahrain Embassy.  Generally when you apply, LMRA tends to check documents and send back the documents for attestation.  As an example, I gave an NOC for my wife to sponsor my kids which was notarized in Ministry of Justice in Bahrain and they asked me to get it attested from Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bahrain for it to be used - same country, I know!!!

@XTang

Hi!

Is the process still the same? I am planning to move to Bahrain and I would like to bring my wife with her two kids with me.

Thank you for your time

Yes more or less

And sorry again, if for example in the country where they live there is no Embassy of Bahrain how can we find out which embassy provides service to their country? I couldn't find this in the MOFA website.

Thanks