marriage in china
hi
i have been looking into the procedure of getting married to a chinese national but i have found the info from embassies and the like a little bit conflicting. is there any one who has married a chinese national that could help me out? i need to know if it is possible to get the certificate in here zhuhai or does this need to be done in the place of the chinese's 'hukou'??
any help is appreciated, thanks.
We are both non-Chinese but got married in Beijing. You need a paper from your Embassy stating you aren't married in your country which you later translate at any proper translation agency into Chinese and have a stamp of that agency on it. Unless your Embassy can give you this paper both in your language and Chinese (which what my husband's Embassy did). I believe you both also need to present health check up certificates which are done in Gongbei in special clinic (the street after Vanguard going to the right). Also, your first page of the passport with picture and name should be translated into Chinese and your name should be transliterated into pinyin.
I am not sure about where you can get married but for foreigners the condition is that at least one party should be on residency in the city of registration. In your case you MIGHT need to go to the place of the Chinese Hukou.
Good luck. Hope you get more information. US Embassy has a good page on marriage to Chinese nationals on their website. Check it out.
Oh and you need to give them I think 3 or 4 pictures of you both taken as a couple on red background (they would know at the photo place if you say what you need the picture for).
I married a Chinese national. We had to get married in Wuhan, the place closest to her hukou, even though she lived in Shenzhen at the time.
If your country has an embassy and several consulates in China, make sure you get the certificate of eligibility to marry from the right place; ask your embassy. For example, I had to get my certificate from the embassy in Beijing; the consulate in Guangzhou did not have jurisdiction over Wuhan.
I did not have to provide a health certificate, but I did get photos done by a photo shop near the marriage bureau in Wuhan -- they know best what the nearby Wuhan authorities require exactly. And I did have to provide a photocopy of my passport -- again I got a nearby copy shop to do it, since they knew the exact requirements of the (sticky, particular) officials in the marriage office in Wuhan.
This is the proceedure I undertook. I went to the Consulate in Guangzhou where they checked my passport to ensure I have been in China for at least 21 days. They took the details and then another twenty two days later they dispatched the certificate of eligibility to me by courier. After I had made the application I could have left China at any time but the twenty one days before the application is a must.
You do have to marry in the place nearest to the chinese nationals hukou. I say nearest because not all cities ave the facilities for marrying foreigners. My wife was from Henyang but we had to go to Changsha. At that office they have their own photographer so everything is carried out in house so to speak.
well that pretty much clears things up for me. thanks for all of the help.