Questions about Hokou documents

[Russell T 3]

Hi everyone. While we wait for the NOA2 I am helping my fiance prepare the documents she will need. Since the process started she ended up moving back to her home area and is living with her sister and brother-in-law. This means I will have to let NVC know of the address change when it gets to that point.

At least she can now go to her Hukou for her birth Certificat, police cert, ect. I have been doing searchs and I'm still a bit confused. Are the Hukou and the Gong Zhen Chu (China's Notarial Offices) the same thing? Do the documents she get there still need to be notarised and translated?

One post says from the Hukou you get "a notarial document will be in the standard white notarial booklet, have an official red seal, an English translation and an attestation to the true translation"

I guess my question is the Hukou one stop shopping for the birth cert, police cert.,still single cert and divorce cert.? Am I reading this correctly?

Thanks everyone.

[Operator 1,927]

As everything else related to China your question can have several answers. Here is my answer/opinion so use it with caution. Hukou is a household registration and her family's will obviously note her birth but it's not her birth certificate. What I believe is the important thing is that she obtain the required documents for her Hukou city, or the city of her family/birth. What we would call her "hometown". The various offices within the village/town/city where she is from that will provide those documents may or may not have an official notorial translation service.

So my answer is no. Hukou and Gongzheng are two different things and she will have to find the appropriate offices that handle the different documents. Hopefully sister and brother-in-law, or anyone else in the family, will have some good guanxi with the local government and they can help her out.

I left this all up to my wife because she kept reminding me "thing work differently here". I think your fiancé will do fine. Good luck and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.

We had an address change also. Make sure you manage that carefully with NVC, I was not diligent and it cost us many weeks of delays.

[Russell T 3]

Thanks Operator,

She is back in her hometown now and her sister is a retired civil servant so that might help. I'm just trying to help by getting any info here I can to pass on to her.

I know they do not have birth certificates but something can be issued to fill that requiement. She was divorced in the 90's and she has that doc and I had it translated and noterized here so we basicly need just the Police report, the still single and birth certificate papers. She plans on going to the Huhou in Chengdu with her sister in a couple of weeks I am trying to figure out where she can have the docs translated and noterized, would this be at the Congzhen? (China Notrial Office)

[Operator 1,927]

Some notorial offices do translation, I imagine in Chengdu that won't be a problem.

[Pitaya 2,577]

Some notorial offices do translation, I imagine in Chengdu that won't be a problem.

I agree with Operator, a similar service business should be available in Chengdu. My fiancee used a business that did both the translation and notarization services, resulting in a "White Book," in Liaoning province. She ended up presenting White Books for her and her son's birth certificates, their police reports, her divorce decree, her marriage eligibiliity cert. There may have been more, I know it looked like a White Book library. She must have read and followed the instructions correctly, as that there were no issues at the visa interview, she and her son's visas were approved.

YMMV.

[Darnell 8,479]

one 'shows' the hukuo and china ID card to get:

1. birth certificate

2. police certificate

3. certificate of 'no marry' if single and not divorced

then, ya take those 3 things to a chinese notarial translation office.

here's some stuff about white books: (ignore the bickering, the meat and potatoes in golden)

white books - http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/228853-notarial-birth-certificate/

Good Luck !

[bigdog 376]

Great answers, my wife says follow the directions given.

[Larry_and_Xinji 1]

I would note that there has been some confusion about the unmarried certificate. I e-mailed the Guangzhou consulate directly and got a response on this. It should be a sworn and notarized statement by the beneficiary of being presently single and able to marry.

Also, they don't really want a white book - they are asking people to remove the covers now - but it was not an issue to do that at the time of document intake.

Edited July 3, 2012 by Larry_and_Xinji