Getting married in CHina

[aap989 0]

Hi to all friends,

I have some questions about the necessary documents for a foreigner who wants to marry a local girl in China.

1. I am sure all documents e.g divorce certificate, must be translated into Chinese and notarized. Can this be done in China?

2. I was also told the US consulate has to certify the documents before the local Chinese marraige authority will accept them. Is this true?

3 Finally, and this is the strangest to me, I was told the local girl needs to produce a Certificate of Singleness or Singlehood in order to get married. What about the foreigner, does he need to produce one too? In USA, nobody ever has such a document.

Anyone with similar experiences in China, I would very much appreciate your answers. Thanks.

aap989

[Daxiong 0]

Hi to all friends,

I have some questions about the necessary documents for a foreigner who wants to marry a local girl in China.

1. I am sure all documents e.g divorce certificate, must be translated into Chinese and notarized. Can this be done in China?

2. I was also told the US consulate has to certify the documents before the local Chinese marraige authority will accept them. Is this true?

3 Finally, and this is the strangest to me, I was told the local girl needs to produce a Certificate of Singleness or Singlehood in order to get married. What about the foreigner, does he need to produce one too? In USA, nobody ever has such a document.

Anyone with similar experiences in China, I would very much appreciate your answers. Thanks.

aap989

I do know that you if you have a previous divorce then you need to get your divorce decree certified by your attorny generals office and then you can send it to the Chinese consolute in Houston Tx for them to certify it. Hope this helps a little.

[YuAndDan 153]

I would recommend that you check out CFL http://candleforlove.com Post questions there and you will get a qualified answer all Chinese related.

1. Yes, I suspect a notary office in China can handle this.

2. You will need a Certificate of Marriageability to marry in China, you can get this done at the US consulate in China.

3. Yes Your fiancee will need to get a Certificate of Marriageability from her local Notary office.

[YuAndDan 153]

More info here: http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/us-citizen/mrginfo.html

[agm 0]

Hello

This is the way you must prepare a single/non-marital status ceriticate.

However, information below are from Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles....so, if I were you, I check with the one in your area.

And, if your SO is living in a city closed to Hong Kong, the other option is getting married in Hong Kong to take an advantage of having K3 interview in Hong Kong and CR1 interview in GUZ.

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The applicant who will go to China for marriage registration shall apply for a single/non-marital status certificate.

Fill out the Affidavit of Single Status and sign it before a notary public. Then follow the instructions on document authentication.

Additional information:

The divorced or the widowed shall have the divorce certificate or death certificate of the ex-spouse be authenticated/authenticated together with the Affidavit of Single Status.

The divorced whose ex-spouse is a Chinese citizen, and who hold the divorce decree executed by the US court, shall apply to the Chinese court for the acknowledgement of the divorce decree.

According to the Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China, the minimum marriageability age is 22 for men and 20 for women.

Authentication is also called certification or legalization. It is a governmental act by which a designated public official (e.g. a consular officer at an Embassy or a consul in a Consulate) certifies the genuineness of the signature and/or seal and the position of the person/official who has executed, issued or authenticated (a copy of) a document. A consular authentication in no way attests to the authenticity of the contents of a document.

The Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles only authenticates documents that are executed in America and have been certified by authorities in our consular jurisdiction (namely Southern California, Arizona, Hawaii, New Mexico and American Pacific islands) and will be used in China.

Procedure:

1. Sign the document before a notary public.

2. Have the document certified by the clerk of the county in which the notary public is commissioned.

(Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, County of Los Angeles:

12400 Imperial Highway, Norwalk, CA 90660,Tel: 562-4622060)

3. Have it certified by the Secretary of the State (Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii, Attorney General of Guam and of the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands) of the relevant state in which the document is executed.

(Office of the secretary of state of California in Los Angeles:

300 south Spring Street, Room 12513 Los Angeles, CA 90013-1233, Tel: 213-8973062)

4. Have it authenticated by the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles.

Document Requirements

1. Original and one photocopy of the complete document to be authenticated, including certification and notarization pages from the first 3 steps in the above Procedures.

2. One truthfully completed Authentication or Notarization Application Form

3. In cases of commercial documents authentication, one copy of a formal document showing the TYPE OF BUSINESS of the company and the certificate of good standing are also required. In other cases, one copy of the applicant's ID is required.

Pickup and Payments

1. Regularly it takes 4 business days to process the application. No appointment is required.

2. Authentication fees are $40 per document regarding business, finance or property and $20 per other civil document.

3. The applicant may request expedited processing. Additional fees of $20.00 per document will be charged for 2- or 3-business-day process. The same-day process is not applicable.

4. Please pay in cash or VISA/MasterCard. Checks are not acceptable.