Legally Married in China

So you’ve got your single certificate, what next?

Well now comes the interesting bit, well, actually, when I say ‘interesting’ I mean it’s an experience you probably won’t forget, but not for any good reasons.

Getting married in China is not complicated, but it is more drawn out than I believe the UK marriage system is. There are some things that happen that are great fun, some things a little strange and some things are just legal formalities that must be completed but will leave you with very few, if any, wonderful memories.

The formal process of being legally married is definitely something that falls in the ‘not memorable’ end of the scale.

THE WEDDING PHOTOS?

The first step (after getting your single certificate, or marriageability certificate as I’ve seen some people refer to it) is to get some official pictures of the happy couple.

Well this sounds like a load of fun, you and your bride to be in your choice of wedding attire, or perhaps some formal pictures from your engagement party if you had one.

Well, no, not exactly, in fact, I’d say they are not ‘happy’ pictures at all. As you might have guessed, the legal aspect to marriage in China really isn’t about all of that malingering stuff like ‘love’ and ‘happiness’. Nope, not at all. This is bureaucracy, the act of doing something because it needs to be done, or following an established process.

This photo is the one that will live inside your marriage certificate, this is a nice feature of marriages in China, in that each party receives a little red book, which is essentially their marriage certificate.

As a marriage is between two people, the certificate contains details of both and includes a picture of the couple. As you can see, the marriage certificates look like passports and the rules for the wedding photos are similar to those of most passports, in that the face needs to be visible, you have to take the picture against a specific background color, the only difference is that it’s a passport and therefore a picture for 2 people:

• Both Faces must be visible
• No smiling (or limited smiling)
• Should be taken against an approved background (red)
• Heads should be close, but not touching

There are no dress requirements, we turned up in Beijing in mid-December, it’s not a warm city in December, so we’re wearing coats in our official picture.

You will probably receive 4 copies and you will need to take 3 copies to the minzhengju (民政局).

If you’re wondering why you need 3 copies of the wedding picture, well as I said, you both get a little red marriage certificate, so there will be one picture in each, and a third is kept for official records by the civil affairs office.

THE MINZHENGJU (民政局, OR CIVIL AFFAIRS OFFICE)

China is a huge country, decisions are made centrally but managed and recorded locally. You can only marry in your Chinese partner's hometown or province (where the Hukou is registered). If your partner comes from a large city such as Nanjing, Beijing, Shanghai or Chengdu for example, then you can return to this city and complete the marriage process here.

If your partner is from a smaller city, or from rural China, then you will need to visit a regional office. This is usually in the capital of your Chinese partner’s province, so for example, my wife is from Shanxi in Northern China, we had to visit the minzhengju in Taiyuan, which is the capital city for the Shanxi province.

https://binged.it/2f4CV0m

The facility in Taiyuan was huge, yet most of it was empty. It seems like a process that is designed to intimidate you rather than to embrace you.

It should be noted that the facility in Taiyuan did not require a specific appointment time, my wife called ahead and verified the opening hours and tried to make an appointment but was told that we need to call them one week ahead of our planned visit and then turn up during the before mentioned opening hours. I’ve heard similar stories from others that have gone through this process, however, it is definitely worth checking as you wouldn’t want all of your planning to come unstuck because they only marry foreigners on a Wednesday or something equally frustrating.

One final thing to note is that this is a fairly lonely event, there are no witnesses, no friends or family throwing rice at you, any guests you take will need to wait in the waiting areas.

NEARLY MARRIED..

The process of marrying seems to be a number of repeated questions:

• Are you single
• What is your full name
• What is your date of Birth
• How old are you

These were repeated to both myself and my wife. All answers were checked against the documentation provided, and on that front, you really need to take the following:

Foreign National:

• Original Passport (+ Copy)
• Your Visa page (+ Copy)
• Original Single Certificate
• You may need a health certificate if you are living in China (+ Copy) – you will not need a health certificate if you are just visiting on a tourist visa

Chinese National:

• Chinese ID (+ Copy)
• Hukou (+ Copy)

Both:

• 3x Wedding Photos

Once all checks are complete, the details of you and your spouse will be entered into a computer system and your marriage certificates will be produced, stamped and embossed with the officials’ seal. As soon as you have that paperwork, you’re legally married.

YOU’RE MARRIED, CONGRATULATIONS!

That’s it, on the one hand it feels like a bit of an anti-climax, you might have been planning this for months, or years, or maybe just days. On the other hand, you are married, the marriage is legally recognized in pretty much all other major countries, in fact I’m not aware of any countries where a Chinese marriage is not accepted. Go celebrate!

So what next?

Well, in our case, we had planned to marry in China more for the benefit and ease of access for my wife’s family. However, our plans went beyond that in that we both wanted to return to the UK and to live there as a married couple, so we used that marriage certificate as part of our documentation for her visa application. I’ll talk more about that process in another post.

Well that’s it, so thank you for reading this, I hope it gives you a little insight into the whole process.