Marriage Registration China

I am an American. My wife is Chinese. We got married in HK in 2011.

The laws in HK are different than China. However, your HK marriage license will be accepted in China.'

Keep that in mind.

You will not have any problems. Your greatest worry is the fear of the unknown.

Best of luck.

VANNROX wrote:

I am an American. My wife is Chinese. We got married in HK in 2011.

The laws in HK are different than China. However, your HK marriage license will be accepted in China.'

Thank you for your replya Vannrox.

How ever, I am still confused. Where do we have to go after the wedding? Where do we have to register our marriage?

Can you explain it to me from your experience? It will be really a great help.

In HK, there is a "cooling period" around three months long. You just cannot go and get married. You have to register to get married.  You go to the HK department of "getting married" or what ever they call it. You fill out some papers. Have a medical exam. Wait three months and then get your marriage certificate in a presentation with a bunch of other (very happy) people getting married.

When we first tried this, we found that the costs were reasonable, but we did need to go through all kinds of legalistic formalities. Shes from China, and had to present some documents. I am from the USA and I had to present some documents. So, long story short, we gave up going the cheap way. We instead went to a barrister (a HK lawyer) who handled all the paperwork for us. It was more expensive, but hassle free.

We did not have a ceremony. But we did get a document. When the HK government granted the document, we had a little meeting in one of the HK barrister's meeting room. We both signed the document and we were married.

Now when ever we need to prove that we are married, we just take the document with us.

For instance, we are working trying to have babies. We go back and forth to the birthing hospital.  Our babies need to have married parents. So we need to prove that we are married. We just take our marriage certificate with us and that is all that is needed. They scan it in the computer system, and I use my thumb print to verify that it is me.

On another instance, when I applied for my spousal visa Q2. I just went to the Chinese embassy and showed them our marriage certificate.  We filled out some papers, and that was all there was to it.

Now, I could go up to Wenzhou (my wife's hometown) and get married there as well. That way, I would have a Chinese AND a HK marriage certificate. But we don't need to. So far, we have had no problem proving that we have been married.

Best of luck. Marriage is not something to take lightly. Make sure that it is something that you really want to do with that other person in your life. But, I am sure that you know all about this. It will work out just fine.

We already have appointment for the wedding in Hong Kong actually. But we never ask to go for medical examination. Why do we have to do this? What Kind of medical exam do we have to do?

The only requirement that we sent are just our passport copy and form that we have to filled up and notarized. Then after the wedding ceremony in a marriage registrar, we will be receiving our marriage certificate.

Sounds great. Best of wishes for both of you!