Shenzhen

Hi I'm a Brit marrying my Chinese girlfriend in China in September.

I've started the 28 day notice period to get my certification on no impediment from my local registry office in the UK. I've read online that once I have this I can either get it legalized in the UK or I can take it to a British embassy in China and get it swapped for a legal document there.

Is this correct?

I'm only in China for a week so is changing the form a the embassy in China a same day service and would this still need translating?

In would have just gone down the route of legal using everything in the UK but I'm not sure I will have sufficient time to do this before I fly out to China.

Any help would be appreciated, a lot of the info online seems outdated.

Thanks guys

HKG3

I have said it before, it may be too late. Have you ever consider marrying in Hong Kong? People from outside Hong Kong can marry in Hong Kong - please see Marriage Registration Q7 below -

Marriage Registration | Immigration Department

Shenzhen is only across the river from Hong Kong and the Hong Kong marriage certificate will not need to be translated into English as it is in both Chinese and English.

Shenzhen

Hi there,

That was an option we considered but you have to give 3 months notice before you can marry in HK and we do not want to wait that long.

nonthaburi

Why not , you've got your whole life ahead of you.

Marry in haste, repent at leisure!

Shenzhen

At the moment we cant live together in the same country due to visa issues. The sooner we get married the sooner we can apply for a Uk spouse visa and hopefully be together.

I understand what you are saying about marrying in haste but we have been together for a substantial amount of time and both agree that we want to spend our lives together. I don't see any need for us to prolong the awful period of separation.

nonthaburi

Fair enough, I'm in a period of separation from my own family at the moment due to visa issues.

Shenzhen

Sorry to here that, I hope things get resolved for you quickly.

nonthaburi

Saudis, not known for their speed!

InVinoVeritas

No fake passports on this forum please!

Shenzhen

?

HKG3

To be fair to the OP and all who contributed in this thread (including myself), none of us ever said anything regarding fake passports.

Shenzhen

Anyway, I've been in touch with the British Consulate in Shanghai and they've helped me sort everything. Thanks for everyone's help.

InVinoVeritas

I know, there was an earlier post I deleted from someone selling fake passports and in banning him I with this message I somehow posted it on the forum instead. Using a smartphone on the forum is not so easy on the old eyes

uk_vette

Hi,

I married my Chinese girlfriend, some years ago.
My visa was a 6 month.

We did the "No Impediment" at the British consulate, in Kerry Center,
Beijing.
We took my divorce nisi, and the absolute.

There they post the bans in the Kerry centre.

Then I think it was 20 days later, we went to collect the cert.
It is in Mandarin, and English, with signatures and press seals of the UK embassy in Beijing.

Then we went to her home city to get married.
A very easy affair, done in an afternoon.

We got our red books each,

Then we went with a marriage office person, to an official translation notary.

There we got the full English / Mandarin translation, which is in A4 size, containing about 10 pages.
One for me, and one for her.
This consists of copies of our red marry books.
Each page in the document is signed.

When we applied to come to UK, we had to get one of the 2 A4 translation books, further notorised again, to doubly check no foul play.

Hope your's go's as smooth as ours did.

vette