Marrying a chinese girl

[BrazilianGuy]

Hi,

I'm not familiar with the procedures of marriage in China, I'm moving to the next step in my relationship and I'm planning to marry a girl from Inner Mongolia.

I don't ask it to her for a elementary reason, first I want to understand everything about the procedures, China is really famous for its burocracy.

I'm not going to live in China, I want to marry her and later live in America, to start, I assume she will need to get a passport to travel abroad, but before moving to this part, what are the procedures to a foreigner marry a chinese girl?

What she will need to do to get her passport and her visa to travel to U.S.A. ?

I'm living and working in U.S.A., my current visa status here is H1B, I don't know if H1b visa will allow to bring my wife, I believe she will need to get a visa in China before traveling to U.S.A. right?

Oh.... I'm really confused!

[Stefani]

Hi Brazilianguy,

I don't know anything about the procedures involved for a Chinese woman marrying a foreigner. Definitely she will need a passport to travel, so why doesn't she just apply for that first, even before the wedding, etc.? At least one thing out of the way.

As far as H1B, I believe you can sponsor your spouse, but then your spouse will not be allowed to work. I was on H1B, but was single, then.

Good luck and congratulations! Hopefully some of the others will post and help you out.

[KIWIBOY]

I am curious - did you get her parents approval ?. I am in a very sticky situation still - my gf wants to marry me and I her - her father won't approve and threatens to disown her if we get married. Currently, I won't do it because of that.

[HashiriKata]

my gf wants to marry me and I her - her father won't approve and threatens to disown her if we get married.

I'm sorry to hear that this is your situation, but we shouldn't assume that it'd be the same with someone else, should we?

As the New Year is with us, I wish you better luck next time!

[simonlaing]

Hi Brazil guy,

I (a U.S. citizen) am planning to get legally married this summer and have the wedding in the fall or the following spring.

On the legal side you need to get a form the local government office where you are going to register to get married in China. They will give you a Affidavit of being "single" which you take back to the City hall / Government office to fill out the form and/or give you a certificate of Singleness which must have a stamp with a seal on it. You then take this stamped certified certificate to the Chinese embassy which attaches an authentication form and puts a big stamp on it. You then take form back to China to the Town hall of the town you want to get married. Your fiancee fills out a local form of singleness which is checked in the register. Most forms with other languages have to be translated even the ones given by the chinese embassy in your home country.

You then sign some forms pay a processing fee and get a marriage certificate. (this part usually happens all in one day cause certain days are lucky to get married. ) They may also give you some "how to" sex videos .

On the wedding side Chinese people often have the weddings some time later after the certificate is gotten, sometimes 6 months to 2 years later, depending on conditions.

But the cool thing about Chinese weddings is that the guests often pay for the wedding's cost. Each guest has to give a Hong bao usually of at least 200-500 sometimes 2000-5000 depending on relationship and means. (I plan on getting married in the middle of the road nanjing.) Also on the wedding day you have to go the ritual of going to the parents house usually and paying respects. And often paying a hongbao for the wife to be to come with you. You should take several hongbao with increasing amounts of money. (sort of like a dowry but it is more ritualistic than for the actual money I think.)

After you get married you need to take certified copies of the marriage certificates and originals to your embassy to register the marriage with them. (in the case of the US this starts the process of getting a green card and/or citizernship for the spouse.)

Also after marriage and living together in china for 5 years you can apply for a Chinese green card. )

In the mean time if you don't have a regular job they will extend your other visa indefinitely as long as you are married irrespective of job status or other previous conditions.

I hope this helps, though I know going back to your country just to get single certificate is annoying, It is the Chinese government's way of making you go back one more time to make sure you really want to married a chinese person.

Good Luck and congratulations on finding such a great person,

Simon

[grimacekid]

Congrats!

As for customes, you can get lots of help here.

As for legal process, i think it will be better to call the emigration office of both countries.

[HashiriKata]

I know going back to your country just to get single certificate is annoying, It is the Chinese government's way of making you go back one more time to make sure you really want to married a chinese person.

I like your attitude!

[ironfrost]

I hope this helps, though I know going back to your country just to get single certificate is annoying, It is the Chinese government's way of making you go back one more time to make sure you really want to married a chinese person.

I think this is due to your own country's policy rather than the Chinese government's. As a British citizen, I was able to get the certificate (and the official translation into Chinese) through my country's embassy without having to leave China.

Once you have the certificate, getting married is scarily easy - simonlaing said a day, but for us it was more like an hour between turning up at the register office (no appointment) and leaving as a legally married couple. The wedding ceremony is totally separate from the legal process, but many Chinese people don't consider themselves married until they've had a big wedding, which like the previous poster said is often several months after they get registered.

[woliveri]

Anyone know how long the process takes after marrying a Chinese girl before she can leave China for the husband's home country (U.S)?

Is it days, weeks, months???

Thanks,

[studentyoung]

Anyone know how long the process takes after marrying a Chinese girl before she can leave China for the husband's home country (U.S)?

Is it days, weeks, months???

If you two have already prepared all legal documents and other stuffs needed, and the husband is a U.S citizen (not a green-card holder), the process might take three months or even less.

If you two still haven’t prepared legal documents and the stuffs needed, the process might take months.

Thanks!

[mr.stinky]

for those of us in china, the u.s. embassy or the consulates can provide the certificate

of singleness.

so much for my nawlidge. what happens with the visa after this? would you keep

your x-visa and continue studies? or do you need to change to an L-visa?

and can you work on an L-visa?

[simonlaing]

On the visa, I was told that once you have the marriage certificate you can use it to extend your visa even if you don't actually have job at that moment. so if you had a Z visa and your contract ran out and you wanted to just do private tutoring you could use the marriage to extend your Z visa. After 5 years of marriage and living in China you can apply for a Chinese Green Card. (These are also given to rich business men or other connected people. It will let you go through the Chinese national lines at Airports and not worry about renewing visas . Though I think you still have to register with the local police when you move somewhere.)

Good luck with your wedding,

Have fun,

Simon

[davidzq]

To get married in china, you need a single certificate; this can be acquired in EITHER the US or in China. Believe it or ont, it's easier to do it in china.

Once married, the only ones who can petition for a family-based visa to enter the US is a US Citizen or Legal Permanent Resident.

The process takes about 9-12 months for spousal cases; (fiancee cases take about 8-10 months.)

[the_celt]

hi there, can anyone tell me the doucuments needed to marry in china,i am liveing in scotland and plane to go over in the new year and marry my sweethart:help

[davidzq]

You should contact the consulate for your citizenship/country...

if you happen to be a US Citizen, you can start here (and I can provide alot more info if USC needs it):

http://guangzhou.usconsulate.gov/marriedchina.html

[the_celt]

thanks daveie i got in contact with the irish emmbassey to day they are gonna send me out all papers that i need cheers pal

[melillini]

I am a US citizen, and have been in the process of marrying a Chinese girl from Anshan since January 26th 2007. On May 1 2007 I received notice from the UCIS of an approved I-129F Petition for Fiance (E) visa, or a K-1 visa. This approved petition was forwarded to the US Consulate General in Guangzhou on May 28th 2007. To date, my fiance is still waiting for her interview. Their web site states a 3 to 5 month wait. It has been almost 9 months. Their recent response to my inquiry, was, they were in the process of scheduling. I have contacted my congressman. The congressman's office stated the Consulate in Guangzhou, is known for their delays.

Has anyone had any experience with this? I was told it would be easier to get my fiance to the US, with a K-1 visa, than to marry her in China, and then apply for the appropriate visa. Any comments on this will be appreciated.

[yonglin]

Has anyone had any experience with this? I was told it would be easier to get my fiance to the US, with a K-1 visa, than to marry her in China, and then apply for the appropriate visa. Any comments on this will be appreciated.

This is true. Would you have married her in China, you would have had to apply for a spousal visa on her behalf, and the waiting time for those is even longer. Belive me. I've spent hours and hours reading on this.

The only loop-hole seems to be (1) get married and establish residence abroad together with your wife, (2) walk into the embassy/consulate of the country in which you are both non-temporary residents and apply directly to them. It seems like such requests have been met quite quickly in the past (at least in more developed countries, such as Canada or Western Europe... no idea about China, really). I would imagine that this is at the discretion of embassy workers, as well.

Sometimes I just feel quite sorry for you Americans: your immigration system is really quite inhumane. I've heard it's actually smoother for American citizens to immigrate to places such as Canada or Australia with their foreign spouses (assuming you have the level of education to qualify on some "qualified worker scheme") than bringing your spouse to the US. Seems ridiculous, eh?

[melillini]

Quote:

"Sometimes I just feel quite sorry for you Americans: your immigration system is really quite inhumane. I've heard it's actually smoother for American citizens to immigrate to places such as Canada or Australia with their foreign spouses (assuming you have the level of education to qualify on some "qualified worker scheme") than bringing your spouse to the US. Seems ridiculous, eh?"

Yes, It does seem ridiculous. I also noticed that the US Consulate in Guangzhou, charges the Chinese applicants, to talk and ask questions. The applicant must pay a fee at a bank, then recieve a pin number. The length of time, depends on the amount paid. One would think that a case number would be sufficient to allow an applicant to ask questions about their visa application. As you said Yonglin, it is very inhumane.

[Meng Lelan]

They may also give you some "how to" sex videos .

simonlaing, you must be making up this.