Moving to ShenZhen - Advice

[Kalef]

1st post, so a big hello from me

I'm in the UK at the moment & looking for some advice on the best way to move to ShenZhen to live (and hopefully work).

I have been to ShenZhen twice this year, 1 month each time, on single entry tourist visa's (I applied for a multi entry visa & was told I couldn't have one on an 'L' visa).

My girlfried is Chinese & we hope to get married early next year & remain in SZ. I don't have any degrees & so don't think I will be able to step into a job immediately, but have enough UK income from renting my property for a job not to be essential.

If anyone can give me some advice/tips on Visa's or any documentation I will need to marry in China, I would be very grateful.

Cheers

Steve

[cdn_in_bj]

If anyone can give me some advice/tips on Visa's or any documentation I will need to marry in China, I would be very grateful.

You need some sort of official document from your home country stating that you are not currently married. The actual name of this document varies by country, and for many countries you can obtain it from their consular offices in China. However, I specifically remember reading that UK citizens could only get this document in the UK. So you should definitely look into this before you come over.

Once you get to China, you need to get the document translated into Chinese by a translation company, but that is a relatively painless (and inexpensive) process.

As to the type of visa to get, I don't think it matters with respect to marriage. In any case, with you being in Shenzhen it would be relatively convenient to head over to HK to get any visa issues sorted out.

[Kalef]

Thanks cdn, I will look into that document & pick one up when I get another 'L' visa.

Steve

[lilongyue]

The document mentioned is called a Certificate of Eligibility to Marry by the Americans.  British citizens can get one here in China, my English friend got his about a month or two ago from the British consulate in Shanghai.

Getting married in China is pretty painless.  You need the above mentioned certificate, and your passport.  Your wife needs her ID and Hukou.  You'll need to go to the province where you wife's Hukou resides to be married.  Is she originally from Shenzhen?  If not, and if she hasn't moved her Hukou, that means you'll have to go back to her home province to be married.  You'll also need some pictures.  The Chinese Jiehun Zheng, or marriage certificate, requires a special picture of the two of you together.  You can go to a place where they take passport photos to have it taken.

Since each country's law differs on marrying abroad, you'll have to check what British law has to say.  It only cost me about 250 RMB to get my Certificate of Eligibility to Marry from the U.S. consulate in Shanghai.  I was able to walk out with it about 15 minutes after entering the consulate.  There wasn't any background check done when I swore that I hadn't been married before. They just took my word for it. There is a clause on the document that says the consulate isn't responsible if I lied about my marriage status. My British friend, on the other hand, spent around 2,000 RMB, and because of some antiquated British law had to wait a month before collecting the document.  British law requires you to publicly post the Certificate of Eligibility to Marry for a month, so that anyone can object to it (just in case you lied, I guess).

The real difficulty in marrying a Chinese comes when you want to go back home, either to visit or live. Start saving all your emails and chats right now. Take a lot of pictures together, too, and not only with her but her family. You'll have to prove that your marriage is legit, and to do this will need to show a lot of evidence. Also, make sure that you really want to live in Shenzhen because bringing your Chinese wife anywhere else will be difficult, or flat out impossible. Thoroughly research what you would need to do to bring your wife back to the U.K., since at some point you'll want to go back, if only to introduce your wife to your family.

My wife was just turned down for a tourist visa to the U.S. We were told that we didn't have sufficient ties to China to make the man who interviewed my wife for the visa (yes, she will need to go through an interview) believe we would come back. I currently only have a two year degree, which the interviewer said wasn't enough. I am a student, and even though I paid next semester's tuition to help prove that we're serious about returning to China, he said only studying language wasn't enough. They will also check how much money you have in China. Having a lot of money or land back home might hurt and not help you. Since you have no degree, and won't even be working in Shenzhen, it might be very hard for you to bring your wife back to the U.K. Rumor has it getting immigrant visa's are easier than tourist visas. Anyway, you should start reading and preparing for all of this stuff now.

[roddy]

The procedure for UK citizens is detailed here. To sum up, you need to be in China for 21 days, so you can't just fly in and get married. Once you've been here for 21 days you can post Notice of Intent to Marry at the consular offices. This stays there for 21 days, in case the the wife and kids you abandoned in Birmingham happen to be in town and see it. Assuming they don't, then you get your Certificate of No Impediment.

[Kalef]

Thank you so much for your time & information lilongyue, sorry to hear of the problems your having returning to the US. I hope things work out well in the end. Roddy, thank you for the link which I will be reading now.

We hope to be buying a property in SZ around September next year, so we will have capital tied in both countries & I'm hoping to get a job at some stage too. Fingers crossed, visiting England won't be too difficult.

Sorry I couldn't reply earlier, I'm working shifts atm.

Thanks again,

Steve

[Kalef]

Can I ask another question ... If we have children (Born in China) would they have dual nationality & be able to travel (fairly) freely between the 2 countries when they are older?

[cdn_in_bj]

Can I ask another question ... If we have children (Born in China) would they have dual nationality & be able to travel (fairly) freely between the 2 countries when they are older?

The short answer is yes they can travel to the UK, however since China doesn't recognize dual nationality you'd have to get your children UK citizenship (and I can't see why this would be a bad thing nor difficult to do). And then they'd have to apply for Chinese visas when coming back here. Have a look at this thread:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/14304-hukou-for-mixed-nationality-families

[johnd]

About children born in China, with one British parent and one Chinese parent:

I wanted to give you a link to some British Embassy advice, but they've changed it and now it talks about "relinquishing the British passport" - that's got me confused. Anyway, it is relatively easy to get the child a British passport at the embassy. However China will not recognise the passport since the child will be viewed as Chinese, and Chinese nationals must have a valid visa for their destination to board an international flight (or the correct documentation to enter Hong Kong). And so the lifetime of paperwork continues.

If you have enough cash when the time comes, you might consider having the child in Hong Kong. You'd still be faced with lots of paperwork, but at least you give the child one more choice.

[cdn_in_bj]

johnd - that is indeed confusing. I'm surprised that the rules would be different if the child were born in Beijing. That seems to be the better of the two options, and seems to be in-line with what I heard for children born to mixed couples of other nationalities.

So Kalef, maybe you should consider moving to Beijing before having kids?

[Kalef]

Thanks Johnd & cdn, really appreciate your help. Off to have a read of the links now ...

[lilongyue]

My wife found this website http://candleforlove.com/. It's all about Americans with Chinese wives or fiancees, and contains info and advice from people who have gone through the various visa procedures. I know you aren't American, but if you haven't found any websites like this for Brits, there might be links.

[Kalef]

Thanks lilongyue, I will go through the forums there & see if there's info I can use.

Steve