Young foreigner getting married

[ShanShan-yi]

Hello,

I have been with my Chinese girlfriend for 4 years now, and we would like to get married. I was wondering if there are any age restrictions for foreigners (male) marrying a Chinese national, as I have heard that the minimum age that 2 Chinese can marry is quite high (21 and 23?). I am 20 years old, my girlfriend is 24. We are planning to get married in China in one month. Can anyone tell me definitely if my age will be a problem or not?

Thanks,

Petr

[liuzhou]

You are planning to get married in one month, but don't know if you can get married?

You need to do a load of research. The legal age for men is 22. For women 20. Source

You don't say where you are from, but it is quite possible that even then you would need to go home to get the appropriate paperwork.

Most embassy websites carry appropriate information.

[ShanShan-yi]

Thanks for your reply.

We are planning to get married very soon, but this has actually been quite an ongoing thing, and we have been planning for several months. However, I simply cant find an answer (or maybe simply not the answer I want to hear) to my question above. By the way, I am an American national, and I am in the USA right now to get my necessary documents together so that we may be married when I return to China in a month.

So has anyone else had a similar situation, and any advice? Does the 22 year old thing only apply to Chinese?

Regards,

Petr

[fanglu]

I don't see why the law would only apply to Chinese. As a backup, you could look into getting married in a southeast Asian country. Chinese citizens can get visas relatively easily, and marriage tourism is encouraged by countries like Thailand.

[Friedrich]

I have several foreign friends (all a bit older) who married Chinese spouses and I dont know of anyone who managed to do it within less than 6 months of paperwork, getting documents from back home etc.

The record so far is 1.5 years and still ongoing....

[Scandinavian]

We got married in about 10 days from the start of the paperwork to we had it done. The main time consumer here was getting a proof of my marital status documented, the embassy does not do this (probably depends on country) so had to get it from my home country.

My passport had a business visa at the time, both of us were above the required age, so this was not an issue. The first thing I would do in your shoes would be to call the actual office where you are going to hand in the paperwork and ask about the age restriction.

Did you consider a Vegas wedding? Or as Fanglu suggests getting married somewhere else. If you do, you need to make sure that marriage will also be considered valid in the eyes of the PRC, as otherwise you might get stuck in not being able to obtain proof of marital status (that says you are single that is) I never researched this option for us, so I have no clue what it takes to get a non-Chinese marriage made valid in China.

[imron]

When you say you are getting married in one month, do mean going to the marriage office and getting your marriage certificate - making you legally married, or do you mean having the big wedding party - making you married in the eyes of family and friends?

[pancake]

As an alternative to Thailand, I would suggest Hong Kong. It's close to the mainland, and getting married there is relatively painless (from personal experience). But, since HK is under the common law system, you will need to give advance notice if you intend to get married there (see http://en.wikipedia....nns_of_marriage). Just make sure your girl understands English since they can't do it in mandarin (for obvious reasons).

[Lu]

Congratulations on your upcoming marriage then! I'd suggest that your fiancee contact the local marriage office to inquire about the rules on the Chinese end, while you contact your embassy to ask what it would take in your country. That should give you some idea of the rules and paperwork required. A friend of mine recently got married, I don't think it took him six months to get everything together.

[frankwall]

Congratulations! Hong Kong is also a good idea, that's true. Do the age restrictions also apply there as well? Some statistics do show that about 40% of Chinese don't know how their marriage or partner partner would be. Perhaps this means Chinese are able to get married more spontaneously? I guess with a foreigner it must be difficult. Certainly compare the situation in the United States and see which system is less complex for you both.