China - Getting Married

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Procedure

1. Submit the Required Documents
2. After the establishment of the new marriage law, it now takes the marriage registration office about an hour or so to review the submitted documents and approve of the application.
3. Once the marriage registration office approves of the application and registers the marriage, it will issue a marriage certificate to be picked up by the couple.

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Required Documents

• Application form
• A certificate of marriageability (obtainable from his/ her danwei)
• A certificate of birth
• Household registration book (hukou)
• A health certificate (obtainable from a regional-level local hospital)
• A letter from the parents of the Chinese partner giving permission for their child to marry

Office Locations & Contacts

Marriage Registration Office ?????????????
Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau
Add: Ground floor, No. 20 Gongren Tiyuchang Donglu, Chaoyang District ???????????20?1??
Telephone : 010-6586 6660, 010-6539 5015, 010-6539 5016
Business hours: 9:00-11:30 a.m. and 1:30-5:00 Mondays through Fridays; Saturdays, 9:00-11:30 a.m. only;
closed on Chinese holidays.

Eligibility

• The persons marrying must reach the required minimum age: for men that is 22 years and for women 20 years old, except that persons may marry younger with parental permission.
  
• Persons must not be married to another person who already has a husband or wife: having more than one husband or wife in any country is not permitted under Chinese law.
  
• Only a male and a female, not two persons of the same gender, can get married in China.

Fees

Explain the fees structure which is required for obtaining the certificate/document.

Validity

Explain the time until which the certificate/document is valid.
e.g. Birth Certificate Valid Forever

Documents to Use

Application form

Sample Documents

Please attach sample completed documents that would help other people.

Processing Time

Please explain processing time taken in obtaining the document/certificate.

Related Videos

Videos explaining the procedure or to fill the applications. 
Attach videos using the following tag <&video type="website">video ID|width|height<&/video&> from external websites.
Please remove the "&" inside the tags during implementation.
Website = allocine, blip, dailymotion, facebook, gametrailers, googlevideo, html5, metacafe, myspace, revver, 
sevenload, viddler, vimeo, youku, youtube
width = 560, height = 340, Video ID = Can be obtained from the URL of webpage where the video is displayed.
e.g In the following url "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0US7oR_t3M" Video ID is "Y0US7oR_t3M". 
	

Instructions

The appropriate marriage registration office will be the one in the jurisdiction in which the Chinese partner is registered (the location of the hukou)

Required Information

• Your name
• Sex
• Date and place of birth
• Nationality
• Personal identification document number
• Marital status (never married or divorced or widowed)
• The name of your fiance/fianc

Need for the Document

Marriage between Chinese citizens within the territory of China must be entered into registration according to the provisions of these Regulations.
Both parties intending to get married must appear in person at the marriage registration authority in the place where either of the parties has his/her residence registration and apply for marriage registration.

Information which might help

Application requirements may vary from office to office. When an individual visits the appropriate marriage registration office to pick up an application form and find out which local hospital(s) the foreign partner must get checked at, he/she should also check to see if the office's requirements differ from those listed here.

Other uses of the Document/Certificate

Please explain what are other uses of obtaining this document/certificate.
e.g. Birth Certificate can be used as proof of identity.

External Links

http://www.ebeijing.gov.cn/QA/all_questions/t1068433.htm
http://beijing.usembassy-china.org.cn/acs_married.html
http://www.shanghai.china.embassy.gov.au/shai/marriage2.html
http://english.gov.cn/service/marriage.htm

Others

danwei (work unit) The basic-level organization through which party and government officials control social, political, and economic behavior of residents. The danwei typically controls the allocation of housing, grain, edible oil, and cotton rations; the issuance of permits to travel, to marry, and to bear or adopt children; and permission to enter the army, party, and university and to change employment.