If you are in possession of a "no impediment to marriage" certificate issued by your own Department of Births and marriages and this document is certified by the Chinese Consulate in your home town, then you DONT need to wait 21 days.
If you have not got this document, you can go to your own Embassy in Beijing or Guangzhou and get the same thing, and it must be notarised by a Chinese notary....also you dont need to wait 21 days
If you have neither piece of paper, then they will post a notice of intent to marry in the Marriage Office which must be there for 21 days, and you cant be married in the meantime.
When we went to the marriage Office, we had evey piece of paper that could ever be needed...all they wanted to see was the certificate from the Aussie Embassy in Guangzhou and its equivalent Chinese notarised copy.......10 minutes later we were married and had our red books !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!....and our marriage took place 4 days after my arrival in Chengdu.
All other paper...divorce cert, birth cert, Aussie "no impediment document, Bank statement, Kitchen sink reciept
was of no interest to them
Mind you, this was in Chengdu...and I stress that every City has different requirements...so check it out first !!!Go off to your local Marriage Office and ask them what documents they want you to produce...better take your Lady with you, they only have one word of English..."congwaturations " !!!!!
David E
Jason, it sems to me that your best plan is to go to your nearest Aussie Embassy and get the documents...this waives your 21 days and it saves trecking back to Aus to get them.
They do them while you wait and will recommend a notary for the Chinese Translation...they cost me 450 RMB the pair. The Aussie Embassy Staff at Guangzhou were fantastic, gave us all sorts of advice and were very pleased to see us and help us...I felt right at home for the brief time we were there....even got to speak Aussie for a while instead of Chinglish
Nobody asked or enquired how long I had been in China before we were married, the Marriage Office only wanted that particular piece of paper that I mentioned. So I dont think your prior stay in China has any relevance to your marriage.