British, married in China, confused by Apostille system

[gardeninggirl14]

I'm not quite sure where to start but long story short, I'm British and married my British husband in Beijing, China in 2013. At the time, we were resident there hence deciding to marry there. We went through the registry office equivalent and got our chinese marriage licences. Eight years later, we're back in the UK and my husband is applying for Austrian passports for him and our child. However, the Austrians, quite reasonably, want a marriage licence that isn't in mandarin chinese and want an apostille. However, China isnt part of the Hague Convention so I'm not sure if they can even issue an apostille. So I guess my questions are how do I get a Chinese marriage recognised in the UK, and is there a way of my getting an apostille/apostille-equivalent without schlepping all the way back to Beijing?! Any advice or pointers in the right direction would be so gratefully received.

Don't know about Chinese marriages in particular, but when we got married in a different country, we had to get an official translation of the marriage certificate from our local British consulate in order to ensure that the marriage would be recognised in the UK.

If you were legally married in China, your marriage is automatically recognised in the UK. However, you can't get an apostille for a Chinese document in the UK.

Sorry - meant to say "from the UK", not "in the UK".

wrt austria, maybe have s look at the toytown germany forum.
there is a subsection about behörden that might be what you need.
(caution: viper's nest that makes mumsnet look tame)

@prh47bridge

If you were legally married in China, your marriage is automatically recognised in the UK. However, you can't get an apostille for a Chinese document in the UK.

@prh47bridge - do you mean that I can't get an apostille from anywhere physically in the UK? I was thinking perhaps that I could go to the Chinese Embassy in London but their website is impossible to navigate.

Also, my understanding is that the apostille is basically a bit of paper that says, in English, that my marriage licence is recognised as valid by the Chinese govt who issued it. Is that right?

@AlexaShutUp - this wasnt offered over in China. We got a certificate of no impediment from the consular team which allowed us to marry but there was no option for a certified translation, unfortunately.

@redcandlelight - will brace myself and check it out, sounds... interesting!

Diplomatic authentification can be used in place of the apostilisation. Presume this would be from the Chinese embassy in London?

do you mean that I can't get an apostille from anywhere physically in the UK? I was thinking perhaps that I could go to the Chinese Embassy in London but their website is impossible to navigate.

That's why I corrected myself to "from the UK". The UK government can't give you an apostille for a Chinese document.

You are correct that an apostille essentially confirms that the document is genuine.

We were married abroad and when we needed to use our marriage certificate for residency elsewhere we had to first send it to the high commission in London of the country of marriage and then to the same place as UK docs go for legalisation.

You will need to do some variation of the below:

• marriage certificate officially stamped by Ministry of Foreign Affairs in China (they may require another stamp first) then
• ministry of Foreign Affairs stamp stamped (verified) by Australian Embassy in Beijing then
• Australian Embassy stamp stamped by Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Basically the document needs to get physically send around for stamping by different government bodies.

There are companies you can pay to do this for you (in general, I don't know specifically for a Chinese marriage certificate and Aus)

*sent. This is assuming the Hague convention does apply to China as you've said (I haven't checked)

the op mentions austria not australia.
there might be additional translation requirements.

Call the Chinese Embassy in London, they will help. There’s a service you can use to do this but you need to call.

Does he actually need to prove you are married, or rather just that his child is his? DP is going though the same Austrian citizenship for himself and his DD, and all he needed was her BC apostilled here (she was born here), to prove she is his child, as her citizenship flows from his.

Whoops :) Same comments but read Austria rather than Australia. There would normally be done form of official translator as well.

@PatriciaHolm - that is a really good question. My DH did say the Austrians wanted an apostille but, given we are not applying for a passport for me, perhaps a certified translation of our marriage licence will be sufficient. Fortunately, my child was born here so at least the birth certificate is British and therefore straight forward.

@GrumpyHoonMain - i tried calling the CHinese Embassy but gave up after being on hold for about 40 minutes and not getting to speak to a human being. Will try again first thing tomorrow.

@Normaigai - yeah, I thought there would be a fair amount of back and forth with Embassies and the MFA. I have looked for an agency to do this on our behalf - very happy to pay if it saves us all travelling to Beijing - but the visa agencies I've tried so far have both said that they can't help and I need to go there myself! Will keep trying.

THank you all for your replies, very helpful and much appreciated.

Call the Chinese Embassy where you're currently based and ask. When I Google I'm only getting companies for the country I'm in but what you're looking for is attestation or legalisation services. It's possible China is weird and you have to travel but it seems unlikely.

I'm going through the application process for my family at the moment.

The only reason the Austrian govt would need a marriage certificate is if there was a change of name to one of the applicants. They don't need to know if he is married or not.

So if your husband has changed his name to yours or if your child has your surname or a double barrelled one you would need it. Otherwise you don't. The embassy themselves are amazing at helping with these applications (am presuming it's due to the new persecuted ancestors ruling?) and get back to emails really quickly. Drop them a line and they can help clarify.

@oohmamama - unfortunately I insisted my child take my name too, so he has a double-barrelled one. Sounds like that is going to be an extra hurdle but once the Chinese embassy opens back up, hopefully we can sort the legalisation of the marriage cert. And yes its due to the persecuted ancestors ruling, my husband and son can both get Austrian passports which, in these Brexit times, is a pretty big deal. But it sounds like you dont need me to tell you that! Good luck with your application, hope you get it sorted.

Thanks @gardeninggirl14 it's quite a process getting through it all but I finally sent it all off yesterday.

My grandmother was married 3 times and she was my paternal grandmother so I had to get her 3 marriage certs plus my fathers birth certificate plus my birth certificate.

Have the Austrians said they have to have the marriage cert? I'd just be surprised as the only proof they need is link to your husband and that's already there in both the name and the birth certificate. Sorry if you've already asked - just worth a try.

I'm so happy to be going through this process - it feels like wrongs are being righted and, like you say - at just the right time!

Just as an aside - I don't have boys but there was some talk on other boards about national conscription for boys at 18 - might be worth checking out! Good luck with it.

Sounds obvious, so forgive me if you have, but have you called the Austrian Embassy in London? DP (applying under the same rule) has found them very helpful, even though they are technically not open!

@PatriciaHolm thank you, good question, and yes, my husband is speaking to a very helpful woman at the Austrian embassy. I think its just a bit more complicated as we are both British but married in China, and the Chinese Embassy is closed, etc. But the advice above is really helpful so Im a bit more confident now that I can get this done...I hope!