Thanks for the heads up. I do recall reading this previously. This is another reason I have no choice but to fly back ASAP, once I’ve heard from the legislator. I’ve already got an appointment with the registry office in the UK. My daughter will be born in about 5 months. The process altogether shouldn’t take longer than 4.
It takes 1 month from your appointment to get the certificate of no impediment, then about a week or two to get it legalized or whatever they call it by the foreign office. After that you’ll need to have it verified by the Taipei Office in the UK which will take a week or two. It took me less than two months, but I would schedule two months to get it done. You can leave the UK as soon as you have had your appoint at the registry office though if someone can help you do the rest of the process, just confirm that the registry office can send the documents to a family member, or a family member can pick them up on your behalf. I also translated mine to Chinese and had it notarized in Taiwan, which took a few days, but I’m not sure if that step is necessary.
You’re completely right. I went through a similar process with the no trace document already. I think the core difference is the having to be there in person and then having to wait 28 days.
I managed to get a family member to complete the process for me before, so I’m hoping I can do the same with the no impediment document once I’ve visited the registry office.
If I don’t it will be a bit closer as I have to allow another month and a half or so to leave the country again to update my visa. Should still work out though.
Does anyone know how long the certificate of no impediment is ‘in-date’ for? Is it good for life, or does it have a shelf life? For instance, if I go through all the steps listed here, how long do I have to get back to Taiwan and use the certificate to apply for a marriage? Maybe @meishijia knows
Also, any updates @atmnelson ?
I am not sure, sorry. Call a household registration office and see what their rules are. For some reason 3 months keep jumping out at me but don’t take my word on that. Also, if the certificate has an expiry date, don’t trust that by itself as Taiwan may have their own rule on how long ago it can be issued.
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Cheers, I’ll ask my fiancé to do that. I’d also like to know whether the certificate has to fall within the current ROC year or anything like that. We were given a document stating the accepted documents in Taiwan but there was nothing stating a date-range. Bit concerned that we might waste money and effort only to be told we’re out-of-date.
2021 JULY UPDATE
I just wanted to chime in as I’ve gone through this for over a year at this point and it’s been driving me mental.
As it stands:
••• You cannot use a Letter of No Trace/Single Status, or other “To whom it may concern” documents to get married in Taiwan as a UK citizen anymore. •••
After following the advice of this thread repeatedly (I’m also Scottish) and going to multiple different HROs, then dealing with mangers and their managers, we were informed that the government (內政部) has at some point recently reviewed this situation, reaffirmed the division of the different documents that are provided by the UK and decided that the government will ONLY accept Types 1, 2 and 3 (i.e. the different Certificates of No Impediment) (單身證明 1到3類)
Since ‘Letter of No Trace’ and other “to whom it may concern” letters do not fall into categories 1, 2 or 3, the government will not accept them. (The guidelines they must follow now have explicitly listed the reasons why each document cannot be accepted).
For me, I recently tried for a second time to get a letter from the National Records of Scotland, and the Taipei Office in Edinburgh wouldn’t even stamp it to get it sent over, they outright refused and said they will no longer accept such documents.
The first time we applied, a lot of the people we met in the HROs were mostly just unclear about what to do, but originally our local office here in Miaoli was fine with us using the documents I could provide. They were very understanding about the COVID situation, I haven’t left Taiwan since 2018 so the 18 month discrepancy was accounted for in their eyes, and they were willing to accept the letter as it had been apostilled in the UK and had been translated, no issues there.
We went away, got everything signed and headed back to hand the documents in and were immediately rejected, the Head of the HRO office had joined in and found the reason to reject it.
After a lot of long meetings, both of us arguing with the people in the office and me explaining a hundred times over, we were still rejected.
Offers of affidavits, extra proof, etc, all unsuccessful.
In the following weeks and months we visited other HROs in Miaoli to no avail, called around to other places to ask, nothing.
Although funnily enough a few people from HRO offices in Taipei that we called said they had heard of people using such letters before, but that they wouldn’t be able to help us.
Then today, we tried again.
Went through the usually process of being handed up through the ranks, all of whom are now very familiar with me and my partner, and even had more meetings during which we discussed writing an affidavit or some other form of legally binding letter, which was again very keenly taken, only to be rejected again at the next stage.
Following this (since 12pm until now at 5:30) we have been in meetings and on the phone with, I think, every official in the county and a hundred more around Taiwan and the verdict at the very end is simply, No.
It seems that, maybe, the government has become aware of the situation as there have been I guess so many people trying to use this method and it has been taken to the government 內政部 and they have outlined that they will ONLY accept types 1 - 3 (Certificate of No Impediment).
We were also warned that if we managed to find a HRO that would let us use the letter, if there was an audit or someone went looking, there could be legal consequences for us. I think he was trying to be extra-threatening but, whatever. It’s not a risk we want to take.
The amount of times Ive heard “yous can just go to Hong Kong” in the past year, it’s unbelievable. And since we’re a same-sex couple that’s entirely out of the question anyway. The response when we told people that was “Well, maybe wait for Australia to open up?” lol
This has been our experience going through this for over a year and I’m sure that it’ll end up that someone may manage to succeed where we failed somewhere, but having been in and out of HROs for months trying to deal with this I must admit the system finally broke me, and we’re probably going end up having to wait for a nice trip to Australia. Wedding and honeymoon in one weekend.
The thing that makes it worst is everyone we spoke to was saying that we should ask the UK for leniency with regards to picking up the CoNI in person because “the problem’s with the UK, they’re the troublesome party here.” (「通常馬蘭都是在英國那邊」). Even after I explained that we had asked, it still got us nowhere.
Sorry for the bad news!
Also, since I am also interested in seeking citizenship after marriage I want to add that:
If you have been in Taiwan for the 5 years you need to apply for citizenship regularly, or any amount of time for that matter, the HRO will start counting your mandatory “3 Years” that you need if you want to apply for citizenship after marriage from AFTER you get your marriage visa.
Your initial time in Taiwan is immediately discounted and you will start from zero, and will need to wait another three years to apply.
Just in case anyone else is in the same boat, I don’t want anyone to get caught out by that like my coworker almost was !
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I’m sorry to hear this man - I’m also a UK citizen and this has been grinding me down for the past year too!
Funnily enough, so did we!
This is driving me berserk as well! We were told this too. There’s a LOT of “it’s the UK’s fault, ask them” - if the UK could waive the in-person requirement then it wouldn’t be a CoNI! We tried to explain this again and again. Lots of “your UK embassy can help you” - er, what? They only offer passport services. Everyone we spoke to don’t seem to understand that, by leaving Taiwan at this time to get the letter, I might be unable to come back in.
Anyway, sorry, I couldn’t be any help, just wanted to offer support in a rubbish situation. If you do manage to have any luck then please post in this thread!
Yeah it’s ridiculous how both sides, the UK and Taiwan are both pointing at each other saying “Ask them!”
In all honesty, I had a lot of hope at the start of this. Everyone has been so helpful and willing to work with us right up until the final step and then it fails.
The most annoying thing after all this time (and wasted money sending documents around) was that nowhere we went really ended up finding out just, why the documents weren’t OK until these most recent trips.
It’s such a surreal situation to be in, who really knows how it ended up this way.
I wish you luck as well !
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I meant to type “麻煩”, but “horse orchid” works too I guess…
Hey sorry for the incredibly late response, but heres my update.
So I went back to the UK, got my certificate of no impediment. I then came back to Taiwan, got married, and I was present for birth of my child, put on her birth certificate , and I remain in Taiwan on a visa extension.
This is all great, things kinda went to plan, even if it was long, expensive and convoluted.
Now a new problem has arisen. I need to get my spousal ARC. Originally I was under the assumption that once I’d gone through this already long af process I could then eventually return to England and apply for my spousal ARC, finally.
Apparently not. So both BOCA in Taiwan and the ROC in the UK have told me I need marriage certificates from both countries to get the spousal ARC. However they have said I can apply for a spousal visitor visa with an 180 day extension, but this is not useful as I plan to work and live in the country with my family.
Regardless, getting 2 marriage certificates once already married in Taiwan is in no way possible or legal, as the UK recognises Taiwanese marriages as legally binding, and therefore will not provide any type of certification and has not done so since 2014. Both my local registry office and the GRO can confirm this.
After trawling the net it seems that several other immigrants who have married in Taiwan seem to be having this issue. Well so far I have seen similar cases from both the US and Spanish citizens at least.
So currently it seems I may have to get divorced in Taiwan, and remarry in the UK, as if you marry in the UK then both Taiwan and the UK will give certificates. Which sounds ridiculous, but maybe necessary.
I have also come across anecdotal evidence (from FB posts and my partner speaking to Taiwan immigration) that it may be possible to enter on the spousal visitor visa and then convert that to a spousal ARC. The problem is that both correspondence I have had with BOCA and the ROC contradict this and say I need the 2 certificates, despite me explaining how its not possible.
So yeah, complete fuckery really.
Best of luck to the rest of you with this painful process.
And word of warning, if you are planning to get married in Taiwan to a Taiwanese and then get a spousal ARC, you may be better off getting married in your country of origin.
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You just need to register your marriage in UK and get the marriage certificate from them.
In Germany this process is called ‘Nachbeurkundung einer Eheschließung’ (Post-certification of a marriage), then I was able to get a German marriage certificate.
Get all the stamps for the UK marriage certificate to be recognized in Taiwan. And with that you can apply for JFRV at Taiwan representative office in UK and get your marriage based ARC after you arrive in Taiwan.
UK (like USA, Australia and other countries) does not have a process like that which exists in Germany. The marriage certificate from the overseas marriage is recognised under law as the official marriage certificate for all purposes domestic. As there is no requirement to ‘register’ a marriage conducted overseas (it is automatically recognised under law), a process to do so does not exist.
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Taiwanese marriage certificate is also recognized in Germany for all purposes.
That process was simply required by that unnecessary requirement of JFRV for the marriage to be recognized in both countries (to prevent polygamy apparently).
As far as I can tell the UK does not provide registration of marriages overseas in any shape or form. I have been told this by both the General Registry Office and my local one. As stated above they have not done so since 2014. I’m not aware of any other government bodies that could do so for me either.
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This is the loop we are stuck in. The UK since 2014 don’t register foreign marriages they just accept the foreign cert and there is no way of getting a document from the UK. The Taipei office in London are aware of this and also said to us they will give me a visit visa but not one that can be converted to Spouse ARC, as I’m in Taiwan that would be a pointless trip putting me back in the same situation. They basically said take it up with BOCA who made these new rules. It was possible prior to Covid at any Taipei rep office as I had it all setup to do at the end of March 2020 in Hong Kong but alas because of Covid flights etc were cancelled and entry restrictions introduced.
It’s still stated on the website that if your country doesn’t have marriage registration you just need the marriage certificate. This new requirement is under the current entry rules due to Covid.
"Original and one photocopy of marriage registration issued by competent authorities of the applicant’s country.
1 For countries which do not have marriage registration, original and one photocopy of the certificate of marriage are required."
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For countries who don’t have a marriage registration for foreign marriages like the UK they normally accept the marriage certificate, that was the case prior to the CoVid restrictions when applying for JFRV, the requirement for a certificate from the home country is in the current rules introduced in September to allow spouses to enter, it seems like an oversight in the current rules.
Man, my head is spinning from just how convoluted the marriage process is. So, as I understand it:
- Even if you get the Certificate of No Impediment and get married in Taiwan it’s impossible to change a visitor visa to a spousal visa due to the lack of a UK marriage registration document.
Does anyone know if it’s possible to change a ‘regular’ work-based ARC to a spousal visa? Is it different to a visitor visa or do the same restrictions apply?
- Bearing this in mind, would it be preferable to return to the UK with my fiance, get married in the UK, return to Taiwan, and then convert my work-based ARC to a spousal ARC within Taiwan? Or would I have to apply for a brand new ARC in the UK?
I just want to get married 
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Thanks for sharing such a detailed post. Im currently looking into all this and was wondering if you or anyone reading this knows if this process is still ok and would work now? 9 years a lot can change so just wanted to ask.
Thanks for any help or suggestions anyone can give