I currently face the prospect of traveling back to the UK during a pandemic for the sole purpose of attending a 10 minute appointment in order to get a Certificate of No Impediment. Calls for sensible and rational thought are falling on deaf ears (both in TW and the UK). The trip must be made, 7 arbitrary days of residence must be wasted in my “local” borough and 14 days of quarantine must be completed on my return to TW…
…unless anyone has been able to find another way?
Calls to 戶政事務所 and Borough Councils have been met with “computer says no” responses. I will not be allowed to produce my own sworn affidavit to self-certify my singleness (as described above).
Since I went through this I have had another British friend manage to get married with the letter of no trace at the Xindian household registration office, maybe try there?
My fiancé actually had a lengthy phone call with the Xindian household registration people and they have no recollection of any of these British cases!
Are you able to provide any case reference numbers or even dates? We mentioned mid-late 2019 to them and they weren’t able to find any British-Taiwanese marriages during that period. Thank you.
ok I have No ARC im about to get married to another foreigner (ARC) in taiwan. I’m on covid19 visa free extensions with no way to come back to taiwan if I leave to get this Certificate of No Impediment thing.
can someone give me the right url to get the letter of no trace and then the procedure following that. I am very stupid and need someone to spoonfeed me.
The instructions in this thread should be good enough. However, understand that the Household Registration Office that you go to may not accept the methods stated above. For example, I had to go back to the UK and get a real certificate of no impediment from my local registry office, send it to the Foreign Office to be legalised, and then to the Taiwan Office in London to be authenticated, this was the only document they would accept. This could be a problem at the moment as your local registry office may be closed due to COVID. If the methods stated by others don’t work, your best bet is to have your fiance fly with you to a third country (that has a proper British Embassy) and for the two of you to register your marriage there. Then, you could use your new marriage certificate to apply for a dependent visa at the Taiwan office in that country and come back here.
if i leave taiwan i cant get back in. so thats out of the question entirely. I need to try to get married here without leaving the country because I dont have an ARC. also my fiance is not taiwanese also. if she is not taiwanese do you think they might be slightly more relaxed at the registry office about the certificate of no impediment?
can I keep shopping for registry offices until I find one that will let it slide?
They probably won’t care which office you register in as long as it is in the same city as is listed on her ARC address, so yes, you could shop around. I didn’t get married at the nearest office to my wife’s home.
If you left Taiwan with your fiancé and got married abroad you could apply for a resident visa abroad and then come back to Taiwan. Since you and your fiancé are both foreigners, the foreign marriage doesn’t need to be re-registered in Taiwan, which makes things easier. However, if your fiancé is from a country that allows foreign marriages to be registered with the government, she will need to do this before you can apply for the visa. Since your British, and the British government doesn’t allow the registration of foreign marriages, you won’t need to do this yourself. If you go this route, don’t get married in the UK, as it takes at least one month, and if your fiancé isn’t British she would need a special visa.
I followed the above advice and was finally able to marry this week. I got the Letter of No Trace from the GRO, but I used an apostille service (Prime Apostille) to handle everything else in the UK — the legalisation from the FCDO and the authentication by the TRO. It was a bit pricey but much more hassle free. Also, at the time I first looked, the FCDO weren’t accepting applications from individuals, so this was the only way to go. They delivered it to Taiwan and I had the document translated and then notarized by a local public notary.
We first tried Xinyi Household registration office, but they were pretty adamant that they would only accept a Certificate of No Impediment. I tried to plead that I had not been in the UK in the last 18 months (I had prepared a document of my entry and exit dates from Immigration as well as photocopies of my passport, but they weren’t interested). I also offered to sign a statement or affadavit as some of the posters above did, but they said no to that too. I showed them an email from the registrar closest to my family home in the UK saying only residents can get Certificates of No Impediments, and I also explained that I can’t go home because of COVID and that I’ve had a family member who contracted it. But this was all to no avail.
We then decided to try the next closest household registration office, which was the one in Songshan, but they said much the same (in fact, they had called Xinyi when we arrived). Knowing that some other posters had success in Xindian, I asked why there seems to be different policies for different places. They replied that everywhere in Taipei City would give the same answer because since January 2020, they have an official list of acceptable documents from the UK government which only allows for Certificate of No Impediments, but that other offices outside of Taipei City might not know about this list.
So we jumped in a taxi and finally tried the Xindian office. Much to our surprise, they said nothing about the 18-month gap and we were able to sign without difficulty.
What might have helped is the fact we didn’t point out anything about the 18-month gap, nor did we call Xindian in advance. Also, not sure if it made any difference, but we are both foreigners.
Apparently there is another one. Went to the one you said today with a certificate of no trace and they wouldn’t accept it. Also went to 2 others in different districts and they all printed out a document stating that since January 2020 they can only accept certificates of no impediment.
Thank you for your quick response
Let me know if you have any luck because I’m currently in the same boat - Certificate of No Trace authenticated, notarised, translated, yet not accepted anywhere in Taipei! Argh. Again, lots of 沒辦法 in spite of the fact that it’s prohibitively expensive and almost impossible to go back to the UK right now.
Unfortunately no luck here either. My partner has taken the issue up with a legislator, which we will hear back from tomorrow. It’s possible may work out, however I’m not optimistic.
In my particular case my partner is pregnant, so we’re essentially appealing on compassionate grounds, and on the extenuating circumstances created by Covid-19. However due to aforementioned situation I have little choice but to go back to England to get a certificate of no impediment if it doesn’t work out.
This is because I need to get the marriage sorted in order to remain in the country when my child is born. I will also have to leave again as I’m on a working holiday visa and have to leave the country to get that converted to a spousal visa. Such is life though, gonna be expensive af.
This really is a ridiculous rule about the certificate of no impediment. Me and my Filipina fiance have decided to get married online taking advantage of American state laws which currently allow online marriages. No certificate of impediment is required just a sworn oath from both parties. We were basically left with the choice of me returning to the UK or waiting until we could travel to the Philippines where the requirements are easier for me to obtain. The British Office in Taipei offers no support. The online option allows us to attach an appostile to the marriage certificate making it easier to register the marriage in the Philippines. It’s not an ideal way but it’s a way out for us.
Yeah it really is. Wow an online marriage. That sounds like the stuff of dreams right now. Glad it seems to be working out for you. I do not envy anyone having to go through this hassle