Sorry for the late reply. I pulled a bunch of my content from the internet as I was getting stalked by an absolute nutter of a woman online lol
Feel free to msg me for any specifics! Good luck.
Edit Olm: Here is an anonymized version of surfin_bird1981’s deleted 2022 article:
Hi everyone, before I go into the steps we took to legally marry in Taiwan without needing to produce the CNI/letter of no trace, or needing to travel, here is my brief backstory.
I’m a divorced female British citizen, I have been living in Taiwan for a few years. I work in marketing and have a work permit and ARC tied to the company. My partner is a Taiwanese man.
When we decided to get married, we did a lot of research about what we needed to do and how we needed to do it. We searched the “foreigner” groups on Facebook, the official government websites of the UK and Taiwan, multiple forums, sent emails back and forth to the British office in Taipei and the Taipei representative office in London. The consensus was that, as a Brit, I needed to prove that I was single in order to get married legally.
Now surely my divorce papers (decree absolute) could prove my single status? Apparently not…I figured that because I’d gotten divorced from my ex-husband while living in Taiwan and that I’d not left Taiwan since receiving my decree absolute, that should be enough. My passport could confirm that there was no way that I could have remarried since divorcing. I sent my suggestion to the household registration office, the British office in Taiwan, all of which told me that I would need to produce the certificate of no impediment.
Here is the response from the British office in Taiwan:
Ok, so how can I get my hands on the certificate of no impediment? Well, I would need to go (in person) back to the UK. I would need to make an appointment with the local registry office. Here is the conversation with them:
I asked whether my solicitor could act on my behalf, this suggestion was also met with a no.
I wasn’t prepared to fork out for a flight back home to pick up a piece of paper, then to have to do 14 days in quarantine once back in Taiwan (I’d just started a new job.) So how did we do it?
We married online under the laws of Utah! It was such a straightforward process, relatively cheap, too! According to Taiwan law, if you and your spouse marry anywhere other than Taiwan, you can simply register your marriage at the household registration office. There is no need to prove your single status as you have already gotten married.
We married via a Zoom wedding from the comfort of our home. During my research, I found many websites offering the Utah service as a package. We DID NOT use a third party, we dealt with the Utah County Clerk’s office directly. Not only is it a lot cheaper, I have since found out that another British guy went down the Utah route but using a third party and he has run into some difficulties. My recommendation is to go directly to Utah. The Utah County website has complete instructions on every page.
- Visit the Utah County website to apply for the marriage license first before booking the ceremony. You must marry within 32 days of the issuance of the marriage license. All fees are displayed on the website.
- Once you have received the email confirming the marriage license, book the ceremony here. You will need to send digital images of your passport along with a picture of yourself. You will also need to supply the names of two witnesses, they need to attend via Zoom on the day of the ceremony, too. Witnesses can be located anywhere in the world. All fees are displayed on the website.
- You will receive a Zoom link which you will need to log in on the day. You can share this link with anyone (including your witnesses) so they can be part of the ceremony.
- On the day, the officiant will go through the ceremony, we had a guy called Burt Harvey on the day. If you Google him, you will find lots of info on him, along with various articles about the Utah online marriage process.
- Within a few days you will receive a digital copy of the marriage license and certificate, make sure all of the dates, names, spellings are correct (make sure the Taiwanese name is the right way round.) If you have any issues or questions throughout the process, email marriage@utahcounty.gov and they will assist you.
- You will also receive a paper copy of the marriage license and certificate (it is one document) you also have the option to have an apostille attached from the Lieutenant Governor of Utah. We chose to have the apostille attached for extra clout (we all know how Taiwan loves stamps and embossed paperwork.) You can view the options about apostilles and copy certificates here. All fees are displayed on the website.
- You will receive your paper marriage license and certificate along with the apostille (if you chose to have one) within 10 days.
The next stage is to get the Utah marriage license and certificate legalized by the Taiwan office in San Francisco (do not send to Washington as documents issued in Utah are not covered by this jurisdiction.)
Visit the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco’s website. You will need to navigate to the authentication services page. Follow the instructions EXACTLY. You will need to include the following:
- Your passport copy x 2
- Your partner’s passport copy x 2
- Original marriage certificate/license/apostille
- 1 photocopy of original marriage certificate/license
- $15 USD cash
- Application form
- A self-addressed envelope to be included in the main envelope
We used FedEx and it took around one week for TECO San Francisco to send the legalized docs back to me.
The final step is to take everything to your local household registration office to register the marriage here in Taiwan. This is what you will need to take with you as per the household registration office:
- The marriage certificate (authenticated by the Taiwan office in the U.S.A.)
- The Chinese translation of the marriage certificate (authenticated by the Taiwan office in the U.S.A., or alternatively, you can find a notary public to notarize the Chinese translation in Taiwan.) I used H.B. Lin for the notarization. Whoever translated the document needs to go with you to the notary public. I didn’t know this so we just said that my husband had translated the docs, it didn’t make any difference.
UPDATED INFORMATION H.B. Lin has since retired.*
- The household register and ID for the Taiwanese citizen.
- The passport for the foreign national. If you have an ARC or APRC in Taiwan, please bring them as well.
- The declaration form for adopting a Chinese name (you can fill out the form at the household registration office. If you have already submitted any document to the NIA or any other bureau, please use the same Chinese name for consistency.
Go to your nearest household registration office with your partner and all of the docs mentioned above. The process took around one hour from beginning to end. The member of staff asked a few questions, just be calm and confident, you do not need to mention that the marriage was conducted online, there is no mention of it on the certificate or license. She wanted to know how we got the docs from the Taipei office in San Francisco without leaving the country. We showed her the FedEx emails, this seemed to be enough.
So there you have it, where there’s a will there’s a way. Good luck to all!
