Prelude:
I have multiple-nationalities (not personalities) and am currently in Taiwan (I am not Taiwanese). I am going to marry my Taiwanese man here in Taiwan this summer.
My questions:
Can I use a different passport to get married with than the one that I used to enter Taiwan?
(Does MOFA care when I go to get my sworn single status stamped by them that the passport I hand them that goes with the single affidavit does not have an entrance stamp? Does the marriage-office care?)
Can I get my JFRV on a different passport than the one I got married with (after leaving the country and coming back on the desired passport of course)? [As long as I follow all the necessary steps, providing proof of marriage-notification from the desired nation, etc]. For example, is ‘Nationality’ entered on the Marriage Certificate in English or Chinese, which could potentially make this difficult for some reason?
I guess anyone who has done the first one can answer, and anyone who has gotten married in Taiwan can check their Certificate of Marriage and help answer the second one
Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
Edit: A summary of my answers as I have gone through the process now:
Yes. I was here on one passport, and then got married on an other. It may not have been the proper way, as I was told it was not possible when I called and asked, but the Household Registration Office I went to was in a small town and it didn’t occur to them I’d perhaps have multiple-citizenships so they didn’t flip through the passport to check if it was the one I had entered on, so it was a-ok and went smooth as pie.
No, technically all the documents must be same nationality (HuJu TengBen, Criminal Record Check, Health Check, etc). BUT:
(a) if the health check is done on one and then needs to be changed, you can just take it to the hospital with your two passports and they will change and stamp it (the passport number and nationality). NOTE: You can get a health check on a different nationality than you entered the country on in the first place though, so could do the check before leaving and returning on the JFRV-application passport.
(b) you just need to bring all your passports to the Household Registration Office, and they will add your other nationalities behind the original one (if you got married on a passport that you were not in Taiwan on at that time I would go in on another day, just in case they don’t let you get married on the one you need if you show them all the passports wedding-registration-day). You then get a print-out of HuJi TengBen and you are good to go!
Well, perhaps my thinking is too simple, but how will they even know that you have more than one passport if you don’t tell them?
I THINK that on my family registeration paper I was simply listed as a foreigner wife of my husband. My Chinese name wasn’t even on it, I think, just my status as a big nose. But it’s been a long time now, and it’s long over now, too, so I may not remember correctly.
In your case, I think I’d give whatever information was expediant, and then if I’d do the same later even if that information is not the same. It’s always easier to get forgiveness than permission.
Or not. Never mind. Sorry that my post is quite useless.
[quote=“housecat”]Well, perhaps my thinking is too simple, but how will they even know that you have more than one passport if you don’t tell them?
[/quote]
My thinking is they (MOFA) may notice the passport I hand them does not have an entry stamp - which would mean I have two passports~
So, just wanting to check to make sure that this kind of scenario is a-ok with the MOFA.
we have “two” marriage certificates - both on pretty, hao ke ai pink color with roses!! - one is written in chinese and one in english. They were handed to us automatically (I think, or my husband requested it prior to our register date, not really sure. All I remember was signing about 6 papers, 3 in chinese and 3 in english on our wedding day).
Anyway, my nationality is listed on both of those papers. I only have one (danish), so I am not a good exampel.
I had a thought that leads me to this question:
let’s say you get married, get children and then wants a divorce (worst case scenario), is there any of those two nationalities where you are supported better from when Taiwan decides to not give you custody…or something like that?
Would that even matter of which one to chose to have written on the marriage certificate, I wonder??
[quote=“tinster”]
Anyway, my nationality is listed on both of those papers. I only have one (danish), so I am not a good exampel.[/quote]
Thanks Tinster - is it nationality or place of birth that’s written on the Certificates of Marriage, do you know/remember? I know in Canada they put place of birth~~ (which makes sense to me as people have different nationalities…or change nationalities etc, but you can’t easily change your place of birth).
In terms of how you’d go about getting custody if necessary - if one nationality would give more support over another - I have no idea. Don’t plan on needing to ever know that one either
Sandman, thanks for your suggestion. I’ll call the horse tomorrow (and also ask them whether I need a criminal check from Taiwan as well as the country I want to get my JFRV based on, as I’ll be reaching the 5 year mark here in Taiwan before I apply for my JFRV).
I also asked if I need a criminal check from Taiwan if I’ve been here for 5 years (when applying for a JFRV): No, not necessary; [edit] and Yes, necessary. Since it’s easy to get and cheap (just cost me NT$100…took a week to process) I went ahead and got it. But They didn’t provide me with one for both the nationalities I’ve lived in Taiwan on before, just my ‘current’ one. I just explained this to NIA and they were ok with that.
And asked if I need a stool test in the health check: No (Europeans don’t need it…I didn’t ask who does need it).
Follow up: We decided to first give it a try without coming in on the US passport.
We got registered on Friday, and it went smooth as banana-cream pie. One is no longer required to go to notary public to get married first, one can just go to the Household registration office and register your marriage directly - and get your marriage certificates. We had all our paperwork ready:
Single Affidavit from the US Embassy in Taipei, stamped by MOFA
My application for Chinese Name (for the name I using post-registration)
The Marriage Application (with ours and our witnesses signatures, stamps, addresses and national ID numbers/passport numbers)
Husband’s household registration
My passport, my husband’s national ID
The both of us (we’re not paperwork obviously, but it was a requirement we both came…not our witnesses though)
We walked in to the household registration office on Friday morning in my husband’s small town. They didn’t flip through my passport to look for an entry stamp - most likely not knowing it’s required and also wouldn’t come to mind that I may have more than one nationality, and so just processed our marriage on the passport I gave them.
My husband got his new national ID with my name added to the wife-spot, I got added to his household registration, and we got three English copies and three Chinese copies of the Marriage Certificate, and a copy of the Huji Tengben.
The total for everything that morning was NT$670, and it took about an hour because they were not used to processing and printing English documents
[quote=“funkyjojo”]
For the JFRV I will be doing a visa-run to HK and apply for it there with my other passport - with all the required documents of course, and all my passports that go with the various documents. Also expected to go smoothly.[/quote]
Why do you have to leave the country for this? Can’t you change your visitor (or whatever visa you have) to a Resident Visa at a BOCA office? That’s what I did back when I got married. In point of fact, it was IMPOSSIBLE for me to get a resident visa of the JFRV type from Canada at that time when I came.
[quote=“spaint”][quote=“funkyjojo”]
For the JFRV I will be doing a visa-run to HK and apply for it there with my other passport - with all the required documents of course, and all my passports that go with the various documents. Also expected to go smoothly.[/quote]
Why do you have to leave the country for this? Can’t you change your visitor (or whatever visa you have) to a Resident Visa at a BOCA office? That’s what I did back when I got married. In point of fact, it was IMPOSSIBLE for me to get a resident visa of the JFRV type from Canada at that time when I came.[/quote]
Because I am getting the JFRV on a different passport (Country N’s passport) than I was in Taiwan on (Country C’s passport) - it’s much easier to get the required documents from country N
@funkyjojo
so in order to get your single affidavit you just went to the us embassy adn had to make a sworn statement or is it some kind of pdf file you can find online/ get from an office here in the states??
im getting ready to come over in january for 30 days to get married and want to have all the paperwork ready before i come over…
