I am Taiwanese, and my French husband and I recently registered our marriage in Taiwan. Logically, we should apply for marriage transcription so that our marriage would also be recognized in France. However, he is now telling me that he doesn’t want to continue the process to make our marriage legally valid in France.
His reason is that the process is too troublesome and time-consuming. He also argues that since we both live in Taiwan, there’s no need to register the marriage in France. He claims there are absolutely no benefits to registering in France, only drawbacks—and that all the drawbacks would fall on him.
I honestly don’t understand this logic. I’m wondering, are there others who have registered their marriage only in Taiwan without registering it in their home country? What were your reasons? What are the implications of not registering the marriage in your home country?
I’m from the U.S. and married my Taiwanese wife in Taiwan, and someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but from Googling, I don’t think I need to register in the U.S. because there’s no marriage database. The U.S. recognizes foreign marriages.
I am from UK married to a Taiwanese, in Taiwan. Our marriage is recognised in UK without any need to go through any other process. My cert. from Taiwan is in both local and English languages, which is sufficient proof.
(Edit olm: Note that UK is a spacial case and cannot be compared to France)
To register my Taiwanese wife in my country is a big mess. There is not embassy in Taiwan, not hague apostille. It is not worth it for now and there is not benefits if we don’t live there.
I was only married in Taiwan and it isn’t possible for me to register in Australia as Australia recognises foreign marriages, same as the US people above. And it doesn’t change anything in our daily life anyway.
Not sure how France works but if it isn’t going to change anything in your daily lives and is a big hassle then I wouldn’t worry about it.
If it isn’t a big hassle or will change something important then you guys should make the effort
It being a pain-in-the-ass and not having a specific reason to do it seems like a valid enough reason for me.
After getting myself a Taiwanese Marriage-based ARC, my wife a US green card, and my Children US passports from Taiwan, I feel like I’ve had enough bureaucracy and paperwork for a lifetime.
Potentially if you guys ever move back to Europe you could cross that hurdle then?
I applied for my Taiwan spouse ARC then naturalised (including renouncing and resuming Australian citizenship) and applied for my husband’s PR (basically same as a green card).
The only bureaucratic nightmare was on Taiwan’s side.
Australia was all very straightforward, PR is just slow and requires lots of documents but nothing ‘difficult’
I had previously had a working holiday visa in Taiwan and THAT was a bureaucratic nightmare
To my knowledge, if your husband doesn’t have an ARC yet, and wants to get one through a JRFV visa. You will have to legalize your marriage in France, otherwise he will not be able to get an ARC. Don’t know your husband’s current status.
What @vincent_vega posted is the only reason to register the marriage in the foreign spouse home country. It is a requirement for getting a spouse based ARC. If the foreign spouse already has a valid ARC then registering the marriage abroad is pointless.
*This requirement can be waved if that process is not possible in the home country.
This is incorrect. I changed to a spouse-based ARC a few months after getting married in Taiwan, before I even initiated the process for registering my marriage in my home country. The paperwork in Chile is so damn slow, that I’ve had my spouse-based ARC for two years already and my marriage hasn’t been approved there yet.
Of course you didn’t. Would help to say as to why. This requirement was waved in your case. Your situation does not apply to other countries. e.g. France in this case
If one party is a Foreign National, file for marriage registration first at your respective embassy or consulate, for information on the consular district designated by the Bureau of Consular Affairs of R.O.C.(Taiwan) , please visit http://www.boca.gov.tw/content?mp=2&CuItem=2306
Doesn’t that technically mean that in the US, your marriage is only valid if you show up in the US and hand over the documents when you want/need the marriage to be enforced? Otherwise, no one would know…? (I guess this would be a problem in general in the US though, not just for overseas marriages)
