Great, that actually sounds a lot easier than what I had to go through getting my wife here when she was applying from her country. So that’s what the OP should do if he got married in his own country. If he got married in China, I’m still very curious how the authentication is handled.
Right now, I have two friends from different countries, neither from Taiwan, and got married in a fourth country. They are going through the process of getting the wife a visa and ARC as a dependent, and it’s a mess.
Speaking of immigration officers flipping out, when my wife and I left the Philippines on our honeymoon, the officer who checked our passports as we were exiting demanded our marriage documents to prove her reason for travel. I was in the line for foreigners, luckily with the papers and within shouting distance.
Wow that is incredible and really shows bureaucracy at its worst.
And true that Taiwan and China mandarin is so different, one word or two is all it takes to spot the difference.
You would think that with her us passport she will just be treated as an American citizen
When my US passport said birthplace China , Taiwan immi raised an eyebrow and then I breakout my obviously taiwan mandarin and say no…Taiwan is my birthplace
He would need to have the marriage cert authenticated in the public notary of the city in which they were married in China, and at that time specify that the document was for use in Taiwan. Then the city level public notary would send the authenticated documents to ARATS (the Association for relations across the Taiwan straights in Beijing), from there it would be sent to the straights exchange foundation in Taipei for pick up.
Chinese authorities only authenticate marriage certs in their own areas, so you don’t get a choice. If you try in the public notary from a different city they will just refuse to notarize it anyway. Its basically part of the Hukou system of sending people back to their place of origin for public services.
it depends on the city. beijing has three of these that NIA allows, and the NIA will say you can choose one of the three based on convenience, so you sometimes have a choice. the three in beijing are fang zheng, fang yuan, chang an. NIA will tell you which one, or which ones, based on your city. only some gong zheng chu can send to SEF, so NIA will tell you which ones are your options.
this is a list of gong zheng chu in beijing. there’s 25 of them. but only the top three are acceptable by NIA (they will tell you this). you cannot do it at the other ones for taiwan. the other ones tho can be used for other purposes, for example if you are applying for CR-1 in the states, then you can use all of them. this is why you want to start the process first at the NIA before doing anything else as they will guide you through the steps. like i said, they are helpful and OP should go there first and foremost!
Yes, I definitely second that, for anyone going through the process. They are patient and helpful, and are the critical step in the entire thing. I also recommended the OP to contact them directly as the first step.
you can actually choose taiwan or china if you were born in taiwan. I know some US citizens who were born in taiwan that put china on there because they were told putting taiwan makes getting a visa to china more difficult.
@Liam_Og and maybe @endy (I wasn’t clear if you had a PRC-citizen wife or not, but you seem to know a lot)
The OP also mentioned getting documents from his employer. Did you have to provide any document from yours? I had to provide proof of a certain income, and a letter stating my employer was aware I was bringing my wife over, but this is obviously a different situation.
If OP wants to support her entry exit permit, his employer should be responsible to her. It is not just a proof of employment or income.
It may be better you think the processes to come with a foreign spouse and with a chinese spouse are different to avoid confusion.
No I just provided an ARC. And then my wife’s documents and the authenticated marriage cert.
They initially asked for employer documents, but later agreed to process it without them. They also helped with rushing a couple of steps to help us catch our flights. The people in the national immigration agency, and in TECO in my home country and in Hong Kong were all very nice, and even went out of their way to help us actually.
Maybe the requirement for a 保證人 is the reason for the response the OP got at HESS. What does being a 保證人 entail in Taiwan?
But it sounds like there’s contradiction with that law and @Liam_Og 's story. What year was that? Could be a change in the laws since then. You mentioned the TECO in Hong Kong, was your wife a resident of Hong Kong at that time?