I have read through most posts here, they are really informative, thanks, but…no info for SA citizens
He does not have his ARC yet, and I am on a visitor’s visa.(are we wasting our time trying to do it here?)
We have our Single Certificates, but no Clean Criminal records (we didnt know we needed these)
He has passed his medical test and ill do mine asap.
Does anyone have any other vital info we might have missed?
Thanks
Are you marrying each other?
The situation of two foreigners marrying each other in Taiwan was debated in these forums a year or so ago . . . . .
The consensus was that you would be much better off to go to Guam and get it done there . . . . . .
“Taiwanese documentation”, as a general rule, is not recognized internationally . . . . . .
We as two Germans had no major problems getting married here. My husband as well as both our German witnesses were here on a visitor visa, I have an ARC.
The only documents we had two show were two “single” certificates that had been legalized by the Taiwan representative office in Germany and authorized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here (within two days and for free). We got married last november at the District court in Hsintien, and the staff there were very friendly and seemed to have as much fun as we did 
PM me if you need further information
Iris
Contact your representative in Taiwan.
The question is . . . . . how do the authorities back in Europe regard this marriage documentation? In other words, if you are using this documentation from Taiwan to complete various procedures in Europe . . . . are their any difficulties?
This is why many people have suggested getting married in Guam . . . . . . for the acceptability of the paperwork. Here is a good example, suppose you decided to go to graduate school somewhere. You would need to prove that you are married in order to apply to live in the “married couple housing.” If you are going to be in graduate school in the USA or Canada, how easy is it going to be to do that with Taiwanese paperwork? Do you suppose you will have to coordinate something through a Taiwanese Overseas Office somewhere? Have you noticed the postings on forumosa.com on how inefficient those offices are? Are you going to call them on the telephone and explain what you want to do? Will they understand what you are saying? Will they misconstrue the relevant procedures, misquote you the relevant charges, and otherwise fail to follow proper procedure? What if they require a statement from your country’s representative office in Taiwan, signed by some court official in Germany (or your own home country)? How much fun will it be coordinating that by DHL?
This reminds me of a somewhat similar situation which I was asked to advise upon several years ago. There was a Taiwanese girl who had met a U.K. fellow, and they wanted to get married. Since their schedules were both rather hectic, they wondered if getting married in Sri Lanka or Burma might be good options . . . . . (since the UK fellow was living in Pakistan at the time, and the Taiwanese girl frequently visited H.K., so they thought that picking some geographic “mid-point” might be good . . . . . ) . . . . . well, I advised against it.
I think that after some period of time they did get married in H.K., but back in those days it was more difficult to PROVE the validity of an H.K. marriage between this Taiwanese girl and a U.K. national than to get married again in England . . . . or whatever. Anyway, they ran into a lot of certification problems.
It may seem exotic to get married somewhere out of the usual, but the future hassles may not be worth it. I am just saying, “Look before you leap.”
[quote=“Hartzell”]
The question is . . . . . how do the authorities back in Europe regard this marriage documentation? In other words, if you are using this documentation from Taiwan to complete various procedures in Europe . . . . are their any difficulties?[/quote]
No problem at all. We got 3 Chinese and 3 English marriage licences from the District Court, got a stamp on the English ones from the German Rep Office here that they’re legal and used the English marriage licence with the stamp from the German Rep Office to register our marriage in Germany. No hassle at all.
All in all, it wasn’t that much more paperwork than it would have been to get married in Germany. It definitely was worth it!
HTH
Iris
iris I totally agree with your words.