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The Little Red Booklet: Foreign / Foreign Marriages No Longer Allowed in China

Used to be, back in the day (March 2019), that anyone could marry anyone, in terms of citizenship, in China. No more. The Civil Affairs Bureau has explicitly banned the practice of two non-Chinese cit...

Used to be, back in the day (March 2019), that anyone could marry anyone, in terms of citizenship, in China. No more. The Civil Affairs Bureau has explicitly banned the practice of two non-Chinese citizens getting married in China as of 1 April 2019, a practice, which I recall, cost about 9rmb when I did it and resulted in this nifty little Bureaucratic Red booklet that you got to show off to your big wedding party. It screamed CHINA! If you want one of those now, you or your partner must be a Chinese citizen, according to several overseas embassies and the official whatnot machine up in Beijing.

Divorces for foreign couples — well they never really figured those out. As I also recall, China would marry you but there was no divorce law, meaning a long and tedious legal process. That one was free, which, really, was a sympathetic price. Anyway! If your Chinese is up to it, read the original document here. No word on what happens if you've already been married in China and how it might affect your legal status now.
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