Most people involved welcomed the new regulation on marriage
registration, which came into effect on Oct. 1 last year. They
value the new convenience they bring but not everyone is happy.
Some citizens who live overseas are worried about not being able to
prove they are single, which can be rather an important requirement
in going through foreign marriage procedures.
Mr. Chen is an overseas Chinese whose hometown is Qingtian
County of Lishui City in east China's Zhejiang
Province. Some 180,000 Chinese nationals from the county now
live abroad. When Chen and his Chinese girlfriend applied to get
married in Italy after a three-year courtship, they were required
to provide documentary evidence of their single status, notarized
in China. You can imagine their disappointment when they found that
the notary offices in both Qingtian Country and Lishui City
couldn't help.
According to the new marriage registration regulations,
sub-district offices, working units or civil affairs departments
are no longer responsible for issuing certificates showing single
status. Without these the notary offices cannot make the necessary
notarizations.
It's always difficult to prove a negative and "How can I prove
I'm single?" has become the question being asked by all those who
now find themselves in an awkward situation brought about by the
implementation of the new marriage regulations.
Ding Hongliang, director of the Notary Office of Qingtian
County, said that people used to come to his office every day for
notarization of their marital status. But all this stopped on Oct.
1 last year. It is estimated that the intended marriages of nearly
100 overseas Chinese from Qingtian County are currently held up
just because they can't get these notarized documents.
What's happening in Qingtian County is by no means a special
case. The Zhejiang Provincial Judicial Department, which oversees
notary work in the province, has received lots of similar reports
since the notary offices in Zhejiang stopped notarizing marital
status documents.
What's more, the problems are not just restricted to
international marriages. Some other foreign activities such as
going abroad to study can also require the production of notarized
marital status certificates.
But why should the problems revolve around notarization? Lü
Huanan, director of the notary section of the Zhejiang Provincial
Judicial Department, said, "The process of notarization is a
standard international practice that plays an irreplaceable role in
the legal procedures of many western countries. In another words,
notarized documents can be the only legally acceptable documents in
these countries. However, though the departments formerly
responsible for issuing marital status certificates have stopped
doing this work, notary departments are not authorized to assume
this role. It has caused some real difficulties."
In order to solve the problem, notary offices in the province
have adopted a new approach by notarizing personal declarations. In
these the individual concerned declares that he or she is single
and accepts responsibility for the consequences of a false
declaration. However this temporary measure though helpful is
unable to properly resolve all the difficulties.
Ding Hongliang, director of the Notary Office of Qingtian County
said, "This temporary accommodation has gone some way towards
alleviating the problems some people are having with marriage
registrations. However this form of notarization is not acceptable
in many European countries. They won't recognize the documents
because Chinese law does not make provision for people who make
false declarations to be held responsible."
Legal experts say it is a matter of urgency to find an answer to
these anomalies being experienced in the implementation of the new
marriage registration regulations.
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(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, February 16, 2004)