Shanghai expands services for marriage registration involving foreign nationals to more districts

Starting June 1, Shanghai will expand its marriage registration services for foreign nationals, residents from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, as well as overseas Chinese, to five additional districts: Huangpu, Xuhui, Changning, Jing'an and Minhang.

This follows the successful pilot program launched in Pudong New Area on Oct 1 last year.

The Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau announced that residents with permanent household registration in the pilot districts (Pudong, Huangpu, Xuhui, Changning, Jing'an and Minhang) can register marriages involving foreign nationals at either the city-level marriage registration center or their respective district-level centers.

The reform includes user-friendly policies such as the use of the Hague Apostille Convention and the acceptance of foreign permanent residence cards.

For example, a resident of Huangpu district planning to marry a Singaporean national can now register their marriage at either the city's marriage registration center or the Huangpu district center. However, residents from non-pilot districts, such as Jiading, must still use the city-level center until the pilot program is further expanded.

New policies allow foreign nationals to use either their valid passports or permanent residence cards as identification for marriage registration. The permanent residence card must be accompanied by a valid passport number.

Under the Hague Apostille Convention, documents such as the certificate of no impediment to marriage from countries like Singapore no longer require consular legalization but must include an apostille and a Chinese translation. This policy also applies to overseas Chinese from contracting states of the convention.

For those needing to replace a lost marriage certificate, the service can be accessed at the original registration center, the city-level center, or any district-level center within the pilot areas.

Appointments for marriage registration can be made via the "Suishenban Resident Cloud" mobile app or the Alipay app. Detailed addresses and contact information for the various registration centers are as follows:

• Pudong New Area:

3rd Floor, 2240 South Pudong Road, Tel: 58828056 (Marriage), 58829805 (Divorce)

• Huangpu district:

250 Middle Jiangxi Road, Tel: 63777913

• Xuhui district:

3rd Floor, Building 2, Xuhui Administrative Service Center, 999 Nanning Road, Tel: 64325543

• Changning district:

1st Floor, Building 2, Lane 631, Jinzhong Road, Tel: 62705580

• Jing'an district:

1st & 2nd Floors, 50 Moling Road, Tel: 53550041

• Minhang district:

1766 Xinzhen Road, Tel: 54530884

• Shanghai Municipal Marriage Registration Center:

3rd Floor, Shanghai Everbright Convention & Exhibition Center, 80 Caobao Road, Tel: 64325088

Luo Bin contributed to the story.