Notice of intended marriage

Dear All,


When giving a notice of intended marriage in HK through an authorised civil celebrant along with other information we were asked to provide a certificate of no record of previous marriage registration. Normally if you are an expat you can get this kind of document done by your country`s consulate, so there`s no problem for me, but my fiance`s country has no official representation in HK and we surely won`t be able to get this paper elsewhere (unless we travel to Central America which is not in our plans this year).. I understand that it is very unlikely that somebody else had a similar situation and we are going to the Immg Dept to enquire directly anyway but I decided to ask just in case if any of you heard anything about it? Immg Dept issues Certificates of absence of marriage registration record but probably this service is only available for locals and permanent residents, no idea.. We`ve been here for 6.5 years.. Thanks in advance for all your comments.

Thank you for your comment, beancurd.

Actually immigration does issue a certificate of absence of marriage record for marriage registration purposes.. You can see it here http://www.immd.gov.hk/ehtml/mr.htm

But no idea if probably based on our annual tax papers and other official documents we submitted there over the years Immg can issue any proof for us..

Getting the certificate from his country doesnt seem possible now as his close relatives are all living abroad and only close relatives can be authorised to apply for it in the registration chamber, so this is no option for us..

The weird part is that most of my friends who got married here at the regestries and had no previous marriages were not even asked to provide this paper, but I guess when we deal with a civil celebrant its a different story, also the age somehow matters which I find pretty strange..

Its my bf, not gf :-) But anyway, getting this certificate from his country is absolutely impossible at this stage as we are not planning to go there this year, its pretty far.. As for Immg, I finally got a chance to speak to Immg officer and he told me that if we are residents and are getting married here at local registry he can apply at the Marriage registration office and the document they issue should be enough for registration in HK.. He`s never been married before, most of our friends in a similar situation were not even asked to present this document, they simply stated they havent been married ever before, probably our civil celebrant asked for it just to play safe.. But its all very confusing, I`m afraid that because of the language barrier we`ll end up getting this local certificate but it wont be enough.. Anyways going to the Registration & Records office tomorrow, will try to clarify things and share with you later, just in case anyone else has a similar problem..

Staying optimistic :-)