Before you leave Canada, you need to prepare for your marriage immigration. You should go in person to your local Registrar of Marriages to obtain an Affidavit of Marital Status. This certificate costs $50 and proves your single status by confirming that you are not still involved in matrimony with another spouse. You can use it within 3 months of the date of issue.

If you fail to do this in Canada, you can do it in the Canadian Embassy or Consulate in China prior to prior to making an application for a Chinese Marriage Licence.

You will also need your Birth Certificate – original or certificated copy.

If you have been married before you must produce one of the following documents to support the Affidavit of Marital Status:

If divorced, you will need your Divorce Decree

If widowed you will need your Certificate of Marriage and Death Certificate of your previous spouse

Changing Your Canada Documents

You need to prepare your Canada documents for use in China They need to be notarised, “authenticated” and “legalised “in order for them to be valid there.

The first thing you need to do is get a notary stamp and signature from any notary in Canada. Then get them “authenticated” by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT). The purpose of the authentication process is to prove the validity of the documents issued in Canada.

The last thing to do is to get your documents translated into Chinese and “legalised” by the Chinese Embassy or Consulate. After that your documents acquire legal validity in China.

Documents in Need of Legalisation for Marriage in China

• Affidavit of Marital Status
• Divorce Decree (if relevant)
• Former spouse’s Death Certificate and previous marriage certificate (if relevant)
• Your Birth Certificate
• Name change certificate (if relevant)

Your Canadian passport cannot be legalised as it is already an internationally recognised document. You must however have photocopies of the ID and bio page notarised as true copies of the original.

Canadian citizenship entitles you to get a marriage visa to marry your Chinese wife and sponsor her application for marriage immigration to Canada. Applying for a marriage visa and preparing for marriage immigration can be a time consuming task and you will need to be organized particularly with your Canada documents. To qualify for a marriage visa you must fulfill these basic criteria:

• You must be a Canadian citizen or legal permanent resident aged 18 years or over
• You must be financially independent and able to support her for 3 years after she gets her permanent residence
• You must also support any dependent children for 10 years or until they are 25
• You must have adequate housing where you, your Chinese wife and any dependants can live without relying on state benefits

When you get married to your Chinese wife you can legalise your Chinese marriage in Canada.