Bringing Home the Baby: Where Are the Snags?

If Taiwanese compatriots want to apply for their mainland-born "legitimate offspring" to come to Taiwan (take note: the children must be under 12 years of age, and illegitimate children have no chance!), the most important documents are notarized copies of their marriage certificate and their child's birth certificate.

It sounds simple enough, but when you try to get hold of these documents, the problems start.

Fifth time lucky!

"The point is that many people first have the child and only then get around to completing their marriage registration!" says Li Chin-lien, vice-president of Come Travel Service, referring to the difficult cases which have passed through her hands.

Are cross-strait Partners really so ready to flout convention? Actually not--it's just that for cross-strait couples, registering their marriage is such a troublesome affair.

When getting married on the mainland, the Taiwanese spouse must first produce a "certificate of single status," obtained by going in person to the notary public's office at one's local court in Taiwan with a transcript of one's household registration, and making an affidavit. Next one takes this certificate to the marriage registry office at the local civil administration bureau on the mainland to register one's marriage, and then takes the marriage certificate to a notary public's office to have it notarized.

"To get married on the mainland, it's not enough just to be 'in love,'" complains a Taiwanese husband who "didn't manage to register [his] marriage until the fifth attempt." For fear of "Taiwanese husbands abandoning mainland wives and children," apart from the normal formalities some areas require the husband to produce certificates of employment, financial status and health, and even to pay a "guarantee." The exact requirements differ from place to place and from official to official, creating all kinds of hurdles to clear.

In some areas, marrying someone from Taiwan is treated as marrying a foreigner, and the registration has to made in the provincial capital. Many country brides have never even been to their county town and cannot speak Mandarin, so every time there are any formalities to be dealt with, they have to take their husband with them. If the husband is working in Taiwan, he can only fly to the mainland to deal with these matters now and then when he has the time. Thus before their marriage is properly registered, the children have already come into the world!

Prepare both sides' documents at the same time

From the couple's point of view, if they've had a wedding banquet with 30 tables of guests and brought all the bridegroom's relatives over from Taiwan to meet the bride's family, what does the official registration matter?

But if the children are to come to Taiwan, when it's time to get the notarized birth certificate, who can prove that a child born before the marriage was officially registered, is this couple's "legitimate off spring"? In theory this should be investigated by the local public notary's office on the mainland, but each locality has its own attitude and system, and procrastination, obstruction and even fines are the order of the day. Moreover, by this time the husband's parents in Taiwan will have become so impatient that if there are any strings they can pull, they will spend whatever it takes.

Of course, where there's a will there's a way, but how things turn out depends on the ingenuity of each Taiwanese husband. The ROC's legal institutions or the travel agencies which handle the applications in Taiwan can do very little to help. Once the parents have the crucial notarized mainland marriage and birth certificates, they are half way there, and all that remains to be done is to take these documents to the legal service center of the Straits Exchange Foundation to be verified.

For Taiwan's entry visa application, one will also need a letter of guarantee, a transcript of one's Taiwan household registration and so on. The application should be presented to the Chinese Refugees Relief Association (which has a service counter at the Bureau of Entry and Exit). Although there are no major obstacles at this stage, the formalities are complicated and several visits are sure to be required. Experts recommend that at the same time as applying for the mainland documentation, one should also start making preparations for the application here in Taiwan. With this double-barrelled approach, one can save a good deal of time.