Chinese Marriage certificate - please help

[gingerwolf]

Hi all,

Getting nowhere with UKBA who put me onto the Foreign and commonwealth office - who put me back to UKBA...

I am British, my wife is chinese and here on spouse VISA - We are applying for ILR in October - I am clear on everything but our marriage certificates.

All we have are the red book chinese marriage licenses we recieved when we got married in china - these were accepted fine in China for my wife to get her spouse visa - will these be ok along with the spouse visa in her passport as proof of marriage?

My concern is if we need verified translations ( not needed for spouse visa ) and if we do how do get them?

Stew

Please helP!

[Casa]

If you apply by post you won't be required to submit the marriage certificate.
This is requested at times when applying at a PEO, but I don't believe the PEO application can be refused if you only have the original marriage book without the translation.
You may need this translated later on though for British Citizenship. Depending on where you live in the UK, you should be able to find a translator locally if you 'google' it.

[gingerwolf]

thanks CASA - not wanting to 2nd guess your knowledge but can anyone else confirm this?

The woman i finally got through to at UKBA said we would probably need a translation - not that she seemed to much as she then told me to ask the foreign and commonwealth office who politely told me to go back to UKBA.

We have enough new hoops to jump through with the updated life in the uk test and B1 requirement - so I need to be sure on the marriage book - as I also got told by UKBA that only a certified translation stamped in China would suffice - its a long and expensive trip to china to get a translaed marriage book if its not needed.

I do not want to turn up at the PEO in Sheffield to be refused ILR on the grounds of not having a translated marriage book.

Citizenship is not something my wife wants right now anyway as her parents are getting old and she wants to hold onto her chinese passport incase she has to go back at short notice.

[Kevin24]

Chinese Embassy over here be able to help you in any way. Certifying the Marriage Certificate.

[Kevin24]

Please Googe for Trnanslation to Engliah. Thers are 2 web sites.Then get it certified at the Chinese Emabassy,in London,that it is a True Copy.Hope that is acceptable for UKBA.

[Casa]

Regrettably the UKBA 'help line' staff are notorious for giving incorrect information. It's nonsense that this has to be translated in China. If you want peace of mind, have it translated by a reputable translation company. As you've already been advised, if you can't find one easily, contact the Chinese embassy for guidance.
You haven't said where you are living but a simple Google search shows this company in London.
http://www.certifiedtranslationcompany.co.uk/
As long as you use a professional translation company you don't need it certified by the Chinese embassy. It was accepted for the intitial spouse visa and will be accepted for ILR.

[gingerwolf]

Thanks for the feedback.

I live near sheffield so I will look for any reputable translation companies - as we have a PEO here I guess there will also be a company that will do this.

Luckily I am actually going to china ( holiday was booked before i was told about needing marriage card transalted ) I have 1 day in the city where we got married so will try and get it translated there - its just good to know if I cant manage to get this done - they take 15 days to translate and would then need to post back to us in the UK - I can get something done in the UK to make sure my wife doesnt get kicked out of the country for something so stupid!