Has anyone run up against this issue and successfully conquered it? I've been trying for several months to convince notaries and banks that I am single with no success.

Turns out that China keeps track of this for Chinese citizens and therefore expect you to prove it to do certain kinds of business. I am told I cannot sell my apartment (that I bought with only my name) until I can prove I'm single. I also cannot make a will for property and bank accts. in china.
They tell me to bring more paper...divorce certs. and so on but then still don't accept it. I'm American BYW.

oops...that BTW by the way not BYW

You should have equipped yourself with a certificate of status before you left the USA. It is a certificate issued to you from the state govt verifying your "status" and is required for many functions when living in China as you are now finding out. I don't know how you can get this from outside the USA now.
Good Luck

I'm going to be in the US in a few days so if I could have more info maybe I could get it while I'm there. When I've talked to our embassy they saw there's no paperwork like that! I'd be suprised if a state could issue this since marriage and divorces are recorded at the county level. So I could get some county of US to declare I'm not married in that county (which of course means nothing). Do you think the chinese accept these. I'll try harder to find this Cert of Status via googling but I have never seen it before. That'd be great of course. Did you get one? issued by a state? Chengdu embassy didn't mention this.

Thanks Bucko, That was very useful info. I was able to find a form that I could buy online with that title that is a state level thing(of course the state doesn't know your status). I'll try first in Chengdu since it's the same idea as they propose. It just says you swear you are single since the US has no way of confirming that. Chengdu says those sometimes work in China but are no guarantee and they add a caveat that clarifiies that the USA doesn't know your status. Whee

Hi BBinKMG. Can you post where you found the form? I'm looking for the same thing. Thanks.

yeah, western countries basically cannot provide that. the best they can do is witness a statement made by you.

A few months ago I thought it was going to be necessary to get a certificate saying I have no children (so that my wife could get insurance to cover the birth of our daughter). The British embassy said they had no way to provide this information but best they could do is witness an affidavit.

Similar situation. Countries who don't interfere in the lives of their citizens in the same way as China does have no way to provide this kind of certification.

OK, here's a couple of links I found...The first gives what I'd use as a nice template when I go to Chengdu consulate (they told me they had no form). houston.china-consulate.org/visa/english/marriage/jh.htm#aoss

This second link is to a site that claims they can do something much more formal but it costs quite a bit and I haven't checked them out. They did claim they could do a chinese translation apostille.us/Documents/single_status_affidavit.shtml

They quoted $548 or so USD to do the whole thing via mail and get it legally stamped somehow. I plan to try the Chengdu consulate first but not sure they will still do this service. And there's another pitfall, if you do it a few years before you actually need it, they might require an updated one since you could have married since. Of course it's all nonsense given the US laws and ability to track you.

Let me try again - don't you just love these 404 errors!

Getting it done in the US is my advice. I had a similar bilingual document made up in Canada and notorized by my friendly Chinese/Canadian lawyer - it was accepted in Chengdu without a pause. But it was only valid for six months (For obvious reasons).

Good luck.

Bernie,

Not sure what your 404 errors are but if you are referring to the links I supplied, they don't get any errors when you aren't in China. I just tested them both and I'm in France....if you use a VPN they will work fine. And both the suggestions I made are "in the US" options...just that one can be handled via mail. The US Chengdu consulate said their form is sometimes accepted and sometimes not. Maybe Canada doesn't insist on adding the disclaimer...I don't know.

Maybe you could explain HOW to get it done in the USA since there is no agency of the government who can actually provide or stamp such a certification. They can only agree that you swore to being single. If you mean that in Canada you had a form prepared and notarized without involving the government, well, good we could do that anywhere.