I want to obtain a certificate of no impediment to marriage from my embassy here in China. But in order to do so I must submit an application form and a translated certified copy of my divorce papers to the registrar of births, deaht s and marriages in my home country which I have done.

My problem is this, the application form and the copy of my divorce papers have been forwarded and received but the registrar is claiming that although the papers bear the official seal of the provincial government that in itself is insufficient. They are insisting that I have the documents properly CERTIFIED. I contacted my embassy, explained the problem and asked for their advice and they haven;t answered . The government department in my country doesn;t have a clue how to go about it here.

Is there anyone who knows where I could go and get this document certified? I dont' mean simpy stamped with a seal, it has to be dated and signed as well.

I had to get my kids Kunming Birth certificate legalised, this may also be what you need.

You take the document issued from the local government, go to their foreign ministry who then certifies it with a stamp (and your money) then you take it to the embassy for their stamp.

So if you need your Yunnan divorce papers to be legalised then get a notarised copy and translation at the notary in BaoShan Jie, then go to the Foreign affairs department of Yunnan, they will send it to BJ for the Chinese Foreign Departments Stamp,,then you show that to your embassy.

If its a foreign government certificate then you take it to your foreign ministry in your home country for legalisation, then to the Chinese embassy in your home country for a legalisation stamp,,then you can use the document in China.

In the last six months a lot of "new" documentation has been required for foreign documents by local city and provincial authorities. Most of it is notarization of the notarization of the notarization by various levels of your home countries governments. My recent example is my original city business license in America now must be first notarized by a state licensed notary in that county. Then you go to the county so they can certify it. Then you take it to the State/Province so can certify it. All that done you go to the proper Chinese consulate in your home country and they stamp it if they do not find something incorrect. Then you go back later to pick it up. The fees are not much, the trouble and time to do this can be one or more months. If you protest to our local authorities they will simply say it is required by Beijing. Often they will show/tell you what you need if you ask. Note too that this is government worldwide.
Hope this gives you a general Idea of where to look for the problems.

Long Dragon and Yuang Tog Si I really appreciate taking your time to answer my post.

I've been married before and the procedure is go to your embassy with your ID, fill out a stat dec, pay the fee then exit the embassy . It usually takes 20 minutes. That's most countries not but not NZ, they require the notarized papers from here then they issue the certificate that then must be taken to the consulate and signed by the consul general in person.

I'm thinking that if I go to Hong Kong change passports and re enter the country using my second passport then get the letter of no impediment issued across the counter from the second consulate and cut out the New Zealand government completely.

I was undecided until I read your two posts but now I know that there might 25 things that could go wrong doing this and If I can think of 24 of them then I'm a genuis. The only reason I changed to a New Zealand was because my other one expired. In hindsight that was unfortunate timing .

Thanks again for your input

I looked for the card but couldn't find it, sorry, but there is a provincial translation authority that can translate and certify documents. That is, they were able to certify a translation of my American driver's license, thus allowing me to only have to take the written exam. They may be able to translate your document and stamp that translation.

It's located at the corner of wu yi lu(五一路) and guo fang lu(国防路) down a small alley. Just go to where the small alley ends and there is an office, where they will be surprised to see you, and ask them if they can translate your document.

Certificate of no impediment, I am not sure about. But here is what I had to do for my UK marriage certificate, using an agent.

The certificate was sent to the agent in the UK.
Agent then sent the certificate to the UK Chinese consulate in London.

The Chinese consulate then sent it, through consular channels, to the British Embassy in London.
The BE then had it officially verified and returned to the Chinese consulate, via consular channels.

The Chinese consulate then provided certification (green official certificate with holographic seal and red stamp).
Certified document sent to agent
Returned to me.

NB Certification in this case was only valid for 6 months.

Documents can be difficult and the rules seem to change from country to country. The rules can also change between countries, i.e. a Country A document in Country X can be treated differently to a Country B document in Country X.

I know this isn't helpful, but be prepared to give them what they ask for. And expect what they ask for to change.