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.

Getting Ready for Marriage Immigration

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.

Chinese Visa Requirements

As a Canadian citizen you need a visa to visit China. You must make sure that your passport is valid for at least 6 more months with at least two blank pages available. After that you must apply for a single entry L-visa. Copy your passport ID page, then fill out this visa application form. Then you are ready to apply for a visa. Your visa will be issued within 4 working days, and will be valid for 3 months. Visa fee of $50 is collected on pick-up, only cash, money order and certified check accepted.

Once you have prepared all relevant documents and you have a valid Canadian passport you can make arrangements to join your Chinese wife.

Getting Married in China

You may decide to marry your Chinese wife in Canada, however, getting married in China is an inspiring experience and relatively straight forward providing you are organized and ensure that you and your Chinese wife have the correct documentation.

Whilst your Chinese wife is excited about planning the marriage ceremony you should make her aware that under both Canadian and Chinese Marriage Law, only the civil registration of your marriage will be recognised as legal and only a legal marriage will allow you to bring your Chinese wife back to Canada.

The first step in planning your wedding in China is to go with your Chinese spouse to the Civil Affairs Bureau –in some cities you will have a special section for ‘international marriages’ – and submit an application for marriage registration together with the relevant documents. Your Chinese spouse will need to get a certificate from the local government office or her place of work indicating her name, sex, date of birth, nationality, marital status, occupation, name and nationality of the person she plans to marry. This is the Chinese equivalent to the Affidavit of Marital Status.

The legal age to get married in China is 20 for women; if your Chinese bride is under 20 she will need to produce a written consent from her parents or guardians. This should be given personally and in writing in front of the local civil registrar officer. Alternatively, it can be in the form of an affidavit made in the presence of two witnesses

To register the marriage legally with the Chinese authorities takes a lot of work and you should not underestimate the time or work involved. A marriage registration in China is equivalent to a civil marriage in many western countries but it is entirely administrative, there is no ceremony at all. The event normally takes well under one hour, sometimes as little as 15 minutes.

Document Check: Canadian Bridegroom

• Original Affidavit of Marital Status (valid for three months from the date of issue) issued in Canada or by the Canadian Embassy in China.
• Original valid Canadian passport
• Original birth certificate
• Original death certificate of deceased spouse if widowed
• Original divorce decree or annulment papers if divorced
• Three official style photos of the couple together

Document Check: Chinese Wife

• Affidavit of Marital Status
• Original birth certificate
• Original death certificate of deceased spouse if widowed
• Original divorce decree or annulment papers if divorced
• If she is under 20 years of age, a written consent by her parents.
• Household registration book (hukou)

The marriage registration administrative office will examine your marriage registration and if the conditions for marriage are met, you will be given your marriage certificate the same day or asked to collect it in a few days. Marriage to your Chinese wife does not automatically qualify you for Chinese nationality; you should also be aware that China is not a country that recognises dual citizenship.

Permanent Resident Application

When your Chinese wife comes to Canada she can change her name to that of your own and you can start the marriage visa process. Any Canadian man wishing to bring his Chinese wife to Canada should make a family sponsorship application for permanent residence. This process takes between 6 and 18 months. Spousal sponsorship is a part of the Canadian immigration system that allows individuals to come to Canada under the Family Class of immigration.

In your case, you will sponsor your Chinese wife to Canada, as long as you meet the requirements of a spousal sponsor. Spousal sponsorship is an agreement between the Canadian government and you. This agreement is a promise on the part of the sponsor that you will provide your spouse with food, clothes and shelter i.e. all of the basic requirements in order to live in Canada.

The marriage visa sponsorship agreement includes financial support and health care because your Chinese wife will have no access to the social care system. In the sponsorship agreement you promise to sponsor your spouse for at least three years from the day she becomes a permanent resident. You also have to sponsor any dependent children moving with her to Canada for a period of 10 years or until they are 25, whichever comes first.

Spousal Sponsorship Requirements

To qualify for spousal sponsorship, you must meet the following requirements:

1. You are over 18 years old and a Canadian citizen or permanent resident living in Canada.
2. You are single and free to marry
3. You have married your Chinese wife in China and intend to live in Canada with her.
4. You are not on any Social Assistance program
5. You are not in default of any previous sponsorship agreement
6. You have sufficient funds and you are not bankrupt
7. You are not in prison

You may not qualify if one of the following points applies to your situation:

• You previously failed to provide financial support when you signed a sponsorship agreement to sponsor another relative
• You failed to pay alimony or child support
• You received government financial assistance for reasons other than disability
• You were convicted of a violent criminal offence, an offence against a relative or a sexual offence
• You failed to make payments for an immigration loan
• You have declared bankruptcy and have not recovered from it yet.
• If you qualify for sponsorship, you can fill out the application forms available from Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

If you qualify for sponsorship, you can fill out the application forms available from Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC). Read the guide and complete the application. Remember to support the application with relevant documents.

Canada Visa Application

Your Chinese wife must fill out the immigration forms. As part of the application process, she will need to undergo a medical exam and a criminal check. The medical exam is required to make sure that applicants do not have a medical condition that is dangerous to Canadian public health and safety, or would require elaborate treatment by the Canadian health services. The examination results are valid for 12 months and need to be done by authorised doctors. Your wife must present a valid police certificate from China showing she has no criminal record.

The next step is to pay you application fee to Citizenship and Immigration Canada. You can pay your fees by bank transfer or online. If you choose to pay at the bank, you have to order a receipt of payment, also called immigration form IMM 5401. Remember to bring this form with you to the bank when you pay your fees. If you pay online, make sure you print the receipt of payment form and include it with your application.

Visa Application Fees

The fiancée visa application fees are as follows:

$75 for you as a sponsor

• $475 for your Chinese wife
• $150 for a dependent child your wife who is under 22 and not married
• $550 for a dependant of your wife who is 22 or older, or who is under 22 and married $490 for the right of permanent residence fee which your wife will be have to pay before the status is granted.

The last step is to mail your application along with the receipt for the fees paid and all supporting documents to the Citizenship and Immigration Canada Case Processing Centre (CPC) in Mississauga, Ontario. You will be notified when your application is received and you can check the status of your application online. After your wife has held her permanent resident status for three years, she is eligible to apply for Canadian citizenship.

Applications are refused if you provide false information on your application pack.