china family law research center

Contents

· Divorce by agreement

· Divorce litigation

· Divorce cases between
Chinese and Foreigners

· Family laws and
regulations

      First of all, the registered marriage certificate issued abroad should be notarized in that country and be approved by the Consulate for that country in China, and then make register for the divorce case in China. Even if both parties are in China or the party of foreign national is in his or her country, the notarization and approval are hard to carry out if one party refuses to cooperate. However, the foreign lawyer commissioned for the issues concerning notarization and approval charges in U.S, dollars by hour, especially in U.S.A, U.K and Canada, greatly higher than the lawyer in China. For example, we once contact a law firm in U.S.A for the procedures of notarization, the law firm charges $2000 as calculated by 4 hours. Of course, in some countries, such as Ireland, the charge may be several ten euros, even cheaper than an EMS. Besides, as our law firm has the branch in Japan, we charge not more than 20,000 yen for the procedure fees of notarization and approval, which is relatively lower.
      Second, the registered marriage certificates of HK, Taiwan and Macao should also go through the above-mentioned procedures for notarization and approval. Take HK as an example, the registered marriage certificate should be verified by the HK notarial lawyer commissioned by Ministry of Justice with the notarial documents sealed by wax. The documents that can be adopted lawfully in the court of Mainland China should be stamped with the service company in HK China commissioned for delivery. We maintain partnership with the notary public assigned by Ministry of Justice from many law firms in HK, so the total expenses may not exceed 3000 HK dollars, including expenses for inquiring and stamping for delivery.
      The registered marriage certificate notarized and approved, with other materials for action should be submitted for the court register. In case both parties have come to agreements, the divorce case maybe closes within a month; otherwise, the term for lawsuit maybe lasts for a year and a half or so.