Mr. Liu and Ms. Li, who work at an internet company in Beijing, have been in love for years and plan to register their marriage this year. However, neither of them is registered in Beijing, and according to the previous provisions of the Marriage Registration Regulations, "when a mainland resident marries, both men and women shall jointly go to the marriage registration office where one of the parties has his or her permanent residence to register the marriage." "My home is in Hubei, my girlfriend's home is in Guangxi, if you fly, you have to take at least two days off at the same time." Mr. Liu said.
On May 5, the State Council issued an approval from the Ministry of Civil Affairs to expand the "cross-province application" pilot for marriage registration of mainland residents, including Beijing, which means that both Mr. Liu and Ms. Li can register their marriage in Beijing as long as one of them has a Beijing residence permit.
For the "cross-province application" of marriage registration, netizens generally said that it can make it more convenient for residents and reduce the possibility of fraudulent marriage and bigamy. "With the popularization of marriage registration information by civil affairs departments, it is almost impossible to register in one place and apply for it again in another. At present, the cases we have encountered involve the crime of bigamy, and the cases related to de facto marriages account for the majority. Xie Yining, a lawyer at Fujian Reliance Law Firm, said.
The number of pilot areas for marriage registration "inter-provincial application" was expanded to 21
On May 5, the State Council publicly issued a reply approving the Ministry of Civil Affairs to expand the pilot project of "cross-province universal handling" of marriage registration for mainland residents. It was agreed to expand the pilot project of "cross-provincial universal handling" for marriage registration of mainland residents, and after the adjustment, the pilot project of "cross-provincial universal application" for marriage registration and divorce registration will be implemented in 18 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government), including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Chongqing, Sichuan, Shaanxi and Ningxia.
The State Council approves that in the pilot areas, the relevant provisions of the first paragraph of article 4 and the first paragraph of article 10 of the "Marriage Registration Regulations" will be adjusted and implemented accordingly. After the adjustment, parties to marriage registration where neither party is registered as a local may apply for marriage registration at the marriage registration office in the place where the residence permit was issued by presenting the residence permit of one party, the household registration book of both parties, and the identity card, or choose to register the marriage in the place where one of the parties has permanent residence.
The pilot period is 2 years from the date of approval.
The State Council also requires that during the pilot process, the Ministry of Civil Affairs should guide the pilot areas to further strengthen the upgrading of the marriage registration management information system, and focus on improving the level of marriage registration informatization; Compile guidelines for handling marriage registration, carry out practical training on "cross-provincial handling" of marriage registration, and carry out pilot work in an orderly manner in accordance with law.
As long as one party has a residence permit
Marriage can be registered at the local civil affairs bureau
Ms. Zhai, who lives in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, wants to register her marriage with her boyfriend this year, but her hukou is still in her hometown of Shanxi, and her boyfriend's hukou is not in Xi'an. However, two years ago, Xi'an had implemented a pilot project of "cross-province universal processing" for marriage registration, so when applying for marriage registration, Ms. Zhai and her boyfriend did not need to go back to their hometown, they could do so in Xi'an.
"It's okay if both parties' household registrations are not in Xi'an, but you need to have the residence permit of one of the parties in Xi'an, as well as the household registration book and ID card of both parties." On May 5, the staff of the marriage registration office of the Civil Affairs Bureau of Beilin District of Xi'an told a reporter from Chengdu Business Daily - Red Star News that it can be handled at any district of Xi'an.
The reporter noted that the expansion of the "cross-provincial universal application" pilot of marriage registration for mainland residents is based on the "cross-provincial universal application" pilot of marriage registration in June 2021, and Xi'an, Shaanxi Province was the area where the "cross-provincial universal application" of marriage registration was implemented at that time.
In May 2021, the Ministry of Civil Affairs announced that with the approval of the State Council, the Ministry of Civil Affairs will implement the pilot of "cross-provincial universal handling" of marriage registration and divorce registration in Liaoning, Shandong, Guangdong, Chongqing and Sichuan, and the pilot of "cross-provincial universal application" of marriage registration in Jiangsu, Henan, Hubei Wuhan and Xi'an, Shaanxi. The pilot period is from June 5, 2021 to May 6, 1.
With this expansion, the number of pilot provinces for marriage registration and divorce registration has been expanded from five to 5 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government).
Prior to the pilot, article 4, paragraph 1, of the Marriage Registration Ordinance stipulates that when a mainland resident gets married, both a man and a woman should jointly go to the marriage registration office in the place where one of the parties has his or her permanent residence to register the marriage. According to the first paragraph of Article 10, if a mainland resident voluntarily divorces, both men and women shall jointly go to the marriage registration office in the place where one of the parties has his or her permanent residence to register the divorce.
Can "inter-provincial processing" reduce bigamy?
Lawyer: Now most bigamy cases are unregistered de facto marriages
For the pilot marriage registration "cross-province application", some netizens said that this move can reduce the phenomenon of bigamy and fraudulent marriage.
According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs in 2012, at the end of June of that year, the goal of marriage registration information networking had been achieved nationwide.
In May 2021, Wang Xingling, then chief engineer of the Information Center of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that the Ministry of Civil Affairs would strengthen the nationwide online review of marriage registration to ensure the accuracy of marriage registration. The Ministry of Civil Affairs will guide marriage registration organs at all levels to allocate technical equipment such as face recognition, fingerprint collection and comparison, and ID card readers, to improve the accuracy of the comparison of personal information between marriage parties.
Xie Yining, a lawyer at Fujian Reliance Law Firm and the founder of the family legal team, told reporters that there are still cases related to the crime of bigamy that will be encountered. "However, since at present, in terms of technology and practice, relevant departments such as civil affairs have basically realized the nationwide networking of marriage registration information, it is almost impossible to register in one place and apply for it again in another place."
Xie Yining said that there are two main types of cases related to the crime of bigamy encountered so far: one is that the parties registered in one place before the marriage registration information was networked nationwide, and then registered again in another place; The other category is bigamy involving de facto marriages, these people are not registered with the civil affairs and other departments, but there are bigamies due to de facto marriages, and this category now accounts for the vast majority.
Through the judgment document network, the reporter inquired about the relevant jurisprudence of courts in various places on bigamy cases in recent years, most of which were the two situations mentioned by lawyer Xie Yining. For example, in the first-instance judgment of the Xinhua County People's Court in Hunan Province against Yi Moumou in April this year, Yi Moumou registered his marriage with Xie in 4 and had 2010 children, but Yi Moumou lived with Zou Moumou as husband and wife after 3 and had 2017 daughter, until 1, when Zou Moumou knew that Yi Moumou did not divorce Xie. The court held that the defendant Yi Moumou had a spouse who was still living with others in the name of husband and wife, and his behavior constituted the crime of bigamy, and Yi Moumou was sentenced to six months in prison and one year of probation in the first instance.
Xie Yining believes that in addition to avoiding the possibility of fraudulent marriage and bigamy in the pilot areas of marriage registration, the most important thing is to solve the difficulty of marriage registration for many people living outside the place of household registration. "This is also in line with China's national conditions, now there are more floating populations in China, and it is also common to live outside the place of household registration, and 'inter-provincial universal handling' has greatly reduced the cost of handling affairs for this part of the people."
Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News reporter Fu Yao Zhao Qian