Post by Shane on Sept 8, 2005 18:40:53 GMT 7
I just put this on my blog, I thought you guys might be interested to hear of my troubles...
Well, after a lot of messing around, we were finally ready today, to go to the Dalian Marriage Registration Bureau and get ourselves registered. To put it another way, get married. The ceremony isn't until next February, but we needed to register now, in order to help with Viv's case when she applies for her visa next January. We figure the longer we've been officially recognised as a couple, the better chance she'll have of being taken seriously.
The lead up to today's trip was far from smooth. My side of things went well; I went to Beijing and got my Certificate of Non-Impediment from the British embassy in July, and that was about all I needed. The only blot on my landscape, so to speak, was the fact that my passport is currently in the hands of the PSB, as they are renewing my visa. It wasn't certain until one hour before our visit to the bureau today whether or not my boss could get my passport back. Thankfully, he did.
For Viv though, things were a bit more complicated. She isn't from Dalian, and so she had to get her hukou changed to a local one. This was done via her company, who in turn got it done via an agency. With so many middle-men, you can imagine how spoiled this broth became. She managed to get her hukou back last week, after waiting over a month for it. Then came another problem. As well as the personal hukou, there's also a company hukou that she is required to present at the bureau. Now, Viv works in an international corporation, whose employees are constantly flying around the world. These people of course need visas, which means they also require the use of the company hukou. yes, you read it right, it's a hukou, not a number of hukous. The company only has one hukou. This little blue piece of paper is to be shared amongst around 400 or so employees, some of whom require visas for going abroad, whilst some require the hukou to get married, like Viv did.
Once Viv found out who was currently using this hukou, she had the unenviable task of trying to persuade this woman to let her use it for a few hours. This woman really dragged the whole process out, promising to give Viv the hukou, then finding excuses not to give it to her. Finally, the woman promised to give Viv the hukou today at 12. Viv and I then planned to meet up at 1, and then go to the bureau. At the same time, my boss was at the Entrance & Exit Bureau trying to get my passport back. All good fun.
12 o'clock came and went, and I'd heard nothing from Viv. I checked with her, and guess what? The woman was still using the hukou. It turned out she was trying to register her house or something, and was out the office. She promised (ha!) to bring it back to the office before 1pm. Well, you can guess the rest. At 1:15, Viv jumped into a taxi and went to the office where this woman was, and snatched the hukou form her. She then rushed to meet me. At the same time, my boss was rushing back to meet me with my passport, which he'd miraculously grabbed back from the police.
So, we'd now got everything. Passport, hukous, the lot. We then made our way to the Wedding Registration Bureau. I've read a few accounts online from foreign teachers here in China, telling their stories about the wedding registration process. Pretty much all of them said it was quick and painless - go in, fill out two forms, hand over the documents, two photos and the money, and twenty minutes later, you walk out as a married couple.
So what went wrong?
We went inside the building and made our way up to the 6th floor. The woman told us to get out all of our 'evidence'. When it came to Viv's ID card, the woman looked at it very briefly, and threw it back at her, flatly refusing it. You see, Viv's ID card has faded. No one knows why. She's the only person she knows that has a faded ID card. Everyone else's cards are clear and easily-readable. Viv's is not. If you hold it up to a bright light, you can make out the writing, but if you try and photocopy it - as the bureau wanted to do - you can't see anything. Viv tried to get the woman to change her mind, but we we up against, as we later found out, a true "jobsworth". This woman wasn't going to budge an inch.
I called my boss, and asked him to come over. He's really good at bargaining, and if anyone could persuade this woman to give in, it was him. He made his way over after getting another foreign teacher's fridge repaired, which took him about an hour. A very long, boring hour, standing in an empty entrance at the foot of the building.
He tried his luck, but this woman wasn't having any of it. She was more stubborn than 1000 mules put together. She was so adamant that she wasn't going to allow Viv's ID card to be used, she wouldn't even let my boss finish any of his sentences. She was driving me nuts.
After about 30 minutes of trying to wear her down, he decided to go and speak to the head of the bureau. My boss went in and begged like his life depended on it, to get this boss to allow Viv's ID card to be used. This guy was much more reasonable; he listened to my boss's sentences, at least. He still refeused, but at least he refused in a calm and rational manner instead of screaming in a way that resembled someone being drowned in a lake.
Negotiations went on for FOUR hours. This bureau closes at 4pm, but we were still there at 5:15. I was ready to just give up and go home. Either that, or go to the airport and get the first plane out of the country back to England. Words cannot truly express how I felt this afternoon. The whole process of marriage had been reduced to a beurocratic nightmare; a pen-pusher's dream. The whole emotional process had been lost. It was no longer about who loves who, but about who can authorise a photocopy of a document. I no longer had the desire to get married, funnily enough.
At around 5:25, we reached an agreement. Tomorrow morning, Viv is to go to the police and apply for a new ID card. This card will take a week, as long as she pays an extra fee for 'emergency processing'. The police will give her a receipt. Viv must then take this receipt to the express courier office (this one is designated for the delivery of ID cards), where she will be given another receipt. Viv will then (along with me) take that receipt to the Marriage Registration Bureau, and the woman will make our wedding certificate. but of course, we aren't allowed to have this certificate, just yet. She will not give us the certificate until Viv goes back to the bureau and shows them her new ID card. In the meantime, this woman will give us a photocopy of the marriage certificate.
"Still, we'll be legally married from tomorrow, Hubby," Viv said this evening.
"Oh no we won't. Not until we get that damn certificate," I replied.
Well, after a lot of messing around, we were finally ready today, to go to the Dalian Marriage Registration Bureau and get ourselves registered. To put it another way, get married. The ceremony isn't until next February, but we needed to register now, in order to help with Viv's case when she applies for her visa next January. We figure the longer we've been officially recognised as a couple, the better chance she'll have of being taken seriously.
The lead up to today's trip was far from smooth. My side of things went well; I went to Beijing and got my Certificate of Non-Impediment from the British embassy in July, and that was about all I needed. The only blot on my landscape, so to speak, was the fact that my passport is currently in the hands of the PSB, as they are renewing my visa. It wasn't certain until one hour before our visit to the bureau today whether or not my boss could get my passport back. Thankfully, he did.
For Viv though, things were a bit more complicated. She isn't from Dalian, and so she had to get her hukou changed to a local one. This was done via her company, who in turn got it done via an agency. With so many middle-men, you can imagine how spoiled this broth became. She managed to get her hukou back last week, after waiting over a month for it. Then came another problem. As well as the personal hukou, there's also a company hukou that she is required to present at the bureau. Now, Viv works in an international corporation, whose employees are constantly flying around the world. These people of course need visas, which means they also require the use of the company hukou. yes, you read it right, it's a hukou, not a number of hukous. The company only has one hukou. This little blue piece of paper is to be shared amongst around 400 or so employees, some of whom require visas for going abroad, whilst some require the hukou to get married, like Viv did.
Once Viv found out who was currently using this hukou, she had the unenviable task of trying to persuade this woman to let her use it for a few hours. This woman really dragged the whole process out, promising to give Viv the hukou, then finding excuses not to give it to her. Finally, the woman promised to give Viv the hukou today at 12. Viv and I then planned to meet up at 1, and then go to the bureau. At the same time, my boss was at the Entrance & Exit Bureau trying to get my passport back. All good fun.
12 o'clock came and went, and I'd heard nothing from Viv. I checked with her, and guess what? The woman was still using the hukou. It turned out she was trying to register her house or something, and was out the office. She promised (ha!) to bring it back to the office before 1pm. Well, you can guess the rest. At 1:15, Viv jumped into a taxi and went to the office where this woman was, and snatched the hukou form her. She then rushed to meet me. At the same time, my boss was rushing back to meet me with my passport, which he'd miraculously grabbed back from the police.
So, we'd now got everything. Passport, hukous, the lot. We then made our way to the Wedding Registration Bureau. I've read a few accounts online from foreign teachers here in China, telling their stories about the wedding registration process. Pretty much all of them said it was quick and painless - go in, fill out two forms, hand over the documents, two photos and the money, and twenty minutes later, you walk out as a married couple.
So what went wrong?
We went inside the building and made our way up to the 6th floor. The woman told us to get out all of our 'evidence'. When it came to Viv's ID card, the woman looked at it very briefly, and threw it back at her, flatly refusing it. You see, Viv's ID card has faded. No one knows why. She's the only person she knows that has a faded ID card. Everyone else's cards are clear and easily-readable. Viv's is not. If you hold it up to a bright light, you can make out the writing, but if you try and photocopy it - as the bureau wanted to do - you can't see anything. Viv tried to get the woman to change her mind, but we we up against, as we later found out, a true "jobsworth". This woman wasn't going to budge an inch.
I called my boss, and asked him to come over. He's really good at bargaining, and if anyone could persuade this woman to give in, it was him. He made his way over after getting another foreign teacher's fridge repaired, which took him about an hour. A very long, boring hour, standing in an empty entrance at the foot of the building.
He tried his luck, but this woman wasn't having any of it. She was more stubborn than 1000 mules put together. She was so adamant that she wasn't going to allow Viv's ID card to be used, she wouldn't even let my boss finish any of his sentences. She was driving me nuts.
After about 30 minutes of trying to wear her down, he decided to go and speak to the head of the bureau. My boss went in and begged like his life depended on it, to get this boss to allow Viv's ID card to be used. This guy was much more reasonable; he listened to my boss's sentences, at least. He still refeused, but at least he refused in a calm and rational manner instead of screaming in a way that resembled someone being drowned in a lake.
Negotiations went on for FOUR hours. This bureau closes at 4pm, but we were still there at 5:15. I was ready to just give up and go home. Either that, or go to the airport and get the first plane out of the country back to England. Words cannot truly express how I felt this afternoon. The whole process of marriage had been reduced to a beurocratic nightmare; a pen-pusher's dream. The whole emotional process had been lost. It was no longer about who loves who, but about who can authorise a photocopy of a document. I no longer had the desire to get married, funnily enough.
At around 5:25, we reached an agreement. Tomorrow morning, Viv is to go to the police and apply for a new ID card. This card will take a week, as long as she pays an extra fee for 'emergency processing'. The police will give her a receipt. Viv must then take this receipt to the express courier office (this one is designated for the delivery of ID cards), where she will be given another receipt. Viv will then (along with me) take that receipt to the Marriage Registration Bureau, and the woman will make our wedding certificate. but of course, we aren't allowed to have this certificate, just yet. She will not give us the certificate until Viv goes back to the bureau and shows them her new ID card. In the meantime, this woman will give us a photocopy of the marriage certificate.
"Still, we'll be legally married from tomorrow, Hubby," Viv said this evening.
"Oh no we won't. Not until we get that damn certificate," I replied.
