A marriage in Hong Kong can be so easy. Besides the travel itself, not that many things need to be arranged in order to say “yes, I do” and enjoy the rest of the time in the breath taking city.
The few bureaucratic processes and documents needed make it a very attractive and viable alternative for international couples. It was exactly the same for us. After severe problems to receive a marriage visa for Germany, we luckily found out about Hong Kong.
With the international apostille, which is recognized and gets accepted by the Germany embassy in Manila (Philippines) immediately, (and anywhere else for that matter) we were able to apply for the family reunion visa following our marriage in Hong Kong.
Only 1 month later, my beloved Reylita was able to move from the Philippines to Germany. This is how quickly it can happen!
You can read our complete story right here.
However, on Facebook groups and also various forums, people are still discussing and questioning whether or not a marriage in Hong Kong is worth it – which brings me to my first question.
When is it worth marrying in Hong Kong
and when is it actually not?
When you try and get married in Germany or the Philippines, the process takes very long because of the so-called certificate examination process, which is a process that authorities use to stretch out the time of your application.
The chances of this examination to take place following a marriage in Hong Kong are almost non-existent. It can happen, but rarely does, which is why so many German/Philippine couples decide to get married in Hong Kong.
We often receive calls or emails from couples following the successful wedding in Hong Kong. Almost always they just want to say thank you to us for providing them with the solution to their problem.
In some cases though, they tell us that they have been summoned for further certificate examination, which could have been prevented.
The further certificate examination has not been requested because of the marriage in Hong Kong itself, but almost always because there were mistakes on the documents coming from the Philippines. A birth certificate that got registered too late is one of the primary reasons.
Marriage in Hong Kong – what is a late registration?
A late registration means, that at the time of birth of the person in question, the personalization and identification had not been carried out properly.
This is something that needs to be corrected before hand but can take some time. It requires many different types of proofs from the PSA, to legitimize that the person is who they claim to be.
On top of that, this checking is not being carried out by someone from the German embassy, but from a separate caseworker.
Due to all these different complexities, we did a poll to see what people have to say about all this, and 2 opinions were dominant:
- The vast majority has recommended a marriage in Hong Kong
- In addition, it shows that this was due to a large number of people experiencing huge problems with a marriage in Germany and the Philippines – often due to the very lengthy process of bureaucratic obstacles.
The Questionnaires and Research are clear
The results we had received are very clear indeed; most people favoured a wedding in Hong Kong.
Just as we had assumed, many people told us about the numerous problems they unfortunately experienced with trying to get married in Germany or the Philippines.
Our summary to a marriage in Hong Kong:
A marriage in Hong Kong is by far the superior choice, especially if you are not being summoned to a further certificate examination, which we prevent though in almost all cases, with the correct submission of all relevant documents, including a correct birth certificate.
However, we found out that even if that was to happen, a wedding in Hong Kong is still much faster and a simpler process than the other options available to couples.
We would never explicitly tell you to not get married in Germany or the Philippines, but the bureaucratic obstacles created in this process are simply not present when marrying in Hong Kong.
So besides our own experience, we were able to determine that a marriage in Hong Kong is indeed the easiest solution for mixed couples from Europe and Asia.
In fact, for almost any country it is one, if not the, easiest way to get married and have that marriage be accepted and recognized worldwide for visa purposes.
If you want to make sure its right for you and not take any risks, then please take a look at our wedding service here:
https://marriageinhongkong.com
We are available for a free consultation whenever you want!
We hope to hear from you,
Your Reylita and Stephan.
