Difficulty obtaining Birth Certificate and Hukou

[Noremac09 0]

My wife and I are having trouble obtaining a copy of a Notarial Certificate of Birth for her. She is a Chinese citizen here in the US on an F-1 Student Visa. She is in the midst of her OPT period and we have been advised by our attorney for her not to return to China until (if we’re approved) she gets a green card as she may be unable to re-enter if she does.

 

The problem is that she does not currently know where her Hukou is and her few close relatives have either not been able to find it or are not being very helpful. My wife has never met her biological mother as she and my wife’s father divorced months after she gave birth. The only information by wife has about her mother is her name. Her father is estranged, so talking with him is unlikely to be of any help. She knows that in the past she’s had a hukou with her and her father both on it. She has a Chinese ID card and a Chinese passport, both of which are valid. We have contacted both the police and the local government offices in her hometown, but this far have either been told that they do not offer such certificates, or that she will need to be there in person. Is her returning to China and locating her hukou the only option we have? Is having the hukou enough to guarantee she can get a Notarial Certificate of Birth? Wouldn’t she have had to have some kind of documents to verify her birth to even come here to the US in the first place?

 

In case it is relevant, she was born in a rural area of Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and then when she was around 12 or 13 the government relocated them into an urban area of the city after seizing their family’s farmland.

 

We’re both very discouraged right now, so any and all advise will be appreciated. We are not worried about any other aspect of this process, but we both fear that this birth certificate complication could become a major roadblock to her successfully receiving a green card.

Edited September 13, 2018 by Noremac09
Accuracy

[WandY 430]

What are you filing for? CR-1? She is already in the middle of her OPT. Wasn't she required to file I-765 before obtaining OPT? She already has a passport (Chinese) and obtained a student visa without a problem. Why does the lawyer think that her hukou is an issue?  I've spent a lot of time in China and many people don't have hukou and they come to U.S. I doubt it's an issue.

 

[Noremac09 0]

Sorry, I should’ve been more clear. We are preparing to file AoS for her to get a green card. The lawyer doesn’t think the Hukou is an issue, but from what we’ve been told, it is necessary to have and present in order to get a Notarial Certificate of Birth in China.

 

The other issue is just not being able to be there in person to try to get the correct forms. She has a friend who is in possession of her Chinese ID card, but without more documentation, I fear they will not allow her access to a Notarial Certificate of Birth.

[RandyW 149]

To be clear, her hukou ben (or hukou book) is what I assume is in her father's possession.

 

Her hukou is located at a provincial, or (most likely) prefectural level city, which is where her notarial certificate of birth would be issued.

 

She obviously DOES have a hukou, since "She has a Chinese ID card and a Chinese passport".

 

She most likely DOES know where this is - it is where she went to school, and can get medical and social services available in that area.

 

You CAN contact that office, and find out what they will require for the notarial certificate of birth.

[RandyW 149]

Like I've said, your wife probably KNOWS which Notarial office will have her hukou. In her case, the records DO exist.

 

Here's someone who DIDN'T know - Applicant Birth Certificate questions

[Noremac09 0]

Thanks for your help Randy. I truly appreciate the info you've provided.

 

Over the last few days my wife's Aunt was able to locate the hukou-ben. The only two names listed in it are hers, and her father's. We have tried calling a few different offices that she thinks should be the correct one, but each time we've just been referred to a different office or told to call 114 (info line). Her friend who is back in Shaoxing has been doing some research and submitted some kind of inquiry with the Notary Office which covers Shaoxing City on my wive's behalf which apparently after three business days they will tell her what kind of information they are missing and need in order to issue the certificate. The form that she filled out for them said that they require the hukou-ben, the ID cards of both parents ID's, a divorce decree if the parents have divorced, and several other documents before they will give her anything. I wonder if it's possible that they are thinking she is wanting an actual Birth Certificate, and not just a Notarial Certificate of Birth, as I've heard those are harder to get and require more information.

 

It is daunting, if not impossible for us to acquire all of these things from here in the US it seems. Even if we were in China, my wife has no relationship with her abusive father, and she has never met her biological mother, so the ID card thing is pretty much out of the question. In addition, my wive's parents did divorce, so if we need a divorce decree, I'm guessing that is impossible to attain without the help of her estranged Father? In the past she has been able to use her Chinese ID Card and the Hukou-ben to get anything she needed, so it seems odd that this would be an exception. I can't imagine why it would be harder to get a Notarial Certificate of Birth than a passport..

[RandyW 149]

That hukou-ben should provide everything you need, including the mother's ID, through the Notarial Office where the hukou is located.

 

The birth certificate would require DNA testing.

 

Good luck with it!

[Hemutian 68]

On 9/17/2018 at 2:16 PM, RandyW said:

That hukou-ben should provide everything you need, including the mother's ID, through the Notarial Office where the hukou is located.

 

The birth certificate would require DNA testing.

 

Good luck with it!

I hope I'm not criticzied at for "resurrecting a zombie post". This is the most recent post I could find on this topic, and it's not that old.

I just want to echo what  @Noremac09 said, because my fiancee and I were at the Gongzhengchu yesterday, and the notary officers confirmed that the hukou-ben is NOT enough to obtain the notarial certificate of birth. We were required to bring the following, in person, to the notarial office in order to obtain the notarial certificate of birth:

• My fiancee's ID card

• My fiancee's family's hukou-ben

• My fiancee's mother's ID card

• My fiancee's father's ID card

• My fiancee's mother and father's marriage certificate

• A letter from the Cunweihui (village party committee, or 村委会) in my fiancee's hometown village stating the circumstances of my fiancee's birth, with red seals from both the Cunweihui and the Town government office (镇政府)

• My fiancee's father OR brother (the two males listed in the hukou-ben) to physically accompany her to the notary office to confirm, in person, the circumstances of her birth

Without all of the above, the notary office was unwilling and unable to issue her the notarial certificate of birth. 

[samnrong 52]

40 minutes ago, Hemutian said:

I hope I'm not criticzied at for "resurrecting a zombie post". This is the most recent post I could find on this topic, and it's not that old.

I just want to echo what  @Noremac09 said, because my fiancee and I were at the Gongzhengchu yesterday, and the notary officers confirmed that the hukou-ben is NOT enough to obtain the notarial certificate of birth. We were required to bring the following, in person, to the notarial office in order to obtain the notarial certificate of birth:

• My fiancee's ID card

• My fiancee's family's hukou-ben

• My fiancee's mother's ID card

• My fiancee's father's ID card

• My fiancee's mother and father's marriage certificate

• A letter from the Cunweihui (village party committee, or 村委会) in my fiancee's hometown village stating the circumstances of my fiancee's birth, with red seals from both the Cunweihui and the Town government office (镇政府)

• My fiancee's father OR brother (the two males listed in the hukou-ben) to physically accompany her to the notary office to confirm, in person, the circumstances of her birth

Without all of the above, the notary office was unwilling and unable to issue her the notarial certificate of birth. 

What city was this in? My fiancée had much less trouble, granted she is in a Tier 1 city.

[RandyW 149]

Yes, that's VERY unusual, regardless of tier. Yulin was a tier 5 city, now a tier 4.

[givionte 138]

They didn't accept the hukou in Foshan either, they needed my Chinese spouse's parents id cards and their marriage certificate.  Luckily the notary rep said her parents could use their phone and snap a photo of the documents and send them via Wechat to the notary rep, and he accepted them, because otherwise we would have needed to make an hour trip there and hour back to get the originals.  But the village part committee and witnesses were not needed, since she had the original birth certificate and hukou.

[Hemutian 68]

1 hour ago, samnrong said:

What city was this in? My fiancée had much less trouble, granted she is in a Tier 1 city.

This was in Shaoguan, which is, I don't know, maybe a Tier 5 city at best.

Originally, it was the police certificate we were worried about. Turns out the police certificate was the easy part, and it was the birth certificate which is the difficult part.

I just wrote up a whole report on the experience under the thread I started last month "Obtaining a Police Certificate as a CHINESE CITIZEN"

[Hemutian 68]

36 minutes ago, RandyW said:

Yes, that's VERY unusual, regardless of tier. Yulin was a tier 5 city, now a tier 4.

The requirement that her male family member must accompany her to the notary office in order to produce the notarial certificate of birth was news to us, the first we'd ever heard of this requirement. However, since then I've done some digging around VJ and I did locate other threads over the last few years in which other users described the exact same requirement. So it may be unusual, but it's apparently not that unusual, because we're not the only ones to encounter it. 

 

This was in Shaoguan, which I assumed was tier 5 or less, but a Baidu search just now tells me it's actually Tier 4. 

 

I wrote up a whole report just now on the experience under the thread I started last month 'Obtaining a Police Certificate as a CHINESE CITIZEN"

[samnrong 52]

9 hours ago, Hemutian said:

The requirement that her male family member must accompany her to the notary office in order to produce the notarial certificate of birth was news to us, the first we'd ever heard of this requirement. However, since then I've done some digging around VJ and I did locate other threads over the last few years in which other users described the exact same requirement. So it may be unusual, but it's apparently not that unusual, because we're not the only ones to encounter it. 

 

This was in Shaoguan, which I assumed was tier 5 or less, but a Baidu search just now tells me it's actually Tier 4. 

 

I wrote up a whole report just now on the experience under the thread I started last month 'Obtaining a Police Certificate as a CHINESE CITIZEN"

Glad it worked out for you. Sounds strange, but I guess that requirements vary by region in China. It doesn't surprise me that the lower tiered cities may have a more onerous process than the Tier 1/2 cities, as they are further from government oversight and reforms likely take awhile to trickle down (i.e., they are rolled out at the top tier cities first).