19 years ago, I got married. At the time I was working in South Korea. When I got married, Korea told me that my marriage certificate would not be acceptable for 6 months. Basically I would have to leave my new wife in the Philippines for half a year. I was not ok with that. China, at that time said it was ok. We could come together and work here.

I must have told people that story 100 times over the last 19 years. We applied for our visas in the Chinese embassy in Manila, Philippines. We got the visas. and we came over. 19 years ago, The embassy gave me and my wife visiting visas. The company I was going to work at fixed our visas in country. I now had a work Visa. For 19 years, I thought My wife had a spousal visa. She did not. She had a “Personal Business Visa.”

19 years.

When we moved to Beijing, 18 years ago, nobody batted an eye. They transferred our visas to Beijing and said nothing. Nobody thought it strange that my wife didn’t have a spousal visa. We invited her family to visit using what we thought was her dependence visa as proof of relation. Nobody wanted to do the paperwork to fix that. and worst of all, nobody said anything. Her “Personal Business Visa,” somehow connected her to me closely enough that we could invite her family under my visa? Not once, but 3 or 4 times. No questions asked.

I moved through 3 companies in Beijing, nobody said anything. The HR departments all just looked at it and shrugged, then extended the visa. Why would they question it, if she had been using it for so long.

We moved to Shen Zhen recently. They cannot transfer my visa down like I did when I moved from Haerbin to Beijing 18 years ago. Maybe the policy changed, maybe one or more of my old companies bent the law. I don’t know. So my new company is filing for completely new visas. Work, and spousal.

Great.

But now we need paperwork from the Philippines that we didn’t before to prove our marriage certificate is real.

Ok.

Great.

But nobody seems to know what is needed. We were told to get it translated and notarized. We did that. We got it translated, and then took it to the notary. They re-translated it and stamped that the translation was accurate. Not a Notarization.

Then we were told to get it authenticated at the Philippine Embassy or Consulate. So we headed to GuangZhou, the capital city of this province. We walked into the Philippine Consulate. Nope. They don’t do that.

Now we are told that it has to be apostilled. Which can be done right next to the government building in Manila. Only there.

We have been running around for 2 weeks getting paperwork that didn’t work, wasting money. The Notary was the first person in 19 years to mention that my wife’s visa was not a spousal visa. Itw was not a dependent visa. This shocked me.

For the record, up until 2 years ago, the translation and notary was what was needed. But 2 years ago China joined the Hague Convention. An international agreement that says only apostilles are needed from governments and no longer translations, authentications and notarization.

Good to know for the future, but apparently most people here didn’t know that. Including the Philippine government website… Their Consulate knew it, but the Consular website did not.

What does this all mean. There is a very good chance, my wife will have to leave the country next week. Just before I start work. She will have to wait until my paperwork is processed on August 5th, then start her processing from the Philippines. Most likely, she will be able to return mid to late September, if she has to go. We are exploring all options right now.

I am not blaming. The last 3 schools probably just assumed I knew. But, damn it sucks. Nobody in 19 years happened to mention, “Hey your kids are dependents, but your wife isn’t.”