The situation
Our client, a Chinese citizen, had lived in London for many years and divorced her British husband through the English family courts. When she returned to Guangzhou and became engaged, the marriage registry told her it could not accept her English divorce order as proof that she was single. The same problem arose when she tried to sell a flat in her sole name: the property transaction required her marital status to be clear.
Many people assume a foreign divorce automatically counts in China. It does not. A Chinese citizen generally needs to apply to an Intermediate People's Court for recognition of the divorce effect of a foreign judgment before relying on it in China. China is not a party to the Hague Divorce Recognition Convention, so the court applies Chinese rules on recognition.
What we did
- Checked the judgment for problems before filing. Chinese courts can refuse recognition if the respondent was not properly served or had no chance to be heard, if the judgment is not final, or if a Chinese court has already ruled. We confirmed from the English file that the ex-husband had been served and had participated, and that the final order had been made.
- Prepared the documents properly. We obtained a sealed copy of the final order and supporting documents, arranged for them to be apostilled in the UK (the Apostille Convention has been in force for mainland China since 7 November 2023, so consular legalisation was not required) and had them translated into Chinese by a qualified translation agency.
- Filed with the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court on our client's behalf under a notarised power of attorney, so she did not need to take time off work.
- Kept the application focused. We applied only for recognition of the divorce itself. The English financial orders were not needed in China, and seeking recognition of them would have raised separate issues.
The outcome
The court issued a ruling recognising the effect of the English divorce about four months after filing. With the ruling, our client registered her new marriage at a Guangzhou registry and completed the sale of her flat. She attended court once, briefly; everything else was handled by our team.
Results depend on the specific facts of each matter; past outcomes do not guarantee similar results.