Ministry of Civil Affairs: From June 6, 1 provinces will pilot marriage registration "cross-province handling"

Chinanews.com, May 5 -- On May 25, the Ministry of Civil Affairs held a press conference, starting from June 25, 2023, 6 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Chongqing, Sichuan, Shaanxi and Ningxia will implement the pilot project of "cross-provincial universal handling" for marriage registration and divorce registration of mainland residents. The marriage registration authorities in the pilot areas uniformly accept the "cross-province" matters of marriage registration, and the 1 provinces after the expansion of the pilot will cover 21.21% of China's total population, which can basically meet the needs of the masses for marriage registration in different places.

Wang Jinhua, director of the Department of Social Affairs of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said that at present, the country currently handles an average of about 1800 million marriage registration certificates every year. With the rapid development of the economy and society, the phenomenon of household separation is more common, and the masses who have been out to work, live and study for a long time return to their place of residence to register their marriages, which not only consumes time, energy and financial resources, but also brings a lot of inconvenience, and the masses have a very strong demand for marriage registration in different places. In order to further deepen the reform of "decentralization, management and service" and meet the needs of the masses for marriage registration in different places, according to the authorization of the State Council, since June 2021, 6, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has deployed and carried out the pilot of "cross-provincial universal handling" for marriage and divorce registration of mainland residents in five provinces (cities) of Liaoning, Shandong, Guangdong, Chongqing and Sichuan, and carried out the pilot of "cross-provincial universal application" for marriage registration of mainland residents in two provinces and two cities in Jiangsu, Henan, Hubei Wuhan and Xi'an, Shaanxi. As of May 1, 5, a total of 2 pairs of marriage registrations have been handled in the pilot areas.

Wang Jinhua introduced that according to the authorization of the State Council, the scope of the expanded pilot mainly includes the following: First, 11 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shanghai, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Hainan and Ningxia will be included in the scope of the expanded pilot, and the pilot of "cross-provincial universal handling" of marriage registration and divorce registration of mainland residents will be implemented. Second, the first batch of five original pilot provinces, Liaoning, Shandong, Guangdong, Chongqing and Sichuan, continued to implement the pilot project of "cross-provincial universal handling" for marriage registration and divorce registration of mainland residents. Third, the first batch of four original pilot areas in Jiangsu, Henan, Hubei, Wuhan and Xi'an, Shaanxi Province has been expanded from the pilot of "cross-provincial universal handling" for marriage registration of mainland residents to the implementation of the "cross-provincial universal application" pilot of marriage registration and divorce registration of mainland residents in the four provinces of Jiangsu, Henan, Hubei and Shaanxi. Fourth, Zhejiang carried out the "province-wide application" of marriage registration and divorce registration with the approval of the State Council before the start of the first batch of pilots. This time, Zhejiang will be expanded from "universal handling throughout the province" to the pilot project of "cross-province universal application" for marriage registration and divorce registration of mainland residents.

Talking about when it will be possible to achieve nationwide universal service, Yang Zongtao, second-level inspector of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said that in order to achieve nationwide universal office, two basic conditions must be met: first, the relevant provisions of the "Marriage Registration Regulations" should be revised, which is the legal basis for remote universal administration; Second, there must be a solid foundation support, including information systems, marriage registration data, work systems and processes, personnel allocation, etc., these two conditions are not fully mature.

Yang Zongtao said that it is our work goal to achieve nationwide marriage registration, and when the conditions are ripe, the Ministry of Civil Affairs will promote this work in a timely manner.