Relationship labels do not determine legal status. Begin with the parties’ identities, ages and capacity, the place and date of every ceremony or registration, any earlier marriage, the registration authority and the specific legal consequence that requires proof. Separate a valid marriage, void marriage, voidable marriage, cohabitation, divorce and foreign status recognition.
Preserve civil-status, identity, court and administrative documents, dated communications, financial records and proof of service. Protect children’s and health information, and calculate limitation, annulment, reconsideration and appeal periods independently.
Subject to editorial and legal review. Family cases are fact-sensitive. Safety, child protection, capacity and urgent preservation require immediate case-specific assessment.
Prove registration and identity
Obtain original marriage certificates, civil-affairs records, identity and household documents, name-change evidence and any foreign civil-status record. Check authenticity, translation, legalization or apostille requirements for the forum.
Validity, voidness and annulment
Apply the Civil Code grounds and the correct claimant, forum and time limit. Void and voidable marriages have different grounds and procedures. Preserve evidence of an existing marriage, prohibited relationship, age, coercion, unlawful restriction or undisclosed serious disease as applicable.
Separation is a fact, not a separate status
China has no general court decree of legal separation equivalent to some foreign systems. Separation may evidence relationship breakdown or affect facts, but it does not itself dissolve the marriage. Record addresses, finances, communications, witnesses and the reason and continuity of separation.
Unregistered relationships
Do not assume cohabitation creates spousal status. Address property, children, support, housing and third-party dealings under their applicable rules. The 2025 interpretation adds guidance for division of property acquired during cohabitation.
Ending and proving status
Distinguish registered divorce from court divorce and confirm when the divorce certificate, judgment or mediation statement became effective. For cross-border use, obtain the correct finality and authentication documents.
Checklist
- Identity and complete relationship timeline.
- Registration and prior-marriage searches.
- Validity or annulment ground and deadline.
- Separation and cohabitation evidence.
- Children, property and creditor map.
- Foreign recognition and document-use plan.
Official sources
- Supreme People’s Court: Civil Code
- Supreme People’s Court: Marriage and Family Interpretation I
- Supreme People’s Court: Marriage and Family Interpretation II
Law checked: September 11, 2026. Official Chinese texts, case-specific evidence and local procedure control.
