The parties shall meet the following conditions for divorce registration at the marriage registration authority:
(1) Both spouses are willing to get divorced. Article 31 of the Marriage Law states, "Divorce shall be granted subject to the free will of both parties to the marriage. Both parties shall apply for divorce before the competent marriage registration authority." According to Article 13 of the Regulations on Marriage Registration, The marriage registration authority may issue divorce certificates to "the parties to a marriage willing to get divorced out of their free will". Whether the two parties are willing or not is the key factor for the marriage registration authority to accept their application for divorce, and the marriage registrar must confirm whether the parties are getting divorced out of their free will before divorce registration.
(2) Both the spouses must appear together before the marriage registration authority for divorce registration. The purpose of requiring the parties to be present together is to allow them to express their willingness to get divorced out of their free will before the marriage registration authority. "Together" here means that both the spouses must apply together for divorce at the marriage registration authority, express together their willingness to divorce out of their free will, sign the divorce agreement together and receive the divorce certificates together. The marriage registration authority may not accept the case if only one of the spouses is present, even if the spouse present is holding a notarized declaration that the other spouse is willing to get divorced and both the spouses have reached an agreement on child custody and property division and a divorce agreement signed by both the spouses. The marriage registration authority must strictly apply the above provision in order to avoid unnecessarily losing cases in administrative proceedings. According to Chinese law, the people's court may accept a petition filed by an agent or deliver a verdict by default when hearing a divorce case. If either party fails to register for divorce with the marriage registration authority for cause, their claim for divorce may be settled by legal proceedings.
(3) Both the spouses must appear together before the marriage registration authority of the place where either spouse's permanent residence is located for divorce registration. Article 10 of the Regulations on Marriage Registration states, "In case of divorce of a couple of the Mainland out of their free will, both the spouses shall appear together before the marriage registration authority of the place where either spouse's permanent residence is located for divorce registration. Where a Chinese citizen and a foreigner, or a mainland resident and a resident in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan or an overseas Chinese, divorce in the PRC, out of their free will, both the spouses shall appear together before the marriage registration authority of the place where the permanent residence of the spouse who is a mainland resident is located to register for divorce."
Therefore, only the marriage registration authority of the permanent residence of either spouse has jurisdiction over the divorce registration.
