Paperwork headaches and privacy concerns

Letters to the editor in two major newspapers this week complain about paperwork: specifically, the difficulties that people who have moved their household registration face in getting the government to issue various certificates and documentation.

In Southern Weekly‘s December 18 issue, a Shanghai-based media worker complains that bureaucratic buck-passing made it difficult for her to obtain the particular version of a required document that a local government department would accept:

My dad needed to get a Shanghai residence permit. Part of the required documentation was proof of our father-daughter relationship, which had to be issued by the police station where our household registration was held. My father had a friend go to the local police station in Hubei, but that didn’t work: he was told, “That’s none of our concern.” Then he had his work unit’s security department issue one, but Shanghai refused to recognize it. My mom brought out their “one-child certificate,” but she was given an annoyed brush-off: “This is a re-issue. It doesn’t count. Lots of people are trying to pass off duplicates these days, so who knows if yours is real or fake?”

So now I know how hard it is to prove a father-daughter relationship. Is there no way to prove who my mom and dad are without an original “one-child certificate”? I was reminded of how last year, everyone was talking about a living person who was asked to show proof that they were not dead. I told this to my mother. To my surprise, she replied, “What’s so strange about that? Your grandmother has had several certificates issued proving she’s alive.”

My mother sighed. “When we left Shanghai, we didn’t need all these documents and certificates. We got a stamp on our household registration booklet, and then we left. But now that we want to return to Shanghai, it’s not just the household registration: even obtaining a residence permit is a hassle.” However, I finally had a friend use back-door connections at the police station to get a certificate issued.

And in The Beijing News today, a civil servant describes a similar ordeal and offers an explanation: privacy concerns, it seems, are ultimately at fault for preventing a link-up between the Public Security Bureau’s household database and the Civil Affairs Bureau’s marriage registration information.

To get a document notarized recently, I needed proof that I was unmarried. The notary said I had to get a certificate issued from the Civil Affairs Bureau in the same district my household registration was held. She explained that the notary service did not accept information contained in the household registration card because it was innacurate and out of date. In addition, because work units were not required to sign off on marriages following the enactment of the new Marriage Law, they were no longer aware of individuals’ marital status, and thus any certificate they issued was invalid.

Bfore entering the workforce, I attended a university in Haidian District, and when I started work, I transferred my household registration from Haidian to Chaoyang. After checking my household registration and ID card, the staff at the Chaoyang District Civil Affairs Bureau issued proof that I was unmarried, but it was only for the period between 2007 and 2008 — from when my registration was transferred to Chaoyang District until now. I was told that to get proof that I was unmarried from age 20 (the legal limit) through 2007, I would have to go to the Haidian Civil Affairs Bureau.

If the information contained in the household registration is unacceptable, someone who has lived in various districts and counties needs to obtain multiple certificates from separate Civil Affairs Bureaus for various time periods. Why is it so difficult to prove that you are unmarried? From the the Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau information hotline, I received an answer that was legal and rational, though perhaps not very fair.

Household registration management and marriage registration management are two separate concepts, two distinct systems administered by two different departments. Currently, Beijing’s Civil Affairs Bureau asks citizens filing marriage paperwork to update their information with the household registration administration themselves rather than simultaneously updating marriage information on a combined network for the two departments. The Bureau said that it was willing to network with the PSB to update marriage information, but this had not yet happened due to privacy concerns.

A Civil Affairs Bureau employee in charge of these matters also said that the bureau’s district and county branches handle marriage registration independently: they are limited to providing proof of marital status only for the period of time a citizen is under their jurisdiction and cannot cross district lines. Similarly, marriage registration information is not shared between district and county offices.

This led to my awkward situation of having to obtain proof that I was single from two separate districts. Perhaps others have encountered similar or even worse situations. When will all of this be resolved? According to the explanation I received from the Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau, it shouldn’t be too difficult. I look forward to the government putting the people first as it carries out its duties, and working hard to improve its own work so that the ordinary people can be free of these awkward situations.