The State Council, in a circular issued on May 19, approved a move to pilot inter-provincial marital registration in several provinces and cities from June 1, 2021, to May 31, 2023.

Inter-provincial marriage and divorce registration will be piloted in Liaoning, Shandong, Guangdong and Sichuan provinces, as well as Chongqing municipality. While in Jiangsu and Henan provinces, along with Wuhan city of Hubei province and Xi’an city of Shaanxi province, pilot inter-provincial marriage registration will be launched.

In the future, two people without local household registration who want to marry can register at a marriage registration office in the city where their residence permits were issued or in the city where one person has a registered permanent residence. They can register marriage with only one person’s residence permit and both household registration books and ID cards.