Hong Kong watchdog finds nearly three dozen civil marriage celebrants not legally qualified to officiate ceremonies
- The law requires civil celebrants to be either practising solicitors or notaries, but a cross-check by the Audit Commission finds many are not
- The commission has also called out the Immigration Department for its handling of suspected fake marriages, more than 2,200 cases of which remain unresolved
A government audit has found that nearly three dozen of Hong Kong’s registered civil marriage celebrants are not legally qualified, though the Immigration Department has assured couples that the weddings the officiants presided over would not be affected by the discovery.
In a report released on Wednesday, the Audit Commission also called attention to the department’s huge backlog of cases of suspected fake marriages between foreigners and residents, more than 2,200 of which remain unresolved, with some investigations dragging on for as long as 11 years.
According to official figures, about half of the 44,500 marriages registered in 2019 were officiated by civil celebrants, a scheme first rolled out in 2006 both to give couples more choices when it came to their big day, and to create new business opportunities for the private sector.
Under the marriage ordinance, civil celebrants must be either practising solicitors or notaries public. They are usually appointed to the role by the Immigration Department for a period of five years.
However, when the Audit Commission cross-checked the list of 2,277 civil celebrants recognised as of last November against the list of practising members of the Law Society and the Society of Notaries, it found 34 of the officiants to be ineligible.
