I need to get the natural/legal mother of the now 18 year old girl that my Thai wife and have de-facto (=unoficially) adopted for over 5 years to sign a parental consent for purposes of applying for a Schengen visa to Germany. My own country, the UK, does not need such a consent as the age of consent/majority is 18; in Germany it is 21.

Her mother has given consent several times before but she is currently working as a masseur - no gratuitous remarks please - in rural China - 60kms from Nanchang, which is roughly half way between Shanghai and Hong Kong on an inland route. The mother maintains that it takes 3-4 weeks each way, I could understand a comment that said the mail is unreliable, but 3-4 weeks sounds questionable to me, and may signify that I have broader problems than mailing durations this time around.

I have not checked with my local Thai postmaster yet but does anyone have any experience of sending a letter either way, either regular mail or some form of express mail like EMS or DHL. Financial cost is not an issue (except I have decided it is too much to fly out there myself and my wife would probably distrust my motives anyway!*).

* sorry - now I'm making gratuitous remarks!

She is facebook literate but not IT literate. I need to probe whether she knows anyone with an e-mail account who can print-off the raw confirmation Word document.

Anyone know if China has internet cafes in small local towns? I'm not classifying Nanchang itself as a small local town - it looks like a typically large regional Chinese city? But it sounds as though the mother is not keen to put herself out and travel just that 60km.

Edited February 14, 201610 yr by SantiSuk

She is facebook literate but not IT literate. I need to probe whether she knows anyone with an e-mail account who can print-off the raw confirmation Word document.

Anyone know if China has internet cafes in small local towns? I'm not classifying Nanchang itself as a small local town - it looks like a typically large regional Chinese city? But it sounds as though the mother is not keen to put herself out and travel just that 60km.

You can send such a Word document file by using the facebook messenger.

China has many, many internet cafes. Pretty much every city, even small ones. I'd guess her boss probably has a printer also....

I used to send mail to rural parts of China from the UK, but it took 10 days to 3 weeks to arrive.

I used Parcel Force Special International Registered delivery for anything important, but the cheapest rate applied even for one A4 size piece of paper.

Around £55 last time I used it.

There are internet cafes all over China even in rural areas.

Photo and Stationary stores also offer many services for just such things for a small fee.

Lots of English teaching colleges with students who would be happy to help her as well.

I always found the Chinese to be most helpful and friendly (although rather loud at times).