On March 8, 2023, China acceded to the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (hereinafter referred to as the Convention). The Convention will enter into force in China on November 7, 2023.

Under the framework of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, the Convention is the international treaty with the widest scope of application and the largest number of contracting parties, and aims to simplify the cross-border circulation of public documents. Starting from November 7, official documents issued and sent by China to other contracting states for use can be legally enforceable by applying for the additional Certificate (Apostille) required by the Convention, instead of consular certification. For documents of other contracting states to be issued and sent to the mainland of China for use, only additional certificates of that country are required, and consular certifications of that country or Chinese embassies and consulates there are not required.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China is the competent authority for additional certificates under the Convention and issues additional certificates for documents issued within its territory. Entrusted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Foreign affairs offices of the people's governments of relevant provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government of China and some municipal Foreign affairs offices may issue additional certificates for documents issued within their respective administrative regions. For details on the procedures and requirements for handling additional certificates,please log on to http://cs.mfa.gov.cn or the websites of relevant local foreign affairs offices.

The Additional certificate of China will be issued in sticker form with the seal of the National Emblem of China in silver. The Chinese foreign ministry and the additional certificate issued by the relevant local foreign affairs office support online check, logging on for specification: http://consular.mfa.gov.cn/VERIFY/.

For overseas residents, please refer to the official websites of local Chinese embassies and consulates.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

23 October 2023

The original link: http://new.fmprc.gov.cn/wjbxw_new/202310/t20231023_11165858.shtml

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