On March 8, 2023, China acceded to the Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents ("Apostille Convention"). The Convention will enter into force in China on November 7, 2023.
The Apostille Convention is an international treaty with the widest scope of application and the largest number of contracting parties under the framework of the Hague Conference on private international law. It aims to simplify the procedures for cross-border circulation of public documents. Starting from November 7, official documents sent by China to other contracting states for use only need to apply for the apostille as stipulated in the Apostille Convention. There is no need to apply for consular legalization services at the embassies or consulates in China of other contracting states. When official documents from other contracting states are sent to mainland China for use, only an apostille from that country is required, and there is no need to apply for consular legalization by the local embassy or consulate of China in that country.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China is the competent authority for additional certificates stipulated in the Convention and issues additional certificates for official documents issued within the country. Entrusted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the foreign affairs offices of the China's governments of relevant provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government of China, as well as the foreign affairs offices of some municipal people's governments, can issue additional certificates for official documents issued within their own administrative regions. For specific procedures and requirements for applying for additional certificates, please log on to the China Consular Service Network (http://cs.mfa.gov.cn) or the websites of relevant local foreign affairs offices.
China's apostille will be in the form of a sticker with a silver national emblem seal. Additional certificates issued by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and relevant local foreign affairs offices support online verification. There is a website provided along with this news release as follows. http://consular.mfa.gov.cn/VERIFY/. However, at the time of posting this news, this website is not yet available.
Please note that this is a general news release from the China Foreign Ministry. The people's courts have not yet released any news regarding abolishing the current notarization and legalization practices. Therefore, we recommend continue with all pending notarizations and legalizations until further notice.
Please see here the link to the news in Chinese.
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