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China officially acceded to the Hague Apostille Convention on 8 March 2023, and it took effect on 7 November 2023.
The Convention aims to abolish the requirement of legalization of foreign official documents, replacing it with the issuance of a single apostille by one or more competent authorities.
That means, public documents issued in China and intended for use in other contracting countries or regions will only require the Apostille, as stipulated by the Convention, eliminating the need for consular legalization by both the Chinese diplomatic or consular missions and those of the receiving countries or regions in China.
Similarly, public documents from other contracting countries or regions intended for use in China will only require an Apostille from the issuing country or region, without the need for consular legalization by both the diplomatic or consular missions of the issuing country or region and China in the respective country or region.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) of the PRC is the authority designated by the Convention to issue Apostilles and is responsible for issuing Apostilles for public documents originating within the country.
The Foreign Affairs Offices (FAOs) of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipal governments, as well as some city-level FAOs, are authorized to issue Apostilles for documents originating within their respective administrative areas.
The Apostille from China will be in the form of a sticker, emblazoned with a silver national emblem seal. Apostilles issued by the MOFA and respective local foreign affairs offices support online verification, which can be accessed at http://cs.mfa.gov.cn/.
Copy the website address below:
Then hover on the "Verification" menu option on the left side of the menu and choose "Legalization/Apostille Verification".
Samples of the apostille are shown below:
You can also visit Foreign Affairs Offices in your respective region for more information or offline application.
*The opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author.*
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