In order to use official documents to apply for a work permit in China, for example, University Degree, Non Criminal Record Check, and other certificates, they need to be authenticated by the Chinese Embassy in the country the document was issued. So if your University Diploma was issued in a University in USA, then the Chinese Embassy or the Consulate Office in USA needs to authenticate it.
Also, keep in mind that the terminology legalization by Chinese Embassy and authentication by Chinese Embassy gets used and they both mean the same thing.
However, be sure you do not confuse between Apostille and State Legalization. In United States, they are two different processes and your documents issued in USA must be State Legalized prior to getting it authenticated by the Chinese Embassy.
Let’s now go over what the three steps are to getting your documents authenticated by the Chinese Embassy in USA.
Step One:
The document needs to be notarized. When the document is being notarized, it must state that the document is a true copy of the original submitted by the person. In addition to this, there must be a Jurat Statement- which is, “Subscribed and sworn before me on XX day of XX month in XXXX year.” If this Jurat Statement is missing, the Chinese Embassy will reject the application to authenticate the document.
Step Two:
The document needs to be legalized by the Secretary of State in the State the document was issued in. For example, if the Diploma was issued by University of California, Los Angeles, it needs to be legalized by the Secretary of State in California. However, the Secretary of State in Washington DC is able to legalize documents from all 50 states.
Step Three:
The document then needs to be submitted to the Chinese Consulate/Embassy Offices. If you will be doing the Notary and State Legalization on your own, you will need to send us the bonded copy with the notary stamp and the state legalization papers attached to the copy of your document in order to authenticate at the Chinese Embassy.
If I did this process on my own, how much would the fees be?
If you decided to authenticate your documents yourself, here are the fees that you will need to pay.
- Notary Fee: $30
- State Legalization Fee: $18-$25(depends on your state)
- Chinese Embassy Fee: $25
In addition to the fees listed above, you will also be responsible for paying for postage fees whenever you are sending the documents to and from the Secretary of State. For Chinese Embassy, they do not accept mail orders and you will need to physically hand in the document, as well as pick up once ready.
To save time, and hassle of making a mistake during the process, we recommend hiring us to do your authentication needs as we only charge $150 per document to do all three steps on your behalf. All the government fees and notary fees are all included!
Still have any questions?
Send us an email to [email protected].
