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What Can Go Wrong With Chinese Legalisation?
In this final part in our Legalisation Fixers series, we are focusing on the complex process of Chinese document legalisation. As a destination with one of the most exacting list of requirements, it's not surprising that we offer a lot of support to customers travelling to China. Each case is different and depends on various factors as to how the documents are handled. Here we look at a recent case which is very similar to a lot of people's experience during this process.
In this article
Chinese Legalisation
James M. had a Degree certificate and an extended Police Clearance certificate for his Chinese legalisation, which was a couple of pages long. He also needed his transcript legalising along with his Degree. James had the documents certified by his solicitor, Apostilled, and then travelled to London and went to the Chinese Embassy for the Consular stamp.
Unfortunately, James’ document were rejected. He hadn’t filled in the forms correctly (he hadn’t given detailed enough information about where he was going) and the Chinese Embassy will reject any documents over 2 pages long if they aren’t submitted properly.
For China, if a document runs for more than a single page, it needs to be bound, ribboned and sealed by a Notary Public to be accepted. If it hasn’t been, it’ll be rejected and have to go through the Apostille process again, ‘cos the Apostille bears the name of the solicitor or Notary who has completed the authentication on the documents.
How did Vital Consular help?
When he had returned home, James emailed us a scan of his documents and we identified the issues. You need to act quickly with documents for China, ‘cos the Police Clearance certificates and Apostilles are only valid for 6 months before your visa must be completed.
We were able to use the Degree certificate with the Apostille for the Chinese Consular stamp, but the transcript of results and Police Clearance had to have a new Apostille applied after being bound and ribboned by our Notary Public. We told James to check with his employer that the transcript was definitely required, ‘cos you don’t always need this for China. It turns out he didn’t need it, so he saved money by not getting it re-processed.
We gave James a help sheet so he could fill in his application forms correctly this time, and let him know that we needed the original application forms with his wet signature on them. Before he sent them our way, he emailed us a copy so we could check he’d filled them in right. We sorted all of his documents out for him down at our fabulous London office, and securely delivered them back to him, all ready for his trip to China.
When does a document need to be notarised for China?
If a document is more than a single page long, it needs to be bound by a Notary Public. If you have several documents, this doesn’t mean they can be bound together as one. It simply means that if for example you have a transcript of results which states “Page 1 of 2” and “Page 2 of 2” they must both be present and processed together in a bundle.
The most common occurrences of this being required is either university transcripts or Police Clearance documents, either of which can often run on to 2 pages.
If you require legalisation and you aren’t confident in the process you require, just give us a call today. You can get in touch directly on +44 (0) 330 088 1142, request a personalised quote, send us a message via WhatsApp, use our live chat system, or e-mail us at sales@vitalconsular.com. Our friendly team of specialists are on hand to answer all of your queries.
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Ashraf Vachhiat
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