Do you need your documents legalized from the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C.?

Legalizing your documents for the country of China is a multi-step process which involves the Secretary of State, the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., and the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C.

In order to begin the process of authentication, you will need to know what documents are being requested by the government of China.  Documents written only in Chinese must be translated to English and notarized.  We recommend personal documents to be written in both English and Chinese.  For example, if a power of attorney has been prepared for you to sign, it should be written in both Chinese and English.

Documents issued by the County or State do not require notarization as these documents are already signed by an official from the State.  These documents include: Birth Certificates, Death Certificates, Marriage Certificates, Divorce Decree (Court Documents/Superior Court), Articles of Incorporation, Statement of Information, etc…

Below, we have provided a simple illustration detailing the steps involved.

Step 1: U.S. State Certification – Because China is not a member of the Hague Apostille Convention, your documents will receive a certification from the State and not an Apostille.  Each State’s certificate differs from the other.  In the United States, we have 50 different certificates.   For example, if you have a birth certificate from California and another from Florida, they will not look the same.  As one of the leading document authentication services companies in America, we can process documents issued from all 50 U.S. States and the U.S. Federal Government.

The processing time and fee can vary for each State.  For example, we can certify documents in California, Washington, D.C., New York, Maryland, and Nevada in 1-2 business days.  For all other states, Please Contact Us for a price quote and estimated time for completion.

Step 2: U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. – The very next step is to certify your documents through the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C.  You can see an example of a certificate issued by the Department of State by clicking this link: U.S. Department of State Certificate Example

The processing time with the U.S. Department of State is currently 3-4 business days. Please Contact Us for a price quote and estimated time for completion.

Step 3: Chinese Embassy Legalization – The Embassy of China is located in Washington, D.C.  In order for the Embassy to legalize your documents, they must first be certified by the State and the U.S. Department of State.

The processing time with the Chinese Embassy is one week.  Please Contact Us for a price quote and estimated time for completion.

Here is an example of the seal the Chinese Embassy will place onto the back of the U.S. Department of State certificate.

International Apostille Services, Inc. is the leader in document authentication services.  We process documents from all 50 U.S. States including documents issued by the U.S. Federal Government.