【2023.11 Update】According to the China Consular Service website, on November 7, 2023, China officially implemented the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents. This simplifies authentication for public documents sent from China to other contracting states, as well as in the reverse direction. Birth certificates, marriage certificates, and similar documents finally no longer need three-step authentication.
- Attachment 1: List of contracting states to the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (as of October 23, 2023). doc
- Attachment 2: List of local foreign affairs offices authorized to issue apostilles. doc
Relevant consulates have also published related notices, for example:
- Notice on Chinese embassies and consulates in the U.S. discontinuing consular authentication services after China joined the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents
- Embassy of Italy in China: The People’s Republic of China has joined the Apostille Convention, which officially took effect in China on November 7, 2023
About
Previously, if you had a baby in the U.S. and needed to register the child’s household registration in China, you had to get the U.S. birth certificate double-authenticated. If you got married in the U.S. and wanted the marriage recognized in China, you also had to get the U.S. marriage certificate double-authenticated. First, you had to send the document to a designated state authority for authentication, usually the Secretary of State, and then submit the authenticated materials to a Chinese consulate in the U.S. for a second authentication. The process was quite cumbersome, and similar procedures existed in other countries as well. This process is called consular legalization.
On March 8, the Chinese ambassador to the Netherlands submitted the instrument of accession to the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (also known as the “Apostille Convention”), and announced that the Apostille Convention would take effect in mainland China starting in November 2023 (the convention has long been in effect in Hong Kong and Macau).
After joining the convention, documents from other contracting states used in China, or Chinese documents used in contracting states, only need a single apostille, greatly simplifying the process. Once a U.S. document is authenticated by the state where it was issued, it can circulate among all contracting states, making it much more convenient and time-saving for visa applications or household registration in China.