Apostille for China · Apostille guide

Does Apostille require translation: How to arrange Chinese translation before US documents are delivered to China

Apostille and Chinese translation solve different problems; whether and which pages should be translated should be determined by the requirements of the Chinese receiving unit.

Apostille will not convert English documents into Chinese documents

Apostille mainly proves the signature, the identity of the signer or the source of the seal. It does not translate the main text, nor does it mean that the Chinese receiving unit can directly handle the English content. Therefore, "Apostille certification has been completed" and "Do you still need a Chinese translation?" are two independent questions.

First ask four sentences from the receiving unit

• Whether a Chinese translation must be submitted;
• Whether the Apostille page, back seal and attachments must all be translated;
• whether a translation agency, translator statement or seal format is designated;
• Should the original and the translation be bound or submitted separately.

The translation should correspond to the final version

First determine the version of the file used for certification, and then arrange the translation. Names, dates, numbers, court or agency names, blank spaces, seals, and page numbers should all correspond. If an Apostille page is added after the certification is completed, you should confirm whether this page also needs to be translated.

Do not modify the original text yourself

When you find differences in name spelling or dates, you should not directly mark Chinese on the certificate. First check with the issuing authority whether corrections are possible, and ask the Chinese recipient to explain whether it accepts the name correspondence statement. Translation can explain the text, but it cannot correct the original record.

Pre-submission combination check

Arrange the original document, Apostille, complete translation and acceptance requirements according to the directory, and confirm that the corresponding relationship can be found on each page. The requirements of different units may be different, and the translation standards of the previous business cannot be used to replace this requirement.