There are an estimated 500,000 foreign students in China. Over 7 million Chinese nationals graduate from university in the country each year from over 2,000 separate universities around the country. Foreign students rarely stay in China for work, and Chinese graduates are increasingly on the move themselves; seeking employment in countries around the world or applying for higher degree programs in top universities in USA or Europe.
When seeking employment or admission to a new degree program overseas, it is often a requirement to certify to the foreign organization that the Chinese diploma and/or transcript you are presenting to them is in fact authentic. In order to do this, these documents must be notarized at a Chinese notary.
Notarization in China differs substantially from notarization in many countries, particularly the USA. Inquiries from confused foreign nationals in China regarding notarization are one of the most frequent calls our China lawyers receive, however, a lawyer under Chinese law is not permitted to provide notarization service. Moreover, notarization requirements and procedures vary greatly from city to city within China.
If a foreign student got a diploma issued by an education institution in Beijing, the student will have to go to a notary public office (rather than a law firm) located in Beijing which is capable of handling foreign related notarizations. Usually, when the student meets with the public notary, the notary will ask the applicant to confirm the purpose of the notarization and the place where the notarization will be submitted. The Chinese public notary will have to confirm the qualification of the education institution on providing relevant courses and issuing the diploma. Then, upon submission of originals of the student’s passport, diploma and transcript and their corresponding Chinese translations, the public notary will conduct a formal review of all submissions and then issue the notarization to prove the authenticity of the documents. Additionally, as the notarization will be used abroad, the notarization will often include a version translated in the official language of relevant country. Usually, such translation will be completed by the translation agency at the notary public office which handles the notarization.
It is allowed for a foreign student to engage an agent or attorney to deal with notarization issues in China, but a power of attorney will be required. If the student has already returned to his or her home country and requires a China law firm to handle the notarization procedures on their behalf, it is required to send a power of attorney signed by the student and duly notarized and legalized in the student’s home country or place of residence.
Some public notaries in certain cities may allow a student to authorize one of the teachers working in the school where the student studied to serve as the agent to deal with notarization, and if it is the case, a power of attorney signed by the student will not normally be required to be notarized or legalized, and it will be sufficient for such agent to submit all original documents to be notarized together with the power of attorney, the agent’s ID certificate and the copy of the student’s passport to complete the diploma notarization with the local notary.
Detailed requirements on diploma notarization will slightly differ from one place to another in China, so it is better for the notarization applicants to check with local professionals before directly visiting a notary office.
After the notarization is completed, in most cases authentication of the notarized documents will be required before presentation of the documents to the organization abroad. Authentication is performed at the China embassy or consulate of the relevant foreign country. The notarized documents are submitted to the embassy and authenticated according to the embassy’s internal procedures. Check with your countries embassy or consulate to confirm procedures for authentication.