On March 8th 2023, China officially acceded to the Convention of October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (Hereinafter referred to as “Apostille Convention”). Apostille Convention will come into effect in China on November 7th, 2023.
This is considered an important milestone for China in the cross-border documents certification area.
Apostille Convention is an international treaty that simplifies the process of authenticating public documents for use in foreign countries and China is the 124th contracting party to it. The members include France, Italy, Singapore, Japan and other country/regions that have frequent transactions with China.
Before acceding to the Apostille Convention, normally a document formed outside of China will need to be notarized and authenticated by the relevant authorities, then legalized by China’s consulate or embassy in the local country, then it can be used in China. The overall process could take 20 days to a couple months which may cause delays in trans-region activities.
For foreign investors in China, it would be a lot more efficient and cost-saving for their business activities, as cross-border circulation of documents – such as CI, POA and other certificates — are often required for International trade and personnel exchanges. Relevant authorities calculate a 50% reduction in overall process costs and a 20% reduction in processing time.
After this change, public documents issued by recognized authority would not request further certification/ legalization at Chinese consular or embassy in the country of issuance for them to be valid in China. Please note not all types of documents are covered by the Apostille Convention, only those determined by the laws of the issuing country. It is suggested to check with the local regulations before proceeding with Apostille.
The contracting parties now have the right to refuse application of the Convention between two parties in 6 months. To ensure the smooth implementation of the Convention in China, the supporting laws and regulations need to be revised accordingly and we will keep a close eye on the influences to enterprises.
Contact us if you require assistance assessing the implications of this convention on your company.
