Good news! On 23rd October 2023, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that ’Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents’ (hereinafter referred to as the Convention or Apostille Convention）would become effective from 7th November 2023 in China.

What is ’Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents’ ? What benefits will it bring to us? Let’s have a brief introduction.

Introduction

’Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents’ is also known as Apostille Convention or the ’Convention’.

Apostille refers to the mutual recognition between the States Parties to the 1961 ’Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents’ (hereinafter referred to as the ’Convention’) , and the process and result of an official authorities to confirm the authenticity of the signature and seal made by its competent authorities on the document, which is a specific ’authentication’.

Benefits

At present, the States Parties to the ’Convention’ includes the European Union, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Russia, most Southeast Asian countries, the Hong Kong SAR of China and the Macao SAR of China. China’s accession to the ’Convention’ will greatly simplify the authentication procedures for commercial documents. According to the ’Convention’, the document circulation between the States Parties to the Convention only needs to apply for apostille and no need for ’double authentication’.

List of Contracting Parties to the Hague Convention on Service

As of December 2022, a total of 93 countries and territories are member countries of the Hague Convention on Service, including but not limited to: Albania, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brunei, Bulgaria, Hong Kong, Macau, Colombia, Cook Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Honduras, Hungary, India, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan.