What's the Differences among Kinds of Notarization in China?

There are different reasons you may need a document notarization in China and the purpose of the notarization will have a big impact on determining exactly what you need.

So it's important to tell the differences of Notarization in China at first.

1. Oversea Document Notarization. For example, you’re in China and you need your USA marriage certificate notarized to allow your spouse to apply for a Chinese Spouse visa. In this case, you need USA marriage certificate notarized in USA with an authentication from the Chinese embassy in USA to be recognized by the Chinese government.
2. Chinese Document Notarization. For example, you’re in China and you need a notarial cerficate of a document (usually with translation) to apply for a driver’s license or to apply for university in Canada. In this case, you’ll need to visit a notary public office in China.

The word “notarize” might refer to Authentication, Apostille, or Legalization for people from other country, we have apostille service, you can get US apostille while you are in China. But in China, "notarize" only means the process done by notary public office.

There are different formats for notarial certificates in China, we are focusing on the formats related to police clearance certificate.

The 20^th Format of Chinese notarial certificate

It contains 2 pages: 1 Chinese page and 1 translation page. Here is the sample of 20^th Format notarial certificate issued in Oct 2024.

 

The 33^rd Format of Chinese notarial certificate

It contains 4 pages: Page 1 is a photo copy of police clearance cerificate, Page 2 is the translation of Page 1, Page 3 is the notarization page, Page 4 is the translation of Page 3. Here is the sample of typical 33rd format notarial certificate issued in Aug 2024. Certain notaries might exchange Page 2 with Page 3 without notice.

The 35^th Format of Chinese notarial certificate

It contains 4 pages: Page 1 is the notarization page, Page 2 is the translation of Page 1, Page 3 is the notarization page, Page 4 is the translation of Page 3.

The USA, South Korea, Austria, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan need the Chinese police clearance to be notarized in this format.