China: Apostille or Legalization

On November 7, 2023, the “Convention annulling the legalization requirements for official foreign documents” as of October 5, 1961, or the Hague Convention, was passed in the People's Republic of China. Previously, documents from the country people wished to use in Russia had to undergo consular certification procedure (bear the seals of the Ministry of Justice of the PRC and the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the PRC)

Still, we always recommend asking your host party to clarify the requirements for processing Russian documents. Certain organizations in the PRC require an apostille to be stamped on the original document while others require it be stamped on a notarial copy of the document.

We have encountered this requirement as well: processing a notarial copy, then having a notarized translation of it performed into Chinese and an apostille only being stamped on the translation.

Different requirements may also apply to the documents’ period of validity (regardless of whether it's indicated on the document).

In our experience, Chinese partners usually require an apostille to be stamped on the original, but there are exceptions where the apostille is to be stamped on a notarial copy or a notarized translation, as mentioned above.

It’s also worthwhile to ask your associates in China to clarify how things are to be done with translations from Russian into Chinese – whether they need to be done on the territory of the Russian Federation or in China itself (by a local translator).