China to join Hague Convention

Mainland China will become a member of the Apostille Convention, also known as the Hague Convention from 7 November 2023.

This will enable documents such as education certificates and birth certificates originating in Mainland China, and those legalised according to the Convention’s requirements, to be recognised in other member countries of the Hague Convention.

The new process will simplify recruitment and immigration processing for employers and foreign nationals in Mainland China by eliminating complicated legalisation steps and reducing processing times. It will also streamline immigration processes for Mainland Chinese nationals in other member countries.

The Apostille Convention was established in 1961 to simplify the process of legalising public documents for use abroad. The Convention replaced the traditional legalisation process with a single-step attestation process through the issuance of a single Apostille certificate by a competent authority.

It’s also likely that China’s new process will also permit documents from other Hague member countries that have undergone similar processing to be recognised in Mainland China, though confirmation of this will be available closer to the implementation date.

In 2006, the Hague Conference on Private International Law introduced the electronic Apostille Program (e-App) to support the electronic issuance and verification of Apostilles worldwide. The e-App program aims to simplify and accelerate the process of issuing and verifying Apostilles through electronic means.

Currently, it is not clear whether Mainland China will also adopt the e-App Program for issuing and verifying Apostilles electronically.