China's Accession to the 1961 Apostille Convention

At a press conference on March 10, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China announced that, through its Embassy in the Netherlands, the PRC has deposited its instrument of accession to the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, also known as the "1961 Apostille Convention". It will enter into force on November 7 of this year, 2023.

What does this mean? It means abolishing the traditional legalization requirement and replacing that often long and costly process with a single Apostille certificate issued by a Competent Authority in the place where the document was issued.

Many countries have joined this treaty, which simplifies the formalities for both issuer and recipient. It provides that, between member states, legalization is no longer necessary for the mutual recognition of documents, although a stamp or apostille is still required.

The main purpose of the Convention is to simplify the procedures for the cross-border circulation of official documents and to facilitate international economic, trade and people-to-people exchanges. Joining the Convention is an important step taken by China to broaden institutional openness in the field of foreign-related documents, and it will bring two major dividends:

The first is to significantly reduce the time and cost of the cross-border circulation of documents. For ordinary citizens, this means that applying for documents that may be required abroad, such as health certificates, driver's license certificates, household registration certificates and degree certificates, becomes easier and faster. After accession, the time needed to prepare a document for use abroad can be cut from about 20 working days to a few working days, and the cost has fallen significantly. On average, the time needed to process the circulation of documents between States Parties has been reduced by about 90%.

The second is to improve the business environment. After accession, foreign companies interested in investing in and exporting to China no longer need to apply for consular authentication of commercial documents, and more than 70% of China's export trade involves commercial documents.

China looks forward to working with all parties to promote the smooth implementation of the Convention and to further facilitate international economic, trade and people-to-people exchanges.