Job Discussion Forums

[Susie]

Could any knowledgeable and willing soul tell me where/how in Guangzhou to have certified copies of certificates/transcripts made?

[Sinobear]

If it's official copies/transcripts from your point of origin (i.e college, uni, TELF, etc.) you're out of luck. These must be originals from your hometown or copies made and notorized there.

Or try contacting your nearest consulate and ask them what notorization services they offer.





Edited to fix a couple of embarassing spelling mistakes.

[daCabbie]

I have had my school stamp documents with their official school stamp to certify documents. It looks impressive but not exactly usable within a court of law.

What is it you need stamped and where is it going to? How official is official if its in China?

[Susie]

Thanks for your questions and replies.

I have original certificates & transcripts of qualifications attained abroad.

In order to have my overseas qualifications compared with another country's national qualifications, I have to make copies, and have the copies certified as true copies of the originals.

How/where in the PRC, GZ, can this be done. I have to swear and sign my name that the copies are true.

Once certified copies of the originals have been made, I have to post the certified true copies back to another country to have an organisation there compare my overseas qualifications with their national qualifications.

[The Ever-changing Cleric]

consulates usually provide notary services for a fee. but if you got the quals outside of your own country, then your own consulate may not do it. maybe someone could offer more useful info if the countries in question and type of qualification were made known

[Jayray]

The Chinese consulates in Washington will authenticate documents such as degrees. You could try contacting the powers that be in China to see if the same service is available within China. If SAFEA were a real entity that provided service to foreign experts, I'd say to contact them.

Perhaps a bank would have a notary public or the Chinese equivalent. This sort of thing is part and parcel of international trade, so a bank should be able to steer you in the right direction or do it for you.

Ask an FAO!

[The Ever-changing Cleric]

[PattyFlipper]

All the poster requires is for someone to officially certify that photocopies of documents are true copies of the originals. Nothing to do with verification or apostilization of the actual contents which some of the above responses seem to indicate is required.

China has a system of Public Notaries (most of whom are also lawyers).

Here is an English speaking one in Guangzhou:


Adam Fu 傅军

Attorney-at-law/MCIArb律师/英国皇家御准仲裁员学会会员

Xin Yang Law Firm信扬律师事务所

Add.: Room 1209-1212, DS Building, No. 538, De Zheng Bei Road, Guangzhou, P.R. China 510045

地址：广州市德政北路538号，达信大厦1209-1212室

Tel.: (86 20) 8327 6630 Fax: (86 20) 8327 6487

Cell: (86) 139 2241 9623 (Guangzhou) or (86) 138 2305 1417(Zhuhai)

There is also a website somewhere for the Association of Public Notaries in China which has a list of their members. A cursory search didn't bring anything up, so I suggest you get someone to do a search in Chinese for you. I have no idea what they charge, but I would guess it will be significantly cheaper than the notarial/legalization services offered by an embassy or consulate.

I think this may be the website of the local Notary Association for Guangdong province. (I don't read Chinese so can't be sure.)

http://www.gd-notary.com/

If you are a US Citizen, the website of the US Consulate in Guangzhou also has relevant information:

http://guangzhou.usembassy-china.org.cn/notary_services_260608.html

[Susie]

Thanks for that information PattyFlipper.

I went along to 广东省广州市南方公证处，（www.gd-notary.com） Metro: Peasant Movement Institute Station Exit D.

I was told that I have to go to back to the place where the degree certificates were issued,because on the mainland they do not know about original certificates from different countries or places in the PRC, so they wouldn't be able to tell if photocopies were genuine by comparing them to the originals, because they wouldn't be able to tell whether or not the "originals" were fake.

So mainlanders who graduated from Canadian, British universities... can't have their certificates notarized at this place in GZ, they have to go back to the point of origin.

[PattyFlipper]

I would keep trying. In Asia, things are rarely set in stone and the chances are you will eventually find someone either ignorant of, or willing to bend, the 'rules' (which are often made up as they go along and vary from person to person anyway).

Failing that, a trip to Hong Kong perhaps? They follow the British system there where notarization and legalization are different things.

http://hongkong.usconsulate.gov/acs_notarymatters.html
http://www.notaries.org.hk/

[Susie]

I am still trying since I haven't had time nor inclination to make a trip to Hong Kong yet.

I phoned a lawyer called Maggie Wu. She said she cannot notarize photocopies of degree certificates, but she can sign her name stating that they are true copies of the certificates, but she cannot guarantee the the original certificates are genuine!

She said her fee for signing her name is RMB1,500 (that is not a typographical error) on one A4-sized certificate, the same amount for the transcript. I told her I have 4 degree and 1 postgraduate diploma (that's 10 A4-sized photocopies). She said at a discounted price it would cost RMB9,000 for the "work". We finished the call politely.

She phoned me back and asked me what I thought of the price. I said that I thought it was wonderful for her that she could sign her name and earn so much money! I was truly happy for her. I could pay my Chinese language programme fees for one semester for less than that price. Then she told me that her partner said they would accept RMB3,000 for the job.

We chatted and then I said I would wait until after my exams to make a decision, but that I thought a trip to HK might be cheaper.

[Miles Smiles]

I've never heard of a school asking for transcripts. Are they asking for college/university transcripts?

I can't imagine a lawyer (Chinese or otherwise) not having the power of notary public or at least someone in his office not having the ability to notarize.

[Susie]

Story continued....

I asked a clerk at my "study unit" office 101 in English and Chinese if the school or the police could assist me in certifying my photocopies of degrees/diploma/transcripts as true copies if I show them the original documents and I gave my purpose for this enquiry. I told her that the local notarization office wouldn't do it and that a lawyer wanted RMB3000 for the job. The clerk couldn't understand my meaning, I repeated my request three times, but the clerk could only ask me questions, the idea of what I wanted to have done seemed to be alien to her. I left the office without an answer.

I went to a local police station, communicating in Chinese, I understood the officer to mean that if I my "study unit" would telephone the police station to ask them to certify my photocopies of overseas certificates/transcripts, then, they may consider doing it if the superior allows it to be done.

I wrote to the Director of Foreign Affairs at the university (I mean this fellow is in a very high position):

"Could you assist me by asking someone from the school office to help me to have certified, as true copies, photocopies of my overseas (British & Hong Kong universities) degree certificates/diploma & their transcripts in order that Qualifications Recognition Ireland may compare them to Irish equivalent qualifications? Usually, in other places, a law or police office does this job free of charge by stamping the photocopies as "true copies of original documents". Qualifications Recognition Ireland does NOT require the relevant universities to send any form of communication regarding the original documents, they simply need certified true photocopies of the originals. The police office (新港派出所, 电话:84198060, 警察国) may be able to do this job if my school would contact them."

The response I got back from his office is that the police cannot do it, how about a notarization office?

"Thank you for your message. After contacting the local police station, they told me they cold not provide this service for international students. Perhaps, they will have ask help from the Notarification Office in your country. Did you study at Sun Y##-@@n University? What major did you study? "

Ping pong qiu (table tennis) is a popular sport here, I often feel like the ball, sent here, there and back again, until hopefully someone hits it off the table!

[Miles Smiles]

Ask the issuer of your certificates to reissue them and make certified copies made, and then have them sent to you. What Maggie Wu is offering is actually a certified copy. She is not responsible for the authenticity of your degrees. That is the job of the Chinese consulate.

I thought that the whole authentication issue was put to bed back in 2004 when China signed onto the Hague Agreement. Back in 2003-2004, my degrees were authenticated by every level of LOCAL government in the U.S., including the U.S. Department of State. Then they were sent to the Chinese consulate for review and some westerner wrote some sort of letter in Chinese with a bunch of red chops stamped all over it.

A visa service can actually handle everything except the actual ordering of the reissued originals and the notarization. They'll take your docs to the consulate, have them bleed red ink all over them, send them back to the travel doc service. The travel doc service will send them to you.

You're wasting time with the Chinese.

[Susie]

From Guangzhou, I emailed the consulates of two different countries (one of which was the consulate of my own country), neither could offer this service!

I'll keep trying and keep you posted! Lol.