Information for Travelers

Information on Procedure for Authentication of Chinese Documents

As outlined in our Foreign Affairs Manual for documents originating in foreign jurisdiction, the consular certification is the end of the authentication chain for documents intended for use in the United States. To permit the authentication of the last signature by the consular officer:

1) a Chinese notary public office at city or county level must first notarize the documents;
2) The foreign affairs office (FAO) of the provincial government, which has jurisdiction over the city where the documents were notarized, must then authenticate them;
3) The Consulate can then authenticate the signature of the foreign affairs official at the provincial level.

The Consulate in Guangzhou can only authenticate the signatures of Chinese provincial-level foreign affairs officials within our consular district, which includes the provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Hainan.

The Consulate does not accept requests for authentication of documents by mail. Therefore, the applicant or his designated representative must appear at the Consulate in person, with the documents to be authenticated. The fee is US$32.00 or the Renminbi equivalent per document, and must be paid in cash or in U.S. traveler’s checks.

Please note that a consular authentication of a provincial FAO official’s signature conveys no judgement on the part of the authentication officer as to the validity or truth of an authenticated document. Thus, the authentication of a provincial FAO officer’s signature by a U.S. consular official is merely that: attestation to the veracity of the foreign official’s signature. We make no claim to the veracity of the contents of the document.

Following is a list of the four Provincial FAOs in our consular district:

Guangdong Provincial Foreign Affairs Office
Service Division of Diplomatic Missions
#2 Shamian 3rd Street
Guangzhou, Guangdong 510133, China
Tel: (86-20) 8121-7589; (86-20) 8121-8888 Ext 2149
Fax: (86-20) 8121-6029, (86-20) 8121-7763

Guangxi Foreign Affairs Office
Consular Division
14 Minzhu Road
Nanning City, Guangxi 530023, China
Tel: (86-771) 562-3636
Fax: (86-771) 562-3972, 562-9270

Fujian Provincial Foreign Affairs Office
Consular Division
97 Hua Lin Road, Fuzhou City, Fujian Province 350003, China
Tel: (86-591) 785-2939
Fax: (86-591) 783-8267

Hainan Provincial Foreign Affairs Office
Consular Division
Haifu Road, Haikou City, Hainan Province 570003, China
Tel: (86-898) 6534-2360
Fax: (86-898) 6534-2683