China accepts foreign diplomas for a skilled worker or employment visa application only when they have been authenticated through a recognized apostille chain. The exact procedure depends on whether China is a member of the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention and on the type of document presented. We process your university diploma for clients filing into China every week, and the steps below reflect the actual current requirements rather than the generic "apostille and translate" advice typical online articles give.
Documents bound for China are authenticated through the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs followed by Chinese Embassy or Consulate legalization (China is non-Hague for foreign documents). Because both China and most likely the country where the document was issued are members of the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention, a single apostille certificate is sufficient — no embassy legalization is needed.
Generally no. China authorities for skilled worker or employment visa application purposes require the physical original or a re-issued certified true copy bearing a wet-ink stamp from the issuing institution. Digital-only documents are accepted only for a narrow set of issuers that publish a verifiable online register.
Standard turnaround for apostille of your university diploma bound for China is 3–7 working days from the moment we receive the original document. Urgent processing is available in 24–48 hours for most countries of origin where the issuing authority offers expedited service.
No. The entire apostille chain is processed in the country where your university diploma was issued, not in China. You only need to ship the original document to our processing office; the apostilled and translated package is then couriered to wherever you are.
Yes. The apostille we issue is performed by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs followed by Chinese Embassy or Consulate legalization (China is non-Hague for foreign documents), the recognized authority for documents of this type. Receiving institutions in China — embassies, consulates, employers and immigration offices — verify the document through the same channel.
Employers and skilled-worker visa officers in China sit on dozens of applications per week. A document chain that arrives correctly authenticated and translated the first time moves through the queue faster, while a chain with a missing step is set aside and often only flagged after weeks of waiting. We process your university diploma so that the work-visa decision-maker can verify it on first inspection.