Last revised on 2010/08/08  

Legal documents executed in US must be authenticated by the foreign consulate in order to be used in a foreign country (document authentication). What the consulate does is to verify that the last signature (usually from the Secretary of State Office) is true and valid.

Our agency may act as your agent to obtain authentication from the Chinese Consulate in Houston (for documents from southern 8 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Flordia, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas). We charge a service fee ($29.96) for each document authenticated. We will be happy to answer your general questions no matter you use our service or not.

Type of documents can be authenticated include but not limited to:

1. birth/death certificates, marriage certificates, diplomas
2. power of attorney
3. adoption application papers
4. business license, financial statements, etc

General Procedures

1. Sign before a notary public.
2. Certified by the Secretary of State Office (or Department of State) of the state where the document is executed.
   • Some states require the notarized document to be sent to the notary public's county clerk for verification before presenting to the Office of Secretary of State. Please contact Secretary of State Office of the state where your document is executed for details.
   • Certain government or court document can be certified directly by the Office of Secretary of State, like Court Decree, Marriage License, Birth Certificate, etc. Please contact Secretary of State Office of your state for details.
   • Some state only certify goverment or court documents issued within last 1-2 years (e.g. Oklahoma).
3. Certified by the relevant Consulate General. You must apply to the correct Consulate General which holds consular jurisdiction over your area of residence.
   The Consular District of the Chinese Consulate General in Houston covers: Alabama, Arkansas, Flordia, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas. We only accept authentication applications for documents certified by the Secretaries of State Office of the above 8 states plus Puerto Rico (click for their contact info).

Documents to be included

1. One Authentication Application Form (G1). The form must be completed and signed by the applicant.

   The applicant is the person who submits the application -- he/she may or may not be person who owns/signs the original document to be authenticated, but must be the person who signs on the Authentication Application Form (G1).

2. Photocopy of the applicant's passport and/or other form(s) of identification (e.g. green card).
3. The "original" (see note) and photocopy of the document to be authenticated. A complete photocopy of all pages of the "original" documents must be enclosed.
4. Photocopy of Articles of Incorporation, if the document to be authenticated is a corporate or company document (please provide one copy per document to be authenticated).

1. The "original document" means the document coming from the Secretary of State Office, usually binded together, and with the signature of the Secretary of State on the first page. Please do NOT take them apart when making copies -- doing so will invalidate the document.
2. The consulate "authenticates" the signature of the Secretary of State by attaching a certificate on the back of the page with the signature of the Secretary of State.
3. If you want to authenticate multiple copies of the same document, you need to get multiple copies from your Secretary of State.
4. For each "original" business document to authenticated, please attach a photocopy of your companies Articles of Incorporation, unless the document to be authenticated is the Articles of Incorporation.

How to apply

• please follow the "step by step procedures" at the bottom of the main page.

Fee and processing time

• $20 consulate fee for personal/civil documents, e.g. adoption, power of attorney, marriage, birth/death, kinship certificate, etc.

  From March 2010, the power of attorney document that you entrust somebody else to buy/sell house for you in China is considered to be "personal".

• $40 consulate fee for commercial documents, e.g. business license, labor agreement, inheritance, property transfer, etc.
• The service fee of our agency is $29.96.
• The regular processing time is 4 working days. For express service, additional fees are required. [See fee table for details] (Note: The consulate no longer provides same day service for property related or commencial documents since 2006/12/01).

Link: Contact infomation for Secretaries of State Office of Alabama, Arkansas, Flordia, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas.

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