1.What is legalization by embassy or consulate?
The legalization by consulate means the activity that the diplomacy or consulate institution or its authorized institution of a country confirms that the last signature or seal from the notarization institution, corresponding office or certification authority is real on the notarization document or other certificate document. Because of the special function of legalization by consulate, it will be vividly compared to a “Visa” issued to foreign-related documents.
When needs the legalization by consulate? In accordance with the international practice and the consulate practice of China, Chinese citizens always need to use some foreign-related notarizations such as notarization of birth, notarization of non-criminal record, notarization of authorized letter, and notarization of contract when they study, work, or live in foreign country, or apply exit visa in China. These documents need to be legalized by consulate before they are used in foreign countries (or embassy or consulate in China). Because the requirement of the trade activity in foreign countries, Chinese business entity often needs to apply CO, shipping list, proforma invoice, specification certificate, attestation of weight, container load plan, bill of lading, and policy of insurance from the official institution, or apply CO, checking certificate of goods, export quarantine certificate of flora and fauna from the entry and exit inspection and quarantine institution in various regions, and before these documents are delivered to foreign countries for use, they are need legalization by consulate. In return, foreign related documents also need legalization by consulate before they are used in China.
Why needs the legalization by consulate? The purpose of legalization by consulate is to identify the authenticity of the documents to the foreign institutions using the documents, and avoid influencing the use of the documents because of suspecting whether the signature or seal on the document is true. For example, if the notarization of birth in domestic notarization office is used in Country A without legalization by consulate, the authority of Country A will could not verify the authenticity of the document, and refuse to accept it, and the authority of Country A will also ask the party to confirm the document through the embassy or consulate of Country A in China. Furthermore, the embassy or consulate of Country A in China could not verify the authenticity of the document because it has no the signature or seal record of Chinese notarization office, and requires that the document should be identified by Chinese official institution first to prove that the seal of the certified unit or the signature of the official in relative document are real, then the embassy or consulate of Country A in China will confirm the authenticity of the seal or signature of Chinese official institution, and finally, the authority of Country A will concept this document.
2.What is the difference between the legalization by embassy and the legalization by consulate?
To make clear this problem, we should know the difference between the embassy and the consulate.
The embassy is the standing organization of diplomatic representatives accredited to the capital of the country having diplomatic relation by one country. And the consulate is the organization of government representatives accredited to certain one city of the other country to perform the consul function in certain region by the government of one country. If two countries sever diplomatic relations, the embassy is certain to be canceled, but the consulate may be reserved.

The embassy represents the benefit of the whole country, and it will be completely responsible for the relationship of two countries, and the head of an embassy is the ambassador who is nominated by the head of the state and represents the head of the state to perform duties. The primary duty of the embassy is to represent the sending state to improve the political relationship of two countries, and the second one is to improve the relationships in economy, culture, education, and science, and the embassy also possesses the function of consulate. To improve the relationship between two countries and the civil contacts is the important liability of the consulate, but its leading liability to the consul work, for example, maintaining the legal interest of the citizens and the legal person of the sending country, issuing or delaying the passport for its citizens, and issuing the visa to foreign citizens.
The responsibility range of the embassy extends all over various regions of the accredited country, but the consulate only is responsible for the specified region. The embassy is usually directly leaded by the government and the diplomatic department, but the consulate is usually leaded by both the diplomatic department and the embassy in the accredited country.
Many countries only have embassy in most countries, without consulate, which and which level of the consulate mainly depends on the quantity of the foreign residents and consul works and the significance of the region, implemented in accordance with the reciprocity principle. For example, China established the embassy and five consulate-generals in USA taking charge of the consul work in their own region, but in several small countries, there are only the embassy and accredited consulate officers. At present, China has established 157 embassies and about 60 (general) consulates in 166 countries having diplomatic relations with China.
Just as its name implies, the document legalized by an embassy or an consulate should be admitted by the foreign country, so the commercial export document could be legalized by Beijing embassy, Shanghai consulate, or HongKong consulate, but the difference is that the legalization in Beijing is made by the embassy, but legalization in other places are made by consulate. Some counties only have the embassy in Beijing, and have no consulate in other regions, and because Beijing is the authority of embassy, so many commercial documents of export enterprises were legalized in Beijing.
Therefore, many common words such as legalization by embassy, legalization by consulate, and embassy signature, actually have same surficial meaning.
3.Content of legalization by embassy:
The legalization by embassy includes the legalization by embassy/consulate of commercial documents, and the legalization by embassy/consulate of foreign-related civil affairs.
Commercial type includes export contract, invoice, CO, container load plan etc.
Civil type includes birth, non-criminal record, marital status certificate, certificate of education background, and foreign-related affairs.
Other government diplomatic affairs, etc.
4.Another reason why the legalization by embassy of commercial documents exist
In recent years, with the development of economic globalization, China’s export trade to the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and related countries and regions increases largely, and numerous cheap and fine commodities have occupied the market of these countries, impacting the enterprises of these countries, so to protect the interest and market of these enterprises, these countries established the trade protection measures and product limitation policies one after another, and require the relative bills of the goods exported from China must be legalized by the embassies in China, to handle the customs formalities before entering into the customs of these countries.
For example, the customs of Argentina and Egypt definitely regulated the goods from China must have the CO which should be checked by their embassies, and sealed on the back of the certificate to confirm the certificate, and then the goods could be cleared by the customs. The method to seal and confirm the valid document is called as the “the legalization by embassy of foreign-related commercial documents”.
5.Matters needing attention when applying for the legalization by embassy
(1)Time of the legalization by embassy
Different countries have different stipulations for the time to apply for the legalization by embassy, but the stipulations could not be guaranteed by laws. For example, the completion time issued by Argentina embassy is 7 workdays, but in the beginning of 2008, because the quantity of legalization increased largely, the actual completion time could not be confirmed, and the completion time issued by Egypt embassy is also 7 workdays, but in Beijing, the interior institution could get the legalization within 3 workdays. Because of various factors, the completion time issues by the embassies is only used for reference, and for the customs clearance of the goods at the port, we advise you to apply for the legalization by embassy 15-20 days in advance.
(2)How to select the institution when applying for the legalization by embassy?
A.Because some countries only established their embassies and consulates in part of Chinese cities (Beijing, Shanghai, and HongKong), you should select the institution located in Beijing, Shanghai, or HongKong as far as possible when applying for legalization by embassy. These institutions are in the place where the embassy or consulate is located, so the materials could be directly delivered to the embassy for many countries, which could save your precious time. Supposed that the institution is located in Shenzhen, it is impossible to submit your materials to the embassy in Beijing or Shanghai by the plane, and the institution in these places always are second-hand intermediary agents or the office of the upper institution, and they have no advantage in time and price relatively.
B.(Because of the authority of Beijing embassy, most export enterprises tend to apply for legalization by embassy in Beijing. Some institutions in south regions said that the legalization by embassy in Beijing was too long, which was a lie in the malicious commercial competition. Furthermore, many companies from provinces and cities will not be accepted by some HongKong consulate at all, and the consulate will limit the conditions on the document, so the export enterprises should consider and compare these conditions when they apply for legalization by embassy).
C.When selecting an institution, the export enterprise should check the professional degree, the qualification, and the experience of these institutions. To reduce unnecessary risk, if applying for the legalization, the export enterprise could require checking the legalization information before payment when it encounters the legalization by embassy in the name of the personal SOho agent, and the check method is seen in Item 4.
3. The price of legalization by embassy
All charges of legalization bye embassy includes the official charge of the embassy, the charge of the department of consular affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the plus urgent charge if necessary, the certificate charge of the document needing certificate. In the enquiry, the institution will report the total price to you.
4. Validation of the legalization by embassy
Each document with the legalization by embassy will have a read number (the details are seen in the sample attached to this introduction) in the yellow label in the back of the document sealed by the department of consular affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and this read number could be inquired by the official inquiry telephone of department of consular affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.