I. Application and acceptance

1. When a citizen or legal person applies for notarization, it should fill in and submit the Application for Notarization to the notary office.

The Application for Notarization contains following items:

①Applicant and his (her) agent’s name, gender, date of birth, ID card number, work unit, and address; if the application is a legal person, the legal person’s name, address, and the legal representative’s name and title should be proved;

②Notarial affairs and the purpose of notarial document;

③Name, copy number, relative witness’s name and address of the materials submitted;

④Application date and other problems needing to be explained.

Applicant should sign or seal the Application for Notarization. If it is difficult for the applicant to fill in the application, that could be filled in by the notary staff on behalf of the applicant.

2. Following materials should be submitted when a citizen or legal person applies for notarization:

①Identification paper, qualification certificate of legal person and its legal representative’s identification paper;

②If the agent applies for notarization on behalf of the applicant, the letter of authorization or other qualification certificate of right of agency (legal agency or appointed agency) must be submitted;

③Documents needing to be notarized, such as contract, testament, and diploma;

④Certificate of property ownership right related to notarial affairs;

⑤Other evidentiary materials related to notarial affairs.

3. The notary office should accept the application conforming to following conditions:

①The application has a stake in the notarial affairs;

②The party and the interested party applying for notarization have no dispute about the notarial affairs;

③The notarial affairs belong to the business scope of the notary office;

④The notary office has jurisdiction over the notarial affairs, and it also could make the decision not to accept the application mismatching the condition and inform the applicant.

4. After accepted the application for notarization, the notary office should classify and register the information, including notarial category (such as inheritance, adoption, and loan contract), the party’s name (designation), representative’s (agent) name, acceptance date, undertaker, approver, complete date, closed manner, and notarization number.

5. After accepted the application for notarization, the notary office should take the notarial fees to the party according to the regulatedstandard. If the amount of approved notarial fees is inconsistent with the received amount in advance, the insufficient or surplus part should be collected or returned after the notarization is concluded. If the party is difficult to pay the notarial fees, the director or deputy director of the notary office will decide whether to reduce or exemptthe fees after the party puts forward written application.

II. Examination

1. Notarization examination means the work that the notary office investigates and verifies the notarial affairs and the evidentiary materials provided by the party after it accepts the application for notarization and before it issues the notarization.

Notaries have the right and obligation to seriously collect evidences through inquiring witnesses, taking documentary evidences, physical evidences, audio-visual materials, scene investigation, and identification. The party has the burden of proof for the notarial affairs, states the facts related to the notarial affairs honestly, and provides corresponding materials.

2. The notary office should focus to examine following items

①Quantity, identification, qualification, and capacity of civil conduct of the party;

②The party’s declaration of intention and corresponding right;

③Whether the behaviors, facts, or the content of document needing to be notarized are true or legal?

④Whether the content of the document needing to be notarized are perfect? Whether the words are exact? Whether the signature and seal are complete?

⑤Whether the evidentiary materials provided by the party are true and sufficient?

3. If the notary office considers that the evidentiary materials are doubtful or not complete, it should inform the party to supplement necessary materials or investigate and ask for relative evidentiary materials from related unit and individual, and has the right to conduct the field survey. The files or other written evidentiary materials extracted from relative unit by the notaries should be verified and sealed by the unit which should actively provide assistance.

For technical problem, the notary office could engage or entrust professional department and professional staff to identify or translate. The identified conclusion or translated materials should be signed by the identifier or the interpreter.

4. In accordance with the party’s request, the notary office could help the party to draft or modify the legal documents such as contract, testament, and statement. If the document that the party applies for notarization is catachrestic or not complete, the notaries should instruct the party to correct, and if the party refuses to correct, that should be indicated in the record.

5. Special procedures

①When notarizing tendering and bidding, drawing a lottery, or auctioning, the notaries should attend the notarization on the scene to examine the authenticity and the legality, and read out the notarial words on the scene for true and legal notarization. If the party was found to practice fraud and disobey the activity rules and laws, the notaries should order the party to correct, or else, the notaries should refuse to read out the notarial words.

②The notarization of testament should be handled by two notaries together, and one of them should sign the notarization.

③If handling the notarial consignation, the notary office should inform the creditor to escrow the subject matter within confirmed time limit by the notification or announcement. The creditor should provide the identification and certificate of relative creditor’s right, and undertake relative expenses when escrowing the subject matter. If the subject matter is difficult to be preserved or has not been escrowed before the expired date, the notary office could auction the subject matter and save the cost. Since the consignation day, the subject matter which has not been escrowed over twenty years will be regarded as unclaimed property and turned over to the national treasury.

III. Certifying and delivery

1. Certifying is the activity that the notary office legally makes and issues the notarization for the eligibly notarial affairs according to the examination result. The terrifying conditions include:

①The notarization of legal acts (such as signing a contract, creating a testament, adoption of children, and consignation) should accord with following conditions:

A. The doer of the behavior has corresponding capacity of civil conduct;

B. Real declaration of intention;

C. The content and form of the behavior has not disobeyed laws, regulations, rules, or social public benefits.

②The notarization of the fact or document with legal meaning should accord with following conditions:

A. The fact or document legally has a stake in the party of the notarization;

B. The fact or document is true and correct;

C. The content of the fact or document is not contrary to laws and regulations.

③For the notarization of the signature and seal on the document, the signature and seal should be true and accurate; for the text notarization of document, the content of the text should be consistent with the original one.

④The notarization to endow the obligatory right document with compulsory execution effect should accord with following conditions:

A. The obligatory right document is notarized and certified;

B. The content of the obligatory right document is to pay certain currency, goods or securities;

C. The obligatory right document clearly declared that the debtor will be executed compulsorily if the debtor didn’t perform the obligation.

2. For the notarial affairs according with conditions, the undertaking notary shall draft the notarial document and report it to the director, deputy director or other appointed notary with the notarial files to examine and approve for certifying.

3. The notarial document should be made according to the format regulated or approved by the Judiciary Ministry.

①The documents marked in the notary words are the part of the notarial document.

②The notarial document shall not be obliterated and mended, and the part which must be modified should be sealed by the proof-reading stamp of the notary office.

③The notarial document should use Chinese, and except for foreign-related notarial affairs, the commonly used language in local nationality could be used in the region with minority group or a group of multiple nationalities.

④According to the need or the party’s requirement, the notarial document could attach translation of foreign language.

⑤Unless the law provides otherwise, the notarial document takes effect since the approver authorized it.

The date of approval is the certifying date of the notarial document.

⑥If the notarial document needs to be certified by the consular, the undertaking notary office should send it to relative department for certification, and take the certification charge for another agency.

4. The notarial document should be got by the party or its agent. In necessity, the notary office could send it, and the party or its agent should sign or seal the service return receipt, giving clear indication of date, copy quantity, and number of notarial document.

IV. Time limit, refusal, and reconsideration

1. The notarial affairs should be completed within one month since the accepted date. For the significantly complex notarial affairs or the party insufficiently put to the proof, or the notarial affairs needs to be entrusted for investigation, the time limit could be appropriately prolonged less than six months.

2. The notary office shall refuse to notarize fake or illegal behavior, fact, or document.

3. If the notary office or its same level or superior administrative organization of justice finds that the content of the issued notarial document is not true or disobeys laws and public benefit of the society, it should revoke the notarial document.

4. If the party objects to the decisions such as not to be handled, refusing to give a notarization, and revoking the notarial document, it could apply for reconsideration to the same-level administrative organization of justice of the notarial office within ten days after receiving the decision, and if the applicant of the reconsideration refuses to accept the decision of reconsideration, it could be sue to the People’s Court within fifteen days after receiving the decision.