This procedure consists of providing legality to a public document issued in one country to be valid in another. With this practice, countries ensure that this foreign document is not a forgery. For this reason, the legalization of documents is a necessary and essential practice for doing business in any country and an essential requirement when the company wants to be internationalized.
The apostille and legalization are the certification that give authenticity to the signatures and stamps of the documents and give truth to them. The difference between them lies in the authority that carries it out.
In this way, legalization is the seal certification and signature of a document made by the consular authority where it is intended to be recognized as authentic.
The apostille is the certification of the signature and seals contained in a public document made by the authorities of the country where it was issued. The purpose is for a document from a member country of the Hague Convention to be recognized abroad.
The People’s Republic of China is not a member of the Hague Convention on the Apostille which abolishes the requirement of legalization of foreign public documents. Because of this, in order that a Chinese document to be valid in Spain, it must be protocolized by a Chinese notary and, subsequently, legalized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China and by the corresponding Spanish consulate in China, in that order. At BBCC Consulting we are specialized in carrying out these procedures.
The translation of official documents must be done by sworn translators authorized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the corresponding country. The most requested documents to translate into the business sector are constitution of a company, contracts, lawsuits, notarial deeds of the constitution of a company, as well as medical and legal reports.
At BBCC Consulting we have Chinese sworn translators or interpreters, who are authorized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to sign Spanish-Chinese translations with their Sworn Translator seal. They act as notaries, giving public faith of the translation.