Yes, you can translate a Chinese birth certificate yourself, and the table below is a Chinese birth certificate translation template for the hospital-issued 出生医学证明 (Medical Certificate of Birth), whose labels already carry printed English. For your own records, a careful self-translation is usually enough. UK Visas and Immigration and HM Passport Office ask for a translation from a named, contactable translator that can be independently verified, so one you confirm yourself usually won’t pass; courts set their own terms. Then you need a certified translation of the 出生医学证明, which I produce as an ITI-certified translator: £30 for the single page, normally back in 2 working days.
The certificate, field by field in English
First, check which document you hold. The 出生医学证明 is issued by the delivering hospital under the Maternal and Infant Health Care Law and records a live birth and the parents. A 出生公证书 is a notary’s certificate (Article 11 of the Notarization Law lists “birth”), and the birth entry on a hukou card is the police registration made from the medical certificate. This table covers the first; the hukou translation template covers the last.
Which edition. The current seventh edition, issued nationally by the National Health Commission, came into use on 1 April 2023. Its launch notice says only the number changed (a barcode added, the panel turned from green to yellow), with wording and layout untouched; the sixth edition (2019) changed only the supervising commission’s name on the fifth (2014). So any certificate issued since 2014 fits the table: copy the second column as printed and replace everything in [square brackets].
| Chinese label | English label as printed | How to write it | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|---|
| 出生医学证明 (title; also on the cover) | MEDICAL CERTIFICATE OF BIRTH | [as printed, with the cover’s supervising-authority line; emblem as [National emblem]] | A new heading such as “Birth Certificate” |
| 新生儿姓名 | Neonatal Name | [SURNAME Given-name, as in the child’s passport; an English name already printed is copied] | Textbook pinyin that differs from the passport |
| 性别 | Gender | [男 → Male; 女 → Female] | “Correcting” the printed label |
| 出生时间 | Time of Birth (Year / Month / Day / Hour / Minute) | [DD Month YYYY, HH:MM, 24-hour clock] | Dropping the time |
| 出生孕周 | Gestational Age … Week | [×× weeks; 37+5 means 37 weeks and 5 days] | Reading 37+5 as 42 weeks |
| 出生体重; 出生身长 | Birth Weight … g; Birth Length … cm | [×××× g]; [××.× cm] | Converting to pounds or inches |
| 出生地点 | Birth Place: Province / City / County | [box by box; a municipality such as Shanghai sits in the province box, with “/” for city] | Deleting the “/” or inventing a city |
| 医疗机构名称 | Medical Institutions | [the hospital’s official English name, if it has one] | A pinyin abbreviation |
| 母亲姓名; 父亲姓名 | Mother’s Name; Father’s Name | [as in each parent’s passport] | Pinyin that differs from the passport |
| 年龄 | Age | [age at the birth, as printed] | Updating it to today |
| 国籍 | Nationality | [中国 → China; 中国(香港) → China (Hong Kong)] | Shortening it to “Hong Kong” |
| 民族 | Ethnic Group | [e.g. Han; a “/” stays “/”] | Leaving the “/” out |
| 住址 | Address | [as in your ID card and hukou translations] | Three documents, three spellings |
| 有效身份证件类别 | Valid Identification: Identity Card / Passport / Others | [mark the ticked box [ticked]; translate any document named] | Losing the tick |
| 有效身份证件号码 | Valid Identification No. | [character by character, keeping a final X] | “Correcting” the trailing X |
| Father’s section showing “/” | (as above) | [“/” in every field; no rows dropped] | Deleting the section |
| 签发机构（盖专用章） | Issued Authority (Stamp) | [a circle: Seal: [issuing institution] Special Seal for Medical Certificate of Birth, or whatever it says] | A bare “(stamp)” |
| 签发日期 | Date Issued (Year / Month / Day) | [DD Month YYYY] | Confusing it with the time of birth |
| 编号 | No. | [one letter, nine digits; seventh edition: [Barcode]] | Dropping the letter |
Why there is usually one page. The form has three parts: the guardian keeps the main page, the police keep the counterfoil (副页) at birth registration, and the hospital keeps the stub. If the counterfoil is still attached and goes in too, translate it as well; it has the same fields in Chinese only.
Older certificates. Pre-2014 editions fall outside those notices and may differ, so work from the original. The national form dates from 1996 (Guangdong’s rules limit issue to births from 1 January 1996), so anyone born earlier generally has none.
Download: this template as a Word file (.docx), with the table laid out ready to fill in.
Is a self-translation accepted? What the UK rules say
What “certified” means. gov.uk says to “ask the translator to confirm in writing on the translation” that it is “a true and accurate translation of the original document”, with “the date of the translation” and “their full name and contact details”.
Visas. The Home Office guide to supporting documents for visitors says a child under 18 should show “a legal document showing the relationship between you and at least 1 of your parents or guardians, for example a birth certificate or adoption papers”. The same guide adds: “If you submit a document that is not in English or Welsh, it must be accompanied by a full translation that can be independently verified by the Home Office”, with “the translator’s full name and signature”. Appendix FM-SE paragraph 1(j) says the same for family routes and, in-country, asks for “certification by a qualified translator”.
Passports. For a child’s first British passport, gov.uk asks for “the child’s full birth or adoption certificate (the one with parent’s details on it)” and adds: “If your documents are not in English or Welsh, you’ll need to send certified translations as well as the originals.” Which Chinese record to send is covered in Chinese birth certificate translation for a UK passport.
In practice that splits into two groups:
- A careful self-translation is usually enough (my experience, not a published rule): your own records, an English form, or a recipient who says a self-translation is fine.
- A certified translation is what the guidance describes: UKVI and HM Passport Office. Courts, schools and other bodies set their own terms.
When you need it certified: what my version adds
Britain has no state-appointed sworn translators (the ITI: “there is no such thing as a sworn translator”), so when HM Passport Office’s guidance for applications from abroad asks for a translation “signed and stamped by a translator who is a member of a recognised professional organisation”, that means a professional body. Qualified ITI members “can affix ITI Certification Seals to certify a translation”, which the Institute says “renders the translation ‘official'”, and my membership sits on a public register a caseworker can check without contacting you.
A certified version follows the same fields, and adds what a self-translation cannot:
- Three names fixed against three passports. If the child’s name has changed, the printed name stays and a translator’s note gives the passport name.
- Clinical entries kept exact: the 24-hour time of birth, 37+5 written out as weeks and days, grams and centimetres left unconverted.
- The seal described in place. The ATC, CIOL and ITI guidance tells translators to “draw a circle representing a stamp and write the text in the stamp in the target language”, not reproduce it.
- The printed English kept as printed, so every field matches the original side by side.
- A certification page in the gov.uk wording, dated and signed, with my full name, ITI membership and contact details, delivered as a signed PDF.
One honest limit: certification vouches for the English, not for the certificate. In China, authenticity checks are handled by the health authorities, and some UK offices still want the original.
What to do next
- Work out who is receiving it. UKVI or HM Passport Office → certified. Your own records → the template is usually enough. A court, school or other body → check their instructions, or ask your solicitor.
- Check you hold the medical certificate’s main page (English under each label), not a notarial certificate, and photograph it flat, in colour and in daylight so the red seal and number are legible.
- Send the passport name pages of the child and both parents, and tell me if the child’s name has changed.
- Expect £30 per page (the certificate is one page), with a signed PDF normally in 2 working days. My birth certificate translation page has the details, and the document translation pages list the other records I certify.
- If someone asks for notarisation or an apostille, get it in writing first: those speak to the Chinese original, not to the English.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Chinese birth certificate called in English?
The certificate names itself: “Medical Certificate of Birth”, on the cover and the main page. People say “birth certificate”, but a translation should use the printed title.
My child’s name has changed. Which name goes in the translation?
The name on the certificate. The 2013 national notice says the certificate is in principle not amended after issue: the birth is registered under that name, and a later change records it as a former name. A translator’s note gives the current passport name.
Can I use a birth certificate translation template from the internet?
As a reference, yes, but check it against your certificate, because some templates follow older editions or the notarial certificate. For UKVI or HM Passport Office, even an accurate template lacks a translator who can be verified.