I am a certified translator with the UK Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) (Membership number 00024532), a Chartered Linguist with the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL) (CIOL number: 72852), and a member of the American Translators Association (ATA) (Member number: 273323).
Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) is the only UK-based membership association providing a professional home for practising translators, interpreters and all those involved in supplying language services.
CIOL (Chartered Institute of Linguists) is the UK’s Royal Charter body for language professionals and linguists.
RexTrans provides chinese certified translation services on GOV.UK for British nationals in China.
The American Translators Association (ATA) is the largest professional association of translators and interpreters in the United States with nearly 8,500 members in more than 100 countries.
If you are holding a Chinese 公证书 — a notarial certificate — that now carries an apostille, and a UK office, registrar, university or solicitor has asked to see it in English, what you need is a certified translation of the whole set: the notarial certificate, the document attached inside it, and the apostille certificate itself. I am an ITI-certified Chinese-to-English translator and I prepare these regularly. £30 per page (250 words to a page), 24-hour standard turnaround, signed PDF by email, with notarisation of my certification available as an add-on if the receiving body asks for it.
The background matters here. The Hague Apostille Convention entered into force for mainland China on 7 November 2023, so Chinese public documents that previously required consular legalisation now travel to the UK with a single apostille instead. Those apostilles are issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing and by authorised provincial and municipal Foreign Affairs Offices; Hong Kong and Macao were already covered and issue their own, Hong Kong’s through the High Court. Coming the other way, apostilles on UK documents are issued by the FCDO Legalisation Office. I want to be plain about one thing: I do not issue apostilles and cannot obtain one for you — that is done by the issuing state’s designated authority. What I do is translate, once the document is in the form the receiving body wants.
A Chinese notarial certificate is a stapled booklet rather than a single sheet. The cover reads 公证书 with the notary office’s name; inside is the certificate text, typically opening 兹证明, attesting to a fact, a signature or that an attached copy conforms to the original; then the underlying document itself — a birth record, a 亲属关系公证书 kinship certificate, a 无犯罪记录证明 police clearance, a 婚姻状况 marital status declaration, a degree certificate or a company document. At the back sit the notary’s handwritten signature, the round red seal of the 公证处, the notary’s licence details and a file number in a form such as 〔2024〕京长安内民证字第XXXXX号. The pages are bound with an eyelet, a ribbon or a 骑缝章 stamped across the edges. The apostille is a separate numbered certificate attached to that booklet, headed with the French title from the 1961 Convention and set out in ten numbered fields — country, signatory, capacity, seal authority, place, date, issuing authority, number, seal and signature — usually with a verification code or QR panel.
All of it gets translated, and the apostille is not an optional extra. Its ten fields, its certificate number and the issuing authority are part of what the UK reader is checking. Two further points come up constantly. First, many notarial booklets already contain an English page produced by the notary office; it is frequently abbreviated, occasionally inaccurate on names and dates, and it is not a certified translation by a UK-facing translator — so if certification has been requested, that page is not a substitute, though I will translate it as part of the document and note any discrepancy. Second, names. The spelling on your passport governs; send it to me, along with any spelling already used on a UK visa, marriage notice or Companies House record, and I will follow it rather than inventing a transliteration. File numbers, seal wording, notary names and dates are reproduced exactly, seals are described in position, and the binding is noted.
Send the complete booklet scanned front to back, apostille page included, and tell me who is receiving it and when they need it. If you have not yet obtained the apostille, ask the receiving body whether they want the translation attached before or after — the order is their call and getting it wrong means paying twice. If you are unsure which kind of certification is being asked of you, my note on certified versus notarised translation in the UK sets out the difference in plain terms. Revisions are included.
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Certified translations are often required for official purposes such as submissions to UK universities, courts, government agencies, and more.
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According to GOV.UK, your document must be certified by a professional or a person well-respected in your community (‘of good standing’). The person you ask should not be:
– Related to you
– Living at the same address
– In a relationship with you
In practice, UK authorities tend to recognize documents certified by authoritative translators, which can reduce the risk of rejection and save you time. You can minimize errors, omissions, or rejection by using a translator or translation company affiliated with a recognized professional body, such as the Association of Translation Companies (ATC), the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI), or the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL).
Both. The apostille is part of the document set the UK reader is examining, and its ten numbered fields identify who signed the underlying certificate, in what capacity, which authority sealed it, where, when, and under what certificate number. A translation that stops at the notarial certificate and skips the apostille leaves the reader unable to check the chain. Chinese apostilles are commonly issued with English alongside the Chinese, which makes that page quick to handle, but it is still reproduced in full within the certified translation rather than assumed.
Sometimes, and sometimes not. Notary offices in China do produce English pages, but they vary in quality, often condense the Chinese, and are occasionally wrong on name spellings or dates. More to the point, that page is not accompanied by a UK translator’s signed statement of accuracy, which is what a request for a certified translation is actually asking for. If the receiving body used the words certified translation, the booklet’s own English will not usually meet it. Send me the booklet and I will tell you what I see.
The price starts from GBP30.
Our rates vary depending on the complexity and length of the document as well as the required turnaround time. We provide a free, no-obligation quote upon reviewing your document, ensuring that you know exactly what the translation will cost before proceeding.
The number of pages for certified translations is determined by the total word count of the document. A single page is considered to be 250 words or fewer, including any numerical data.
If a page exceeds 250 words, we will adjust the calculation accordingly based on the word count. At that point, you will need to request a quote from us.
Find out more about how pages are calculated.
The process begins with you sending us a scan or a clear photograph of your document. We then translate the document and provide a certification statement that attests to the accuracy of the translation and the qualifications of the translator. The certified translation is then stamped with our official seal and mailed to you.
No. Apostilles are issued only by the designated authority of the country where the document originated — for mainland China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or an authorised local Foreign Affairs Office; for UK documents, the FCDO Legalisation Office. No translator can issue one, and anyone offering to certify a document as apostilled themselves is not doing what you think. What I can do is translate the finished, apostilled document accurately and quickly, and tell you whether the set you are holding looks complete before you send it on.
Ask the body receiving it, because practice differs and the wrong order costs you a second round of fees. As a general pattern, when a Chinese notarial certificate is going to a UK reader, the apostille goes on the Chinese original in China and the English translation is prepared afterwards, covering the certificate and the apostille together. When a UK document is going to China, the translation is sometimes required before legalisation. Get the requirement in writing from the receiving body first, then send me the final document.
If you still have questions that are not covered here, feel free to reach out to me directly.