1) DBS / ACRO certificate

2) Degree certificate

3) TEFL Certificate

The above documents must be 'legalised' before you are able to apply to China to get a notification letter from your school, then apply for your visa. It is a compulsory process and unfortunately, it doesn't just mean asking a local solicitor to sign them off as 'legal' (although there are solicitors involved!)

Most people have never heard of 'legalisation' of documents - let alone done it before. However, it is a compulsory part of the visa application process...

The THREE documents you need to get legalised are

Click here or copy this link into a web browser: http://teachchina.co.uk/vec-verbal-english-china-finance/ and choose the 'REIMBURSED: CHINA SPECIFIC ELEMENTS' to view a detailed breakdown of the process.

Very important information before going any further

• Before legalising any document, check that YOUR NAMES on the document MATCH that of your PASSPORT (i.e. middle names, dropped names, shortened names etc.)
• If they DO match, you can go ahead and legalise
• If they do NOT match, you need a witness statement from a solicitor to 'prove' that the two different names on the documents are the same person
• OR - try to get your university to CHANGE the name on your degree certificate and either catch them before they print it and send to you (for newly qualified graduates), or ask how much it costs / how long it takes to re-issue with a name change

EXAMPLE OF witness statement for name differences on documents

Legalisation process and summary of example costs and reimbursements

• REIMBURSED COST: Legalisation of your DBS check and your degree certificate (two different methods at two different costs)Something many people have not heard of before is the ‘legalisation’ of documents. Basically, this is an official, government level process that proves that your documents are real and legitimate and can be taken and used in another country. China has its own specific laws on visa applications which require documents to be legalised by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Chinese Embassy.
• You will need to send your degree certificate and DBS certificate to an agency who will get all three steps done on your behalf, and then send the documents to China for you. It can take anything from around a week to 3 weeks, depending on the time of year and which service you choose (i.e. express or standard).
• Method one: more expensive but simple in comparison to method 2, and definitely the one to pick if you’re short on time. Plus, remember that this is a reimbursed cost.
• Using method one, you will use an agency who who can cover the whole process for you (solicitor notary, FCO and Chinese Embassy) so you just send the documents, the agency processes them and sends them back to you.
• You can search for an agent by using the keywords “legalisation China”. Most agencies will be good – it’s not in their business interests not to be.
• Despite the slightly dated website, 5 Star China Visa (London) have been quick and reliable for us in the past. http://5starchinesevisa.co.uk/legalisation.ht
• We have also had good experiences with Travel Direct (Edinburgh) https://www.travel-direct.com/visas/china , but they do not cover the first two steps (Solicitor and FCO).
• Make sure you ask the agent to email you with scans of the now legalised documents. These can be used to send to VEC to trigger a notification letter to be sent to you (which in turn enables you to apply for a visa). Asking them to do this saves you a job, and it also may accelerate your request for a notification letter
• Method two: much cheaper than method one. It’s a little more involved and likely to be a little more time consuming, but it’s still very manageable. It means there’s a little more administration to be done by you. Basically, you can do what the agency does and avoid the agency fee. It works like this:
• Step 1 – notarisation of DBS / ACRO and degree certificate documents by solicitor
• You take your document to a solicitor who will notarise it – to state that it is a legal, official document that belongs to you. This can cost anything from a nominal £5 upwards, depending on the solicitor you choose. Ideally, you will choose a solicitor who is approved by the FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) as what is called a ‘notary’. However, to our knowledge, we know of no one who has had a document turned down because the solicitor was not officially FCO approved.
• Step 2 – notarisation of DBS / ACRO and degree certificate documents by FCO
• You get your documents ‘notarised’ by the FCO using the Gov.uk website. The process is quite straightforward: https://www.gov.uk/get-document-legalised The cost is stated on the government website, but at the time of writing this the fee was £30 per document plus courier charge. Remember, this is done AFTER you have taken it to a solicitor.
• Step 3: legalisation of DBS / ACRO and degree certificate by the Chinese Embassy
• When you receive the documents back, you then need to get them to the Chinese Embassy. This is the Chinese Embassy website: http://www.chinese-embassy.org.uk/eng/lsfw/legalization/t1021894.htm .
• However, this is where it can get a little tricky, and it’s easy to make mistakes or go round in circles if you’re not experienced in working with the Chinese Embassy directly. We would therefore strongly advise you to use an agency for this final step. You can search online – using keywords “legalisation China”. We know that Travel Direct - https://www.travel-direct.com/visas/china offer a strong service. However, they DO NOT do step one and two (Solicitor and FCO) whereas http://5starchinesevisa.co.uk/legalisation.ht
• Step 4: a) receive documents back from the UK agent. b) send scans of documents to VEC China to trigger an official notification letter to work in China letter from your school.
• When you receive this notification letter from VEC (or directly from your school), you will need to put them together with your TEFL Certificate, completed medical form, references, degree certificate and DBS / ACRO and send to a visa agency to apply for the visa. The visa application is another reimbursed cost.