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Guides — document requirements, field by field

Two kinds of page live here. Requirement guides read the receiving authority's own rule and say plainly what it does and does not ask for. Document guides go through one Chinese document field by field, with the English each field should carry. Both are written because we could not find them anywhere else.

What the receiving authority requires

Read from the rule itself: what is actually demanded of a translation, and what is folklore.

• Australian visa translation requirements — NAATI, and what applies outside AustraliaThe rule splits on where the translation is produced. Inside Australia it means NAATI. Outside Australia the translator states their name, address, contact details and qualifications instead.
• Apostilles on Chinese documents — and why they do not solve translationSince 7 November 2023 Chinese public documents get an apostille instead of consular legalisation. What the apostille certifies, what it does not, and where the English translation has to come from.
• Chinese bank documents across four destinations — what each one acceptsThe same deposit certificate is strong evidence in one country and insufficient in another. Side-by-side comparison of what the US, Canada, UK and Australia want from Chinese financial evidence.
• The household register in US immigration filings — what it proves and what it does notWhich pages to submit for I-130, I-485 and I-751, why the hukou alone rarely establishes a relationship, and the change-record page that resolves most name discrepancies.
• Translating financial documents for an I-20The school decides, not USCIS — and school rules are stricter than the federal ones. Which documents count, the recency limit almost every school imposes, and why "translated by a friend" is refused here even though USCIS would accept it.
• IRCC translation requirements for Chinese documentsCanada is the strictest of the major destinations about who may translate, and the rule is about interest in the outcome rather than competence. The certified-translator route, the affidavit route, and who is disqualified.
• Singapore ICA translation requirements for Chinese documentsICA accepts three routes for translating a non-English document, and PR and citizenship applications are held to the strictest of them. What each route means and which Chinese documents need which.
• UK Home Office translation requirements for Chinese documentsUKVI asks for a full translation carrying the translator's confirmation of accuracy, credentials, contact details and date — so a caseworker can verify it independently. Notarisation is not required.
• What USCIS actually requires of a translationThe rule is one sentence long. It asks for a complete English translation plus a translator's certification of accuracy and competence — and it says nothing about layout, notarisation, or agency credentials.
• WES and Chinese credentials — why a translation is not what they wantFor Chinese degrees, WES requires verification reports from CHESICC or CDGDC, sent through the official channel. A translation you commission does not substitute, and buying one first is the classic wasted step.

Chinese documents, field by field

One document per page, every field with the English it should carry, and the mistakes that cause rejections.

• Translating a Chinese bank statement and deposit certificateTwo different documents that get confused constantly. What each proves, every column on a 银行流水, and the freeze period on a 存款证明 that decides whether a school accepts it.
• Translating a Chinese birth certificate (出生医学证明)Every field on the Medical Certificate of Birth, the number format that must be copied exactly, and why the parents' details are the half of the document that actually does the work.
• Translating a Chinese business licence (营业执照)Every field on the post-2015 unified licence, all the company types in English, and why the 18-character unified social credit code is the one value a foreign registry will actually check.
• Translating a Chinese hukou (户口本), field by fieldEvery field on the household register and the resident page, including the ones that are routinely mistranslated — 籍贯 is not birthplace, and 户别 decides what the document proves.
• Translating a Chinese marriage or divorce certificateEvery field on the 结婚证 and 离婚证, the certificate number format, and the detail that surprises foreign reviewers — the certificate is issued in two identical copies, one per spouse.
• Translating a Chinese notarial certificate (公证书)How the notarial booklet is structured, what the certificate number encodes, the standard notarial wording, and the difference between a certificate of a fact and a certificate that a copy matches the original.
• Translating a Chinese police clearance certificate (无犯罪记录证明)There is no single national form, so the wording varies by locality — and the wording is the document. What each phrasing actually asserts, and why the notarial route is usually what receiving authorities want.
• Translating a Chinese property certificate, field by fieldThe 2015 reform replaced 房屋所有权证 with 不动产权证书 and the two look nothing alike. Every field on both, the English each one should carry, and the four values that must survive character for character.
• Translating a Chinese individual income tax record (纳税记录)The 2019 reform replaced the old 完税证明 with the 纳税记录. Every field, all nine income categories in English, and the verification code that lets a reviewer check the document themselves.
• Translating a Chinese transcript, degree and graduation certificateChina issues two separate certificates where most countries issue one, and conflating them is the error that costs applications. Plus every transcript field, the grading scales, and the course-name traps.

Document checklists by situation

Which documents a given application needs, and which of them have to be translated.

• Chinese documents for a Canadian study permitThe full document list, plus the two decisions that determine how much translation you will pay for — the GIC route versus bank documents, and who is allowed to translate.
• Chinese documents for a marriage-based green cardWhich Chinese documents the I-130 and I-485 actually need, which are primary evidence and which are corroboration, and the consistency checks that prevent a request for evidence.
• F-1 financial documents checklist for Chinese familiesEvery document a Chinese family needs for the I-20 and the visa interview, in the order to obtain them, with which ones need translating and which the bank can issue in English.
• Chinese documents for a Singapore Employment Pass, LTVP or PRWhich documents each application needs, why the education certificates behave differently from everything else, and the name-romanisation problem that Singapore surfaces more than anywhere else.
• UK student visa — documents for a Chinese family funding the applicationThe UK's specified-evidence rules mean the form of the bank document matters as much as the balance. What the statement must show, the continuous-holding period, and why translating first is the wrong order.

Choosing what you need

Certified, notarised, sworn, apostilled — what they cost, and which one your case actually calls for.

• Certified, notarised, sworn, apostilled — which one do you actually needFour words that get used interchangeably and mean four unrelated things. What each one certifies, who can produce it, roughly what it costs, and how to tell which your case requires.
• What certified translation costs in 2026, and what the price is actually buyingAround US$25 a page is the going rate for online certified translation. Here is what that page is defined as, which five separate jobs the fee covers, and which of them you can do yourself.
• Can you translate your own documents? A straight answer per countryFor USCIS the regulation does not forbid it but the conflict of interest is real. For Canada it is explicitly not allowed. Here is the rule for each destination, and what to do instead.

Reference

Glossaries and conventions worth keeping open in another tab.

• Chinese names in official translations — romanisation and the consistency problemWhy the same person appears under three spellings across one family's documents, which spelling wins, and the rule that decides what to do when two documents genuinely disagree.
• Chinese–English glossary for official documentsThe terms that appear on Chinese certificates, registers, bank documents, transcripts and notarial certificates, with the English each should carry — including the dozen that are almost always translated wrongly.