In the past, to use a document issued in China in Kazakhstan, you had to go through lengthy consular legalization: first China's foreign affairs authorities certified it, then Kazakhstan's embassy or consulate in China. This could take months and required a separate fee for each document.
What has changed?
Since November 7, 2023, the People's Republic of China has been a party to the 1961 Hague Convention abolishing the requirement to legalize foreign public documents (the Apostille Convention). Kazakhstan joined this convention long ago. This means that a Chinese document now needs just one apostille to be valid in Kazakhstan as well.
Which documents need an apostille?
- Birth certificate — for kandas (ethnic Kazakh returnee) status and citizenship
- Marriage certificate and children's birth certificates
- Diploma and its supplement — for admission to study and diploma recognition
- Certificate of no criminal record — for the "Ata Zholy" ("Ancestral Path") card and a residence permit
- A document confirming your ethnicity, if it isn't shown on your ID
Steps
- Notary office. Get the document notarized at the notary office (公证处) in your hometown. In most cases, the notarial certificate comes with an English translation.
- Apostille. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC or its authorized local foreign affairs office puts an apostille on the notarial certificate.
- Translation. Once you arrive in Kazakhstan, we translate the document together with its apostille into Kazakh or Russian.
- Certifying the translation. A notary certifies the translator's signature — your document is now ready to be submitted via enbek.kz, to the migration service or to a university.
Common mistakes
The most common mistake is starting to gather documents only after arriving in Kazakhstan. Then everything has to be done through relatives in China with a power of attorney, which makes the process two to three times longer. The second mistake is having your name spelled differently in different documents: the Latin spelling in your passport, the Chinese characters on your certificates and the Cyrillic spelling in the translation must all match.
Master of Arts, director-choreographer and civic activist. Through BASTAU LINE LLP, he helps people get their documents processed correctly between Kazakhstan and China.
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