Certificates and legalisations

The Consulate General legalise documents and issues certificates only by appointment, see more below. You must come to the Consulate General in person, be able to identify yourself and present original documents you are invoking.

For all legalisations and certificates (except for life certificates), the Consulate General charges a fee per document equivalent to SEK 200. You can pay the fee by debit or credit card or Alipay.

Please note that the Consulate General cannot act as a mailbox between you and other Swedish authorities. If you need to order an extract from another Swedish authority, this must be sent to an address in Sweden or your international address by agreement.

Legalisations

China has not yet acceded to the Hague Convention on Apostilles.

The Consulate General can legalise seals and signatures from the Foreign Affairs Office in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui. This is done on Chinese documents that shall be presented to a Swedish authority that requires legalisation. Often the seal from the Foreign Affairs Office is the last step in a chain of several previus steps. 

Documents issued in Sweden that shall be presented to a Chinese authority may need to be legalised. Ministry for Foreign Affairs Legalisations in Stockholm legalises Swedish documents. After the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has legalised the document, it may also have to be authenticated by the Chinese Embassy in Stockholm. It is the Chinese authorities who decide whether a document needs to be legalised and authenticated.

You or a representative can visit the Ministry for Foreign Affairs Legalisations or post documents that need to be legalized. You can read more about legalisations here.

Please note that the Consulate General does not legalize Swedish documents, it is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Stockholm that legalizes these.

Standard certificate

The Consulate General may issue the following standard certificates in English and Chinese:

• That your current Swedish passport and a previous Swedish passport are issued to the same person. This document does not need to be legalised first.
  
  
• That a Extract of the population register shows correct information about you. If you only need to show information about yourself it is sufficient that you bring a birth certificate from the Tax Agency's website. Extracts may not be older than one month.
  
  If you need to show kinship (family certificate), you must present an extract from the Tax Agency in original, the document must be legalised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Consulate General can only certify the information that is stated in the extract that you provide.
  
  
• That you have presented to the Consulate General a Criminal record extract from the Swedish police, legalised by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs Legalizations.
  
  The certificate issued by the Consulate General thus says nothing about the actual content of the criminal record extract and does not translate the extract into Chinese. You must order the criminal record extracts from the police yourself and present the original and legalised document to the Consulate General. 
  
  For visa matters, it is usually sufficient that the document is legalised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Stockholm and authenticated by the Chinese Embassy in Stockholm. It is not certain that the criminal record extract needs to be translated into Chinese, check this with the relevant Chinese authorities. 

Marriage certificate

The Consulate General can issue a certificate that, according to information in a Swedish marriage certificate, there is no impediment to marriage for you. If you in the Swedish population register is registered as residing in China, you can apply for a marriage certificate at the Consulate General.

If you are registered in Sweden, you must order a marriage certificate from the Swedish Tax Agency yourself. The certificate may need to be legalised by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Stockholm.

Read more about getting married in China here.

Certificate of conformity with original

The Consulate General may, on request, certify that a copy corresponds to the original document.

Attestation of signature

The Consulate General can certify a Swedish citizen's signature. The name must be written in the presence of an authorized official and you must be able to identify yourself at the time.

Life certificate

Life certificates that must be presented to the Swedish authority are issued free of charge.

Translations

The Consulate General does not translate documents. Translations of Swedish documents can be made by an authorised translator appointed by Kammarkollegiet. The translation may need to be legalised. 

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