Chinese to English Certified Translation

A certified Chinese to English translation is a complete English version of your Chinese document, field for field, with a signed certificate of accuracy confirming that it is complete and correct. It is prepared by a qualified professional translator, checked and certified by our lead translators, and costs 24.95 per page of your PDF, delivered in 2 to 3 business days. Chinese is priced by page alone, so a dense page of characters costs the same as a short certificate.

The Chinese documents that usually need certifying

Most Chinese files we see come from mainland China, Taiwan or Hong Kong. From the mainland come notarial certificates (公证书) for birth, kinship, marital status or a clean criminal record, the household register booklet (户口簿), the red marriage certificate booklet (结婚证), the divorce certificate (离婚证), the Medical Certificate of Birth (出生医学证明) for anyone born from 1996 onward, and court judgments and mediation statements. Universities issue a graduation certificate (毕业证书) and a separate degree certificate (学位证书), together with transcripts (成绩单).

From Taiwan the core civil record is the household registration transcript (戶籍謄本), which records births, marriages, divorces and deaths for the whole household. Hong Kong birth, marriage and death certificates are mostly bilingual, so the work centers on the entries, names and seals that appear only in Chinese.

Notarial certificates, page by page

A mainland notarial certificate is usually a bound or stapled booklet. It holds a photocopy of the underlying record or a statement of the certified fact, the notary's certificate in Chinese with a number in the form (2026) X Zheng Zi No. 08317, the notary's signature or signature stamp and the round red seal of the notary office, often stamped across the page edges so the pages cannot be separated. Many booklets already contain an English version prepared by the notary office.

We translate every page that contains Chinese, reproduce the certificate number exactly and describe each seal in brackets with its legible text. Where the booklet already carries an English page, the certified translation still covers the Chinese original, so the receiving office holds one complete, certified English version of the whole file.

The household register and the field that is not a birthplace

The household register booklet opens with a household page naming the head of household (户主) and the address, followed by one Resident Registration Card page (常住人口登记卡) for each member. Each page lists the name, former names, sex, ethnicity, date of birth, identity number, education, marital status and dated change entries, under the police station's household registration seal.

Two fields are easy to confuse. 出生地 is the place of birth, while 籍贯 is the ancestral native place, often a different county altogether. A translation that merges them puts the wrong birthplace in front of an officer, so the two stay distinct in every translation we deliver.

Names follow the passport

The same character can be spelled Zhang on a mainland passport, Chang on a Taiwanese one and Cheung in Hong Kong, because mainland documents use Hanyu Pinyin, Taiwan keeps older systems such as Wade-Giles, and Hong Kong uses Cantonese-based spellings. US agencies match names to the passport, so we render every name exactly as it appears in the person's passport or other official English-language document, and use Hanyu Pinyin only when no such spelling exists. Mainland passports also write the surname 吕 as LYU, because the letter Ü does not appear on them.

Script matters as well. The mainland writes in simplified characters and Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau in traditional ones, so 陈 and 陳 are the same surname. Our translators read both scripts as well as the older variant forms that still appear on seals and early records.

Dates in Chinese numerals and Minguo years

Mainland documents often write dates in Chinese numerals, such as 二〇二六年九月十日 for 10 September 2026, and we render them in standard form. Taiwanese documents count years from the founding of the Republic of China in 1912, so the Minguo year plus 1911 gives the Gregorian year, and 民國113年 is 2024. We convert every Minguo date and keep the original where it helps a reviewer follow the record.

ID numbers, seals and verification codes

The mainland Resident Identity Card number has 18 characters, a six digit area code, the date of birth, a three digit sequence whose last digit shows the sex, and a check character that can be X. Taiwanese ID numbers are one letter followed by nine digits. Both are copied exactly, character for character.

Chinese documents are authenticated mainly by red seals rather than signatures, and certificates often carry an embossed steel seal over the photo that leaves no ink. Every seal is described in brackets at its position. Newer electronic certificates (电子证照) carry a QR or verification code, which is noted in the translation so the receiving office can still check the original.

Diplomas, degrees and verification reports

Mainland graduates usually hold two documents, a graduation certificate that records completion of a program such as 本科 (undergraduate) or 专科 (short-cycle higher education), and a degree certificate that records a bachelor's, master's or doctoral degree. They are translated as two documents, and 专科 is never rendered as a bachelor's degree. Grade words on transcripts are translated literally rather than converted to a US scale, since converting grades is credential evaluation, a separate service.

Credential evaluators such as WES ask for verification reports from CHSI (学信网) for Chinese higher education, and CHSI can issue an English version of its own report. A certified translation of the diploma itself is still often needed for USCIS, employers and licensing boards, so check what the receiving body has asked for before you order.

Apostille, notarization and paper copies

Mainland China has applied the Hague Apostille Convention since November 2023, so mainland documents can carry an apostille, and Hong Kong and Macau applied the Convention long before that. USCIS itself requires a complete certified English translation rather than an apostille. If your file includes an apostille, upload it with the document and it is translated with everything else.

We do not provide apostille or notary services and we do not mail paper copies. Every translation is delivered as a certified PDF with a QR code, and any institution can confirm it on our verification page.

Price, pages and what happens if something is rejected

Chinese is priced by page alone, at 24.95 per page of your PDF for Certified translation in 2 to 3 business days, because Chinese text has no spaces to count words by. Premium is 39.95 a page in 1 to 2 business days when a deadline is close, and Standard at 19.95 is professional translation without the certificate in 3 to 5 business days. You see the exact total before paying.

If a translation is rejected because of a translation error we made, we correct it at no charge, and if the corrected translation is rejected again for the same error we refund what was paid for it, provided you tell us within 30 days and send the written rejection. That is set out in our refund policy.

Ordering a Chinese to English certified translation

Upload your PDF, choose Chinese to English, pick a service level and pay by card. The whole process is described on how it works, and the questions customers ask most are on our FAQ page.

Scan your notarial certificate, household register or diploma as a clear PDF and start an order. You will see the exact price before you pay.