Certified Driver's License Translation, Chinese to English

A mainland driving license (机动车驾驶证, jidongche jiashizheng) is issued by the vehicle administration office (车辆管理所) of the public security traffic management department. The license number is the holder's identity document number, and the office's entries include the date of first issue (初次领证日期), the permitted vehicle class code (准驾车型代号) such as C1 for small cars, the validity period, the issuing authority's seal and a file number (档案编号). A qualified translator keeps the class code as printed and explains it instead of substituting a US license class.

Mainland licenses are valid for six years, ten years or long-term (长期, changqi). A driver who stays under 12 penalty points in every scoring cycle moves from the six-year license to a ten-year one and then to a long-term one, and the same regulation gives the electronic license issued through the national traffic safety service platform the same effect as the paper card. A qualified translator renders 长期 as long-term (no expiry date) instead of leaving the field blank.

In mainland China, documents for use abroad are usually produced as notarial certificates (公证书, gongzhengshu) by notary public offices (公证处, gongzhengchu), which the justice administration authorities supervise. Civil affairs bureaus (民政局, minzhengju) register marriages and divorces and issue the marriage and divorce certificates. Hospitals and other licensed birth facilities issue the Medical Certificate of Birth (出生医学证明, chusheng yixue zhengming). Public security organs (公安机关, gong'an jiguan) keep the household register (户口, hukou), issue resident identity cards and answer criminal record queries through local police stations (派出所, paichusuo). In Taiwan, household registration offices (戶政事務所, huzheng shiwusuo) under the Ministry of the Interior record births, marriages, divorces and deaths and issue household registration transcripts (戶籍謄本, huji tengben). In Hong Kong, the Immigration Department's registries issue certified copies of birth, death and marriage entries.

Documents from mainland China arrive in a few recurring formats. Booklets come from the agency that keeps the record, such as the household register booklet (户口簿, hukoubu, also called 户口本, hukouben), the marriage certificate (结婚证, jiehunzheng) and the divorce certificate (离婚证, lihunzheng). Single-sheet certificates include the hospital-issued Medical Certificate of Birth and the Medical Certificate of Death (居民死亡医学证明, jumin siwang yixue zhengming). Notarial certificates (公证书) are bound booklets from a notary public office that pair a photocopy of the underlying record, or a statement of the certified fact, with the notary's certificate and often an English translation. Court judgments (判决书, panjueshu) and mediation statements (调解书, tiaojieshu), university certificates and transcripts, and online verification reports from CHSI (学信网, Xuexin Wang) are also common, and many agencies now issue electronic certificates (电子证照, dianzi zhengzhao) that carry a QR or verification code.