Translation and certifications

• Apostilles

Apostilles is an international certification comparable to a notarisation, and normally supplements a local notarisation of the document. If the convention applies between two countries, such an apostille is sufficient to certify a document's validity, and removes the need for double-certification, by the originating country and then by the receiving country. The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, signed on October 5th 1961, outlines the modalities through which a document issued in one of the signatory countries can be certified for legal purposes in all the other signatory states.

• Certified true copies 

A certified true copy is a copy of a primary document that has on it an endorsement that it is a true copy of the primary document. It does not certify that the primary document is genuine, only that it is a true copy of the primary document. Depending on the jurisdiction, A document shall be deemed to be certified as a true copy if it is duly certified as such by an official of the government, a notary public practicing, a practicing lawyer, a practicing professional accountant practicing, by an officer of a court of law duly authorized by the law to certify documents for any judicial or other legal purpose; by a professional practicing company secretary; by a consular officer; by an officer of the company; or by the authorized representative of the company.

• China Appointed Attesting Officer

A China-Appointed Attesting Officers (CAAO) is a qualified Hong Kong lawyer who has been appointed by the Ministry of Justice of the People's Republic of China after passing the prescribed qualifying examinations. The scope of business of a CAAO includes attesting and certifying acts, matters and documents of legal significance occurring in or emanating from Hong Kong and such attested documents are for use in Mainland China.

• Legalization 

Legalization is the process of authenticating documents, so a foreign country's legal system will recognize it as with full legal effect. Authentication by legalization is widely used in those jurisdictions where the apostilles system has not been adopted (e.g.: China).

• Notarization

Notarization is the authentication of documents performed by a public notary. Depending on the jurisdiction, notarized documents might be mostly used overseas. 

• Sworn translations