Apostille & Legalization in Canada

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You Just Landed a Teaching Job in China. Excellent! What Documents Do you Need Authenticated and Legalized?

Over the last decade, China has gained an eagerness to teach its young, growing generation fluency in English, opening up many opportunities for people in Canada, USA, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. With this growing demand for English teachers in China, the popularity of teaching job in China has increased significantly among Canadians. Here in Canada, people choose these jobs for many reasons. Some see it as a way to gain teaching experience after obtaining a teaching degree in the hope of making it easier to land a job at home at the end of it. Others view it as gainful employment after their college or university education.  Still others seek the opportunity simply for the experience of exploring another country while having the means to support and fund their exploration. Regardless of what your reasons may be, a teaching job in China is definitely a lifetime experience and one you are likely excited to embark on!

But before you can begin your journey, there are a few things you need to know about the document and paperwork involved in the application and work visa process. Since teaching job in China involves travelling to and living in a different country for the duration of your employment contract, there are documents your employer and host country expect from you in order to get started your application for your work visa. Some documents your employer will likely require include:

  • A Canadian passport, valid for at least 6 months or even the duration of your entire contract
  • A police background check
  • Proof of your Canadian degree such as a Bachelor or Master’s diploma
  • TEFL certification (also known as TESOL certification)

Once you have collected and organized all the documents you need for both your employer as well as for the Chinese government, you will have to have them notarized as true copies (for those documents that are not in their original form), authenticated by Canadian government and then legalized by Chinese Embassy. In order to notarize true copies of original documents, they must be signed by a notary public in Canada. Some documents that you might want to send copies of include your passport, degree, and TELF certification. It is easier to send true copies instead of the original for various reasons: this will help you preserve your original as well as prevent damage or potential loss. Since originals may be more difficult to obtain once lost or damaged, the most popular choice is to send copies of these documents.

Authentication is the process used by Global Affairs Canada to validate the signature on your documents as being valid and authentic. Once this is confirmed, they place a large red stamp to identify your documents as having been authenticated by them. Following this, your documents will need to be legalized by the Chinese embassy in Ottawa. The embassy will validate that the Global Affairs Canada stamp is true and authentic and that your documents meet all other legalization requirements. Once they have confirmed this, they too will either affix their stamp or a certificate directly to your documents.

The authenticated and legalized Canadian documents will be then used by your employer to apply for your work permit issued by the Chinese government. Once approved, you will be given a work permit for your teaching job in China that you will use for your Z-visa application in Canada.

While the process of authentication and legalization may appear simple, going through a professional service provider such as Legalization Service Centre can save you time, hassle, and significant due-diligence. The authentication process through Global Affairs Canada alone can take weeks, if not months, if the documents are not prepared as per their guidelines. Contrarily, we can speed up the process to have your documents authenticated in less than a week. Moreover, embassies often have changing requirements which make the legalization process daunting and difficult to keep track of. Because our office is located minutes from most embassies in Ottawa, we are able to keep up-to-date information on embassy requirements and make in-person submissions and tracking of your documents.

With the benefits of choosing a professional to complete your document authentication and legalization needs regarding this matter, including the ease and quickness with which the process can be completed, it almost does not make sense to do it yourself as our team of professional will get all your documents notarized, authenticated by Global Affairs Canada and then legalized by the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa for you within a week time if needed.

Give us a call at 1-800-857-1215 for a phone consultation to answer any remaining questions or to discuss your specific needs. Our experts will guide you through the process and make the paperwork involved in your new adventure as uncomplicated as possible!

Picture source: PlanetWare

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