Applying for a visa to teach in China is not straightforward. Before you even begin the process, you need to gather a few documents and have them authenticated by the South African government and then legalized for use in China. This is a two-step process.
This guide will help anyone holding documents issued in South Africa. If you are from South Africa but teaching abroad, fear not. This guide also helps those who are not in South Africa currently but need their documents processed there.
Why? Because documents can only ever be authenticated by the government where the documents were originally issued.
If you are a South African citizen/resident but have documents issued in another country, you will have to have them authenticated in that country instead.
In our previous blog, we gave you an overview of what you need to do to Authenticate your documents for a China working visa in 2021.
Here, we detail all you need to know to apply for a visa to teach in China. These are the documents you’ll need:
At time of writing, to Travel to China, you will also need to have:
Learn all about the Requirements to teach in China
Document authentication means the South African government declares them to be legitimate and that’s an important step when wanting to use any document abroad. Essentially, this is what tells foreign countries that your documents are legitimate. This is Step 1.
After that, you’ll need to present the documents to a Chinese government representative in South Africa, who will look over the documents and accept them for use in your China Visa application. This is Step 2.
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Here’s what you do:
Once you have your document, simply add it to all your other documents and continue with the authentication and legalization process, as detailed below.
First up, you will need to get the copies of the following documents notarized:
Please note that you will be getting a COPY of your documents notarized, authenticated and legalized. You’ll need to get the documents notarized by a Notary Public or Registrar at a High Provincial Court. Usually, this costs about USD 50. This is the only time you will need to bring your ORIGINAL documents along.
Once you have the copies notarized, you will be using these notarized copies in the following steps.
The notarized signature and stamp will then have to be verified by the Dept. of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa (DIRCO) for authentication. DIRCO charges R150/200 to authenticate a document.
See the DIRCO Legalization Services page, where you’ll find details on how to submit your documents, either in person, by mail, by courier or even through a friend or family member, which is a great option if you are abroad.
Regarding the above DIRCO link: it is imperative that you closely read the section related to each type of document, as the authentication process is different for every type of document.
For example:
Send your documents to the nearest Chinese Embassy/Consulate, and they will legalize all the authenticated documents.
In South Africa, there is a Chinese Embassy in Pretoria and consul general offices in:
Every embassy has its own form to fill in and you’ll be asked to detail the ‘purpose’ of your document legalization. Make sure to tell them that you need the documents for your China visa application form as they’ll know how to word/sign/stamp it accordingly. Look for the Consular Legalization Page on the relevant websites – here’s the Pretoria Embassy Legalisation Page
If you’re abroad at the time you need documents authenticated, and don’t have anyone back home who could do this for you, you can also have your docs authenticated through your nearest South African Embassy/Consulate.
First though, you’ll need to send an email request to legalisation@dirco.gov.za
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