Teaching

Authenticating documents

Authenticating documents at the Chinese Embassy?   .... What does this mean??

1. PhD diploma authenticated from the China embassy or consulate in your country.  Keep well the original document.

2.  Certificate of No Criminal Record, which must be authenticated in China embassy or the consulate in your country.  Keep well the original document.  (Acceptance email from China)

 One of the first things that you find when you accept a teaching post in China and you start the long winding path towards the Z Visa is:  you need to authenticate your diploma and your background check.  There is a lot of internet chatter about how you do this. One person writes:  I don’t want anything on my diploma.  Another writes:  My son just got a position working in China and the administration is asking us to notarize his diploma.  What does this mean?  Do we go to the school’s registrar and notarize the signature on the diploma?  What happens if we’re out of state? How does this work?   (My initial (snarky) thought was:  Why are you asking and not your son?  But my second thought was:  Yeah, how do you do that?)

To figure it out, I took off time from work, set off at 6am, drove from my home in  San Diego up to the Chinese Embassy in LA, and started to work my way through the gauntlet.  I arrived at about 8:40 – yay!   There is a parking spot right outside the office—two hours for $1.25 – double yay!  The consulate opens at 9.  Everything seems to be falling in place.  I got my box with diplomas, background checks, etc.  I went up to the 3^rd floor (500 Shatto Place, if you’re looking for it)

This is the visa building:

This is the non-visa  embassy building:

Both are across the street from each other.  The latter has protesters outside.  The former is more low-key.

So, I got there early, picked up a ticket.  (They ask you whether you want one for visa or authenticating documents.  You want the latter:  window C)  I was #3, and called to the window in no time.

Note: you can’t take pictures in the embassy.  These were taken off the internet from yelp

The young official looked doubtful when I pulled out the authentic documents.  No, no, no,  she said.  What we need are copies.  Notarized copies.  Secretary of State stamp.  And then copies of the stamps. 

Notarized copies?  Secretary of State stamp?  I looked helpless

She pulled out handouts, which are in Chinese.  Notary -- down the hall at the travel office.  Secretary of State -- at 800 Spring Street, she tells me patiently.  She has said this many times.  Directing clueless foreigners has become a habit for her.

So off I go:  Notary down the hall ($15/copy).  He makes a copy of my authentic documents, gives them a cursory look, and then notarizes the copies.  Copy is affixed to the notarization with a glue like staple.  I then give up my lovely parking spot in front of the consulate to drive downtown.  I don’t get a $1.25 parking spot in front of that building.  Down the street there is a $5.00 parking garage – if I can get in and out in 30 minutes.   If I can’t it bounces up to $15.00. The State Office is chuck full of people.  I again pick up a number and sit down in a seat.  In about 20 minutes, my name is called. 

What do you want stamped?  The gruff administrator asks.

 What do I need stamped? I respond. 

Don’t know/ Don’t care, she replies, I’ll stamp anything.

So, I stamp my background check.  Stamp my MA diploma.  Stamp my Ph.D, diploma.  It’s $20 per document, so I skip the BA and TEFL.  Hopefully that will do it.

She takes the copy, the notarized form and disappears.  She then reappears with something that looks like this:

Underneath this is the notarized form, and then the copy of the actual document, under that.

I take it back to the consulate at Shatto Place.   Get another parking spot – this time it is about 3 blocks from the consulate.  Get back in line – this time about 30 in line.  And wait.

At about this time, I realize that I’m surrounded by tiny babies.  One thing that I discovered on this little adventure:  There are three types of people who take documents to the Chinese consulate:

1.  Leisure travelers who are getting a visa

2.  Workers, like me, who are getting their documents authenticated

3.  And final, babies.  Tiny, tiny babies.  Babies who seem to have been born days before, who are coming their moms and Ayi’s to pick up their citizenship before they return to China.

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My numbers called.  I bring up my paperwork.  (I forgot to get copies of the stamped documents -- Argh --  but the bureaucrat at the window remembered me and was forgiving.  I had to go down the hall to get the copies, but could skip the line to turn the papers in.)

The final step is you have to pick up the documents once they’ve been authenticated.  This happens 4 days from when you leave them.  You can get them expedited to two days, but I wasn’t in a hurry.  Since I was sick of driving around LA, and not anxious to do it again in 4 days, I learned that the same magical travel agency down the hall that notarized my forms and helped me make copies, also would wait in line and pick up the documents:  $25/document to pay the Chinese embassy; $20/document to pay the travel agents who are waiting in line; and $20 to put it in an envelope and a Fed Ex truck to bring it to me.

Sure, why not?

Documents have been notarized and I’m ready to move to the next step.

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[Coda:  I drive from north LA to south LA and then get a funny feeling.  Did I pick up my original documents from the box that I had carried into the consulate?  I brought them to the notary… but don’t remember bringing them out.  I feel around in the front seat.  I pull over and check the back seat. 

Answer:  No. 

I call them.  They can’t mail it.  It is too big.  I can either continue home, and  then go back the next day, or I can turn around and drive through rush hour traffic to pick it up.  I’ll let you guess at which path I took.]

Lessons to be taken from this experience:

1.  I fear that this is the first of many forays into bureaucracy that we’ll experience.  It’s likely ubiquitous, and probably not unique to the Chinese embassy.  Asking to work in another culture’s country is a big ask.  Be prepared for the paperwork.

2.  No matter how organized you are, you can’t be too organized.

3.  This adventure is going to be a journey, not a destination.