Lodging documents at the Chinese Visa Application Center is fraught with problems.

You are not allowed to include any copies of Chinese Documents like passports, drivers licenses and now I have learnt the previous legalization stamp is not allowed to be present in the documents.

A copy of the legalization stamp can be made when a notary includes a previously notarised, authenticated and legalised document that is used as support evidence of verification in the document to be legalized. The legalization stamp is issued by the Chinese Embassy and is the result of lodging the documents at the Chinese Visa Application Center.

I also had a police check issued in Queensland rejected by the Sydney Chinese Visa Application Center even though the authentication was completed in Sydney. The solution was to make a notarised copy of the police certificate that could be authenticated and legalised. I recommend all of my clients to get a police check from the AFP so this problem can be avoided.

Translations need to be notarised before they are authenticated at DFAT as the Chinese Visa Processing Centre will not legalise translations that have only been authenticated.

The Chinese Government signed onto the Hague Convention and will start accepting Apostilles in November 2023 which means we may not need to go to the Chinese Visa Application Center after November.