Language guide · Chinese
Chinese to English certified translation
Chinese-language filings turn on a document structure that surprises first-time filers: for many life events, mainland China doesn't issue a Western-style certificate at all — it issues a notarial certificate that restates the record. Here's what to submit, what to translate, and how names, dates, and seals are handled.
What you need — the short answer
Any Chinese-language document submitted to USCIS needs a complete English translation plus the translator's signed statement of completeness, accuracy, and competence (8 CFR § 103.2(b)(3)) — the same standard DMVs, universities, and consulates generally apply.
The document question comes first, and it's where mainland filings differ most: for births and (often) marriages, the expected submission is typically a **notarial certificate (公证书)** issued by a Chinese notary office, which restates the registry facts — not a birth certificate in the Western sense. The State Department's per-country reciprocity page for China describes what's expected; check it before ordering documents.
JukeLingo translates what you upload in full — every page, every red seal, both scripts — and delivers it with the prepared certification page. Standard $16.99 per document; Express in under an hour.
Notarial certificates (公证书): the document that isn't a certificate
Mainland China issues notarial certificates through notary public offices for birth, marriage, no-criminal-record, and kinship facts. These booklets are usually the operative document — and they're translated in full, cover to cover.
A 公证书 is a bound booklet from a Chinese notary office (公证处) attesting to a fact drawn from official records. It typically opens with the notarial text, carries a certificate number, the notary's name and seal, the office's red seal, and a date — and it is often already bilingual, with a Chinese page and a facing English page. That bilingual layout confuses filers into thinking no translation is needed. It usually still is: the Chinese pages contain content the English page doesn't fully mirror, and a document 'containing foreign language' falls under the translation rule regardless of how much English sits next to it.
Practical guidance: photograph or scan the entire booklet — cover, notarial pages, any attached photocopy of the underlying record, and the back cover if it carries text or seals. Partial captures of booklets are one of the most common reasons a translation can't honestly be certified as complete.
The household register (户口簿 / 戶籍謄本)
The hukou booklet records the household and each member's registration details. Translate the cover, the household index page, and every member page relevant to your filing — not one spread.
The mainland 户口簿 is a multi-page booklet: a household index page identifying the household head and address, followed by a page per registered member with name, sex, date of birth, ethnicity, place of origin, ID number, and a history of registration changes. It's used to establish relationships and residence, so the pages that prove your claimed relationship are the pages that matter — and a booklet visibly carrying entries on other pages can't get an honest 'complete' certification for a single page.
Taiwan's equivalent, the 戶籍謄本 (household registration transcript), is issued as a printed transcript rather than a booklet and carries its own annotations and issuing-office seals. Hong Kong and Macau follow different systems again, typically issuing Western-style certificates, frequently already in English or bilingual.
Names, romanization, and name order
Chinese names print surname-first. Romanization varies by system and era — Hanyu Pinyin on the mainland, Wade-Giles and other systems in Taiwan and among older diaspora documents. The passport spelling is the anchor.
王小明 is surname 王 (Wang) followed by given name 小明 (Xiaoming) — surname first, which reverses when it lands in a U.S. form's First/Last fields. The translation reproduces the name as printed and identifies which element is the surname, so the adjudicator isn't guessing. Where your passport already romanizes the name, that spelling is the anchor: consistency across passport, petition, and translated documents matters more than any single romanization system's correctness.
Romanization is genuinely variable. Mainland documents use Hanyu Pinyin (Zhang, Xie, Qian). Taiwan documents may use Wade-Giles or other systems (Chang, Hsieh, Chien) — the same character romanized differently. Cantonese-origin names from Hong Kong and older diaspora records follow yet other conventions (Wong, Chan, Lee). None of these is an error; they're different systems, and a translation that silently 'corrects' one to another creates a name mismatch. Where a document and a passport disagree, that's a cover-letter explanation, not a translator's fix.
The two-diploma system and academic records
Mainland institutions issue a graduation certificate (毕业证) and a degree certificate (学位证) as separate documents. Programs asking for 'your degree' often need both, plus transcripts.
The 毕业证书 attests that you completed the program; the 学位证书 attests that a degree was conferred. They're different pieces of paper with different numbers and seals, and it's entirely possible to hold one without the other. When a university checklist or an employment petition asks for proof of degree, read it against both documents rather than assuming one covers it — the diploma guide covers how each is translated and why degree titles stay faithful instead of being converted into U.S. equivalents.
Transcripts (成绩单) are typically issued by the institution with its red seal, sometimes sealed in a stamped envelope for direct delivery. Where a program requires sealed delivery or an evaluation from a specific service, ordering a translation alone won't satisfy it — check whether you need a credential evaluation as well.
Red seals, simplified vs. traditional, and dates
Official Chinese documents authenticate through red seals rather than signatures alone. Both simplified and traditional characters translate the same way, and dates run year-month-day.
The red chop is the authenticating element on most Chinese official documents — institutional seals, notary office seals, public security bureau seals — and each one gets a labeled English entry ('[Red seal: Notary Public Office of …]') rather than being skipped as decoration. Steel-embossed seals and perforated stamps get the same treatment.
Script variety is routine: mainland documents use simplified characters, Taiwan and Hong Kong use traditional, and older mainland documents can use traditional forms too. Both are translated identically — no conversion between scripts is involved or needed. Dates follow year-month-day, often written 2019年8月2日, and where a document uses a Republic of China era year (Taiwan's 民國 calendar, where year 108 = 2019), the translation renders the date so a U.S. reader can't misread it. Handwritten annotations and older documents get the same faithful treatment as everything else, with genuinely unreadable text marked rather than guessed.
Chinese translation FAQ
My notarial certificate already has English pages. Do I still need a translation?
Usually yes. Bilingual notarial booklets rarely mirror every Chinese element on the English side, and a document containing foreign language falls under the translation rule regardless of how much English accompanies it. The complete translation covers the Chinese content and every seal.
Should I submit a birth certificate or a notarial certificate?
For mainland China, the notarial certificate (公证书) from a notary office is typically what's expected, because the civil system doesn't issue Western-style birth certificates for most filers. Check the State Department's reciprocity page for China, which describes the expected document for your situation.
How much of my hukou booklet needs translating?
The cover, the household index page, and every member page relevant to your filing. A booklet that visibly carries entries on other pages can't honestly receive a 'complete' certification for a single spread.
Which romanization of my name will you use?
The one on your document, reproduced as printed — and we identify which element is the surname, since Chinese names print surname-first. Where your passport already romanizes your name, that spelling is the anchor for consistency across your filing.
Do you translate both simplified and traditional characters?
Yes, both, and identically — mainland simplified, Taiwan and Hong Kong traditional, and older mainland documents using traditional forms. No script conversion is involved.
Do I need both my 毕业证 and my 学位证?
Check your program's or petition's document list. They're separate documents — graduation certificate and degree certificate — with different numbers and seals, and many checklists want both plus transcripts. Each non-English document needs its own complete translation.
Are the red seals translated?
Yes. Red chops are the authenticating element on Chinese official documents, not decoration, so each is translated and labeled — for example '[Red seal: Notary Public Office of Beijing]'. Embossed and perforated seals are handled the same way.
How much does it cost and how fast is it?
Standard is $16.99 per page within 24 hours; Express is $32.99 per page and under 1 hour; Pro (a JukeLingo translator signs, covered by the Pro Translation Guarantee) is $39.99 per page. Notarial booklets and hukou registers bill by the pages that carry content.
Every page, every seal
Upload your notarial certificate, hukou booklet, or academic records — the whole booklet, covers included — and get the complete English translation with the prepared certification page. Standard $16.99, Express in under an hour.
Upload My Document →Sources
This guide is compiled from the official resources below. Requirements change — the receiving authority's current instructions always control.
- 8 CFR § 103.2(b)(3) — the translation requirement
- U.S. State Department — visa reciprocity and civil documents by country — the China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau pages describe which document is expected for each record type
- USCIS Policy Manual
Last reviewed 2026-08-17 · Reviewed by the JukeLingo translation operations team against the cited official sources