China's booming foreign-related notarization fuels global expansion of enterprises

In recent years, China's foreign-related notarization sector has experienced remarkable growth, with notarized documents now being used in more than 180 countries and regions. As an internationally recognized preventive legal system, foreign-related notarization has become an essential "legal passport" for enterprises entering global markets. Notary institutions across the country have broadened their service scope, reduced costs, and improved efficiency to offer more professional, comprehensive, and convenient foreign-related notary services, supporting the nation's high-level opening-up.

Zhejiang: Pioneering innovations with the 'one visit at most' approach and notarization+ services

East China's Zhejiang province has taken a proactive approach to innovating its notary services since 2016 by introducing an integrated mechanism that handles foreign-related notarization and consular authentication at the same time, enabling one-click cross-system data transmission and fully online processing. To date, 70 notary institutions across the province have adopted this mechanism, handling over 50,000 cases annually.

In Hangzhou, the provincial capital, further steps have been taken to optimize notary services through digital technology. The city's Internet Notary Office has developed a self-service electronic evidence collection platform that documents intellectual property infringements on overseas e-commerce platforms, generating complete evidence packages that include webpage screenshots, transaction records, and logistics information. One jewelry company successfully obtained 1.2 million yuan in compensation by using the platform to collect evidence of infringement on an overseas e-commerce platform.

Meanwhile, the Notary Office in the province's Yiwu city has set up service points along the key logistics hubs of the China-Europe freight trains routes linking Yiwu and Europe, building an immediate response service system. It has also established a Notarization Cloud Mediation Center to provide one-stop services, including intellectual property evidence preservation and dispute mediation, for enterprises.

In 2025, Zhejiang achieved a 97.2 percent success rate in implementing the "one visit at most" model for foreign-related notarization, handling 120,000 cases across 26 online notarization service items. Delivering value-added "notarization+" services through cross-sector collaboration has become the "golden key" refined by Zhejiang’s notary industry amid digital transformation.

Shanghai: One-stop, tailored notary services address shipping industry pain points

Catering to the practical needs of shipping enterprises, Shanghai's notary industry launched a dedicated notary service guide for shipping enterprises in November last year, aiming to provide comprehensive, professional and international notary services for the sector.

The guide specifies precise operational guidelines, enabling notary institutions to provide tailored and one-stop solutions for shipping enterprises, covering legal consultation, document verification and translation, and ascertainment of foreign laws, accurately matching the diverse needs of enterprises expanding overseas.

Additionally, the guide accommodates the global and round-the-clock operations of the shipping industry by integrating online and offline services. Digital tools are also applied to address the pain points of cross-regional and fast-paced business operations, reducing on-site visits for enterprises through data sharing.

Breaking away from the traditional role of notarization as merely providing certification, the guide extends notary services to cover the full lifecycle of shipping enterprise operations, forming a closed-loop service system that includes pre-event prevention, support during the event, and post-event backup.

Xinjiang: Strengthening enterprise confidence through proactive notary services

With the in-depth advancement of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, Central Asian countries have become preferred destinations for many Xinjiang enterprises expanding overseas. In this process, foreign-related notarization has emerged as an essential instrument for ensuring the cross-border validity of legal documents and safeguarding businesses against legal uncertainties.

In one notable case, a Xinjiang import-export company faced a tight deadline to submit notarized legal documents for an agricultural procurement agreement with a Kazakh company. Responding swiftly, the Baiyang Notary Office in Yining formed a dedicated team and implemented an expedited service process that included preliminary reviews, fast-tracked notarization, and streamlined connections for consular legalization. The entire procedure — from application submission to document delivery — was completed in just nine calendar days.

When the company presented the notarized documents at the contract-signing ceremony, the Kazakh partner highly praised the efficiency and professionalism of China's notarization services, and the contract was successfully signed.

Far from being mere legal formalities, notarized documents serve as pillars of trust, providing critical reassurance to enterprises navigating the complexities of cross-border cooperation. Such proactive, localized approaches to notarization underscore Xinjiang's role in laying a solid legal foundation for enterprises expanding into Central Asia and beyond.