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Corporate, trade and the documents Chinese business runs on

Chinese Legal Translation in Dubai

Chinese is the language of company files, trade contracts and licensing paperwork for the businesses that move goods and capital between China and the UAE. We translate Chinese corporate and commercial documents into Arabic for the authorities here, and into or out of English for the free-zone and banking side — and because China joined the Apostille Convention in November 2023 while the UAE did not, we map the legalisation route before a single character is translated.

  • Corporate files first: business licence, articles of association and board resolutions, told through the documents a Dubai setup demands
  • The 2023 apostille change explained: what it did for China, and why it changed nothing for documents bound for the UAE
  • Simplified or traditional, pinyin or Wade-Giles, the characters and not the romanisation alone — script and name decisions made deliberately
  • One route plan covering the Chinese notary office, the consular chain in both directions, MOFAIC and the Arabic version
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Published by MANJAZ Corporate and Translation Services L.L.C.Editorially reviewed
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The apostille China gained in 2023 is not the door into the UAE

In November 2023 China joined the treaty that replaces the old legalisation chain with a single certificate. Chinese businesses reasonably assumed their UAE paperwork had just become simpler. For documents travelling between China and the UAE, almost nothing changed.

Most Chinese-speaking clients reach us at one of a few recurring moments: a mainland company setting up a Dubai subsidiary or branch, a trader on either side signing a supply or distribution contract, a family that needs a marriage or birth record recognised for residence, or a UAE business sending a power of attorney the other way into China. Chinese enterprises are a large and visible part of the emirate's trading economy, and Dragon Mart in International City is often described as the largest Chinese trading hub outside mainland China. What all of that produces, in the end, is documents — business licences, articles, resolutions, notarial certificates and contracts — and each of those has to cross the same bridge before a UAE authority will act on it.

The most useful first question is never can you translate this — it is where is this going, and in which language will the receiving counter read it. The UAE Government's official portal states that documents presented to the courts must be in Arabic, or translated into Arabic by a legal translator registered with the Ministry of Justice. Mainland notaries, the Dubai Land Department and the licensing authorities work on the same Arabic logic. On the free-zone and banking side the working language is often English instead. So Chinese legal translation in the UAE is rarely a single language pair: the same corporate pack may need Chinese into Arabic for a mainland authority and Chinese into English for a bank or a free-zone registrar.

Behind that first question hides a second: is the document even ready to be translated yet? A Chinese public document is normally notarised at a Notary Public Office and, since November 2023, can be apostilled by China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs or an authorised local Foreign Affairs Office. That apostille carries the document into other treaty countries beautifully. It does not carry it into the UAE, because the UAE is not a party to the Convention. Translate an apostilled-but-not-yet-consularised document too early, and you will usually pay to translate it again once the missing consular attestations are finally added.

Our part is practical, and it starts before any translation. We read the file you actually hold, ask which UAE authority it has to satisfy and in which language, mark the steps still missing from the legalisation chain, and only then plan the Chinese-to-Arabic version — or the Chinese-to-English one, or the Arabic-to-Chinese one when a Dubai contract, court paper or company document has to be understood back home. Everything on this page is general guidance you confirm with the receiving authority; none of it is legal advice, and the rules for a recent treaty change like this one are exactly where a page can go stale, so treat published requirements as the thing to verify, not to assume.

The expensive misunderstanding

China joined the Convention. The UAE did not. Both facts matter.

China deposited its accession to the Hague Apostille Convention in March 2023, and the Convention entered into force for mainland China on 7 November 2023. For Chinese businesses this was genuinely good news: a document issued in China and destined for another member state no longer needs a chain of consular attestations, only a single apostille certificate from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or an authorised Foreign Affairs Office. Across more than a hundred jurisdictions, that is now the norm.

It does not reach the UAE. The United Arab Emirates does not appear among the contracting parties in the official HCCH status table, and it is not a member of the Hague Conference. An apostille only operates between two countries that are both parties to the Convention — so where one side is outside it, the apostille shortcut simply does not exist. For a Chinese document bound for a Dubai authority, the traditional consular route still applies in full: notarisation, attestation by China's foreign-affairs authorities, legalisation by the UAE mission in China, then attestation inside the UAE by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation — followed, for almost every mainland purpose, by an Arabic legal translation.

There is a clean illustration of why bilateral membership is the whole game. When China acceded, India lodged an objection under Article 12 of the Convention, and as a result the apostille does not operate between China and India even though both are otherwise members. If a shared apostille can be switched off between two member states by one objection, it plainly cannot switch on between a member and a non-member. The UAE is simply outside the system, and no apostille — however correctly issued in Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou — changes that.

One practical nuance is worth carrying forward. Because a Chinese document may already bear an apostille — issued reflexively, or because it might also be used in a treaty country — the UAE consular chain is added on top rather than instead. The apostille is not removed; the consular attestations layer onto the same instrument. When the Arabic translation is finally produced, it should reproduce the notarial certificate, the apostille if present, every consular sticker and every seal, because a UAE counter reads the whole page, not merely the body of the document.

Sequence is everything

From a notary office in China to a counter in Dubai: the full chain

  1. Notarisation at a Chinese Notary Public Office

    A Chinese public document normally begins at a Notary Public Office, a state office supervised by the Ministry of Justice, which issues a notarial certificate. This is where a Chinese notarisation differs from an Anglo-American one: the Chinese notary certifies that the contents of the document are true, following an investigation, rather than merely witnessing a signature. Order the version the UAE authority actually needs before anything is legalised — the wrong document, notarised perfectly, is still the wrong document.

  2. Attestation by China's foreign-affairs authorities

    For a document going to a non-member country like the UAE, China's guidance is that it is first attested by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or an authorised local Foreign Affairs Office, and then legalised by that destination country's mission in China. This is the same office that would issue an apostille for a treaty destination — but for the UAE it produces the older-style attestation instead, because that is what the consular route requires.

  3. Legalisation by the UAE mission in China

    The UAE embassy or consulate in China legalises the document already attested by the Chinese authorities. This is the step that stands in place of an apostille: it is the UAE, from inside China, recognising the Chinese seals. Availability and procedure are checked with the specific UAE mission, since the process is not identical everywhere and can change.

  4. MOFAIC attestation inside the UAE

    Once in the UAE, the document is attested by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, which certifies the authenticity of the signatures and seals — never the content. Its published requirements: the document must be original and unaltered, must carry the earlier attestations, and must not be laminated. Fees differ between personal-status and commercial documents, and MOFAIC processes attestation on its own published timetable, which you confirm at the time of filing.

  5. The certified Arabic legal translation, produced last

    The Arabic version for a mainland authority is produced against the fully stamped file, so that the notarial certificate, any apostille, the consular attestations, the MOFAIC stamp and every seal appear in the translation. It must come from a translator whose UAE registration under the translation-profession framework covers the Chinese pair — registration is language-specific, and a translation done abroad, or the English rendering inside a Chinese notarial booklet, does not by itself satisfy a UAE court or government body.

  6. The reverse direction: UAE documents going to China

    When the paper travels the other way — a UAE power of attorney or company document for use in China — the chain runs in reverse: the document is notarised by a UAE notary public, certified by the MOFAIC Consular Department, and then legalised by the Chinese Embassy in Abu Dhabi or the Consulate-General in Dubai. The Dubai Consulate-General's jurisdiction covers six emirates — Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Umm al-Quwain and Ras al-Khaimah — while Abu Dhabi is served by the Embassy. A certified Chinese translation is prepared for the Chinese receiving side.

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The booklet, opened up

Inside a Chinese notarial certificate — and why its own translation is not enough

For civil-status facts — birth, marriage, a clean criminal record, a single status — Chinese clients rarely present the underlying record. They present a notarial certificate: a booklet issued by a Notary Public Office that binds the key facts together with the notary's certification. It usually comes in one of two shapes. In one, a photocopy of the original is bound in and certified; in the other, the notary recites the key facts in a certificate without attaching the original. Both are stamped, sealed and, very often, bilingual.

That bilingual quality is where clients are most often caught out. Because a Chinese notarial certificate typically contains an English rendering of the facts and a statement that the translation conforms to the Chinese original, it is natural to assume the translation problem is already solved. In practice, the translation packaged inside the booklet is frequently not accepted by the destination authority as it stands. For UAE use the point is sharper still: the mainland authorities work in Arabic, not English, so even a flawless in-booklet English translation does not produce the Arabic the court, notary or ministry actually requires.

So the working assumption for a UAE file is that a fresh Arabic translation will be produced here, by a UAE-registered legal translator, against the whole legalised booklet — including its Chinese pages, its seals and its notary certification, not only the English summary. The English inside the certificate is useful to us as a cross-check and a source of the official spellings the notary used, but it is not a substitute for the certified Arabic version. Where an authority does accept an English translation for a particular administrative purpose, that is the authority's call, made document by document, and worth confirming rather than assuming.

One more feature of the booklet matters for accuracy. Because a Chinese notarisation attests that the contents are true after investigation, the certificate often recites facts — dates, places, relationships, official file numbers — with a precision that has to survive intact into Arabic. Collapsing that into a generic 'certified true copy' formula loses exactly the content the notary went to the trouble of establishing. We translate the certificate as the substantive instrument it is.

Words that must survive into Arabic

A working glossary of Chinese legal terms and their UAE Arabic equivalents

Notary Public Office (公证处, gongzhengchu)
A state office supervised by the PRC Ministry of Justice that issues notarial certificates. Unlike a US or UK notary who only witnesses a signature, it investigates and certifies that the contents are true — which is why its certificates carry substantive facts, not just an attesting signature.
Notarial certificate (公证书, gongzhengshu)
The booklet issued by the notary office, usually binding the key facts (or a photocopy of the original) with a certification statement and often a bilingual translation-conformity statement. It is the document Chinese clients most often present for civil-status matters — and the one whose in-booklet translation still needs a fresh UAE Arabic version.
Business licence (营业执照, yingye zhizhao)
The core Chinese company-registration document, showing the registered name, unified social credit code, legal representative, registered capital and scope of business. It is the anchor document for a Chinese company setting up in the UAE, and its details must be transliterated consistently across every other document in the corporate pack.
Articles of association (公司章程, gongsi zhangcheng)
The company's constitutional document, setting out its governance, shareholding and decision rules. UAE registrars and, for corporate property, the Dubai Land Department expect the constitutional documents in legal Arabic translation — and the Land Department's wording asks for the memorandum 'and its annexes', so schedules and amendments travel with the main text, not apart from it.
Board / shareholder resolution (董事会决议 / 股东会决议)
The corporate decision authorising an act — opening a branch, appointing a manager, granting a power of attorney. UAE counters read a resolution narrowly against the act it authorises, so the resolution's exact scope, the named signatories and the company seal all have to be rendered precisely, with the corporate names matching the licence.
Consular legalisation (领事认证, lingshi renzheng)
The multi-step attestation route still required between China and the UAE because the UAE is outside the Apostille Convention. It is a chain of recognitions — Chinese foreign-affairs authority, then the receiving state's mission — as opposed to the single apostille certificate used between member states.
Apostille (附加证明书 / 海牙认证)
The single certificate China can now issue for documents used in Convention member states, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or an authorised Foreign Affairs Office. Genuine and powerful — but valid only where the destination is also a member, which the UAE is not.
Simplified vs traditional script (简体 / 繁體)
Two writing systems for the same language. Simplified characters are used in mainland China and Singapore; traditional characters in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. The script signals the source region, and using the wrong one — or mixing them — is a real accuracy and acceptance risk in a legal document.
Hanyu Pinyin (汉语拼音)
The official mainland romanisation of Mandarin, standard since 1958 and the UN transcription standard. It is the basis for the Latin spelling on a mainland passport — where the surname is usually capitalised and placed first — and therefore the anchor for a consistent Arabic transliteration of a Chinese name.
Governing-language clause (合同语言条款)
The clause in a bilingual contract that states which language version prevails if the versions conflict. It is decisive: if no prevailing-language clause is specified, the Chinese version generally controls in Chinese courts. In a China-UAE trade or distribution agreement, the interaction of that clause with the Arabic version needed for UAE use has to be handled deliberately.
One language, two scripts

Simplified or traditional: reading the source before translating it

Source regionScript normally usedWhat it means for your file
Mainland ChinaSimplified (简体)Business licences, articles and notarial certificates arrive in simplified characters and Hanyu Pinyin names. This is the most common source for corporate and civil-status files, and the passport spelling anchors the name handling.
SingaporeSimplified (简体)Chinese-language documents from Singapore also use simplified characters, but many official Singaporean records are issued in English — so a file may need no Chinese translation at all, or a mix, which is worth checking before commissioning work.
TaiwanTraditional (繁體)Documents use traditional characters, and names are often romanised under Wade-Giles or other systems rather than Hanyu Pinyin, so the Latin spelling on the passport can differ markedly from a mainland spelling of the same name.
Hong KongTraditional (繁體)Traditional characters, frequently alongside English on official documents, with Cantonese-based romanisation of names. A Hong Kong file often needs both language columns handled and the romanisation reconciled with the passport.
MacauTraditional (繁體)Traditional characters, with Portuguese also present on some official records. Identifying the script and the accompanying language before translation prevents a mismatch between the certified Arabic and the source.
One person, several spellings

Surname first, characters always: getting a Chinese name right across the file

A Chinese name is built the opposite way round to an Arabic or Western one. The family name comes first — usually a single character — followed by a given name of one or two characters, with no comma between them. On a mainland passport the surname is typically capitalised and placed first, so WANG Xiaoming is the family name Wang followed by the given name Xiaoming, not a first name Wang. Read in the Western order, that same line silently turns a surname into a forename, and the person on the visa stops matching the person on the contract.

Then there is the romanisation itself, which is not one system but several. Mainland China uses Hanyu Pinyin, the UN standard since 1958. Taiwan often uses Wade-Giles or other conventions; Hong Kong tends to romanise from Cantonese pronunciation. The same characters can therefore surface as Lee, Li or Lei depending on where the passport was issued, and a single pinyin syllable such as Ming can correspond to several completely different characters. Working from the romanised name alone — without the characters — is guesswork, and in a legal document guesswork about a name is a rejection waiting to happen.

This is why we ask for the characters, not just the Latin spelling. The characters are the fixed identity; the pinyin and any Arabic transliteration follow from them. With the characters in hand, the Arabic rendering can be built once, deliberately, and then held identical across the business licence, the resolutions, the passport data, the trade licence, the bank file and the lease — so a UAE authority reads one investor, not two. Without the characters, the same person can end up with two Arabic spellings and spend weeks proving they are one.

The same discipline applies to the company name. A Chinese company has an official Chinese name and often an English name that may not be a literal translation of it; the unified social credit code on the business licence is the fixed identifier that ties them together. We transliterate the company name consistently, carry the credit code, and keep the legal representative's name in the same surname-first, character-anchored form across the whole corporate pack, so the entity that signs the contract is unmistakably the entity on the licence.

A Chinese file rarely fails in Dubai because a character was mistranslated. It usually fails because an apostille was mistaken for the whole journey, a name was read in the wrong order, or the booklet's own English was trusted where Arabic was required.

A working principle from our China-UAE files

Send us your Chinese file — a business licence, a set of articles, a notarial certificate or a trade contract — and we will map the route, the target language and the name and script handling before you commit to anything.

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Incorporate, license, bank

A Dubai subsidiary told through its documents

Start with the entity itself. A mainland Chinese company opening a Dubai subsidiary or branch has to prove who it is and who may act for it, and it does that through a familiar corporate pack: the business licence, the articles of association, the board or shareholder resolution authorising the setup, a power of attorney for whoever signs in Dubai, a commercial register extract and, frequently, a bank reference letter. Each of these is a Chinese public or corporate document, and each one travels the same legalisation chain — notarisation, Chinese foreign-affairs attestation, UAE mission legalisation, MOFAIC — before a certified Arabic translation is produced against the stamped set.

The resolution and the power of attorney deserve particular care, because UAE counters read both narrowly. A resolution that authorises 'general business' will not carry an act a counter treats as specific — opening a bank account, signing a lease, registering a branch — as cleanly as a resolution that names the act and the signatory. A power of attorney drafted broadly for domestic Chinese use is often trimmed in practice to the specific authority a Dubai registrar or bank will accept. We translate the scope exactly as granted, never wider, and keep the legal representative's name and the company name identical to the licence throughout.

Property adds its own layer. Where a Chinese company buys real estate in Dubai, the Dubai Land Department's initial-sale registration expects the purchasing company's memorandum of association and its annexes in legal Arabic translation; for a foreign company the same constitutional documents are required with Ministry of Foreign Affairs ratification, and a no-objection letter from the relevant free zone where applicable. This is one of the clearest published points at which a Chinese corporate document must exist in certified Arabic — and where translating the memorandum but forgetting its annexes causes an avoidable rejection.

Then comes the free-zone and banking side, where the working language is often English rather than Arabic. A free-zone registrar or a bank onboarding a Chinese company may accept a certified Chinese-to-English version of the same corporate pack, while a mainland court or the Land Department needs Arabic. That is exactly why we ask about the destination first: the identical business licence can require an Arabic version for one counter and an English one for another, and it is cheaper to know that before translating than to discover it afterwards. Confirm the specific document list and language with the registrar, bank or authority for your case — the patterns here are the norm, not a substitute for their checklist on the day.

Real files, real sequences

China-UAE situations and what each one actually needs

A mainland Chinese company opening a Dubai subsidiary or branch

What is usually neededThe business licence, articles of association and the board or shareholder resolution notarised at a Chinese Notary Public Office, attested by China's foreign-affairs authority, legalised by the UAE mission in China, then attested by MOFAIC in the UAE — and a certified Arabic legal translation of the whole set. The company name, the unified social credit code and the legal representative's name are transliterated identically across every document.

A Dragon Mart trader signing a distribution contract with a Chinese manufacturer

What is usually neededA bilingual Chinese-English (and, where a UAE authority will see it, Arabic) contract with a clear governing-language clause, so it is settled in advance which version prevails on a conflict. A certified Arabic translation is produced for any UAE court, notary or licensing use. The key commercial terms — parties, goods, territory, quantities and the prevailing-language wording itself — are checked for exact correspondence across the versions.

A Chinese national needing a marriage or birth certificate recognised for UAE residence

What is usually neededA notarial certificate of the civil-status fact from a Chinese notary office, run through China's foreign-affairs attestation and the UAE mission's legalisation, then MOFAIC attestation in the UAE, and a certified Arabic legal translation produced here — not the English translation packaged inside the notarial booklet. The name is handled surname-first, anchored to the passport spelling, and kept consistent with any existing UAE records.

A UAE company granting a power of attorney for use in China

What is usually neededThe power of attorney notarised by a UAE notary public, certified by the MOFAIC Consular Department, and then legalised by the Chinese Embassy in Abu Dhabi or the Consulate-General in Dubai — the consular route in reverse, because an apostille is not available for a UAE-origin document. A certified Chinese translation is prepared for the Chinese receiving side, with the grantor and attorney names rendered to match their identity documents.

A Chinese investor whose name must match across passport, licence, bank and lease

What is usually neededA transliteration decision locked to the passport's Hanyu Pinyin spelling and surname-first order, taken from the original characters rather than a romanised guess, and carried identically into the Arabic on every certified translation. Where an earlier UAE document already spells the name a particular way, that spelling is reconciled with a translator's note so the authority reads one person.

A document in traditional script from Taiwan, Hong Kong or Macau

What is usually neededCorrect identification of the script and any accompanying language — English in Hong Kong, Portuguese in Macau — before translation, and a name reconciled from a Wade-Giles or Cantonese romanisation to the passport and to a consistent Arabic form. The legalisation route depends on where the document was issued, so the origin is confirmed before the chain is planned.

A Chinese company's audit report or financial statements for a UAE bank or free zone

What is usually neededA translation that keeps figures, accounting terminology and the auditor's opinion exactly faithful to the source, in Arabic or English as the receiving institution requires, with the company name and reporting period consistent with the rest of the corporate file. Where the statements support a licensing or financing decision, the certification requirements are confirmed with the specific institution.

Two translations clients confuse

The translation inside a 公证书 vs a UAE-registered legal translation

The in-booklet English translation

  • Produced in China as part of the notarial certificate, with a statement that it conforms to the Chinese original
  • Into English — not Arabic — so it does not meet the language the mainland courts and authorities work in
  • Often not accepted as-is by the destination authority, which commonly wants a translation meeting its own rules
  • Valuable to us as a cross-check on official spellings and facts, not as the certified version
  • Bound into a document legalised abroad, which does not by itself give it standing before a UAE authority

The UAE-registered legal translation

  • Produced by a translator registered on the Ministry of Justice roll under the federal translation-profession framework, and licensed at emirate level
  • Registration is language-specific — the Chinese pair must be expressly covered, and adding a language is a separate application
  • Into Arabic for mainland use, produced against the fully legalised set including the Chinese pages and every seal
  • The translator's name and registration number appear on the translation itself
  • This is the status UAE courts, notaries, the Land Department and licensing counters actually test for

In a bilingual contract, which language wins is a decision — make it on purpose

A great deal of China-UAE trade runs on bilingual contracts — Chinese with English, and sometimes Arabic as well. The single most consequential clause in such a contract is the one that says which version prevails if the versions disagree. If that clause is missing, the outcome is not neutral: in Chinese courts, the Chinese version generally controls by default. So a UAE trader who negotiated in English, signed a bilingual document and assumed the two texts were equal may find the Chinese text is the one that governs a dispute heard in China.

This is where translation stops being clerical and becomes commercial. The two language versions have to say the same thing — not approximately, but in the operative terms that decide liability: the parties, the goods, the territory, the payment and termination triggers, and the prevailing-language clause itself. When an Arabic version is added for UAE court, notary or licensing use, it becomes a third text that must correspond to the others rather than drift from them. The safe course is to decide the governing language deliberately, draft the versions to match, and have the translation checked term-for-term — then confirm with your own legal adviser how the governing-language choice interacts with where any dispute would actually be heard.

Learned the hard way — by others

How China-UAE files get rejected, and how they don't

  • The mistakeAssuming China's 2023 apostille accession now covers documents going to the UAE.

    The fixThe UAE is outside the Convention, so no apostille shortcut exists for China-UAE documents. Continue the consular chain — Chinese foreign-affairs attestation, the UAE mission, then MOFAIC — before commissioning the Arabic version.

  • The mistakeRelying on the English translation printed inside a Chinese notarial certificate.

    The fixThe in-booklet English is into English, not Arabic, and is often not accepted as-is. Plan for a fresh certified Arabic translation produced here against the whole legalised booklet.

  • The mistakeReading a Chinese name in Western order and turning the surname into a forename.

    The fixChinese names are surname-first. Anchor to the passport, where the surname is usually capitalised and placed first, and keep the order identical across every document.

  • The mistakeWorking from the romanised name only, without the Chinese characters.

    The fixOne pinyin syllable can map to several characters, and different systems spell the same name differently. Provide the characters so the Arabic rendering is built once and held consistent.

  • The mistakeUsing the wrong script for the source region — traditional where simplified is expected, or the reverse.

    The fixIdentify the region first: simplified for mainland China and Singapore, traditional for Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. The script has to match the source, not a default.

  • The mistakeTranslating the memorandum of association but omitting its annexes.

    The fixThe Dubai Land Department's wording asks for the memorandum 'and its annexes'. Translate the schedules and amendments with the main document so the corporate file is complete.

  • The mistakeSigning a bilingual trade contract with no governing-language clause.

    The fixWithout it, the Chinese version generally controls by default in Chinese courts. Decide the prevailing language deliberately and make the versions correspond term-for-term.

  • The mistakeSkipping MOFAIC attestation and going straight to translation, or vice versa.

    The fixA foreign document is attested through the chain, and the certified Arabic translation is produced against the final attested set. Translate too early and the version has to be redone once the missing stamps arrive.

  • The mistakeTranslating the front of a corporate document and missing the seals, the reverse and the notarial certificate.

    The fixRender the whole instrument. UAE authorities expect every seal, stamp, page and the notary certification to appear in the Arabic version.

Before you send

What to send us with a Chinese file

  • Scans of every page of the legalised set — the notarial certificate, any apostille, the consular attestations, the seals and the reverse of each sheet
  • The original Chinese characters of every personal and company name, not just the romanised spelling
  • The passport of each named person, so the surname-first order and the Latin spelling can be matched
  • For a company: the business licence showing the unified social credit code, plus the articles and their annexes
  • For a contract: the bilingual text and the governing-language clause, so the versions can be checked against each other
  • The source region — mainland China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong or Macau — so the script and romanisation are read correctly
  • Any earlier UAE documents — a visa, an Emirates ID, a trade licence — showing how the name was written before
  • The destination: which authority, which emirate, mainland or financial free zone, the target language, and your deadline

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Where your Chinese file goes next

Chinese files, honest answers

No. The Convention only operates between two countries that are both parties, and the UAE is not a party. So a Chinese apostille is genuine and works for other member states, but it does not open a UAE counter. For documents going to the UAE the traditional consular chain still applies: notarisation, attestation by China's foreign-affairs authorities, legalisation by the UAE mission in China, then MOFAIC attestation inside the UAE, followed by an Arabic legal translation.

Official references

This page is general information about translation services, not legal advice. Requirements are set by the authority receiving your document and can change — always confirm with the receiving authority or ask us to check for your specific case.

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