The Chinese Consulate in Houston authenticates documents originating in the following states:  Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas.  The Houston Consulate will also authenticate documents from the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Documents must be sent to the correct Consulate location.   The correct location is the Chinese Consulate whose service district includes the state that certified the document.

For a list of where to get your documents state certified, please click on this link which will take you to our friend Laura Morrison:   The Assistant Stork.  Laura maintains current information about the different state certification and vital records offices on her website.

Document Aging Policy  - On March 22, 2006, the Houston Consulate added marriage certificates to the list of documents affected by the strictly enforced six month aging policy. This policy now applies to marriage certificates, police clearances, and medical/health evaluation documents.  Any of these documents older than six months (calculated at 180 days from the date that the original document was notarized) will be returned without authentication.

Holiday Closings:

MyChinaDocs and all of the Houston Consulates will be closed on Monday, September 1, 2008 in observance of the Labor Day holiday.    

Document Service

Rush Service

My Service & Fees

Items Needed

Application Form

Shipping Info.

Document Authentication Services

Normal processing time for documents brought to the Houston Chinese Consulate by courier service is 4 business days.  

Consulate Fees for Authentication & Notarization: 

If you need a faster turnaround time, rush service is offered.  

Rush Service:

Expedited, next business day service is available for documents brought to the Consulate either in person or by courier.  Rush service is NOT available for documents mailed or FedEx'd to the Consulate. 

The table below summarizes the different types of service and related fees.

Consulate Service and Fee Comparison:

Note:  For mail-in service always include an extra $5 "batch fee."

The excellent staff at the Houston Consulate are very good at meeting the timeframes promised.

Obviously, the most economical approach for families planning an adoption is to have as many documents authenticated at the normal fee as possible.  What I often do is make one trip with the bulk of a family's documents to be processed at the normal rate and then, if necessary, make a second trip with any late documents (typically the I-171H) to be processed on a 24-hour rush.  

For most families this strategy saves anywhere from $200 to $300 in Consulate rush fees.   

My Service and Fees

For your fee, the day your original documents arrive I carefully review each one and make sure that everything is O.K.   I check your application, make corrections where needed, verify that dates on each document are correct, and that notarizations and state certifications have been done properly.  Finally, I assemble your documents into the order preferred by the Consulate.  This allows them to approve the documents and complete the authentications quickly.   

In recent weeks, the Consulate staff have been enforcing document requirements very strictly.  Reviewing your documents allows us to identify and correct any potential problems before they result in delays at the Consulate. 

The following business morning, I take your original documents to the Consulate and submit them to the appropriate officials for processing.   When they are turned in, I will e-mail the scheduled pick-up date to you (provided that you have given us your e-mail address).  

On the scheduled pick-up date, I will drive back to the Consulate, and:

• Pick-up all of the documents

• Check and make sure that the Consulate properly authenticated each document.

• Place the documents in the overnight shipping pack provided by the client.

• Drive the overnight package to an approved FedEx or UPS pick up location for return to the client.

My fees are:

We charge a $60 minimum fee for 1, 2, 3, or 4 documents.  After the minimum, the fees are:

• $75 for 5 documents,

• $90 for 6 documents,

• $105 for 7 documents, 

• $120 for 8 documents,

• $135 for 9 documents,

• $150 for 10 to 14 documents,

• $175 for 15 to 19 documents,

• $200 for 20 to 24 documents. and

• $225 for 25 to 29 documents.

Note:  If you need more than 29 documents authenticated, please e-mail us for pricing information.

Items You Will Need:

The completed and signed document authentication request form.  You can open and download an Adobe Acrobat^© version of the form using the following link:

    Authentication Application Form (G1) (129k)

You will need Adobe Acrobat^© Reader to open the form.  Click on the Adobe graphic to download and install free copy of Acrobat reader.

In addition to the original documents and your completed, signed application you will need a:

1. A money order made payable to the "Consulate General of the P.R.C. in Houston" for the Consulate fees.  

The Houston Consulate accepts payment by money order only.  As of 1/4/07, the Consulate no longer accepts company or "certified" bank checks.

(Don't forget to include the appropriate rush fees if you want the expedited service).

2. One plain paper file copy of each document sent for authentication.  The file copy must include the notary signature and the state certification.  The Consulate retains this copy for their records.  This file copy does NOT need to be notarized or state-certified.  

3. A plain-paper file copy of the applicant's passport photo/signature pages (if married and the document's are being submitted for adoption we need a copy of both passports).  This copy does NOT need to be notarized or certified.

4. Self-addressed, prepaid return FedEx or UPS express shipping pack airbill and envelope.

Make shipping easy - set up an account with FedEx. Click this link to find out how.

5. Personal check made payable to "Cindy Marut" for our fee.

Shipping Instructions:

When you are ready, please send the documents and payments to me using the shipping service of your choice (we recommend Federal Express)  to:

Cindy Marut

MyChinaDocs.Com

1860 FM 359, # 125

Richmond, TX  77406

Please e-mail before you send your documents so I'll know to look for them.

NOTE:  Want to ship for delivery for us on Saturday?  Please call or e-mail us first for special instructions.

Please Note:  We recommend using FedEx for shipping visa applications and dossier documents.   FedEx has proven services that are very reliable and - almost always - deliver your documents on schedule.   For FedEx, we recommend their Standard Overnight service for delivery to us by 3 PM the next day.  If you prefer UPS, we recommend their Next Day Air Saver for delivery to us by 5 PM the next day.

Important:  Never use any form of regular mail or USPS "Priority" Mail to ship dossier documents.  These services are NOT tracked.  Even with their new "delivery confirmation" service, if the postal service fails to deliver your documents, there is no way to trace the package.

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